Thor Hart
Day 2 · September 9, 2026 · 0:24:20
Key points Thor Hart, 55, a father of four and group leader at General Motors, was a dedicated bodybuilder and longtime Kung Fu practitioner training for a strongman competition. He says he was hesitant to vaccinate but got two Pfizer doses in November 2021 after GM threatened termination. He describes escalating pain after the second dose until, on the third day, he could not stand and had to crawl to the bathroom. He says an ER doctor recorded an adverse drug reaction and told him he now had arthritis, while another later said his blood work showed his muscles breaking down. He recounts being diagnosed with vaccine injury but dropped by his doctor, denied treatment at a vaccine injury clinic, and told causation was beyond specialists' scope. He is now permanently disabled with mobility issues, wears a brace, uses a cane, and endures recurring flare-ups of severe swelling and pain. He describes being labeled an anti-vaxxer and 'Trump supporter' despite being fully vaccinated, and says an MP's online posts about vaccine hesitancy re-traumatize him.
Speaker 3
0:01 Sorry, our next witness is Thor Hart. 0:04 Thor, will you take the, can somebody hand him the Bible? 0:11 Thor, will you take the Bible in your right hand? Speaker 4
0:14 Yes, can you hear me? Speaker 3
0:16 Yes, I can hear you. 0:17 So Thor Hart, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Speaker 3
0:27 I interviewed you before and you made it clear to me that you didn't have COVID. 0:31 So when you describe getting injured, I think that's important for people to know. 0:36 I just want to introduce you. 0:40 So you're 55 years old. 0:42 Yes. 0:42 And you have four children. 0:44 You were a group leader at General Motors. 0:46 Yes. 0:48 And prior to being vaccinated, 0:52 You were a physically active bodybuilder. 0:55 You shared you actually went to the gym five days a week. 0:58 Yes. 0:58 Like you were committed. 1:01 You had done Kung Fu since you were 14 and you were still doing it weekly. 1:05 So you're very senior in that discipline. 1:09 You had no prior health issues. 1:11 And in fact, you were training to be in a strongman competition. 1:15 Yes. 1:16 So I just share that so that everyone understands that you were an incredibly fit and active Speaker 4
1:22 man before the vaccination yes actually um just a couple weeks before i was vaccinated i was actually just starting to train both of my sons in the gym and it was actually kind of funny because the gym i was in i wasn't sure if they had heavy enough weights for me um i was lifting 150 pound dumbbells doing reps of 10 to 12 with them for incline bench press like four or five plates aside for squatting um 1:49 Yeah, my sons were impressed. 1:50 I was trying to get my sons and this is the experience that I wanted to pass on to my family. 1:57 And in fact, I have two daughters and they were excited at the time and they were thinking, okay, when can dad come train us in the gym as well? 2:05 And I was also training them in martial arts at home. 2:10 And then the vaccine happened. 2:12 And what happened there was 2:14 um i was hesitant to take it only because i was watching what was going on and everything just seemed to be so politicized and you couldn't ask any questions about it so me being health conscious i want to know whatever i'm putting in my body whether it be nutrition whatever especially if i'm going to inject something i just want to ask questions about it 2:39 The fact that everything was sort of, no, no, no, no, you can't talk about this. 2:42 You can't ask questions about this. 2:44 That actually made me hesitant to want to take it. 2:49 Up until General Motors sent me a letter saying, get vaccinated or you will be terminated. 2:56 At that point there, I had until December 12th, 2021, that was the date they gave me to be vaccinated by. 3:04 Um, so I, in November I had, I went for my first Pfizer vaccine and, um, I had the usual reaction. 3:14 It was an immediate reaction of a couple of days where I had body aches, um, that it wasn't accustomed to, but they did go away. 3:22 So I sort of counted myself lucky and thought, okay, well maybe there was nothing to fear here. 3:26 I have no issues. 3:28 Came up time to, I think it was November 25th. 3:30 I was going for my second dose of Pfizer. 3:35 And I received that and immediately it was the same, but it was a lot stronger, a lot stronger. 3:43 And so I sort of mentally wrote that off as, well, it's the second dose compounded. 3:49 Maybe that's it. 3:49 I'll just, this is just the, it'll be like the first time it'll go away, but it didn't. 3:54 It kept building and building. 3:56 And it was on the third day of slowly building. 4:01 I went to get up out of bed and I couldn't stand. 4:05 My whole body, I just, it ached. 4:08 It was like glass in all of my joints. 4:13 I've never felt that kind of pain in my life. 4:17 I couldn't stand. 4:19 And I remember I was talking to my wife going, something's not right. 4:23 I don't know what's going on here. 4:24 I need to go to the hospital. 4:26 Because again, 4:28 It was just a couple, like earlier, I'm training my sons, I'm going to the gym, I'm on the treadmill doing, and now I can't stand. 4:36 Within days. 4:37 Within, it was on the third day. Speaker 3
