Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Peckford is leading a lawsuit against the federal government’s COVID-19 air travel restrictions.

In documents filed in Federal Court, Peckford is the lead applicant for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is challenging the validity of Ottawa’s ban on travel for people who are unvaccinated.

The suit states about six million Canadians, or 15 per cent of the population, have been prevented from travelling to help sick loved ones, to visit family and friends, to get to work, take international vacations, and just live ordinary lives.

Peckford, the only surviving signatory to the 1982 Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms, argues that’s “simple discrimination,” and the courts must step in.

He claims it’s becoming clear that being vaccinated does not stop people from getting COVID and does not stop them from spreading it, adding Ottawa has not shown that the policy makes flying safer.

Peckford, who is unvaccinated, says Prime Minister Trudeau is only “sowing divisions” in society by calling the unvaccinated racists, misogynists, anti-science, and extremist.’

He says it amazes him that a leader of a Western nation would target one group of people because they are refusing a medical procedure, adding that kind of “discrimination” has no place in Canada.

Peckford says the court will be asked to hear the case quickly, adding Canada is the only country in the developed world that has banned the unvaccinated from travelling by plane.