Catherine Christensen
Day 1 · September 8, 2026 · 0:17:46
Key points Catherine Christensen, a barrister and solicitor at Valor Law in St. Albert, Alberta, testifies about Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans injured after COVID-19 vaccination. She explains that serving members cannot testify safely because public criticism of military policy risks disciplinary action, so she speaks on their behalf. She says the CAF is a young, healthy population with low COVID mortality but was mandated almost exclusively Moderna in October 2021 despite Nordic precautions for young males. She contrasts official figures of 27 serious adverse events with client reports of persistent cardiac, clotting, neurological, and other injuries that clinicians would not record as vaccine-related. She describes three cases, including an officer, a non-commissioned officer with severe blood clots, and a top athlete who had open-heart surgery, all released under mental health or generic categories. She says the Forces have refused or obstructed release of deceased members' medical files to executors, citing a widow treated as a murder suspect after her healthy husband's cardiac death. She asks the committee to examine reporting gaps, use of the electronic health record for safety signals, boards of inquiry, and access to compensation programs.
Speaker 1
0:02 So our next, I'll say witness, but we're going to have two witnesses share a space and you'll understand why that is very quickly. 0:12 So we're going to have Catherine Christensen and Michael McNair, and I'm going to swear Catherine in and say a little bit and then swear Mike in and then go back to Catherine. 0:24 There's a Canadian Armed Forces member in the audience that we cannot call as a witness. 0:31 And we cannot call because active members, unless they've been discharged for a period of time, can be court-martialed, to use the civilian terms, or actually sharing about being injured in the forces. 0:46 And we spoke to other Canadian Armed Forces members who couldn't testify for the same reason. 0:55 And then we've spoken to discharged Canadian Armed Forces members who 1:02 could testify without being court-martialed but they they couldn't testify because they wouldn't the experience would be too traumatizing for them um the most fragile group that we've run into in interviewing has been the canadian armed forces members and i know michael that this is difficult for you to be sitting here and we're very grateful to have you so what 1:31 Catherine, can I get you to grab that Bible in your right hand? 1:35 Catherine Christensen, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Speaker 1
1:43 So just to introduce Catherine Christensen, she is a barrister and solicitor and the principal of Valor Law in St. Albert, Alberta. 1:53 Her practice is devoted almost exclusively to 1:56 to the representation of Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, before a federal court for judicial reviews, and before the Military Police Complaints Commission. 2:12 So she is here to testify about the experiences of Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans who have suffered injuries following the COVID-19 vaccination and systemic issues 2:26 that have arisen in handling of those cases. 2:30 And then Michael, can I get you to take the Bible in your right hand? 2:37 Michael McNair, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Speaker 1
2:47 I will go into more detail after, you know, Catherine speaks, and then you 2:54 I'll have you speak and then have both of you answer questions. 2:58 But you were in the Canadian Armed Forces for 11 years and you were medically released in January of 2025. 3:07 And that's the reason you're able to speak today freely. Speaker 1
3:12 Yeah, okay. 3:14 So, Catherine, I'm just going to cut you loose because I know you've already decided what you want to say and even have a few slides if necessary. Speaker 2
3:25 Thank you. 3:27 Thank you, Mr. Begley. 3:28 Thank you, Mr. Allison, for holding this inquiry. 3:32 I saw the first announcement and at that point I signed up because I know that I can be a voice for Canadian Forces members and veterans when they can't be a voice for themselves. 3:44 The reason that they cannot testify if they are still serving is they are still under the Queen's regulations and orders and they're also under the National Defence Act. 3:55 Any public statements made by a Canadian Armed Forces member that can be seen as a criticism of the government or military policy, including vaccination requirements and consequences, risk being characterized as conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. 4:11 That can mean administrative action, career damage, and disciplinary proceedings, including court-martial. 4:20 Add in chain of command pressure and the fear of medical employment limitations and the result is quite simple. 4:27 Most serving members cannot safely describe what happened to them, and I'm here because they cannot be. 4:36 As you have said, my practice is mainly devoted to Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans. 4:44 The cases I will describe are drawn from that work, but I will not be naming any clients. 