COVID-19
Last living signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms appealing decision on travel vaccine mandate
From the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
Ruled “moot,” the travel vaccine mandate challenge is back before the court
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms supports former Newfoundland Premier, the Honourable Brian Peckford, People’s Party leader, the Honourable Maxime Bernier, and others in their appeal of the decision that their challenge to the federal government’s travel vaccine mandate was not worth hearing because the mandate was lifted. The case goes before the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 11.
The travel vaccine mandate was brought into force in November 2021. The mandate prevented 5.2 million Canadians who chose not to be vaccinated for Covid-19 from traveling by air. Affidavits filed in the case attest that, in a country as large as Canada, prohibitions on domestic and international air travel can have significant negative impacts on Canadians. The basis for the challenge is the right to mobility guaranteed in The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The case was filed in February 2022, and a hearing was scheduled for later that year in October 2022. In preparation for that hearing, the parties filed over 14,000 pages of evidence. The legal challenge had attracted media attention because former Premier Peckford is the last living signatory to The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which came into force in 1982 as part of the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution. Adding interest, Maxime Bernier is the leader of the federal People’s Party of Canada.
Between the filing of the case in February 2022 and the hearing set for October 2022, the mandate was lifted. In June 2022, the then-Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra suspended the mandate, and threatened to bring it back if public health officials believed the circumstances warranted it.
Eleven days before the scheduled October hearing, the Federal Court dismissed the case, declaring it “moot,” or irrelevant, because the mandates were no longer in force. A declaration of “mootness” means that the court believes that continuing with the hearing would not be a good use of the justice system’s resources.
However, the appellants believe that the public interest in the case far outweighs the concern and need for judicial economy. In November 2022, they filed their Notice of Appeal, and their written arguments were filed in April 2023.
John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre, emphasizing the importance and uniqueness of the issue, stated, “There has never been a more egregious infringement of Canadians’ mobility rights than what occurred due to the unconstitutional and unlawful travel vaccine mandates. For the Federal Court to find that it is not in the public interest to determine whether the Federal Government acted lawfully in prohibiting 5 million Canadians from flying across the country and internationally to see family members is a grave injustice that the Federal Court of Appeal ought to remedy.”
COVID-19
Drug store to pay $10k to Canadian woman denied prescription over COVID mask dispute
From LifeSiteNews
A Shoppers Drug Mart in Mississauga, Ontario, has to pay a woman $10,000 after it banned her from the store for lowering her COVID mask when asking for her asthma prescription.
A Canadian woman with breathing difficulties who was refused service at a pharmacy because she lowered her mask while asking for a prescription has been vindicated with a large payout after a human rights tribunal found the drugstore was in the wrong.
In a December 5, 2024, decision, adjudicator Karen Mason of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled that a Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy in Mississauga, Ontario, had violated the rights of a woman named Kimberly Clarke in September 2021, awarding her $10,000 in compensation. The incident unfolded when Clarke, who has asthma, had lowered her mask while asking for her prescription for a Ventolin inhaler because she was having difficulty breathing.
Customers complained about Clarke’s half-wearing of her mask, which led to store staff confronting Clarke. There was a heated exchange, with Clarke claiming she was not being treated fairly. Ultimately, she was kicked out of the store and banned from ever coming back.
Mason found that the drug store staff did not properly accommodate Clarke’s needs, which was a form of discrimination that violated Ontario’s Human Rights Code. She also referenced similar cases in making her decision.
The pharmacy has been ordered to pay Clarke within 30 days of the ruling.
While Clarke was successful in getting compensation for being discriminated against, others have not been successful.
In August, LifeSiteNews reported about a Canadian man who was not allowed to board a flight to go to a medical appointment because he was not masked despite having a doctor’s note saying he could not wear a face covering. Even with the note, the man was denied compensation for damages.
COVID-19
Biden HHS extends immunity for COVID shot manufacturers through 2029
From LifeSiteNews
Biden Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra signed an extension of COVID-19 related liability shields until 2029, ahead of Joe Biden’s departure from the White House, and Donald Trump’s administration may be unable to reverse it.
U.S. Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra has signed an extension of COVID-19 related liability shields until 2029, ahead of President Joe Biden’s departure from the White House.
Near the beginning of the 2020 COVID outbreak, the first Trump administration invoked the federal Public Readiness & Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act of 2005 to declare the virus a “public health emergency.”
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the PREP Act empowers the federal government to “limit legal liability for losses relating to the administration of medical countermeasures such as diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.” Under this “sweeping” immunity, the federal government, state governments, “manufacturers and distributors of covered countermeasures,” and licensed or otherwise-authorized health professionals distributing those “countermeasures” are shielded from “all claims of loss” stemming from them, with the exception of “death or serious physical injury” brought about through “willful misconduct,” a standard that, among other hurdles, requires the offender to have acted “intentionally to achieve a wrongful purpose.”
The protection has faced criticism for preventing Big Pharma and various medical institutions from being held accountable for measures that did more harm than good. But on December 11, Becerra issued an amendment to “extend the time period of PREP Act coverage through December 31, 2029. COVID-19 continues to present a credible risk of a future public health emergency,” he claimed.
The amendment “includes extending the time period for PREP Act coverage for licensed pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and qualified technicians, which allows for continued access by the recipient Population to Covered Countermeasures that are COVID-19 vaccines, seasonal influenza vaccines and COVID-19 tests.”
“As qualified persons, these licensed pharmacists, pharmacy interns, and qualified pharmacy technicians will be afforded liability protections in accordance with the PREP Act and the terms of this amended Declaration,” the statement adds. “To the extent that any State law would otherwise prohibit these healthcare professionals who are a ‘qualified person’ from prescribing, dispensing, or administering Covered Countermeasures that are COVID-19 vaccines, seasonal influenza vaccines or COVID-19 tests, such law is preempted.”
The Daily Mail notes that the move means pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna would be shielded from lawsuits over the harm of their mRNA-based COVID shots for another five years.
More significantly, the incoming Trump administration might be powerless to rescind the extension, according to attorney Ray Flores: “The Pfizer and Moderna [COVID shot] contracts guarantee that these manufacturers are protected by the PREP Act. If the emergency ends, then vaccines already in distribution, if administered, could trigger manufacturer liability.”
A large body of evidence identifies serious risks to the COVID shots, which were developed and reviewed in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
An analysis of 99 million people across eight countries published February in the journal Vaccine “observed significantly higher risks of myocarditis following the first, second and third doses” of mRNA-based COVID shots, as well as signs of increased risk of “pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis,” and other “potential safety signals that require further investigation.” In April, the CDC was forced to release by court order 780,000 previously undisclosed reports of serious adverse reactions, and a study out of Japan found “statistically significant increases” in cancer deaths after third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 jabs, and offered several theories for a causal link.
In Florida, an ongoing grand jury investigation into the shots’ manufacturers is slated to release a report on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID injections, and a lawsuit by the state of Kansas has been filed accusing Pfizer of misrepresentation for calling the shots “safe and effective.” The findings of both efforts are highly anticipated.
All eyes are currently on returning President Donald Trump and his health team, which will be helmed by prominent vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee for Secretary of Health & Human Services. They have given mixed signals as to the prospects of reconsidering the shots for which Trump has long taken credit, and he has nominated both critics and defenders of establishment COVID measures for a number of administration roles.
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