British ColumbiaDr. Theresa Szezepaniak had asked the court to overturn a decision by the Hospital Appeal Board, which found her refusal of the shot during the pandemic amounted to neglect of her obligations as a hospitalist, arguing her Charter rights had been breached.Dr. Theresa Szezepaniak was fired from Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops in 2021Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News · Posted: Aug 13, 2025 10:53 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours agoThe B.C. Supreme Court has rejected a doctor’s appeal after she was fired for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. (New Africa/Shutterstock)The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal from a doctor who was fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021.Dr. Theresa Szezepaniak was appealing a 2023 decision from the B.C. Hospital Appeal Board (HAB), which largely upheld the Interior Health authority’s decision to suspend her hospitalist privileges at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, B.C.The appeal board had ruled that Szezepaniak’s refusal of the shot in 2021 amounted to neglect of her obligations as a hospitalist.Szezepaniak, who had to sell her home and move to a different town to find work after the decision, said that her Charter rights were breached by the HAB decision and asked a Supreme Court justice to set it aside.However, Justice Steven Wilson said the Charter did not apply to Interior Health’s decision to suspend Szezepaniak’s privileges, as it was an operational decision and not one that was directly controlled by government.”I do not accept that a hospital board’s ability to exclude a practitioner from the hospital for failing to comply with the [bylaws] is a decision that is governmental in nature,” his decision, published Thursday, read.A copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, autographed by former prime minister Jean Chrétien, is seen in 2016. The court found that Szezepaniak’s Charter rights were not breached in this particular instance. (Marine Lefèvre/Radio-Canada)Szezepaniak had argued that the HAB was upholding discipline based on government legislation, in which case her Charter-protected rights to life, liberty and security of the person — and specifically her right to earn an income to support her family — would have been breached.But the court disagreed, and said that even if the Charter were to apply to the HAB’s decision, Szezepaniak’s rights were not breached in this instance.That was because, the court noted, the Charter does not protect the right to work in a particular job or position, and Szezepaniak’s firing was a result of her decision to not get vaccinated.Contract terminatedSzezepaniak’s contract with Interior Health was terminated on Nov. 16, 2021, after she declined the vaccine, which was required to continue working in B.C. hospitals under an order from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.Her privileges, which granted her the right to provide care at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, were officially cancelled by the health authority in August 2022, and Szezepaniak cited the Charter in an appeal to the HAB shortly thereafter.In both the current Supreme Court case and that HAB decision, the issue was not whether the doctor would be forced to get the vaccine — but rather, the consequences that arose from her decision to decline it.Dr. Bonnie Henry, seen here in September 2022, had issued a public health order that required all health-care workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine in October 2021. (Ben Nelms/CBC)In a Nov. 20, 2023, decision, a HAB panel concluded that Interior Health didn’t challenge Szezekpaniak’s right to refuse the vaccine, but it did hold her accountable for the fact that that choice left her unable to work under provincial law.”Having the right to make a decision, and your right to do so acknowledged, or respected, is not the same as being held responsible for the consequences,” the panel’s decision reads.Although the appeal board did not reinstate Szezepaniak’s hospitalist privileges, it found the health authority should have suspended rather than cancelled them in August 2022, saying Interior Health should have waited to cancel them if she wasn’t vaccinated in time for her next annual review.Royal Inland Hospital is pictured in Kamloops, B.C., in June 2021. Szezepaniak was fired from the hospital in November of that year for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. (Ben Nelms/CBC)’Black mark’Szezepaniak, who is now based in 100 Mile House as a family physician, worked in B.C. hospitals for 21 years before she was fired.She said there was a “black mark” against her name due to the discipline that she received, and that she suffered significant emotional and financial consequences after the firing.Ultimately, however, the court found that the loss of income and her subsequent relocation to find work were not related to the discipline she received — but rather a consequence of her decision to not get the vaccine following the provincial order.Notice of liabilityA few days after Szezepaniak was barred from working, Royal Inland Hospital’s chief of staff emailed to say there were three options for unvaccinated staff: obtain an exemption, resign, or face cancellation of their privileges.Szezepaniak replied with an email saying she would not be “blackmailed or coerced into receiving an experimental injection,” the HAB panel decision says.On Nov. 12, a few days before she was fired, she sent an 18-page letter to a health authority manager titled, “NOTICE OF LIABILITY regarding the B.C. Government’s Mandatory Testing/Vaccination Policy.”Legal experts have previously told CBC News that these documents, favoured by groups opposed to COVID-related public health measures, have no legal value.ABOUT THE AUTHORAkshay Kulkarni is an award-winning journalist who has worked at CBC British Columbia since 2021. Based in Vancouver, he is most interested in data-driven stories. You can email him at akshay.kulkarni@cbc.ca.With files from Bethany Lindsay
B.C. doctor fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccine loses appeal