4:52 It's important for people to know the Canadian Armed Forces members are treated within a closed federal system, the Canadian Forces Health Services. 5:02 A complete medical record is opened on enrollment and kept throughout their service. 5:09 That Canadian Forces Health Information System is centralized and it can detect force-wide trends, injury rates, 5:17 cardiac events, and medical category changes from enrollment to release, and that file is usable across clinics, ships, and deployments. 5:28 Civilian Medicare cannot do that cleanly. 5:32 If post-vaccination injury clustered in the Canadian Armed Forces, the record should show it, but only if they were coded and analyzed. 5:44 This is a young, 5:45 screened generally healthy population. 5:48 The healthy soldier effect is real. 5:52 Members supported high-risk civilian settings in Operation Laser. 5:57 You will recall that they went into the nursing homes. 6:00 There were thousands of confirmed COVID-19 cases, yet the serving force mortality remained low. 6:08 To date, I am not aware of a single death from COVID-19 within a member of the Canadian Armed Forces during the pandemic. 6:18 Now hold that baseline in mind when you hear what followed the mass vaccination campaign and the mandate. 6:27 mRNA vaccines carry a documented risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, highest in young males after the second dose. 6:36 Nordic data from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway showed a higher excess rate risk with Moderna than with Pfizer in males aged 16 to 24. 6:50 In October of 2021, when General Wayne Ayer in 6:56 brought in a mandate in the Canadian Armed Forces. 6:58 Denmark had already paused Moderna under 18, Sweden for those under 30, and Finland limited it for younger males. 7:09 Those were precautionary decisions based on emerging safety signals, not on a theory. 7:17 The calf is predominantly young adults. 7:20 Large numbers of doses were given, but almost exclusively Moderna. 7:26 This is the same demographic that Nordic regulators were already treating with caution while the CAF mandate was being enforced. 7:36 Department of National Defence figures released in 2023 state that approximately 241,270 doses were administered. 7:52 346 adverse events were reported to CAF providers and 27 were classified as serious. 7:59 Most, we are told, were minor and self-resolving. 8:04 D&D has stated it has no record of members releasing specifically because of a vaccine injury. 8:12 That's not what I see. 8:15 Clients report serious, persistent cardiac injury, clotting, neurological symptoms, reproductive disruption, digestive tract illness, autoimmune presentations, and fatigue syndromes they attribute to vaccination. 8:33 Many described that clinicians would not record a vaccine association. 8:38 They had difficulty obtaining a CF-98, which is the form that should be filled out for any type of injury in the calf. 8:45 that attributes that condition to a vaccine and release processes framed as mental health or a generic medical unfitness rather than a vaccine injury. 8:58 Official counts depend on reporting to a CAF provider and on how that report is later classified. 9:06 Underreporting is a recognized pattern when symptoms are novel or delayed or when a member reasonably fears that speaking will end a career. 9:16 I'm going to give you three short patterns. 9:22 They're not isolated, and I've seen them in non-commissioned members, non-commissioned officers, and in officers. 9:30 First, an officer previously well, and in fact, was above the requirement for fitness in the armed forces, developed myocarditis symptoms after the first Pfizer injection. 9:44 The MIR or medical unit downplayed them. 9:47 The second injection was mandatory. 9:50 His symptoms worsened. 9:52 A cluster of other conditions that did not exist before the vaccine followed. 9:57 It took two and a half years to obtain a proper diagnosis the injury was caused by an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. 10:06 The medical paperwork required years of fighting the CAF system so that he would even have a chance at a Veterans Affairs claim. 10:15 He is now being medically released for mental health, not for vaccine injury. 10:22 Second, a fully healthy non-commissioned officer developed a severe headache immediately after his first Moderna dose and spent 14 days in a dark room. 10:34 He pleaded not to take the second injection. 10:38 He was ordered to take it or be released under a less than honourable category. 10:44 After the second dose, the headache returned. 10:48 He tried to work, collapsed in the snow when he went to start his car unconscious, woke up and managed to crawl back into his house and call 911. 10:59 His lungs were so full of blood clots that his oxygen saturation was under 30% and the emergency physicians treating him could not explain how he managed to survive it. 11:10 He's now being released because he's on permanent blood thinners and the headaches are unmanageable. 11:16 His release condition on his medical record is mental health. 11:22 Third, a top Canadian Armed Forces athlete with years of service left had two Moderna injections and that has left him with an incapacitating cardiac injury. 