REGINA — The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of Michael Gordon Jackson, who abducted his seven-year-old daughter in 2021 to prevent her from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
In a decision released Tuesday, a three-judge panel unanimously rejected Jackson’s appeal of his parental abduction conviction. The court also dismissed his sentence appeal, leaving intact a 12-month custodial sentence, which was fully covered by pre-trial custody credit, and a two-year probation order.
"It was the view of the trial judge that Mr. Jackson’s motivation did not reduce the moral blameworthiness of his conduct. That was a finding she was entitled to make," ruled Justice Jerome A. Tholl, with Justices Naheed Bardai and Keith D. Kilback agreeing. "The trial judge did not err in principle in relation to Mr. Jackson’s motivation."
Jackson and the child’s mother had separated, and a 2019 judgment granted primary residence to the mother, along with final decision-making authority on health matters.
The Court of Appeal held that Jackson had a reasonable legal alternative of applying to the Court of King’s Bench to vary the existing parenting order and seek to prevent the vaccination.
Jackson believed the “courts are corrupt and biased" and that a court application would inevitably have failed and resulted in the vaccination being permitted. He failed to return the child at the end of his scheduled parenting time and was charged with parental abduction in December 2021. Court documents reveal he went into hiding with her to prevent her from being vaccinated against COVID-19, which he believed posed a serious danger to her health.
Police issued a warrant for his arrest and released his photo to the public. They located him and the child on Feb. 24, 2022, after more than three months. Jackson had turned on his cell phone and police were able to track it to Vernon, British Columbia. They arrested him the same day.
During his trial, Jackson sought to use the defence of necessity under section 285 of the Criminal Code, arguing he took the child to protect her from imminent harm. The trial judge, however, ruled that this defence had “no air of reality” and didn't put it to the jury. Jackson was convicted in 2024 of parental abduction.
On the sentence appeal, Jackson argued that the trial judge failed to account for 60 days he served for contempt of court in the related family proceedings and didn’t properly consider his motivations. The Court of Appeal rejected both arguments, finding no error in principle.
The trial judge summarized the victim impact statement filed by the mother that described the fear and uncertainty she suffered for the three and a half months that the child was gone.
"She said she almost lost her mind as a mother," court heard. "She felt numb and helpless. She asked herself what is [the child] doing? What is she wearing? What is she eating? Is she safe? Does she think of me?"
The trial judge said, "It must be remembered that it was not just [the mother] who was a victim of Mr. Jackson's criminal actions. [The child] lost her mother for three and a half months."
The court acknowledged Jackson’s sincere belief that he was protecting his daughter, but Justice Tholl said such good intentions don’t generally reduce moral blameworthiness in cases involving deliberate defiance of court orders.
“The good intentions of a contemnor should not be treated as mitigating,” said Justice Tholl.
