Members of the academic staff at the University of Alberta have finally had a response from the Association of Academic Staff’s President in regard to the University’s preparations for the return to classes in four weeks’ time. In the face of the University’s failure to make plans that will ensure the health and well-being of the University community this Fall, the Association’s response is very disappointing.
As of August 16th, the Chief Medical Officer of Health will stop providing Albertans with basic public health protection measures for the evolving situation of COVID-19. The Association is failing to call for the single most important measure that expert analysis, some of it from our own faculty members, indicates as essential to the objective of protecting the health of faculty, students, staff, and all other members of the University of Alberta community as of September 7th: mandatory vaccination.
The Association is not even calling for mandatory vaccination of students in residence.
It is also failing to remind members of their statutory rights.
Under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, employees of the University of Alberta have a statutory right to refuse unsafe work. This right is further enshrined in the collective agreement between the University and the Association under clause 13.03 which reads as follows:
Instead of reminding members of this right, the AASUA President indicates that members who feel that the situation they face in the Fall is “unsafe” are to get in touch with a Labour Relations Officer about arranging a special accommodation for them.
Members don’t have to seek an “accommodation” to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. They have a statutory and collective agreement right to one that the employer is obligated to meet. And they have the right to refuse to work if they have a reasonable ground to believe the work would be unsafe for them or others.
An academic staff association, like all unions, is supposed to act on the part of all its members as a collective force accomplishing what no individual can achieve on their own.
Instead, Association members have already been thrown back on their own resources, with Professor Jillian Buriak drafting over a week and a half ago a letter to the University sent to the President and others on 4 August 2021 with over a thousand signatures. The Association has joined the University in ignoring the first and most important of the requests in that letter:
In the absence of action from the Association, some of our members have stood up to protect the interests not just of the academic staff but all members of the University community. The Association should now at least be standing behind these demands rather than undermining them with a much weaker position.
The Association should be calling for mandatory vaccinations.
The Association should also be reminding members of their collective agreement right. That right is a statutory right fought hard for a generation ago. The academic staff, like every other employee of the University, have the right to refuse unsafe work—period. While we all have this individual right to protect our health and safety, it is important that the Association also assert our collective right to a safe and healthy workplace, not only for us but for our students.
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You may be able to read Professor Buriak’s letter here.
Arts Squared 
I’m not a lawyer; I just read what the health law experts are publishing. And according to experts like Blake Murdoch, Ubaka Ogbogu, Amir Attaran, and Jacob Shelley, there are no legal reasons why vaccinations cannot be required for everyone coming on campus this fall, provided that alternatives are provided when necessary (e.g., rapid testing until fully vaccinated). It does not appear to be legal liability concerns that are holding our Administration back from acting on the measures demanded by the Faculty Association, the Students Union, and over 1000 faculty and students who signed Dr. Buriak’s letter. So what is it? Fear of losing enrolments? We are losing enrolments now because of the tuition fee increases, and that didn’t deter them from increasing the fees. I don’t know the answer. But I think we deserve to hear the legal argument that is supposedly coming from President Flanagan’s advisors. Let’s hear it.
On the option of invoking our right to refuse unsafe work, shifting our teaching online as a proactive measure to protect our health and that of our students would not be “refusing to work.” It would be continuing to work, but under conditions that we feel are safe. The weight of expert opinion appears to be on the side of such precaution, rather than on the side of the CMOH of Alberta (whose decisions–as President Acuna said–pertain to the whole province and not to the conditions prevailing on PSEI campuses). What are they going to do? Sue us for doing our jobs safely? I think that is highly unlikely, but I would like to hear what legal experts think. I would think that if anyone should fear liability actions it is the administrators who are refusing to act according to the best available medical knowledge to protect the health of their employees and students.
As for the argument that few other universities have implemented the vaccination requirement, etc., that is the lamest response of all. It parallels the UAlberta administrations’ response to the climate crisis. It is a profound failure of leadership.
Some relevant articles:
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/canadas-universities-and-colleges-are-failing-science/
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-albertas-new-covid-19-policy-is-reckless-and-repugnant/