Gov’t gets legal opinion on vaccine mandates

A Government-instructed legal opinion on COVID-19 vaccine mandates was on Friday shared with this country’s Social Partners.

And according to the document, a copy of which was obtained by Barbados TODAY, the Mia Mottley administration has been advised that legislation mandating COVID-19 vaccination is likely to hold up in court if subjected to a constitutional challenge.

However, arbitrary mandatory PCR testing may not.

“Vaccine mandates for groups of persons operating in high-risk settings and essential services are more likely to be judicially upheld against a constitutional challenge than a sweeping mandate or ones relating to lower-risk settings and settings in which services not typically characterized as essential are performed,” said Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes in the document which was submitted to the Attorney General.

Read tonight’s e-paper for the details of this story.