Opening Statements
Day 3 · September 10, 2026 · 0:14:07
Key points The chair opens the inquiry's third day, acknowledging over 1,400 vaccine-injured Canadians who applied to testify and thanking those who have already shared their stories. He recaps prior testimony describing severe financial toll, with witnesses reportedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and selling homes or businesses. He notes many witnesses were healthy and active before their injuries and now face limitations such as using wheelchairs or canes. He says the inquiry has drawn remarkable public interest, citing over 170,000 posts on X and a top-10 global news ranking. He frames the inquiry's purpose as listening to injured Canadians and documenting their experiences seeking medical care, recognition, and compensation. A second speaker questions why Canadian mainstream media (CBC, CTV, Global, Rogers) are absent despite the event trending globally. He argues Canadian media depends on government funding and that the government functions as the marketing and distribution arm of the pharmaceutical industry, urging alternative media to spread the testimony.
Speaker 2
0:01 Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to the Allison Inquiry. 0:06 To everyone joining us here in Ottawa and to those watching online from across Canada and around the world, thank you for tuning in. 0:14 Most importantly, I want to acknowledge the more than 1,400 vaccine-injured Canadians who applied to appear as a witness before this inquiry and many others who continue to come forward. 0:26 To each of you, thank you for trusting us with your story. 0:30 We know we can't hear from every one of you during these four days, but that does not mean your experience is any less important. 0:35 We still want to hear your story and we want to continue collecting and documenting those experiences. 0:41 I also want to thank everyone who testified yesterday and the day before and had the courage to share deeply personal and in many cases heartbreaking stories. 0:52 Yesterday, we heard about the extraordinary financial toll these injuries have had on individuals and their families. 0:58 We've heard of people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatments. 1:03 We've heard about businesses being sold, homes being sold or refinanced and savings completely being depleted. 1:10 For many, the financial impact comes from both directions. 1:15 They lose their ability to earn an income at the very same time their medical expenses are increasing. 1:21 And behind those financial losses are the lives that have been dramatically changed. 1:26 We heard from people who described themselves as healthy and active before their injuries. 1:30 People who walked as well as some who really walked. 1:34 We heard of someone who walked across the country. 1:37 Golfed, danced, worked, and in one case ran over 20 kilometers every other day. 1:43 Who now face serious limitations, including the use of a wheelchair or walking with a cane. 1:49 These are not simply numbers on a page. 1:52 These are people's lives. 1:53 I want to also continue to recognize the independent media who are here with us and who have helped give vaccine-injured Canadians a platform to tell their stories. 2:03 The level of public interest has been remarkable. 2:06 On X alone, as of this morning, there's been more than 170,000 posts. 2:12 Think about that. 2:13 Over the last two days, there's been over 170,000 posts. 2:17 That's not views, that's posts to the inquiry and 2:22 It is ranked among the top 10 globally for X for news in the last two days. 2:28 These numbers do not include Facebook, Instagram, and all of the live streaming many of you are doing. 2:33 Over the remaining days of the inquiry, we will continue listening to Canadians who reported being injured following the COVID-19 vaccination. 2:43 We'll hear what happened to them, how their lives and their families have been affected, and what happened when they sought medical care, answers, 2:51 recognition, and compensation. 2:54 Yesterday reminded me that the consequences described by those witnesses extend far beyond physical injury. 3:00 There is mental and emotional stress. 3:03 There is pressure placed on spouses, children, and loved ones. 3:06 There is the loss of independence. 3:09 And for many, there is financial devastation. 3:12 Losing a job or becoming unable to work while simultaneously paying for treatments and medical care that is simply not covered by any provincial or federal programs. 3:22 As a country, I believe we also need to seriously examine how we have treated vulnerable Canadians and those who came forward asking for help. 3:30 Ultimately, that is what this inquiry is about. 3:34 People. 