By Heather Fraser
In 2019, the denigration and violence in the mainstream media against voices for vaccine choice became acute. And when the brutal attacks didn’t deter the VaxWoke, governments moved to restrict and remove rights. It is a playbook that was used over and over in New Brunswick, BC, Nova Scotia and Ontario. By the end of the year, however, a massive show of strength by parents for medical freedom gave politicians a genuine scare.
4 Billboards in Ontario
2019 started with a roar when in February, VCC launched a media campaign with four digital billboards that appeared across the greater Toronto area. The images and messages of support for choice were to be displayed in 50 locations, 2 million times over two weeks. After just 5 days, however, they were taken down when news of the campaign hit the Globe & Mail.
The media began public shaming the vaccine hesitant[1] and posted the home address of the VCC president. Reporters dehumanized the “anti-vaxxers” whose “critically dangerous stories” of vaccine injury were countered with stories of certain death if you did not comply with government. The Globe and Mail insisted that one in every 3,000 people with measles will die from complications[2] but failed to remind readers of the role of vitamins A and C in recovery. They dismissed the very real and documented history of vaccine injury in Ontario.[3]
At the time, 22 cases of measles had been reported in Canada. There were more cases of measles in 2019 as there are every year. In 2013, 83 cases were reported; in 2014, 418 cases; and in 2015, 196 cases; in 2019, 113 cases. No deaths have been reported and recoveries were of no interest to the media. Their job is not to assuage, it is to terrify and manipulate.
A Flood of Mainstream Media Attacks
The attacks continued in the Globe & Mail with reporter Carly Weeks singling out the Total Health Show in Toronto where VCC was to have a booth and Del Bigtree was scheduled to speak. Spilling onto Twitter, Weeks raged at “anti-vaccine activists” who tell others about vaccination risks. In her February 6 article, she implied that only medical professionals are qualified to speak about vaccination.[4] In other words: you will be vaccinated and have no right to voice an opinion about it.
The Ugliest Attack
The National Post may win the prize for the ugliest op ed disguised as coverage. Writer Sharon Kirkey’s March 15 piece[5] reported that Ontario’s vax legislation had failed to convert hesitant parents. She quoted a University of Alberta professor of pharmacy and law, Ubaka Ogbogu, who had a way to get around parents who dare to delay or choose a different vaccination schedule:
If a parent fails to [vaccinate the child as early as possible], he says, temporary guardianship could be awarded to a non-objecting family member or to child welfare authorities until the child can be vaccinated and returned home… “Imagine if all the money wasted on this education program in Ontario was used to enforce a mandatory policy?”
Also paraphrased was the professor’s colleague Joan Robinson who offered logistics on restraining parents and seizing infants: “About 0.5 per cent of parents in the province are firmly anti-immunization, she writes, and there are 50,000 births each year; that would mean 250 babies would need apprehension, likely not just for their first shot but all five necessary for full inoculation.”
British Columbia: new regulations but exemptions are available
In BC, the media turned to the story of a Vancouver mother Katie Clunn who compared unvaccinated children to drunk drivers: “You would call out somebody who’s about to get into a car while drunk. Why wouldn’t you call out somebody who’s choosing to spread disease? I’m not saying the same thing about people who are medically exempt, but those who are choosing to ignore the science.”[6]
Parents of vaccine injured children do better research than any doctor I know. We know the science… and the math. With some quick calculations we can say that, at best, less than 67% of Canadians might have antibodies to measles either from natural infection (born before 1975) or vaccination.[7] 33% of Canadians – primarily adults between age 30 and 45 – may have none. Ms. Clunn who appears to be between 30 and 45 could be one of the 33% without any antibodies to measles. By her own (il)logic, is she spreading disease?
True to the playbook, the media heaped pressure on the BC government that began restricting rights. The government amended the public health Act inserting new regulations that includes a vaccine education class for parent and child. **NOTE: exemption forms are available: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/forms/2369fil.pdf
New Brunswick: legislation backfires
In May, New Brunswick’s Education Minister Dominic Cardy tabled amendments to the Education Act and the Public Health Act (Bill 39). The amendments would remove all non-medical exemptions and give school superintendents the power to refuse admission to non-compliant students. In other words, Cardy planned to withhold the right to public education from children who are not compliant with the government vaccination schedule.[8] The government takes zero responsibility for vaccine injury.
On June 11 during second reading, Minister Cardy defended snatching rights from children in a soliloquy worthy of a tent evangelist:
Two hundred-plus years ago, when the first inoculations against polio were discovered, they were described by some members of the constitutional conventions that were in the process of forming the republic of the United States of America as being miracles bestowed upon our species by Providence and a Divine Creator showing his blessing for that project.[9]
Conjuring a fiction about the history of the polio vaccine, the minister states it was created in the 18th century. He then cites the irrelevant views of the authors of the 1787 US constitution and even manages to imply that God is pro-vaccine.
Ensuing protests against the bill led to a three day hearing in late August during which parents, doctors and constitutional lawyer James Kitchen testified. Mr. Kitchen’s brief is a must read. He explains how this bill proposes “an egregious intrusion on the bodily autonomy, security and liberty of parents and children.”[10] VCC President Ted Kuntz scared the daylights out of the NB MLAs when he guaranteed that if they passed this bill, VCC would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The bill was redrafted in the fall as Bill 11. This time to prevent a legal challenge Cardy inserted the rarely invoked notwithstanding clause. This was a fatal move for the minister – in attempting to stop citizens from exercising democratic freedom to criticize government he had crossed the line. He deeply offended many of his fellow MLAs including Canadian hero Kevin Vickers who posted this to FB on Nov. 24:
Minister Cardy has taken an extraordinary step with his new Bill on mandatory vaccination. By including the notwithstanding clause which allows a government to override fundamental individual rights, he has caused alarm among our provincial MLA’s, law experts, and national media. The Minister’s language continues to threaten and demean citizens who challenge his views.