4:40 And my understanding is this day where you wake up and it's too painful to walk. 4:46 You literally had to crawl to the bathroom. Speaker 4
4:48 I had to crawl to the bathroom. 4:50 And during my time afterwards, there were some times where the timing was not, 4:58 made, which was not an experience I'd like to have. 5:02 And to go from fully active to having to crawl to the bathroom, that takes a toll. 5:11 I got into the hospital. 5:13 I'm sitting in the emergency. 5:15 And I remember the doctor, I'm explaining what's going on. 5:19 I'm saying, I just had the vaccine. 5:20 And they wrote down adverse drug reaction. 5:23 They knew what it was. 5:25 And 5:26 They're telling me, well, don't worry, it'll pass within a week. 5:30 And they told me to take some arthritis medications. 5:34 And I remember I looked at the emergency doctor and said, but I don't have arthritis. 5:40 And this is the part that shocked me because I'm confused. 5:44 I'm waking up in a new body. 5:47 And I remember they looked at me and kind of chuckled and said, you do now. 5:53 And that shocked me. 5:56 So I remember I went over that with my wife and I was like, what do they mean I do now? 6:04 This was not, I was always told safe and effective. 6:08 Everything is good. 6:10 Now I have arthritis. Speaker 3
6:11 This was not communicated to me. 6:13 And this is within four days. 6:15 Within the third day. 6:16 So within three days of the shot, you went from, you know, lifting 180 pound dumbbells in the, you know, that's one hand. 6:25 Yeah. 6:26 In the gym to have to crawl to the bathroom. Speaker 4
6:29 All of a sudden, I can't walk. Speaker 3
6:31 And you're being told that you now have arthritis. 6:34 So within three days, you are now arthritic. Speaker 4
6:37 Yes. 6:39 Sorry for interrupting. 6:40 Yeah, no, no. 6:41 And that was the hardest part to deal with. 6:43 So I took a couple days off work. 6:46 And again, I started just working on over-the-counter pain medication. 6:50 I was taking, I think it was Aleve and other things just to try and deal with the pain. 6:56 and it was the week afterwards. 6:58 I went back to work on Wednesday, and I was trying everything from different insoles because I could barely walk, and I was shuffling, and because I'm a group leader, I self-accommodated at my desk a lot trying to do that, and I remember on the Friday, I had a co-worker helping me out of the building, and I was shuffling, and I just thought, I don't know what's going on. 7:21 I'll try a foot bath. 7:22 I'm going to have to work with my wife and 7:25 It was that night, everything swelled up on my right leg, my left leg, and it woke me up in the middle of the night with such pain. 7:37 Again, I didn't understand what was going on with my body. 7:42 I had to go to the hospital, and luckily for me there, they gave me a shot of Toradol, and the emergency doctor there was actually one of the 7:55 The good ones. 7:56 He explained to me, he said, it's right there in your blood test. 7:59 It's breaking down your muscles. 8:01 You need to have your doctor sent to the adverse, I think the vaccine injury clinic or something, which was down in Hamilton at the time. Speaker 3
8:09 Right. 8:09 Like this CR doctor actually tells you it's an extreme vaccine reaction. 8:13 Yes. 8:13 And wants you to be referred to a clinic for vaccine injury. 8:16 Yes. 8:18 And... 8:19 So explain to your muscles actually getting broken down. Speaker 4
8:22 Yes. 8:22 And that's what's going on. 8:23 He said he saw it right there and he did explain to me. 8:28 He was kind enough to say that I will encounter a lot of doctors who will be reluctant to want to address this. 8:40 So this is where he just said, he didn't know who my family doctor was. 8:44 He said, so in case your doctors, you need to push, you need to go to the vaccine injury clinic. 8:51 So unfortunately with my doctor at the time, they did diagnose vaccine injury. 8:57 I had to go on disability leave short term. 9:01 From there, it was, again, reluctant to get me into the vaccine injury clinic. 9:06 I had to sort of fight for that. 9:09 And at the point where I believe it was in January, my doctor just said that because I'm a manager, a supervisor group leader at General Motors, I can self-modulate. 9:20 Even though I'm still injured, I can go back to work. 9:24 So I did. 9:25 And I went back to work and I remember being seen by the health nurse there. 