The University of Waterloo defies public health authorities by maintaining its "vaccination requirement"

Because punishment is an end in itself.

From August 2021 until February 2022, the University of Waterloo (UW) lied by claiming it was legally required to impose a "vaccination requirement," falsely citing instructions from Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore:

Something happened on 17 February 2022, however, that forced UW to give up this pretense, at least publicly, once and for all.

Moore held a press conference and announced that covid-19 vaccination policies were "no longer necessary" at Ontario universities and colleges, and that such policies "should" end by 1 March 2022.

On 1 March 2022, Moore officially removed the instructions that UW previously relied upon to justify its vaccination requirement.

In response, UW announced that it would keep its "vaccination requirement" in place for months, at least until May 2022.

Why would UW defy public health authorities and backtrack on previous attempts to justify its requirement? Surprisingly, the stated rationale was to "minimize uncertainty and disruption on campus.”

If it were just a matter of reducing inconvenience, then UW would also stop expelling students and terminating employees. After all, expulsion or termination cause much more inconvenience — such as alcoholism, depression and reduced life expectancy — than simply telling people, "We no longer require you to do this thing."

But UW continues punishing students and terminating staff and faculty. Indeed, in recent weeks, UW accelerated its efforts to terminate allegedly "non-compliant" individuals (regardless of what its "vaccination requirement" actually says). So reducing inconvenience probably isn’t the true motive. Besides, that rationale is implausible on its face.

UW's president, Vivek Goel, expressed a more likely motive in a recent interview with the Toronto Star. UW needed more time to fire "insubordinate" employees who "did not comply." "It doesn't matter if the situation changes," to "suddenly" stop firing people "because of timing" would be inappropriate.

This explanation matches UW's arbitrary and authoritarian style under Goel's leadership. As previously noted, when confronted with the fact that UW's "vaccination requirement" failed to improve campus health and safety, Goel brushed it off, claiming that the requirement's success was measured not in how much illness it prevented, but in how many people complied.

Under Goel's leadership, compliance and punishment are fast becoming ends in themselves. This sinister development bodes ill for UW's entire community.