The independent contractor label just failed this BC health authority
When the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled on April 9, 2026, it left a $388,582.13 damages award standing against a health authority that fired a physician for refusing COVID-19 vaccination. Justice Butler, writing for a unanimous panel, found the court had no jurisdiction to intervene because neither party had raised a pure question of law, and dismissed both the appeal and the cross-appeal. The case, Northern Health Authority v. du Plessis, comes down to what a service contract does and does not say.
Dr. Jannie du Plessis, 73, had served the Northern Health Authority (NHA) under annual contracts since 1999. A heart attack in 2019 ended his hospital and on-call duties, an arrangement the NHA accepted. When B.C. declared a state of emergency in March 2020, he moved to virtual telephone consultations from his private residence.
The April 2021 renewal, covering the period to March 31, 2022, described him as "an independent contractor" but said nothing about COVID-19 vaccines, even though approximately one million doses had been given in B.C. by then. He had already declined the NHA's offer to reserve him a dose in February 2021, and separately chose not to receive a vaccine at all, citing concerns over medication he took for thrombosis.
The NHA gave him until November 14, 2021, to get vaccinated or obtain a medical exemption. He did neither. On November 17, the NHA terminated the contract, citing the Provincial Health Officer's (PHO) vaccine mandate as grounds for frustration of contract.
Virtual practice fell outside vaccine mandate
The arbitrator found the PHO Order, as it read at the time of termination, did not reach Dr. du Plessis's situation. Delivering services exclusively by telephone from his private residence, he fell outside its scope: "the Order in place at the time did not prevent the Petitioner from lawfully fulfilling the terms of his contract."
The arbitrator also rejected the NHA's claim that the mandate was unforeseeable. Vaccines had been available in B.C. for four months before the contract was signed, and both parties were aware Dr. du Plessis would not take one.
The arbitrator found it was not out of the realm of reasonable possibility that the parties chose not to provide for mandatory vaccination or COVID contingencies because, from a health and safety standpoint, Dr. du Plessis's virtual practice "met the gold standard from the standpoint of eliminating the transmission of covid."
Dependent contractor
The "independent contractor" label did not hold. The arbitrator classified Dr. du Plessis as a dependent contractor, entitling him to reasonable notice on termination. Article 3.1 of the 2021 contract required six months' written notice for without-cause termination. The arbitrator found it a clear and unequivocal term, awarding one-half of his annual compensation as damages, with costs, for a total of $388,582.13.
The NHA argued he should have mitigated his losses by getting vaccinated. The Remedy Award rejected that outright: "[I]t would be an odd result indeed to allow the Respondent to benefit from the very same position resulting in its contractual breach – that is insistence on vaccination – to evade damages resulting from the breach."
What ultimately capped the NHA's exposure was what the arbitrator described as "a clear and unequivocal term outlining notice obligations for without cause terminations."