3:36 It's about hearing from those who say they were injured, understanding the challenges that they have faced assessing medical care and compensation, and making sure their experiences are documented and heard. 3:47 For far too long, many of these Canadians have felt that nobody was listening. 3:51 I also want to thank some of my fellow colleagues that have been here over the last couple days and will continue to be here as they listen as well. 3:58 Mr. Dawson, you've been here for three days, and I want to thank you for that. 4:03 I say once again, this week is about listening. 4:06 Whatever witnesses said yesterday is something that stayed with me. 4:10 Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. 4:14 If suffering can be reduced by listening, by showing compassion, by helping other people with treatment and support, and by refusing to ignore them, then surely we have an obligation to do so. 4:26 That's why we're here. 4:28 Let's keep listening. Speaker 1
4:32 Yesterday I saw a podcast by Carla Treadway where she's basically showing that the CBC is literally half a block away from this building. 4:44 And doing it just to ask the question, where is the mainstream media? 4:48 I was told yesterday that, you know, this inquiry was trending as the seventh, basically in the top seven globally on the internet. 4:59 This is clearly exploding on social media and in the... 5:09 Well, it's just exploding in social media and exploding in people's consciousness. 5:16 I ran into a worker here who said that they thought this is likely the most important event happening in the world right now. 5:28 And this isn't a volunteer. 5:29 This isn't somebody in the room, but they're in the building. 5:33 They're a government employee that have been watching online. 5:38 And the mainstream media is absent. 5:39 CBC is not here. 5:41 CTV is not here. 5:42 Global isn't here. 5:43 Rogers isn't here. 5:45 NBC isn't here. 5:46 The American stations aren't here. 5:51 And one has to ask the question, why aren't they here? 5:56 Why is the mainstream media not participating in something that's trending globally? 6:04 Everyone that is participating 6:07 is understanding that something very significant is happening here, that people who have been absolutely silenced are being freed to speak. 6:19 It's actually, it's a precious experience. 6:22 The mainstream media is missing out on an opportunity to participate in something very historic and something very freeing. 6:33 Now, when Senator Johnson was here 6:37 on the morning of September 8th, he was speaking about how in the United States, the pharmaceutical companies can advertise on the mainstream media and that basically the media is captured. 6:51 I don't believe we have that here. 6:53 I might be wrong. 6:54 So why is the Canadian press basically not participating? 6:59 And as I was thinking about this morning, it dawned on me that 7:04 likely, I mean, we know the CBC is government funded. 7:09 But our other mainstream media outlets get funding from the federal government, and if not directly, through money that goes through flow through organizations to fund the media. 7:23 And it very well, I'm sorry, it very well might be that the mainstream media would not be solvent without Canadian government funding. 7:34 And therefore, they are not actually free to go against Canadian government messaging. 7:42 Well, the Canadian government, and I'll explain this statement, the Canadian government is the distribution and marketing arm of the chemical pharmaceutical industry. 7:55 And this is our legal structure. 7:57 Most people don't understand this, but in Canada under the Food and Drug Act, 8:03 anything that you're going to use to prevent illness or to treat illness is illegal. 8:08 So we've defined the definition of drug to include everything. 8:13 And then we've put in our regulations that no one can sell a drug without Health Canada approval. 8:19 And that even includes essential nutrients. 8:22 You need Health Canada approval to sell essential nutrients for us to be healthy. 8:28 But let's just talk about serious health conditions. 8:30 So 8:31 The only thing that we can use to treat serious health conditions. 8:34 So if anyone here has a heart attack or they've been screened for cancer and the text comes in at stage four, go to emergency now, or you have a mental breakdown, you name it. 8:43 We all know that if we go to the emergency ward, that there's only going to be two types of treatments offered. 8:50 And that is chemical drugs that had a patent when they were approved or surgery. 8:57 This is by design because the only drugs that have been approved are 9:01 In the lifetime of everyone watching, to the best of my understanding in Canada, every single drug approved for a serious health condition had a patent when it was approved with the exception of Primarin. 