Emergency Measures Act
Updated: Nov 25, 2022
I recently gathered with a group of friends to share a meal. I couldn't believe how wonderful it was to have an in-person gathering, to be mask free, and to see everyone's smiling faces. We'd forgotten the simple pleasures of friendship, open conversation, and connection ... there was a sense of expectation, and we all wondered whether we could finally be emerging from this COVID-19 ordeal.
However, before we allowed our thoughts to plunge headlong into summer plans, we pulled ourselves back for a moment to consider the last 2 years, specifically our COVID-19 journey. Given the magnitude and extent of the crisis, we felt it important to pause and consider how we had responded collectively to garner lessons for the future. How well did we manage the situation? Did we accurately evaluate the problem? Did we mount a proportionate, safe, and effective solution? Are we coming out of this crisis stronger as a society? This article will review some key aspects of our COVID journey from our perspectives as Canadian medical researchers looking specifically at lockdowns, vaccines, mandates, and the recent invocation of the emergency measures act in order to gauge the appropriateness of our leader’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Lockdowns In March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was announced by the World Health Organization and, almost immediately, headlines were ablaze with COVID-19 death counts as the disease spread across the globe and fear gripped the hearts and minds of citizens. Inspired by China’s success in “eradicating” the virus through lockdowns and despite WHO guidelines from 2019 recommending against these measures, carefully crafted pandemic response plans were shelved and we were ushered into our homes for “2 weeks to flatten the curve.” Those two weeks invariably turned into two years of on and off lockdowns for most countries around world.
It soon became apparent that eradication of the virus was unrealistic, and health officials claimed lockdowns were necessary to slow disease spread and preserve medical capacity. These policies, however, completely overlooked key findings from a Canadian Institute of Health Information report on COVID-19 and a Long-term Care report published in June 2020. The investigation showed that COVID-19 was really a long-term care facility crisis. It found that 81% of all deaths in Canada were in long-term care facilities and confirmed that the virus posed little to no risk to healthy individuals living outside of these facilities. A fact that is now widely acknowledged by even Bill Gates. It described how, due to a decade of government under funding, most long-term care facilities simply lacked the resources to halt community transmission among their numerous vulnerable residents. However, instead of providing the necessary support to keep the elderly out of the hospital, billions of dollars were spent locking down the healthy.
Not only were these measures ineffective, but they were also implemented without the normal checks and balances and without a means of monitoring the untoward effects the measures were having on wider society. Instead of conducting a thoughtful risk-benefit analysis in consultation with all sectors of society, the government reflexively and repeatedly locked down at the first sign of rising cases. We will likely never fully realize the full impact this policy had on our society, however, we do know that our elderly have been traumatized by years of isolation, our children’s development hindered by masking and online learning, addiction and suicide rates in youth increased, and our families have been separated, both geographically and politically. Numerous small businesses have failed, our nation has fallen into unprecedented debt, and we are now experiencing debilitating inflation. Ironically, despite China being the poster child for lockdowns, one of their major cities, Shanghai, is experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19. Two years after that fateful day when we were ushered into our homes, it is clear that lockdowns were ill-informed, ineffective, incredibly harmful to society, and should never be repeated.
A Vaccine Only Approach
In the fall of 2020, before anything was known about the vaccines, our government declared that vaccines would be the “only way out of the pandemic”. This was surprising given that Fauci himself has been a firm proponent that the best immunity is conferred through natural infection. Vaccine trial results became available by December 2020, and headlines declared the vaccine was both “safe and effective”. Curiously, these claims were based on only 2 months of the usual 10 years of safety research and with little to no safety data in those with naturally acquired immunity, and high-risk groups such as the frail elderly, those with co-morbidities, the immunocompromised, or pregnant women.
These findings should have been scrutinized and debated widely by the Canadian medical community, however, instead of encouraging scientific discourse, those who raised questions regarding the vaccines was labeled an anti-vaxxer and accused of spreading misinformation. To make matters worse, health care practitioners were coerced by their colleges, such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario [CPSO], to support the narrative or risk investigation and discipline. This created a false sense of support by the medical community as government appointed clinicians promoted the vaccines in public, and dissenting voices were censored. In doing so, the colleges interfered with Canadian's rights to informed consent by pitting professional’s livelihoods against their duty to convey truth and keep their patients safe.
