COVID-19
Freedom Convoy judge questions why Ottawa police officers had phone data wiped during protest
From LifeSiteNews
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey noted that it was ‘unusual’ that the officers knew ‘they had to have their phones upgraded and yet did not take the responsible steps to ensure that all the evidence and disclosure was preserved.’
The trial for Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber resumed Thursday this week, seeing Justice Heather Perkins-McVey note that it was “unusual” that two Ottawa Police Service (OPS) officers who interacted with protestors had their phone data wiped during the protests.
Perkins-McVey said in court that the OPS officers “knew they had to have their phones upgraded and yet did not take the responsible steps to ensure that all the evidence and disclosure was preserved.”
The Democracy Fund (TDF), which is crowdfunding Lich’s legal costs, noted in a Day 22 trial update that Perkins-McVey found it “interesting that two PLT [Police Liaison Team] officers had their phones wiped” of important Signal chats between them and protestors.
“She questioned how many other officers had experienced the same,” noted the TDF.
Last Thursday, during Day 20 of the trial, a second police witness, Nicole Bach of the OPS PLT, testified her police-provided phone was “wiped” of all information when asked by the judge if she had copies of vital information of conversations between her and protesters.
Bach was the second police officer in less than a week to testify that their phone was suddenly “wiped” of all data.
OPS liaison team officer Isabelle Cyr testified last week that her contacts were “wiped” clean from her phone between January 27 and February 9, 2022, which was when the main protests took place.
She noted to the court, however, that she had some text message exchanges with Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Barber printed out before her information was “wiped.”
Yesterday in court, defense counsel Eric Granger referred to an email from an Officer “Li” which was made to Bach, and suggested that by May 2022, it was evident that the “PLT officers were seeking evidence that might have been lost while highlighting the absence of an email response from Bach in the disclosure.”
“He argued that this evidence could also affect the credibility of the officers involved,” noted the TDF.
Diane Magas, counsel for Chris Barber, “reiterated her request for a response regarding when Bach was directed to update her phone and why she updated it when she did, leading to the phone’s wipe.”
Last Friday, during Day 21 of the trial, Bach was again cross-examined which resulted in disclosure concerns pertaining to her testimony on Day 20 about her phone getting wiped.
As per the TDF, the “defense team requested disclosure about the reasons behind the ‘wiping’ of Officer Bach’s cell phone. The Crown and defense left the courtroom together to discuss the issue.”
Documents requested by the defense given to them in ‘blacked out’ form
Lich and Barber’s defense has thus far only received completely blacked-out documents concerning the phone wipes of the OPS officers.
On Thursday in court, lawyers for Lich and Barber noted to the court they got copies of five internal emails they had requested, which were said to be communications between officers, but they were heavily redacted and wondered why this was the case.
The OPS had claimed the emails were protected by solicitor-client privilege.
Lawyer Vanessa Stewart, who was in court on behalf of the OPS, claimed that some of the emails have evidence from the Crown, which was shared between officers.
The TDF noted that “Granger pointed out that solicitor-client privilege typically does not exist between the police and the crown, leading to discussions about the involvement of the crown in such legal discussions with the police.”
Perkins-McVey inquired to Crown lawyers if the “Ottawa police were in a position to waive privilege, assuming privilege existed in the first place.”
Stewart replied with a “No.”
The TDF noted that Perkins-McVey questioned how communication “between two officers could trigger solicitor-client privilege.”
In response, Stewart “maintained that the conversation was about legal advice received from the crown, justifying the privilege.”
Perkins-McVey “noted that it was not clear whether solicitor-client privilege had been sufficiently established.” Stewart after this, “then made submissions on the waiver of privilege.”
Lich and Barber’s trial has thus far taken more time than originally planned due to the slow pace of the Crown calling its witnesses. LifeSiteNews has been covering the trial extensively.
Last week, bail-related charges placed against Lich for attending an awards ceremony were stayed by the Crown in a move that comes during her weeks-long trial for leading the convoy, which is separate from her bond charges.
In early 2022, the Freedom Convoy saw thousands of Canadians from coast to coast come to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government enacted the Emergencies Act in mid-February, leading to Lich’s arrest two days later on February 17, 2022.
After the protesters were cleared out, which was done through the freezing of bank accounts of those involved without a court order as well as the physical removal and arrest of demonstrators, Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Emily Kopp
The letter, exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, seeks more details about those deaths and the passive U.S. vaccine safety surveillance system and complacent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bureaucracy under the Biden administration that delayed their reporting for years.
“Nobody wanted to admit that these things were causing death. This is absolutely a case of willful ignorance,” Johnson said in an interview with the DCNF.
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The letter requests from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “all records referring or relating to the review of the 96 reports of death following a COVID-19 vaccine … including but not limited to, any memorandum or report created following that review and the data underlying the reports.”
“I am grateful that we now have individuals at our federal health agencies who care about vaccine safety and efficacy. I am, however, disappointed that despite having subpoenaed HHS for the type of data and information described in Dr. Prasad’s memo, it does not appear to have been provided to my office,” the letter reads.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“This is a profound revelation. For the first time, the US FDA will acknowledge that COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children. Healthy young children who faced tremendously low risk of death were coerced, at the behest of the Biden administration, via school and work mandates, to receive a vaccine that could result in death. In many cases, such mandates were harmful. It is difficult to read cases where kids aged 7 to 16 may be dead as a result of covid vaccines,” Prasad wrote. “There is no doubt that without this FDA commissioner [Marty Makary], we would not have performed this investigation and identified this safety concern. This fact also demands serious introspection and reform.”
