Simcoe farmer won't appeal court's bunkhouse decision
![Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Norfolk and Haldimand’s medical officer of health. File photo/Postmedia Network](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nexus/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/0903-TN-Bunkhouse.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=QRtINZU_jz_hwxw9596F8Q)
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A Simcoe farmer won’t continue in his bid to overturn a Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit pandemic regulation capping bunkhouse occupancy for migrant workers at three during their mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
Brett Schuyler, of Schuyler Farms, shared his decision on Aug. 28 following a ruling by the Superior Court of Justice that re-instates the requirement imposed by Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, the counties’ medical officer of health, in March.
“Although the decision is disappointing, the support shown from the public has been absolutely overwhelming,” Schuyler said. “From Day 1, this appeal has been about food security and protecting worker health and rights. There is still a lot of work to be done here.
“Moving forward, we need to have confidence that the farmers and farm workers will be consulted and their views given serious consideration.”
Nesathurai appealed his stipulation to the Superior Court on June 12 after Ontario’s Health Services Appeal and Review Board struck it down as “arbitrary and unreasonable.”
Schuyler and other farmers oppose the three-person cap because they say it delays the arrival of workers they need to manage a normal growing season. Some farmers are upset they are held to a higher standard than neighbouring health districts, which have been asked to employ the federal standard of two metres of social distancing at all times.
The three-judge panel did not accept these and other objections.
Instead – in a unanimous verdict released on Aug. 27 – the Superior Court ruled Nesathurai was entirely within his rights, legally and morally, to apply a higher standard given that Haldimand and Norfolk have more than 600 bunkhouses and the highest number of migrant workers as a percentage of population of any health district in Canada.
“The standard of proof that must be met by a Medical Officer of Health in order to justify an order before the health review board is significantly less than either the criminal standard of proof or the ordinary civil standard on a balance of probabilities,” Justice Harriet Sachs wrote on behalf of the tribunal.
“The number three keeps the risk as close as possible to the risk posed to other community members required to self-isolate after travel. Allowing larger numbers to isolate together exposes migrant farm workers to a level of risk not tolerated for others in the community, thereby increasing the vulnerability of an already vulnerable group.”
Norfolk Mayor Kristal Chopp, chair of the Norfolk and Haldimand Board of Health, said the Superior Court decision is yet another vindication of Nesathurai’s leadership since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March.
Chopp credited Nesathurai’s cautious approach with preventing widespread bunkhouse outbreaks of the kind that significantly delayed the re-opening of the economy in Windsor-Essex County.
Chopp added that Nesathurai’s preference for the quarantine period – self-isolation of one to a hotel room or bunkhouse – was on the table a month before it became a cornerstone of the acclaimed pandemic response in British Columbia. She noted that a cap of three was the compromise Nesathurai agreed to after local farming representatives objected.
“The three-men-to-a-bunkhouse rule caused significant division not only in the community but on the board of health as well,” Chopp said. “The pressure on the board was intense. We could’ve fired our medical officer of health in the middle of a pandemic not because he dropped the ball, but because he was on the ball.”
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