By November of 2021, more mature data on the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine phase III trial clearly showed that the vaccines did more harm than good. Not only did it show that the vaccines were ineffective, able only to reduce risk of cases by 4% and severe cases by 0.1%, but that they increased the risk of adverse events in 18% of recipients and severe adverse events in 0.5% of recipients. Finally, and most concerning of all, was the trend towards increased death rates among vaccine recipients compared to those who were unvaccinated (20 vaccinated deaths vs 14 unvaccinated deaths), especially those of a cardiovascular nature (9 vaccinated deaths vs 5 unvaccinated deaths). Six months after the vaccines were declared to be safe, effective, and the only way out of the pandemic, we discovered that they were in fact more dangerous than COVID-19. Despite this high level evidence, health officials, along with the government continued to label those concerned with vaccine safety, even those injured by the vaccines, as purveyors of misinformation.
Are Vaccine Mandates Necessary?
A highly effective vaccine can halt transmission and should eliminate disease in a population at about a 50% uptake. By fall of 2021, upwards of 80% of eligible Canadians were vaccinated. Despite these high numbers and the mounting evidence of vaccine harm, the government began to blame the pandemic on the unvaccinated, accusing them of spreading disease and depleting healthcare resources. As openly stated by Fauci, vaccine mandates, passports, and travel bans were used to “encourage” the unvaccinated to “do the right thing”. As a result, the movement of the unvaccinated was restricted, and many Canadians were barred from campuses, while others were placed on unpaid leave for exercising their right to medical privacy and informed consent. Most disturbingly, these measures were applied to healthcare workers resulting in widespread shortages in healthcare resources, the very thing the mandates were intended to prevent.
The arrival of Omicron Dispelled the Myth of the “Pandemic of the Unvaccinated” by showcasing the vaccine’s complete inability to stop infection and transmission. Despite incredibly high vaccination rates, Omicron cases soared to 5x previous waves and Ontario public health data showed higher rates of infection in those who were vaccinated, indicating negative vaccine effectiveness. Additionally, there were more hospitalizations and ICU admissions among the vaccinated population. In February, Bill Gates himself admitted that Omicron did a better job of conferring widespread immunity than the COVID-19 vaccine campaign.
In the fall of 2021, data submitted to the FDA by Pfizer and released through a Freedom of Information Act request, documented that, within 2 months of the vaccine rollout, the company was receiving an unprecedented number vaccine-suspected serious side effect reports. Reports included injury to the nervous system, cardiovascular system, and immune system with as many as 30% causing ongoing damage and about 1,200 resulting in death. Four months after vaccine mandates were deemed “necessary” to control the spread of the disease, the vaccines were shown to be both ineffective and harmful, demonstrating once again that government policy was ill-informed, disproportionate, and destructive.
Emergency Measures Act
In February 2022, in the wake of Omicron, and after the vaccines and associated mandates were proven to be completely ineffective, the Federal government mandated vaccination for cross border travel to the US. This requirement would significantly affect truckers even though they are generally at a low risk of exposure and disease. For those who refused to comply this meant losing lucrative cross-border runs and, for some, an inability to feed their families. Appropriately ruffled, BC truckers embarked on a trip to Ottawa to express their frustration at yet another seemingly inappropriate policy.
The trucks moved across the country and the Freedom Convoy 2022 was born as they were joined by hundreds of equally frustrated truckers in search of justice and answers. They garnered incredible support from Canadians of all walks of life. They were met with cheers from overpasses, rallies in cities, and an exploding GoFundMe campaign. They quickly became a symbol of hope and a voice for those who had been silenced due to censorship.
Instead of recognizing their failure, apologizing, and engaging in meaningful dialogue with their citizens, the government launched a defamation campaign. It began with disparaging comments at the outset of their journey “[They are a] small fringe of people who...are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing [who] DO NOT represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values as a country.” However, as thousands of protesters descended on Ottawa and it was apparent that these claims were untrue, the Prime Minister retreated to “recover from COVID-19”.
When the Prime Minister emerged from isolation, the campaign against the protestors escalated. Protesters were accused of being antivaxxers, desecrating the statue of a Canadian hero, stealing from volunteers at a soup kitchen, and being Nazi sympathizers. Two very different portraits of the truckers emerged. Government and legacy media portrayed the truckers as a foreign funded terrorist group and a threat to local residents, while eye witness accounts, alternative, and international media described the protests as a place of love, unity, and hope after a long season of separation, division, and isolation. The protest was a place where flags and bouncy castles abounded and people could gather freely to hug, dance, sing, pray, and play street hockey. Police reported lower crime rates during the protest and international press described it as “a very cold street party, punctuated by blaring truck horns”, and an “impressive display of democracy in action”.
