Suggestions for Submissions to the Legislative Committee on Bill 198 – Now Bill 87

Updated April 10, 2017

Bill 87 “An Act to implement health measures and measures relating to seniors by enacting, amending or repealing various statutes” includes the education sessions amendment to the Immunization of School Pupils Act.    This bill reached 1st reading on December 8, 2016.   2nd reading debate was on March 27, 2017.   2nd reading debate continued on April 3, 2017.   The bill passed 2nd reading on April 4, 2017, and has been sent to Committee.
The Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly has been assigned to this bill.  The committee stage is when amendments to the legislation are considered and the public can participate.
The Ontario Legislature website has details on Participation in Committees, including Appearing as a committee witness.   If you wish to speak before the Standing Committee on Legislative Assembly assigned to Bill 87 you must first register with the clerk of the committee:

Usually there is a 5 or 6 minute limit to speak when appearing before committee.  Presenters can then be questioned by the Committee.  Not everyone who applies to appear before the committee is guaranteed a chance to speak. Organizations and individuals selected to present before the committee will be contacted by the clerk of the committee.
Everyone can submit written material.
Submitting material to a committee – this webpage details how to submit written material to the committee
Suggestions from the ontla.on.ca website are as follows:
Content of Submissions
“Briefs should deal specifically with the subject matter which has been referred to the committee.
To ensure that submissions to the committee assist the members in obtaining a full understanding of the views put forward and of the recommendations made, the following points should be considered when preparing briefs:

• factual information should be included to substantiate the conclusions put forward, the views expressed and the claims made
• recommendations should be as specific as possible
• the brief should be prefaced with a summary of the main conclusions and recommendations
• brevity is recommended.”

Attending committee hearings – Committee hearing notices are posted on the legislature website if they are scheduled
Further information about the process is available here (PDF) How an Ontario Bill Becomes Law
 
Recommendations from Vaccine Choice Canada
Summary of Concerns – Bill 87 – Vaccine Choice Canada – submitted to the Committee May 3, 2017 (PDF)
Vaccine Choice Canada is of the opinion it would be more impactful for submission with regard to Bill 198 (now 87) to come from individual citizens rather than making reference to being a member of the VCC organization.
Recommendations regarding submissions:

1. Charter Rights: It is important to make the legislators aware that charter issues are at play here. This is our chance to speak to the infringement upon our Charter rights.

2. Financial: It is important to make the point that there are much better uses for our precious health care dollars then education sessions for the very few who chose to exercise their legal right to exemptions. It is their job to decide where best to distribute limited tax dollars. This is where they are most vulnerable to public criticism.

As to facts, people could address some of the following points regarding the education sessions:
1) Those who have made the effort to secure an exemption have done research and are already INFORMED.
2) Less than 2% of parents in Ontario exercise personal belief exemptions…therefore education sessions are a waste of precious taxpayer health care dollars
3) The education sessions are an infringement of their legal rights, their guaranteed charter freedom to conscience and religion and their guaranteed charter rights to security of the person and to equal protection under the law (i.e., education sessions discriminate against them for expressing their Charter guaranteed freedoms)
4) Ontario should abide by Provincial and Federal laws and international treaties.

Provincial regulations such as Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act  which stipulates “No treatment without consent” and lays out the elements of consent required for treatment:

• The consent must be informed
• The consent must be given voluntarily
• The consent must not be obtained through misrepresentation or fraud

Canadian Medical Law which enshrines the individual’s right to voluntary, informed consent to medical risk taking as a foundational medical ethic. Ref: Canadian Medical Law; An introduction for Physicians, Nurses and other Health Care Professionals, 4th Edition, by John C. Irvine, Philip H. Osborne, Mary Shariff

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms including the guaranteed freedoms of conscience and religion and the legal right to security of the person.

International Conventions to which Canada is signatory, including:

Nuremberg Code, and WMA Declaration of Helsinki which defends the basic human right to the Informed Consent ethic, and reject the moral argument that the creation of alleged benefits for the many (“herd immunity”) justifies the sacrifice of the few.

UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights; Article 6 – Consent:

“Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be expressed and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice.”

5) Factual accounts of what doctors, public health nurses and other medical authorities or vaccine administrators have said to them or their children in relation to personal belief exemptions, safety of vaccines and efficacy of vaccines.
6) Content of education sessions: Will they be honest and unbiased or contrived and coercive? Will they address:

a) all vaccines are different and safety and efficacy of each differ.

b) effects of vaccines on the developing immune systems and brains of babies

c) lack of proof of long term safety of vaccines

7) Education sessions are already available at any doctor’s office or health clinic. People can choose to make themselves available to these resources now.
8) Concern that the “education session” will use emotional coercion (shame and fear) rather than facts.
9) Sharing one’s own emotional responses to vaccine injuries of loved ones and friends is perfectly valid.

In Anticipation of Ontario’s Education Sessions

 by Ted Kuntz

The Ontario government is bringing forward legislation to require parents who consciously and legally chose not to vaccinate their children with one or more vaccines to participate in an “education session”. Below is a summary of what you can expect to hear and what you won’t hear.
What you can expect to hear

1. Vaccines are safe and effective.
2. The benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.
3. The science is settled.
4. It is irresponsible not to vaccinate.
5. It’s important to vaccinate to create ‘herd immunity’.
6. Those who don’t vaccinate are a risk to others.
7. Vaccines don’t cause autism.
8. Vaccines stopped infectious diseases like polio.
9. Disease rates in third world countries to justify vaccinating in Canada.
10. Parents can’t be trusted to make the best decision for their children’s health and well-being.

“Science cannot have an agenda, and it appears that this science does.”

~ Bruce Stillman, President of Cold Spring Harbor Lab

 
What You Won’t Hear

1. The protection offered by vaccines is temporary and wears off after a few months or years.
2. Not all vaccines are designed to prevent the transmission of disease. Some are only intended to mitigate the symptoms of getting the disease.
3. Herd immunity is a theoretical concept based on natural immunity.  There is no evidence herd immunity can be achieved with artificial immunization.
   
4. The impact of vaccinations in undermining natural herd immunity.
5. Clinical evidence of safety.
6. Clinical evidence of effectiveness.
7. Controlled, long term studies comparing the total health outcomes of a vaccinated population with an unvaccinated population.
8. The substantial body of evidence showing a relationship exists between vaccines and neuroimmune injuries that result in an autism diagnosis.
9. The risk the recently vaccinated pose to those with compromised immune systems due to viral shedding.
10. Influenza vaccines increase the risk of contracting pandemic strains of influenza.
11. The reduction in mortality from infectious diseases that occurred prior to the introduction of vaccines.
12. A black out exists in mainstream media to prevent discussion of concerns about vaccines safety and effectiveness.
13. The pharmaceutical industry is the largest lobby group in the world.
14. Canada is the only G7 country without a national, no fault vaccine injury compensation program.
15. There is no independent government oversight monitoring vaccine safety.
16. The low incidence of autism in non-vaccinated populations.
17. There is no legal requirement for health officials to report vaccine injury.
18. There is no comprehensive vaccine injury database in Canada that is available to the public.
19. Physicians receive no formal training on how to diagnose or treat vaccine injury.
20. Doctors, vaccine providers & vaccine manufacturers in the United States are exempt from legal liability for the safety of their products.

“Severe constraints are placed on the media in the name of ‘responsible journalism’ with the result that the American public very seldom hears both sides of the vaccination story, and comes to have an unquestioning faith in vaccinations as our greatest hope against future imagined disease plagues.

In this fear-based scenario, the questioning voice of reason is drowned out amid the hysteria surrounding the emerging ‘killer infections,’ which are such a favorite media topic.
The propagation of fear by the media and by its sources in the public health industry has resulted in a growth of power in this industry far beyond the usual checks and balances of our democracy.”

~   Dr. Philip F. Incao MD