Nova Scotia
In October, NS PC leader Tim Houston tabled Bill 210, an amendment to the NS Health Protection Act to eliminate non-medical exemptions for school and pre-school. The house will resume later this month. If you are in Nova Scotia MAKE SOME NOISE: Find your MLA here: https://nslegislature.ca/members/profiles
Ontario
In April, parents gave deputations in response to the Toronto Medical Officer of Health who sought to restrict or eliminate information about adverse events following vaccination or inefficacy of vaccines. The heroic and ever articulate Joel Sussman gave a well researched presentation on the reality of vaccine injury. His passionate speech went viral: https://vimeo.com/showcase/5902976/video/329323061
Inured to the truth of vaccine injury, the Toronto Board of Health blithely informed parents in June that they would be vaccinating children 14 years and older without parental knowledge or consent.[11] At the same time, they launched a social media and poster campaign aimed at elementary school children too young to comprehend the risks of vaccination. In chasing the temporary suppression of mild illnesses, we have engendered epidemics of life long and devastating illnesses in our children:
The vaccinated were less likely than the unvaccinated to have been diagnosed with chickenpox and pertussis, but more likely to have been diagnosed with pneumonia, otitis media, allergies and NDD. (ASD, ADHD) A.R. Mawson, 2017
The Toronto Board of Health also sent a proposal to the province lobbying for mandatory vaccination – but the Ford government has shown no interest in reopening the discussion.
A Turning Point
October was a turning point in the battle for medical freedom when woke parents and VCC held a rally and news conference led by counsel Rocco Galati: Vaccine Choice Canada and five Moms of children enrolled in the Ontario school system, launched a legal action against the government of Ontario challenging the constitutional validity of the Immunization of School Pupils Act. This compulsory vaccine regime interferes with the rights to freedom of conscience, belief, religion and thought.
It is perhaps telling that although the media – CBC, Global, CityTV – showed up that bright morning, they appear to have been stunned by this show of strength. A straightforward telling of the action appeared in the National Post that was shared briefly on major networks online.[12] Subsequent spurts of weak argument emerged but there has been no direct attack on the substance of the legal action.
Tip of the VaxWoke Iceberg
Upwards of 500 parents, mothers with small children, fathers and grandparents – the tip of an iceberg – attended the October announcement in Toronto to demand medical freedom, vaccine choice.
When you think about it, this passionate group actually represents the choice of millions of Canadians.
According a Government of Ontario CCDR 2016 article, 19% of Canadians or 7 million are “vaccine hesitant”[13] meaning they want vaccine choice. A 2015 Angus Reid poll suggested 40% or 14 million “don’t trust the science” behind vaccines. In other words, people prefer to do their own research and make their own decisions. In fact, I would wager that all Canadians would object to the summary removal of their right to refuse a medical procedure, if asked.
What’s next?
2019 pushed the idea of mandatory vaccination into the open and in response the majority of politicians have said no, so far. There is a general distaste for the wholesale removal of our right to refuse a medical procedure, although… this could change. And so, we look forward to the legal challenge in Ontario and we will continue to work to preserve medical freedom in Canada.
[1] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/public-editor/article-no-need-to-offer-false-balance-to-anti-vaxxers/
[2] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-anti-vaccine-group-launches-billboard-campaign-in-toronto-and/
[3] https://vaccinechoicecanada.com/?s=heather+fraser+jack+pierce
[4] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-toronto-conference-to-feature-prominent-anti-vaccine-activist-del/
[5] https://nationalpost.com/news/ontarios-mandatory-class-for-parents-seeking-vaccine-exemptions-has-zero-conversions
[6] https://www.abbynews.com/news/names-keep-adding-to-vaccine-petition/
[7] There are 37 Million people in Canada with about 16.1 or 43% born before 1975, the year the measles vaccine was introduced. In 2015, Health Canada estimated that 89% of children by age two had received one dose of MMR. By age 7 and again by 17, about 84% and 86% of them had received a second and booster dose – and this effect wanes within about 10 years in those for whom it “took”. Presuming it “took” in all, there are about 12 million people currently between about 30 and 45 who will have lost immunity to measles. That is 33% of the population. Some figures: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/aspc-phac/HP40-156-2017-eng.pdf
[8] https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/h-s/pdf/en/CDC/Immunization/RoutineImmunizationSchedule.pdf
[9] I contacted the NB legislature’s library and asked for all mention of vaccination in the Hansard. a record of everything said in legislature. Mention goes back to the 1930s. They emailed the many documents.
[10] https://vaccinechoicecanada.com/exemptions/new-brunswick-mandatory-vaccine-bill-39-legal-opinion/
[11] https://www.tdsb.on.ca/portals/0/docs/Toronto-PublicHealth-Vaccination-Letter.pdf
[12] https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/group-that-includes-5-moms-challenging-ontarios-vaccination-child-law
[13] https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/migration/phac-aspc/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/16vol42/dr-rm42-12/assets/pdf/16vol42_12-ar-02-eng.pdf