As the protests stretched on, government attacks on truckers escalated as members of parliament recklessly spread allegations of arson which were then used as justification to freeze the trucker’s GoFundMe account and ultimately to invoke the Emergency Measures Act (EMA) on February 14, 2022. These powers, which became available immediately upon invocation, provided the tools for the state to counter the alleged "domestic ideologically motivated violent extremism.". The Prime Minister then ordered police in riot gear to forcibly drive the protesters from downtown Ottawa and altered legislation meant to combat terrorism to allow them to freeze protester bank accounts without court order or oversight. At the hand of the Prime Minister, peace-loving Canadians exercising their right to peaceful protest guaranteed under charter section 2(c), were tear gassed and pepper sprayed, their trucks vandalized, a female reporter struck by a projectile, and an elderly indigenous woman was knocked over by a mounted policeman. Protest leaders were arrested based on trumped up charges of mischief and denied bail. Protesters were arrested, some beaten, their rigs towed, their licenses suspended, and their bank accounts frozen. And when the physical and financial assault was complete, and the likelihood of the senate approving the EMA low, the act was revoked on February 23, 2022.
The standard for invoking the EMA, which was intended to be used as a last resort and initiated in consultation with the Provinces, is high. Among the many criteria required, invocation is only permitted if a legitimate threat to national security exists which cannot include advocacy, protest, or dissent. And use of the act must come under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It is increasingly becoming apparent that the government illegally invoked the EMA by failing to meet the criteria for its. First, the prime minister neglected to engage in even simple diplomatic dialogue, choosing instead to escalate the situation through rhetoric. Second, the Prime Minister did not have support from 7 out of 10 of the provinces at the time of invocation and Alberta has since sought to join a case contesting Ottawa's use of the Act as an intervenor. Third, the Act was used against Canadian citizens engaging in a court-ruled legal protest as per their charter protected rights under article 2 and 7. Even more concerning is the discovery that most of the allegations of foreign funding and violence used to justify the EMA were false. No firearms were found among the truckers, they were cleared of arson charges, and both GoFundMe and GiveSendGo executives have confirmed that the initiative was not foreign funded. In short, professor of law Bruce Pardy explains that invocation of the EMA was a premeditated abuse of a significant piece of legislation on the part of the Prime Minister intended to violently silence ideological dissent. In “The Catastrophe of Canada”, Rex Murphy and Jordan Peterson discuss how the government's response to truckers is more suited to an authoritarian state than a leading democracy. It would seem that the Liberals invocation of the EMA has further expanded the government's list of scandals.
A Constitutional Crisis
The honorable Brian Peckford is the last surviving architect of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - the highest law in Canada. When reflecting on the COVID-19 response he is shocked and dismayed at how easily all levels of government have intentionally violated Canadians rights in sections 2,6,7, and 15 of the Charter: rights to freedom of assembly, association, personal security, religion, conscience, expression, mobility, and equality before the law. He is particularly disturbed as section 1 of the charter which requires that any infringements must be demonstrably justified and yet none of the governments have even attempted to justify their COVID policies. Similar justifications must be made for the invocation of the Emergency Measure Act, however, instead of conducting an independent public inquiry, the investigation will be conducted behind closed doors by a Liberal-appointed judge with the expressed goal of justifying government actions and permitting future use. What is equally concerning is that the media and the courts seem to be complicit in these violations. From shamelessly parroting government propaganda and censoring the voices of Canadian over the last 2 years to inappropriately charging peace abiding citizens exercising their rights with mischief, assigning inordinate detentions without bail, requiring court mandated muzzling and sentencing to prolonged jail terms. It would seem that even the checks in our democracy are failing to protect those willing to stand against government overreach like Arthur Palowski and Tamara Lich.
Peckford describes a democracy as a fragile entity that must be continually guarded and protected. He challenges Canadians to stand together to defend their rights and those of their children by making their voices heard in the public square and challenging the government in the courts.
Our wise Prime Minister once said: "The measure of a society – a just society – is not whether we stand up for people’s rights when it is easy or popular to do so, but whether we recognize rights when it is difficult, when it is unpopular. When governments fail to respect people's rights, we all end up paying.". ~ Trudeau [2017] Although it may be tempting to quickly move on from the COVID-19 crisis, there is a need to learn from our mistakes, hold our leaders to account, and ensure that proper checks and balances are put in place so ensure that this response is never repeated. Please join the ranks of the generations of Canadians before us who have fought bravely for our rights and freedoms.
Get educated - Know your rights by becoming a student of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Tune in - Move on from legacy media and find independent media outlets committed to reporting the truth such as Epoch Times, True North, Bright Light News, and Rebel News.
Connect - Find other like-minded people by joining communities committed to restoring Canada such as CCCA and Freedom Rising
Advocate - Join protests, petition your members of parliament, and stand in solidarity for truth and integrity in Canada
Vote - Exercise your civic duty to elect responsible government
Pray - Reach out via e-mail to join our prayer group Monday mornings at 7 AM.
Let’s do our part to remain strong and free. Deanna and The COVID Sense Team