9:30 And I told them, I'm still at risk of having heart attack. 9:34 And in fact, sorry, I'm going to back up one bit. 9:36 While I was in my doctor's, 9:38 office being checked out, she had to send me to St. Joseph's hospital emergency because right in the middle of talking with her, for whatever reason, I guess she saw my face was flushed or something. 9:48 So she took my blood pressure. 9:50 I don't know what it was, but whatever it was, she called St. Joseph's and said, if I, my wife couldn't get me there, she'd send an ambulance because my heart, my blood pressure had gone up so far. 10:00 She thought I was having a heart attack in her office. 10:04 So that never fixed itself either. 10:07 But she said, because I'm 10:09 a non-physical job, I can go back and self-accommodate. 10:13 So I went back in and did so. 10:16 And then shortly afterwards, I was dropped as a patient for being out of area. 10:23 So I was left with the hospital as being my only recourse of treatment during while waiting for the vaccine injury. 10:34 I didn't go to the vaccine injury because when I spoke to the person there to make the appointment, I was hoping to get some treatment. 10:43 And they informed me that, no, they just wanted to find out what was going on with me. 10:48 So I felt like, okay, so you want me to help you? 10:50 I'm going to be your guinea pig. 10:52 I need help. 10:54 And they said, no, that's what your family doctor's for, who had just dropped me as an out of, so I had no family doctor. 11:02 And the hospital got to the point where I'd been in and out of there over the year until I finally got a real good family doctor. 11:10 They just kept feeling sorry for me. 11:12 I became a regular patient there to come in, get to it all. 11:15 And as they said, they weren't able to treat me. 11:17 I needed to go see specialists, which they couldn't do. 11:21 But what they could do is sort of patch me together, give me painkillers and sort of let me hobble along until I can get the proper treatment. 11:29 And I had to go through that for over a year. 11:32 Um, finally I did reach a good doctor who actually got me the right treatment, uh, or at least trying to, but even in that case there, I'm, I'm, I'm going to hesitate on naming names here because some of them, I think I was going to say, because some of them were really good. 11:52 And, um, again, um, they, they openly said to me that they were afraid that they would lose their license because 12:02 by openly putting their treatment down on paper. 12:05 And for that, I don't want any doctor to lose their license over me. 12:09 I just want help. 12:11 And I do remember one specialist I went to see where they had, I guess, a student doctor they were training and they were in the office treating me and they really wanted to help me. 12:24 I really felt hope for a moment. 12:26 And I just remember the specialist pulled them outside the office, but I could still hear them. 12:31 And they warned the students, no, don't go there. 12:36 This is beyond our scope. 12:39 We don't go near the causation. 12:42 And then that's when they came back in and they told me anything to do with essentially the vaccine injury, the causation is beyond their scope. 12:54 They will just treat the symptoms. Speaker 3
12:57 I'm just going to focus you a little bit. 12:59 Yeah. 13:00 you are permanently disabled. Speaker 4
13:03 Yes, I have mobility issues. 13:06 And during that time, I tried to go back for accommodation and General Motors cited a no cane policy and they refused to accommodate me. 13:17 So they forced me on to LTD. Speaker 3
13:20 Which is long-term disability. 13:21 Yes. 13:22 So you wear an e-brace. 13:24 Yes. 13:25 And you can go 10 minutes with a cane. 13:27 Five, 10 minutes, yeah. 13:29 It's perfect. Speaker 4
13:30 I have blood staining on this knee from the swelling. 13:34 I don't know the medical term for it. 13:37 I'm sure there's a doctor that's going to know what it is. 13:40 And this one here is just permanently swollen. 13:43 And the flare-ups, I kind of jokingly call it a roadshow of pain through my body, through my shoulders, my hips, my knees, my feet. 13:52 And when the flare-ups start, again, I can't walk. Speaker 3
13:58 How are you doing to date? Speaker 4
14:00 I'm in a bit of pain. 14:02 I'm in pain. 14:03 As soon as we're done here, I'm going to have to take some painkillers. Speaker 3
14:08 And yesterday you were trying to watch, but you had to go home and back to the hotel and lay down. 14:13 Yeah. 14:14 So just daily activities, like even coming to watch the proceedings can tire you out. 14:20 We're going to pull up a couple of photos. Speaker 3
14:23 So if we can do that. 14:24 So this is you before vaccination. Speaker 4