9:15 Do you think it's an accident that the only drugs approved, therefore the only legal treatments for serious health conditions are pharmaceutical drugs that had a patent? 9:28 Health Canada relentlessly attacks then natural remedies and drives them off the market because they can't get through the process. 9:34 The process is designed so that only patented drugs can get through. 9:41 And then, so, you know, the big money and the big treatments are by prescription. 9:49 I don't know the figure. 9:50 That might be 90% of the pharmaceutical profits are likely the prescription drugs. 9:54 It might be higher than that. 9:56 Can we access the prescription drugs outside of government-funded healthcare? 10:02 No, we can't. 10:03 The only way we can access the only legal treatments are through government-funded healthcare. 10:10 So when I say the Canadian government is the marketing and distribution arm of the chemical drug company, that is a legal reality in Canada. 10:21 And you might say, well, wait a second. 10:23 But it's the provinces that administer the health care. 10:26 So sure, Health Canada, the federal government's made sure the only legal treatments that the provinces can use are chemical drugs. 10:36 Well, that binds the provinces, but it gets worse. 10:39 The provinces are supposed to have jurisdiction under health. 10:42 We go back to our British North America Act of 1867, sections 91 and 92 define the federal government's roles and the provincial government's roles. 10:52 The provincial governments have jurisdiction over health care, which is why I live in Alberta. 10:58 We have Alberta Health Services. 10:59 They administer health care. 11:00 But the federal government controls that because starting in the early 70s under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, he came up with this game where he would tax the nation and he'd have these big bags of cash and he would say to the provinces, I will give you these big bags of cash if you spend it the way I direct you to spend it. 11:22 And the courts allowed this. 11:23 They never should have. 11:25 But in the area of health care, the federal government transfers so much money to the provinces for health care, and they must follow the Canada Health Act. 11:32 They must follow the guidelines for spending it, that we all have the exact same health care. 11:37 No province can deviate, and no province can say no. 11:41 The citizens would revolt. 11:44 So the Canadian government completely controls our health care, and I think that helps explain how the Canadian government 11:52 keeps the media in check also because the media, as I surmise, likely could not survive the mainstream media without government funding. 12:03 But I'm just, I'm asking the question. 12:06 So, because here we are experiencing something absolutely beautiful that the rest of the world is watching, but Canadians that turn on the TV and rely on the CBC 12:20 And CTV and Global News and Rogers believing that they're getting news. 12:26 See, and that's the mischief, isn't it? 12:28 Is they believe that they're getting the news because these organizations represent themselves as authoritative news sources. 12:36 They do not tell the viewers anything. 12:40 that they are biased. 12:41 They do not tell the viewers that they cannot go against government funding. 12:46 They do not tell the viewers that they will not go against pharmaceutical companies except on token stories so that they can keep up the appearance that they're non-biased. 12:56 And that's, in my mind, in my personal opinion, a crime. 13:02 I honestly believe that the boards 13:05 of these media companies during COVID should be investigated. 13:09 That's my personal opinion for crimes under the criminal code. 13:13 Not because they can't put out what they're saying, but they're representing themselves as unbiased, authoritative news sources. 13:21 So what do we do? 13:23 Chairperson Ellerson thanked the alternative media for putting this out. 13:28 And I thank the alternative media and anyone who's watching this. 13:32 Understand we need your help. 13:34 If you have even a small platform, restream. 13:38 You know, if you're the manager of a Caltire and you've got CNN on in your waiting room, stream this instead. 13:46 And, you know, day one and two are on the website. 13:49 Stream that all next week. 13:50 Stream us. 13:51 Start putting the word out. 13:52 Do whatever you can. 13:54 Because the only way Canada is going to heal is if all of us hear these stories. 14:00 We all have to understand what happens so that we can have a conversation. 14:04 And we're going to rely on you to do that.