An unvaccinated dad has been banned from visiting his child until he gets his Covid-19 jab.
The father was stopped from seeing his child after a judge ruled it was not in the best interest for him to have contact with the 12-year-old.
Superior Court Judge Jean-Sébastien Vaillancourt said that "it would normally have been in the best interest of the child to have contact with his father, but not in his best interest to have contact with him if he is not vaccinated and is opposed to health measures in the current epidemiological context," Canadian newspaper Le Devoir reported.
His visitation rights have been suspended until February, unless the dad gets vaccinated before then.
The judgement came after the dad had requested an extra day with his child over the holiday period, according to local reports in Quebec, Canada.
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The mum contested the request after learning from his social media posts that he was not vaccinated.
She further requested a suspension of his visitation rights, claiming he would be a "conspirator" and "anti-vaccine".
The child has received both their jabs, but the mum lives with her partner and other children under the age of five who are not yet able to get vaccinated.
The judge said: "In these circumstances, it is not in the best interests of any of the three children that Monsieur can exercise access to (his 12-year-old child) at this time."
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This is not the first reported case of a parent being denied visitation for not having their Covid-19 vaccine.
In New York, a dad was banned from visiting his daughter unless he becomes double-jabbed or agrees to weekly Covid tests.
The ruling was made by a New York City divorce judge, who suspended the parent's visitation rights to see the three-year-old girl until he agrees to either option.
Matthew Cooper, who is presiding over the estranged couple's divorce and custody dispute, wrote in his ruling: “Here, in-person parental access by the defendant is not in the child’s best interests, and there are exceptional circumstances that support its suspension.
“The dangers of voluntarily remaining unvaccinated during access with a child while the Covid-19 virus remains a threat to children’s health and safety cannot be understated.
“Unfortunately, and to my mind, incomprehensibly, a sizeable minority, seizing upon misinformation, conspiracy theories, and muddled notions of ‘individual liberty,’ have refused all entreaties to be vaccinated.”
The ruling requires the unnamed dad to either get the jab or present a weekly PCR test in addition to a biweekly antigen test within 24 hours of a scheduled visit.
He currently visits his daughter every other weekend.
The judge wrote that the couple split in 2019 and the proceedings have been contentious with the two wrangling over custody of their daughter.
The child resides mostly with her mother in Manhattan, where she attends preschool.