14:27 Yes, that's the year before I was holding my wife. Speaker 3
14:30 Yeah, basically holding your wife. 14:33 So, which just demonstrates, you know, physically fit, definitely not walking with a cane or having any difficulties at all. 14:41 And if we can show the next one, which is actually about swelling. 14:44 And I just, you know, you were describing swelling feet, but I think a photo... 14:49 speaks really loudly. 14:50 So this is what you were experiencing and still experience. 14:54 Yes, that's days after. Speaker 4
14:56 And that's what I still experience when the flare up. 14:58 And that's, again, they've tested me for blood clots and it's really almost, they just say, well, we don't know. 15:06 We'll give you some more painkillers and keep you on your way. Speaker 3
15:14 When we were, when I was interviewing you, 15:18 I don't even remember when that was, but you had said a couple of things that was interesting. 15:22 I want to kind of go there. 15:24 We were talking about, you know, how this has affected you mentally and you were talking about, and we'll get there, but you said a comment. 15:32 There was one fellow that was active online, an MP, Doug E. Olofsson, and you said he re-traumatizes you. 15:41 He does. 15:42 And can you explain that and explain the mental journey? Speaker 4
15:46 Well, I read his posts and I'm sorry, I've reached out to him. 15:50 I've called his office. 15:51 I've sent him emails. 15:54 I've tried to contact him on chat. 15:57 I've reached out because his post will say from... 16:03 Because they used to track vaccine injured on the Canadian website. 16:08 And he'll say there are this many vaccine injured, but then pivots directly towards vaccine hesitancy. 16:16 And I take it as he's essentially gaslighting the issue where if we don't talk about it, it's more important to bury the injured. 16:25 and fight vaccine hesitancy, as it put. 16:29 So I've responded to his post several times trying to say, okay, I actually said it'd be wonderful if he showed up here. 16:38 He could lend his medical knowledge to say, okay, let's fix this system that left us sort of forgotten, if you will, and not treated. 16:50 And again, it's gone with silence. 16:51 And in fact, one 16:54 one person, I don't know who they were. 16:56 Cause again, I can't, you can't verify who's online talking to you. 17:01 And they said to me that he is a compassionate doc. 17:04 Cause I, my, my said was what I said to them was for a doctor, he seems very doing it. 17:08 And I, I wasn't where I'm not. Speaker 3
17:10 No, I'm sorry. 17:12 It intrigued me that even somebody questioning people coming here and testifying would, that's what I was curious about would, would trigger you. 17:23 So what, 17:24 What has been the mental journey and what has been the experience like dealing with the medical system? Speaker 4
17:30 That there, the gaslighting that I've received from medical, this is where it gets hard because it's in my medical records. 17:40 It's vaccine injured. 17:43 But again, most of the medical system that I've encountered is 17:47 they refuse to look at that and they say, well, it must be I'm diabetic. 17:52 It must be something else. 17:53 It must be. 17:54 And they run through the whole gamut of things that it could be. 17:57 And I have to almost fight with them to say, read my charts. 18:02 And when they do read the charts, come back in, they treat me like I've done something wrong. 18:09 And I've been labeled as anti-vaxxer. 18:13 At one point, I remember outside the room, this person, 18:17 boggled my mind when they called me, I heard Trump supporter. 18:23 And I remember I'm with my wife and I'm thinking, what does that have to do with my injury? 18:29 I don't understand how that factors in. 18:32 And then the anti-vax label, I don't understand. 18:36 Like I'm trying to be non-emotional and I'm thinking they have my medical records there. 18:41 They can see I'm fully vaccinated. 18:44 And to be vaccine injured, I must have taken the vaccine. 18:48 So where does anti, and this is where I was just, I'm in so much pain. 18:53 I'm writhing. 18:54 I just want help. 18:56 And when you're getting that kind of reaction from, I call it like the doctors that I'm reaching out to help for, it's just, it feels surreal. 19:07 It's almost like a twilight zone experience because this, the hospital, my doctors, that's where you go when you're sick. 19:15 That's where you go when you're injured. 19:16 So to have this kind of 180 where I'm encountering this, I never experienced that before in my life. 19:28 Thank you very much for being here. 19:31 Can I say one just, I just want to say, and thank you, Sean, and thank you, Dean Allison. 19:37 I really never thought this was going to happen. 19:40 I really thought I'd be forgotten. 19:44 That was my experience for the last several years. 19:47 So as much as it hurts me to be here, I felt I had to because what yous are doing, I just want to say thank you. 19:57 And if I can, if me being here does anything, I don't care what I'm feeling, the pain, I have to do my part as well. 20:04 So thank you. Speaker 3
