Saskatchewan Appeal Court Upholds Man's Conviction for Parental Child Abduction

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal Tuesday of a man convicted of parental child abduction after he took his daughter to avoid a COVID-19 vaccine. The court heard arguments in Regina last month. A jury had convicted Michael Gordon Jackson in Regina Court of King's Bench in 2024 after he picked up his seven-year-old daughter from school in November 2021 and did not return her to her mother for more than three months.

Jackson was sentenced to one year in jail and two years of probation but received credit for time served on remand and did not serve additional custody time.

Jackson testified that he believed his ex-wife planned to vaccinate their daughter and that the vaccine was dangerous. The mother held final decision-making authority on health matters under a prior family court ruling. At trial, Jackson sought to present a necessity defense, arguing he acted to avert imminent harm and viewed the court system as corrupt.

The trial judge ruled the defense lacked an "air of reality" and did not submit it to the jury.

Tholl, writing for the court with Justices Naheed Bardai and Keith Kilback, stated a reasonable person would not conclude that dissatisfaction with a court ruling permits taking matters into one's own hands. The court also dismissed Jackson's sentence appeal.

Judges noted he did not raise an earlier contempt sentence at the time of sentencing and that the contempt proceedings involved separate family court orders. "A reasonable person would not conclude that a person dissatisfied with a ruling of the court can simply take matters into their own hands and act in contravention of such ruling," Justice Jerome Tholl wrote.