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College drops charges against Alberta doctor who granted Covid vaccine exemptions

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News release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

The Justice Centre is pleased to announce that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) has dropped charges of professional misconduct against Dr. Michal Princ. The charges arose from Dr. Princ granting Covid vaccine exemptions to his patients. As a result, a five-day disciplinary hearing scheduled to commence on March 8, 2024, has been cancelled.Dr. Princ is a family medicine physician with 49 years of experience. He received his medical degree in 1975 while living in his native Czechoslovakia, then under communist rule. He left his homeland and began his medical practice in Canada in 1989.On April 5, 2023, Dr. Princ was accused of failing to follow vaccine exemption requirements that were imposed on medical doctors by the CPSA, Alberta Health Services and Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.On January 10, 2024, the CPSA withdrew its charges against Dr. Princ because the relevant health order (Chief Medical Officer of Health Order 43-2021) in relation to which he was charged was likely invalid, based on the 2023 Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruling in Ingram v. Alberta, by which the Court invalidated health orders. The Justice Centre provided lawyers for the Ingram action, which was one of the first constitutional challenges to lockdown measures commenced in Canada.Health Order 43-2021 was issued by Alberta’s (then) Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, on September 18, 2021. In the Ingram v. Alberta trial, Dr. Hinshaw testified that the health Orders that violated Charter rights and freedoms were effectively issued by the provincial cabinet, not by her. Court of King’s Bench Justice Barbara Romaine found this to be contrary to the Public Health Act and ruled that health orders must come from the Chief Medical Officer of Health in order to be valid.After the court released its ruling in Ingram, the Justice Centre submitted a legislative proposal to the Alberta government to amend the Public Health Act so that it would align with the constitutional principle of democratic accountability. Alberta’s Minister of Justice tabled a Bill in November 2023 that would, consistent with Justice Centre recommendations, put public health decision-making authority in the hands of elected officials rather than leaving unaccountable health officials with near-absolute power.The Legislative Assembly has since changed the Public Health Act to require that all public health orders be issued by cabinet, and not by the Chief Medical Officer of Health, in an attempt to ensure democratic oversight and accountability as required by Canada’s Constitution.The requirements imposed on doctors by the CPSA, AHS and the Chief Medical Officer of Health, while sometimes described as mere “guidance,” were strict and inflexible. For example, it was not clear that any condition would entitle a patient to an exemption, and this uncertainty was reflected in the “guidance” provided to medical doctors. According to the CPSA’s Exemption Requests: Patient FAQ, under Alberta’s vaccine mandate, “There are virtually no medical conditions that universally warrant a complete exemption.” (emphasis added) Meanwhile, according to the CPSA’s Guidance for physicians: Requests for COVID-19 vaccination exemptions, “There are no medical conditions that would universally warrant a complete exemption from initial COVID-19 vaccine.” (emphasis added)One of the primary resources provided was Alberta Health Services’ COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group Rapid Brief. The closest that guidance comes to permitting any exemption is in the case of a severe allergic reaction to a Covid injection. “However…even among those deemed as being ‘highly allergic,’ only 0.7% had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine administered under medical supervision.” Generally, in the very rare situations in which doctors had any latitude, only deferrals could be entertained, not permanent exemptions. Even patients who suffered myocarditis or pericarditis from a Covid injection were only entitled to a deferral “until more evidence is available.”“This mandatory ‘Guidance for physicians’ that was imposed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta resulted in an unknown number of Albertans getting pressured, coerced or manipulated into receiving an injection that they did not consent to voluntarily,” stated John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre.Many Albertans were injected with the Covid vaccine because refusing this medical treatment would have resulted in loss of employment. Many college and university students were injected because a failure to receive the vaccine would have resulted in suspension or expulsion from university. Many teenagers and young adults, a demographic not threatened by Covid, went ahead with the injection only because they wanted to continue participating in sports and recreation. Many Albertans and other Canadians were fired for refusing to get injected with a substance for which no long-term safety data exists. They were then unable to collect Employment Insurance.“The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta violated the ethical principle of informed and voluntary consent for medical treatment, by threatening medical doctors with the loss of their license if they exercised their independent clinical judgment about the safety and efficacy of new vaccines for which no long-term safety data existed,” continued President John Carpay.According to the Patient FAQ, doctors would “only offer an exemption based on the latest medical evidence from authorities like Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services, the National Advisory Council on Immunization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The Brief, however, was not an actual scientific analysis, but rather a “grey literature” survey of what others were doing and recommending.Glenn Blackett, co-counsel for Dr. Princ, observed, “One thing we found most alarming about all of this guidance was the degree to which the basic medical ethical principle of informed consent was simply ignored. How did health professionals in Alberta recommending or administering vaccines obtain informed consent where patients were subject to the coercive pressure of vaccine mandates? The CPSA told doctors how to participate in and, effectively, help enforce the vaccine mandate program, which consisted of rejecting all or ‘virtually’ all exemption requests. But it seems the CPSA entirely failed to grapple with the resulting ethical dilemmas.”AHS’s Rapid Brief says, “This review of current guidelines considers medical exemptions and does not address human rights, religious or other possible non-medical reasons for seeking vaccine exemptions.” The CPSA’s own general standards of practice include the doctrine of informed consent. The CPSA standards include the commonsense observation that, for informed consent to exist, a patient must be free of “undue influence, duress or coercion.”

