OTTAWA, ON: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that lawyers will appear before the Divisional Court of Ontario on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, to challenge a decision by the Municipality of Mississippi Mills (Municipality) to punish former councillor Cynthia Guerard for refusing to disclose her Covid vaccination status to town officials in 2022. Ms. Guerard’s lawyers will argue that the municipality violated her Charter-protected freedom of expression, including her right not to speak.
The case stems from a Covid vaccine mandate introduced on November 2, 2021. Although the policy applied to employees, volunteers, contractors, and students, it did not clearly apply to elected councillors. Nevertheless, the Municipality ordered Ms. Guerard to leave council chambers in May 2022 for allegedly breaching the policy. When she later observed the June 7, 2022 council meeting from the public gallery—a space open to the public without proof of vaccination—the council again insisted she had breached the policy and required her to apologize. A formal complaint was subsequently filed, and the Municipality’s Integrity Commissioner (IC) investigated her for attending council meetings without disclosing her vaccination status.
The IC concluded that Ms. Guerard’s silence could be used as evidence that she was unvaccinated and lacked remorse. The official then recommended the most severe penalty available under the Municipal Act: a 90-day suspension of her pay. Council adopted the recommendation, imposing a punishment typically reserved for serious misconduct.
The upcoming hearing will address whether the IC and Council violated Ms. Guerard’s right to freedom of expression and, if so, whether it was unreasonable to penalize Ms. Guerard for exercising her right not to disclose her vaccination status.
Ms. Guerard’s court submission emphasizes that freedom of expression protects both speech and silence, noting that compelled disclosure is a recognized form of compelled expression. “I stand by the choices I made, as I did what I believed was right and still do,” she said.
Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir said, “Freedom of expression includes the right to say nothing. The right not to speak is an important counterpart to free speech.”
“We are arguing that the Integrity Commissioner and the Municipality violated Ms. Guerard’s right when they based their findings and punishments on her choice not to disclose her vaccination status,” he added.
