Student challenges university after blocking graduation for refusing COVID shot
A former Canadian university student has sought judicial review after the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario dismissed his complaint over being denied a religious exemption from the COVID jab.
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Mon Oct 5, 2026 - 8:02 pm EDT
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(LifeSiteNews) — An Ontario university student who was denied a religious COVID shot exemption and then not allowed to graduate is challenging a human rights tribunal decision that dismissed his complaint.
In an announcement by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), former University of Ontario Institute of Technology student Philip Anisimov submitted an application for judicial review for the Ontario Divisional Court.
“Mr. Anisimov is challenging a Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario decision that dismissed his complaint against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology over its refusal to exempt him from its COVID vaccine policy on religious grounds,” the JCCF said.
In August 2021, Anisimov, a Baptist, had asked for a religious exemption from the COVID shots. Like most businesses at the time, universities required a COVID jab to participate in class.
According to Anisimov, as noted by the JCCF, his “religious beliefs prohibited him from receiving the vaccines because they had been tested using cells derived from fetal tissue.”
“The Tribunal accepted that Mr. Anisimov’s beliefs were sincere but found they were not protected under the Human Rights Code,” noted constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir, according to the JCCF.
“We’re asking the Court to review whether the Tribunal applied the right legal test and properly assessed the university’s ability to accommodate him.”
LifeSiteNews has previously reported on Anisimov’s case.
Anisimov’s case goes back to August 30, 2021, when Ontario, under the direction of Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Kieran Moore, mandated that all students in the province show proof of vaccination unless they have an exemption or agree to attend a COVID jab education session boasting about the shots.
However, the third option was not available at Ontario Tech University, as the government mandate allowed schools to choose whether or not they would offer such a program to students.
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As a result, Anisimov, who had requested accommodation for religious reasons but was denied, was deregistered from all of his courses.
University refused to let Anisimov complete two courses needed to graduate
Anisimov offered the university to do regular testing and to wear a mask. He was allowed to complete his fall exams but was then later removed from two of his courses due to them having in-person elements.
Because he was not able to take the classes, he was not allowed to graduate in 2022 and had to wait until 2023 to do so.
“I was ready to take regular tests and wear a mask so I could finish my degree. Instead, I lost a year because the university would not accommodate my religious beliefs,” he said.
In 2025, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario heard Anisimov’s discrimination complaint against his former university, but it was later dismissed.
The JCCF noted that the tribunal had accepted that Mr. Anisimov’s “religious beliefs were sincerely held, it found that he had not established that his objection to the vaccines was protected as a creed under Ontario’s Human Rights Code.”
As a result, Anisimov complained that the tribunal’s decision was based on a wrong “legal test” to his “religious beliefs and made errors in assessing the evidence about possible accommodation,” the JCCF noted.
He is now asking the Divisional Court to toss the original decision by the tribunal to find that the university “discriminated against him on the basis of creed and return the matter to the Tribunal to determine damages.”
As of now, there has been no court ruling on the matter.
LifeSiteNews has previously reported on similar cases to Anisimov that have resulted in students taking their universities to court.
COVID jab mandates penetrated almost every facet of Canadian society under the rule of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial governments.
In October 2021, Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 shot mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector and said that the unvaxxed would no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally.
This policy resulted in thousands losing their jobs or being placed on leave for non-compliance.
The shots have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects, including in children, and all have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies.
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- abortion tainted COVID shots
- Covid
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- human rights tribunal of ontario
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- Justice Centre For Constitutional Freedoms
- Philip Anisimov
- Religious Exemption
- Religious Freedom
- University Canada
- University of Ontario Institute of Technology
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