Conspiracy theorist nurse not a victim of discrimination, tribunal rules

An Interior Health registered nurse who held many conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and refused to be vaccinated wasn’t a victim of discrimination, the BC Human Rights Tribunal says. 

The code’s protection of political belief does not exempt a person from following provincial health orders, the tribunal wrote in a decision released Jan. 22 that dismissed Donna Maatz’ discrimination complaint. 

A protected political belief must be genuinely held, be broader than an individual’s own personal interests, have a factual foundation, be core to a person’s concept of how society should operate, and be reasonably cogent and cohesive, tribunal member Shannon Beckett wrote in the decision. 

In her submissions to the tribunal arguing she was the victim of discrimination, Maatz outlined some of her views on the pandemic. These included: 

– there never was a pandemic 

– the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation somehow knew about the COVID-19 situation before it started

-there was a well-planned money laundering scheme related to the virus which caused COVID-19 and the World Health Organization, World Bank, and the government of Canada were all complicit

– there was no evidence that anyone died of COVID-19

“I am not satisfied that these theories have any level of cogency or cohesion. The theories themselves are lacking in logic, consistency, integration, and clarity,” Beckett wrote. 

“I am unable to discern a clear articulation of a political belief that is core to Ms. Maatz’ concept of how society should work,” Beckett wrote. “In my view, it would trivialize the purposes of the Human Rights Code to extend the Code’s protection to beliefs, even genuinely held ones, of this nature.”

In any event, Maatz never brought up her views on the origin of the pandemic before she resigned on Oct. 3, 2021 from her job as the clinical co-ordinator of a long-term health care facility in Creston. 

“What Ms. Maatz actually did was refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” Beckett wrote, saying the government’s order for health care workers to be vaccinated was lawful.

 “(T)he loss of her employment resulted from her refusal to comply with a legally binding order of the Public Health Officer,” Beckett wrote, in dismissing Maatz’ complaint before it even reached the stage of a hearing. 

Publicly-available documents show that in 2020, her last full year of employment with Interior Health, Maatz was paid $92,172. In a March 2021 Interior Health feature series on its employees, she was described as “an extremely caring and giving person.” 

“Donna is looking forward to spending quality time with her friends and family when the pandemic is over,” the profile states.