The “vaccine mandates” in Alberta and across Canada effectively turned millions of Canadians into second-class citizens who were prevented from participating in sports, enjoying restaurants, leaving and re-entering Canada, visiting their elderly parents in nursing homes, continuing their university education, and keeping their jobs.  “These kinds of draconian restrictions on personal freedoms surely constituted ‘undue influence, duress or coercion,’ negating informed consent. Yet in the ‘Rapid Brief’ document of Alberta Health Services, informed consent is only mentioned once, when recommending vaccination to women ‘who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to become pregnant,’ or to people with a history of allergies. Perhaps even more troubling is the CPSA’s COVID-19 Vaccine: Questions and answers for the public and healthcare practitioners, which encourages doctors advising vaccine-hesitant patients to employ ‘motivational interviewing’ techniques-when I read that, a shiver ran up my spine,” continues Blackett.Lawyer Andre Memauri, co-counsel for Dr. Princ, stated, “our client was ethically motivated by the sacrosanct and longstanding principle of ‘do no harm.’ We are pleased the CPSA has withdrawn charges, although we wish the charges had been withdrawn to protect professional independence, not based on the Ingram ruling. The relationship of trust between each physician and his or her patients must be brought back to the forefront of medical practice.”

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Maxime Bernier slams Freedom Convoy leaders’ guilty verdict, calls Canada’s justice system ‘corrupt’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The leader of the People’s Party of Canada says Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were victims of a ‘political witch hunt.’

The leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) ripped Thursday’s federal court ruling that found Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber guilty of mischief, saying the court siding with the government amounted to a “political witch hunt.”

“It is disheartening to learn that two of the heroes of the Freedom Convoy, @LichTamara and @ChrisBarber1975, have been found guilty of mischief in the longest and one of the costliest trials in Canadian history,” Maxime Bernier wrote Thursday on X.

“This clearly was a political witch hunt.”

Bernier added that in his view the reality is that Canada’s justice system is “corrupt.”

“Trudeau and his ministers who illegally invoked the Emergencies Act and violated basic rights will go unpunished,” he noted.

“Our justice system is corrupt to the bones.”

On Thursday, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, the federal judge overseeing the mischief trial, delivered her verdict, finding both Lich and Barber guilty of mischief.

Perkins-McVey seemed to agree with the Crown’s case that Lich and Barber’s influence on the Freedom Convoy constituted public mischief but did dismiss the Crown’s Carter Application accusing Lich and Barber of conspiracy outright.

Lich and Barber both faced six charges each, those being charges of mischief, obstruction, intimidation, and counseling others to commit mischief and intimidation. After the court reconvened Thursday afternoon, Lich was acquitted of four of her six charges, with the fifth charge, counseling to commit mischief, being stayed by the judge.

As for sentencing, the court will reconvene on April 16 at 1:30 p.m. EST, at which time it will say when a date and time for sentencing will be held.

Lich and Barber both face a possible 10-year prison sentence. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.

The Lich and Barber trial concluded in September 2024, more than a year after it began. It was only originally scheduled to last 16 days.

Lich and Barber were arrested on February 17, 2022, in Ottawa for their roles in leading the popular Freedom Convoy protest against COVID mandates. During COVID, Canadians were subjected to vaccine mandates, mask mandates, extensive lockdowns and even the closure of churches.

Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to clear out protesters, an action a federal judge has since said was “not justified.” During the clear-out, an elderly lady was trampled by a police horse and many who donated to the cause had their bank accounts frozen.

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2025 Federal Election

Mark Carney refuses to clarify 2022 remarks accusing the Freedom Convoy of ‘sedition’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Mark Carney described the Freedom Convoy as an act of ‘sedition’ and advocated for the government to use its power to crush the non-violent protest movement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney refused to elaborate on comments he made in 2022 referring to the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy protest as an act of “sedition” and advocating for the government to put an end to the movement.

“Well, look, I haven’t been a politician,” Carney said when a reporter in Windsor, Ontario, where a Freedom Convoy-linked border blockade took place in 2022, asked, “What do you say to Canadians who lost trust in the Liberal government back then and do not have trust in you now?”

“I became a politician a little more than two months ago, two and a half months ago,” he said. “I came in because I thought this country needed big change. We needed big change in the economy.”

Carney’s lack of an answer seems to be in stark contrast to the strong opinion he voiced in a February 7, 2022, column published in the Globe & Mail at the time of the convoy titled, “It’s Time To End The Sedition In Ottawa.”

In that piece, Carney wrote that the Freedom Convoy was a movement of “sedition,” adding, “That’s a word I never thought I’d use in Canada. It means incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.”

Carney went on to claim in the piece that if “left unchecked” by government authorities, the Freedom Convoy would “achieve” its “goal of undermining our democracy.”

Carney even targeted “[a]nyone sending money to the Convoy,” accusing them of “funding sedition.”

Internal emails from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) eventually showed that his definition of sedition were not in conformity with the definition under Canada’s Criminal Code, which explicitly lists the “use of force” as a necessary aspect of sedition.

“The key bit is ‘use of force,’” one RCMP officer noted in the emails. “I’m all about a resolution to this and a forceful one with us victorious but, from the facts on the ground, I don’t know we’re there except in a small number of cases.”

The reality is that the Freedom Convoy was a peaceful event of public protest against COVID mandates, and not one protestor was charged with sedition. However, the Liberal government, then under Justin Trudeau, did take an approach similar to the one advocated for by Carney, invoking the Emergencies Act to clear-out protesters. Since then, a federal judge has ruled that such action was “not justified.”

Despite this, the two most prominent leaders of the Freedom Convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, still face a possible 10-year prison sentence for their role in the non-violent assembly. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.

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