11:35 He underwent open heart surgery at a major cardiac hospital 11:40 and he barely survived it. 11:42 He was released on a medical category with no recognition of the cause. 11:48 While he was in ICU, his chain of command, he was still serving, his chain of command did not acknowledge that he was even in the hospital. 11:57 The moral injury, the belief that the institution would take care of him if he was badly hurt in service, and then the experience of being left has been as destructive as a physical injury. 12:10 He wanted to sit where I am sitting. 12:13 The psychological injury made that impossible. 12:17 A soldier who would have had no difficulty facing anything on the battlefield has been made into a crippled old man before his time. 12:27 Across other files, I see new onset neurological symptoms, severe fatigue, reproductive health disruption, and persistent digestive tract illnesses after vaccination, all with the same documentation fight. 12:41 Boards of inquiry were requested after sudden cardiac events or death, which would have been the normal course of action by the Canadian Armed Forces under those circumstances, have been limited, delayed, or medically contested. 12:56 Injuries are being absorbed into medical category changes and quiet releases rather than named. 13:09 The pattern doesn't stop at the living. 13:12 In multiple cases involving Canadian Armed Forces members who died between 2021 and 2024, the Forces and the Department have refused or obstructed release of the deceased member's complete medical file to the executor. 13:28 Even where the executor is the legal personal representative and needs that record for cause of death, 13:35 to make a vaccine impact assistance program claim, Veterans Affairs benefits, or to support a board of inquiry. 13:43 The Privacy Act permits that disclosure to a lawful representative. 13:47 It says it is still being refused. 13:50 One file makes that cost of refusal concrete. 13:54 A healthy soldier in his mid-30s deadlifted 600 pounds at the gym. 13:59 Two days later, his wife woke up to him cold beside her. 14:04 The autopsy showed cardiac death. 14:08 Before the cause of death was known, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service treated the widow as a murder suspect. 14:16 When the medical cause was established, that accusation fell away. 14:21 What did not fall away was the institution's refusal to release his medical file to the widow or counsel, despite the Privacy Act allowing it. 14:30 She was first made a suspect in her husband's death 14:33 She was then denied the one record that would let her understand what his heart was doing in the days and weeks before he died, including any temporal relationship to vaccination. 14:43 An executor in civilian life can ordinarily obtain a deceased medical file. 14:50 These families cannot. 14:52 The primary evidence sits with the Canadian Forces Health Information Service and is being kept away from the people that the law says can have it. 15:06 The Vaccine Injury Support Program, now the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program, is the no-fault scheme with a three-year window for vaccination, injury, or death. 15:16 Many members were not even told it existed until the window was closing or closed. 15:24 Veterans Affairs claims for vaccine-related conditions are frequently denied or recoded as unrelated to service. 15:32 even though the shot was mandated in the course of duty. 15:38 So there's two closed doors to any type of compensation. 15:41 The CAF will not attribute the injury, and the VIAP then treat the silence as proof that nothing service-related occurred. 15:54 These members complied. 15:56 They trusted the chain of command. 15:58 They accepted a mandated medical intervention on the understanding 16:02 that if they were injured, the institution that ordered it would recognize the injury and the care for them and their families. 16:12 That promise was not kept. 16:14 The physical injury is one wound. 16:17 The moral injury is another. 16:19 The experience of being discarded by the system they served. 16:24 Hierarchy and a culture of obedience make it costly to report a problem that might look like a challenge to their policy. 16:32 Medical employment limitations and medical release can swallow that injury without ever having to name the cause. 16:38 The same centralized record system that should have produced a transparent force-wide analysis of post-vaccination cardiac events, clotting, neurological presentations, reproductive and gastrointestinal illness, and category changes has not, in the experience of my clients, produced that accounting. 16:58 Serving members who have been injured cannot safely speak for themselves. 17:02 I asked this committee to examine four things. 17:10 First, the gap between the official adverse event accounts and the member experience. 17:16 Second, whether the electronic health record has been used or not used to detect safety signals. 17:22 Third, handling of boards of inquiry and obstruction of a state access to complete medical records. 17:29 And fourth, access to the Vaccine Impact Assistance Program and to Veterans Affairs benefits for those injured while serving under a mandate. 17:39 That is the examinations these members cannot demand in their own name. 17:44 Thank you.