“One reason I’m writing this letter is that this memo needs much greater attention. This should be a blockbuster,” the Wisconsin senator told the DCNF.
Johnson, who has investigated the issue of COVID vaccine-linked adverse events since June 2021, also seeks more clarity about why FDA only examined a fraction of total reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). He noted that the 96 deaths scrutinized by FDA staff in its investigation represents a sliver of the raw VAERS reports of 9,299 deaths worldwide within two days of vaccination.
Distinguishing which VAERS reports indicate genuine fatal side effects and which represent mere coincidences requires autopsy reports, which regulators and physicians often do not request because of a ideological reluctance to acknowledge that vaccines can carry risks, Johnson told the DCNF. Johnson said he has spoken to families who suspected a vaccine injury but struggled to obtain autopsies.
“With some of these officials at federal health agencies and within the medical establishment, vaccines are religion. The do not want to muddy the water with facts,” he said.
Johnson’s letter notes that Prasad acknowledged a culture at FDA “where vaccines are exculpated rather than indicted in cases of ambiguity,” and that the true number of deaths is likely higher.
Johnson has as chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations investigated the Biden administration’s headlong expansion of COVID vaccines and booster shots to healthy young adults and children.
His committee uncovered internal federal documents showing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention never updated its vaccine surveillance tool “V-Safe” to include cardiac symptoms, despite naming myocarditis as a potential adverse event by October 2020, per a May report. The investigation also found that top officials at FDA obstructed a warning to pediatricians and other providers about the risk of myocarditis after the May 2021 authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds, months after Israeli health officials first detected the safety signal in February 2021.
Johnson’s letter highlights missing safety studies that the drugmakers never conducted.
Under the Biden administration, the FDA waived the responsibility of the drugmakers to conduct post-market studies that they had pledged to regulators, scientific advisors on the FDA Vaccines and Related Products Advisory Committee, and the public that they would complete. These uncompleted studies include promised research into subclinical myocarditis, undocumented rates of heart inflammation without obvious symptoms, Prasad’s memo states.
Johnson’s letter reveals the committee has not received any records from HHS about the liability shield for COVID-19 vaccines.
A public health media personality reported on Dec. 11 that FDA staff had downgraded the certainty with which it can attribute some the deaths to the vaccine in the weeks since Prasad received their top line results — echoing prior leaks from career officials aimed at undermining FDA’s new bosses.
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Acting Director Tracy Beth Hoeg first concluded in a separate analysis that there were in fact deaths in children in the summer, but career staff leaked the results to reporters who “portrayed the incident as Dr. Hoeg attempting to create a false fear regarding vaccines” soon after, per Prasad’s memo.
Johnson’s letter seeks documentation of Hoeg’s meeting, including “a list of all attendees.”
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
China is escalating its legal fight with Missouri after the state secured a massive court victory earlier this year over Beijing’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced Tuesday that the People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology have filed a $50 billion lawsuit against the state, claiming Missouri poses an “economic and reputational threat” to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The suit comes as Missouri moves to seize Chinese-owned assets to collect on a historic federal court judgment the state won in March.
Missouri first sued China in 2020, seeking $25 billion in damages “for causing and exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic” and for hoarding critical medical supplies while the virus spread, according to the state attorney general’s office. China and several affiliated entities were ordered to pay Missouri roughly $24.49 billion, plus post-judgment interest. Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh ruled that China and the other defendants “failed to appear or otherwise answer after being properly served,” resulting in the default judgment.
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Please consider making a small donation of any amount here.
Thank you!
Missouri maintained that China was attempting to shield itself from legal consequences by relying on proxy organizations to speak on its behalf — an accusation Beijing now disputes in its own lawsuit against the state.
In its lawsuit, China alleges that Missouri’s actions have had “negative effects on the soft power” of Wuhan and have “belittled the social evaluation” as well as adversely affected the “productivity and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The filing further alleges that Missouri’s “vexatious litigation” has “defamed Plaintiffs’ reputation, resulting in huge economic losses of the Plaintiffs, and deeply endangering sovereignty, security and development interests of China.”
The suit names the state of Missouri, Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt and the former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as the defendants.
China’s lawsuit demands the defendants “issue public apologies on New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, YouTube and other American media or internet platforms, and People’s Daily, Xinhuanet and other Chinese media or internet platforms.”
Hanaway rejected the demand and said the state remains focused on enforcing the federal judgment.
“I find it extremely telling that the Chinese blame our great state for ‘belittling the social evaluation’ of The Wuhan Institute of Virology. This lawsuit is a stalling tactic and tells me that we have been on the right side of this issue all along,” Hanaway said in a statement. “We stand undeterred in our mission to collect on our $24 billion judgment that was lawfully handed down in federal court.”
Schmitt described China’s suit as “frivolous lawfare, attempting to absolve themselves of all wrongdoing in the early days of the pandemic.”
“This is their way of distracting from what the world already knows, China has blood on its hands. China lied about the origins of COVID virus, they tried to cover it up, and they upended the world by creating a global pandemic that resulted in immense human loss,” Schmitt added.
Missouri, Hanaway said, is continuing efforts to obtain certification that would allow the state to seize Chinese-owned assets, including real estate, financial interests, and other holdings tied to the defendants.
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