‘Pandemic Panic’ shortlisted for prestigious Donner Prize

News release from the Canadian Constitution Foundation

The Canadian Constitution Foundation is thrilled to announce that Pandemic Panic: How Canadian Government Responses to COVID-19 Changed Civil Liberties Forever by CCF Executive Director Joanna Baron and CCF Litigation Director Christine Van Geyn is shortlisted for the prestigious Donner Prize.

Pandemic Panic, which made the best-seller lists on the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Amazon.ca, presents a critical and comprehensive assessment of the impact of the pandemic on civil liberties.

“This book is a record of what happened to our rights during the pandemic, from a perspective that civil liberties matter,” said Baron. “The response of many people to the pandemic has been to forget a lot of things – strange, irrational and also oppressive things – that the government did.”

“We are so honoured to be recognized as a shortlisted book for the prestigious Donner Prize,” CCF Litigation Director and Pandemic Panic co-author Christine Van Geyn said. “We are thrilled with the positive critical reception that Pandemic Panic received and want to congratulate the authors of all the other shortlisted books.”

“Pandemic Panic is a crucial record of the civil liberties impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had in Canada, and the only one of its kind,” Van Geyn added. “We want to thank the Donner Prize for this honour, and thank all of our thousands of supporters across Canada who bought the book.”

The book was published in November by Optimum Publishing International. It features a foreword by Preston Manning.

“If we forget history, it will repeat itself and the government can violate our rights with impunity. Reading this book will help to ensure those violations do not happen again, or if governments attempt them, there will be an informed citizenry to push back,” remarked Van Geyn.

Readers will learn what went wrong during the pandemic from the nuanced perspective of constitutional experts – when government reactions were over the top, and when the courts failed to correct government overreach. The book presents a balanced perspective, which allows readers to come to their own conclusions.

The Donner Prize recognizes the best public policy thinking, writing and research by a Canadian.

The Donner Prize is meant to encourage an open exchange of ideas and to provide a springboard for authors who may not necessarily be well-known, but who can make an original and meaningful contribution to policy discourse.

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Published on April 24, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Conservative platform also vows that the party will oppose mandatory digital ID systems and a central bank digital currency if elected.

Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party’s 2025 election platform includes a promise to “ban” the firing of any federal worker based “solely” on whether or not they chose to get the COVID shots.

On page 23 of the “Canada First – For A Change” plan, which was released on Tuesday, the promise to protect un-jabbed federal workers is mentioned under “Protect Personal Autonomy, Privacy, and Data Security.”

It promises that a Conservative government will “Ban the dismissal of federal workers based solely on COVID vaccine status.”

The Conservative Party also promises to “Oppose any move toward mandatory digital ID systems” as well as “Prohibit the Bank of Canada from developing or implementing a central bank digital currency.”

In October 2021, the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 jab mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector. The government also announced that the unjabbed 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. It also trapped “unvaccinated” Canadians in the country.

COVID jab mandates, which also came from provincial governments with the support of the federal government, split Canadian society. The shots have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects, such as death, including in children.

Many recent rulings have gone in favor of those who chose not to get the shots and were fired as a result, such as an arbitrator ruling that one of the nation’s leading hospitals in Ontario must compensate 82 healthcare workers terminated after refusing to get the jabs.

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RFK Jr. Launches Long-Awaited Offensive Against COVID-19 mRNA Shots

Published on April 23, 2025

Todayville

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

As millions of Americans anxiously await action from the new HHS leadership against the COVID-19 mRNA injections—injected into over 9 million children this year—Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has finally gone publicly on the offensive:

Let’s go over each key point made by RFK Jr.:

The recommendation for children was always dubious. It was dubious because kids had almost no risk for COVID-19. Certain kids that had very profound morbidities may have a slight risk. Most kids don’t.

In the largest review to date on myocarditis following SARS-CoV-2 infection vs. COVID-19 vaccination, Mead et al found that vaccine-induced myocarditis is not only significantly more common but also more severe—particularly in children and young males. Our findings make clear that the risks of the shots overwhelmingly outweigh any theoretical benefit:

The OpenSAFELY study included more than 1 million adolescents and children and found that myocarditis was documented ONLY in COVID-19 vaccinated groups and NOT after COVID-19 infection. There were NO COVID-19-related deaths in any group. A&E attendance and unplanned hospitalization were higher after first vaccination compared to unvaccinated groups:

So why are we giving this to tens of millions of kids when the vaccine itself does have profound risk? We’ve seen huge associations of myocarditis and pericarditis with strokes, with other injuries, with neurological injuries.

The two largest COVID-19 vaccine safety studies ever conducted, involving 99 million (Faksova et al) and 85 million people (Raheleh et al), confirm RFK Jr.’s concerns, documenting significantly increased risks of serious adverse events following vaccination, including:

Myocarditis (+510% after second dose)
Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (+278% after first dose)
Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (+223% after first dose)
Guillain-Barré Syndrome (+149% after first dose)
Heart Attack (+286% after second dose)
Stroke (+240% after first dose)
Coronary Artery Disease (+244% after second dose)
Cardiac Arrhythmia (+199% after first dose)

And this was clear even in the clinical data that came out of Pfizer. There were actually more deaths. There were about 23% more deaths in the vaccine group than the placebo group. We need to ask questions and we need to consult with parents.

Actually, according to the Pfizer’s clinical trial data, there were 43% more deaths in the vaccine group compared to the placebo group when post-unblinding deaths are included:

We need to give people informed consent, and we shouldn’t be making recommendations that are not good for the population.

Public acknowledgment of the grave harms of COVID-19 vaccines signals that real action is right around the corner. However, we must hope that action is taken for ALL age groups, as no one is spared from their life-reducing effects:

Alessandria et al (n=290,727, age > 10 years): People vaccinated with 2 doses lost 37% of life expectancy compared to the unvaccinated population during follow-up.