OUR MISSION STATEMENT:

FedsForFreedom advocates for an employee’s right to informed consent, bodily autonomy, and medical privacy within the Canadian Federal Public Service.

OUR ORIGIN STORY:

In August 2021, our founder, Stacey Payne watched as our Prime Minister announced that if he won the early election he would launch a mandatory vaccination policy for all Federal Public Servants. Troubled by this, she visited the Department of National Defence’s website to investigate her employer’s position on this announcement. The site stated “…DND management cannot require a public servant to get a vaccine, nor is mandatory vaccination supported under Canadian law”.  This was the first of many inconsistencies she would see throughout the implementation of the federal Covid-19 policy. She reached out to co-workers looking for support and quickly realized many Federal Public Servants had questions and concerns that were going unanswered. 

On August 15 2021, FedsForFreedom was born out of necessity. Stacey, who is a graphic designer by trade, decided she would launch a website & Facebook group to see if there were any other Canadian Federal Public Servants who shared her concerns. As it turns out, there were thousands of us and within a few short months our online community grew to 5000 members. We supported each other offering support, allyship, compassion and resources for many it was a godsend. 

Federal Public Servants can be found in every Province and Territory across our beautiful and vast country. There are 25 unions with 88 different collective bargaining agreements throughout 100 various core departments & crown corporations. As a result of these variations, it is very difficult to share information and provide support to members in regards to bodily autonomy, informed consent, labour and privacy rights.  

Within the first couple of months the heartbreaking stories that were coming forward were all the motivation Stacey needed to keep pushing forward. A few of these stories are as follows;

  • Pregnant women, denied an accommodation and forcibly placed on leave without pay when they would not divulge their medical information;

  • People with serious underlying health conditions and medical exemption letters from their doctors denied an accommodation;

  • Married public servants both putting forth the same religious accommodation request, one approved and one denied; and

  • Many members denied unemployment insurance despite their employer’s assurance that their LWOP was not a disciplinary action.


OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

  • Hosted nightly peer support meetings; 

  • Held monthly meetings & workshops for our community;

  • Created and maintained our website and multiple social media channels;

  • Developed dozens of resources supporting members personal actions;

  • Authored an Open letter to the Prime Minister and collected 1600 signatures;

  • Composed an Open letter to Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and collected 1200 signatures;

  • Staged a peaceful sit-in at PSAC Union HQ in Ottawa;

  • Launched multiple successful fundraising campaigns that raised over $12,000 to cover our carrying costs and to retain legal counsel to represent us at the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Employment Board;

  • Filed Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Employment Board complaints against PIPSC and PSAC on their failure of their Duty of Fair Representation (these cases are still ongoing);

  • Tabled a petition in the House of Commons, which received over 17,000 signatures to drop the Federal Vaccine Mandate;

  • Served a cease and desist to the Core Federal Departments, putting them on notice of a pending statement of claim;

  • Registered as a Not for Profit; and

  • Established an Executive Committee who are actively establishing a governance structure and a process for electing our first Board of Directors.


FedsForFreedom Thanks you for your Donation!