20:07 Well, Thor, I want to thank you for coming and sharing your story because I know it's at a cost and, uh, 20:13 what you've said to us, I hope will change the world because the world's watching these proceedings. 20:19 It's quite shocking how it's, I think we were number seven worldwide now. 20:24 So you are being heard today and we're just honored to hear you in person here. 20:32 Thank you. Speaker 1
20:33 Before I turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Dawson, you know, part of the reason we're doing this is that we want to have a public discussion, right? 20:40 It's crazy that as MPs and a number of my colleagues have heard from people on a multiple level, and we can have these conversations privately, but for some crazy reason, we can't talk publicly about it. Speaker 1
20:51 And we've got to be able to break that stigma down. 20:54 We've got to give people permission to tell their stories publicly. 20:59 Because if we don't start a discussion, if we don't have conversations, we don't encourage discussion. 21:02 other brave doctors to come forward and share those. 21:06 And you can imagine if we had a whole bunch of docs that showed up at the same time saying, we got to address these issues. 21:11 We got to figure out a way to get treatment. 21:13 And by not having conversations, we can't get treatment, right? 21:16 Because they don't acknowledge this exists. 21:18 It's kind of this, you know, carrot and stick or chicken and egg or whatever you want, you know, that is a challenge. 21:24 So that's why we're doing it. 21:25 And I completely concur with you. 21:30 When people are calling people that had injuries, 21:33 Handicap actions, it's the most ridiculous thing, but it just shows you where we're at with dialogue in this country, and we've got to fix that. 21:40 Exactly. 21:40 And we've got to push forward, and we've got to encourage people, we've got to demand people to have conversations that are uncomfortable. 21:46 Yes. 21:46 We have to have uncomfortable conversations, and that's why I'm glad my colleagues are here, because I want them to help me have those uncomfortable conversations as well. 21:55 So I'm going to turn it over to Mike. Speaker 2
22:00 You had mentioned your friends. 22:02 Wife and kids and family, just wondering how it affected your daily life. 22:07 Oh, that family. 22:08 Yeah. Speaker 4
22:10 It turned my experiences, especially I remember the one experience that sticks with me is my second son, not my oldest, but he spent overnight with me in a hospital while I was in a wheelchair and watching the nurse who thankfully she watched me writhing in pain in the lobby. 22:26 So she came out and actually gave me a pain, a Toradol shot to just because there was a long wait. 22:31 in the waiting room, but that's far from the experience I wanted to have with my son, for him to have to watch me like that. 22:40 Whereas just the month prior, we were in the gym lifting weights. 22:47 That was just surreal. 22:48 And I remember just coming home and crying and talking to my wife about that, saying, this is not the father I wanted to be. 22:56 And having my daughters and my children watch me having to crawl to the bathroom, and at times not me, that's not the experience I wanted to share. 23:08 And my wife, who I love dearly, has now pretty much become my caregiver on those episodes, when I'm having those flare-ups, who's been my rock and been there, but that's not what I chose and what I wanted. Speaker 2
23:22 I think it's important to hear that because 23:25 Yes, we're hearing testimony from people that are feeling the effects of the vaccines physically and mentally, but the physical toll is one thing, but the mental toll it takes on family members, husbands, wives, kids, mothers, fathers, I think those stories need to be told too so people can understand it doesn't just affect the person with the injury, it affects the families and the people involved. 23:52 So thank you for being here. 23:53 Thank you for your story. Speaker 1
23:56 Thank you. 23:57 Could I just also, Thor, you should work at GM. 23:59 Were you in St. Catharines or Oshawa? Speaker 4
24:01 I was in Ingersoll. Speaker 1
24:02 Oh, Ingersoll. 24:03 Because the third one I didn't know. 24:04 Yes. 24:05 Okay. 24:06 And what part of the, where do you live? 24:08 I live in Ingersoll. 24:08 Ingersoll. 24:09 Okay. 24:09 So, and you said you traveled to Hamilton. 24:11 That's where you came for. 24:13 Perfect. 24:13 I just wanted your context. 24:14 Thanks. 24:16 Thank you.