Ontario college will make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for students and staff on campus

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru clinic at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont., on Friday, May 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

TORONTO -

Seneca College will require all students and employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they attend campus for “in-person teaching, learning and working.”

The post-secondary institution, which has campuses spread across Toronto, York Region and Peterborough, has announced that it will make vaccination mandatory for anyone coming on campus as of Sept. 7.

It is the first Ontario post-secondary institution to make vaccination a condition of participating in in-person learning, though a number of universities and colleges have previously announced plans to require students living in residence to get vaccinated, including Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.

“While we believe everyone should get vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19 virus to protect their health and the health of others, getting vaccinated is not required in Ontario. Seneca’s vaccination policy applies to those students and employees who are coming on campus in the fall term for in-person teaching, learning and working,” spokesperson Caroline Grech said in a statement provided to CP24. “This fall, Seneca will be delivering programs in various formats: online, hybrid, on-campus and flexible. Should students choose not to be vaccinated, they will need to take a program that is offered either online or in a flexible delivery format.”

Seneca College has not yet finalized its vaccination policy so it is unclear whether partially vaccinated individuals will be allowed on campus.

About 78 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far and nearly 54 per cent are fully vaccinated.