Dawood Al-Janaby
Day 3 · September 10, 2026 · 0:24:37
Key points Dawood al-Janaby, 34, a York University software engineering student, testifies he was a healthy, gym-going 29-year-old on no medications before vaccination. He says severe spinal and full-body nerve pain, described as electrical shocks and torture, began the night of his first Moderna shot and worsened over following days. He recounts being told it was a normal reaction, spending long hours in emergency, and having blood tests come back normal with no diagnosis. He says he developed involuntary tremors and shaking episodes lasting three and a half years, plus multiple cystic masses in his hands and plantar fasciitis in both feet. He testifies he can no longer live independently, lives with his parents, and doubts he will be employable as an engineer due to cognitive symptoms. He describes ongoing triggers such as exertion, cold, carbohydrates, and stress that bring days of debilitating pain, and heart-rate spikes he says reached 180 to 240. He says his VISP claim was rejected as fibromyalgia, that his file mistakenly contained his father's documents, but he was recognized under Ontario's ODSP for post-COVID vaccination syndrome.
Speaker 3
0:02 So our next witness is Dawud al-Janabi. 0:06 Dawud, I'm going to put you under oath. 0:08 Do you promise to tell the truth? 0:14 You don't have to swear in the Bible because you said you wanted to affirm, so I'm going to have you here. Speaker 4
0:18 Okay, if you want to swear. Speaker 3
0:19 So Dawud al-Janabi, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? 0:25 So I hope you got it. Speaker 4
0:27 Yeah, I swear. Speaker 3
0:30 You're another one of these witnesses that never had COVID. 0:33 I'm just going to introduce you to the inquiry. 0:37 You're 34 years old. 0:39 You were a full-time student taking software engineering at York University. 0:45 At the time of the vaccination, you were 29 years old. 0:49 You went to gym four days a week back then. Speaker 4
0:53 Three times, four times a week, yeah. Speaker 3
0:55 Yeah. 0:56 And you like to go to concerts. 0:57 You are on no medications. 0:58 You are on no dietary restrictions. 1:00 You are basically a healthy 29-year-old man who is very into the gym. 1:08 But that changed. 1:09 Can you share with us your experience with the vaccines and your health journey? Speaker 4
1:12 You know, pretty much I got disabled, but it all started the same night when I got the first shot. 1:20 It was a Moderna vaccine, and I woke up. 1:26 something in my back, like the whole vertebral column is like fire pain, you know, um, try to go to sleep. 1:32 I couldn't, you know, um, the next day, the same sensation didn't go away. 1:38 Um, you know, the tiredness and the, uh, the feeling of, um, you know, when you get it, when you, when you get any kind of a vaccine, you, you're tired, you'd be tired. 1:48 Like they consider this as the normal kind of side effect of any, uh, you know, vaccination. 1:54 So, um, 1:56 I asked my mom. 1:57 She took me to the vaccination center, if I remember. 2:04 I was really tired, you know, so I was trying to get some information, like what am I supposed to do in here? 2:09 Like we, something abnormal. Speaker 3
2:11 So can I just slow you down? 2:13 Because when you say you're tired, that it's got to be something pretty significant for you to go to a clinic. Speaker 4
2:19 It's up to the point where you cannot even walk. 2:21 you know, like something significant. 2:23 So I went to the vaccination. 2:24 Again, I want, I want to slow you down. Speaker 3
2:26 So you're not actually, you're, you're describing it as tiredness, but you're not able to walk. 2:31 Like you can hardly walk. Speaker 4
2:32 Well, here's the thing. 2:33 This, this, like the whole package of symptoms that comes together, you know, um, at the beginning, I also had like a little bit of pain, you know, but it's, um, 2:49 I was told that it was the vaccination reaction at the beginning. 2:51 You know, it's just like, yeah, two days and it's going to go away. 2:55 Don't worry. 2:55 Go home. 2:56 And if you need anything, you could, you know, reach out to Humber River. 3:00 They have online clinics. 3:02 So you could log in and just have a chat with a doctor. 3:08 So five days later, you know, the symptoms are getting worse and worse. 3:13 The pain is getting worse. 3:16 Nothing got resolved so far. Speaker 3
3:19 And I was mainly in bed. 3:21 And I'm just going to slow you down because I think you're understating based on what we spoke about before. 3:28 You told me that second or third day, the nerve pain was over your entire body. 3:34 Yes. 3:35 It was electrical shocks and you used the word torture. 3:38 Oh, yes. 3:40 So help us understand like what this experience was like. Speaker 4
3:46 I'm just, yeah, because here's the thing when, 3:48 I would say it's like, I'm not sure if you ever had a root canal. 3:54 Things like this start to kind of, you know, with the tiredness, with all the muscle ache that came out. 4:02 I mean, the third, fourth, fifth day start to get worse. 4:07 The nerve pain start to get a little bit kind of, you know, more noticeable as well. 4:11 So what happened, I still, you know, I still remember like I was unable to sleep. 4:18 Like, to the point you cannot sleep, you cannot move out of the bed, you know. 4:24 And it deteriorated in a way, like, you know, the second week I had to go to the emergency, you know. 4:32 We went to the emergency. 4:35 As soon as I told them I'm having something wrong, like, you know, I'm having pain after vaccination, they kept me there almost like for, 4:47 12 to 13 hours at the end is like, you know, I just gonna go home. 4:50 Whatever happens, happens. 4:52 Because I cannot sit on the chair, you know, like there's no bed and they put you like this and you're dealing with some sort of a pain that even, you know, it make you muscle contract. 5:07 Like you having kind of sort of some sort of spasms, 5:12 Something very hard to describe. 5:16 If I'm going to describe it, it's like you grew up 50 years in a couple of days. 5:23 You don't have the same body. 5:25 All the joints are pain. 5:29 You can't sleep. 5:30 You barely can think. 5:34 You can't move that much. 5:35 Every movement, if I want to move my hand this way, I just pick anything. 5:39 Pain. 5:41 Pure pain. 5:42 So I had to go back home, called the family doctor. 5:48 I don't want to bring his name. 5:49 He's an amazing person. 5:52 But I called him. 5:54 He prescribed me some blood tests. 5:57 We did a test. 5:58 Everything's normal. 6:01 So he's like, okay, maybe some people are kind of having a reaction for a week or two. 6:09 Maybe 6:10 That's a prolonged reaction. 6:12 Just wait and we will see what happens after. 6:14 Two weeks later, I think the symptoms are getting worse up to the point where like, you know, you started questioning your quality of life. 6:25 Like the headache, the... Speaker 2
6:27 I don't know. Speaker 4
6:30 If you ask me, you want to be in this situation or you probably have a choice to die, I would say, yeah, peacefully die. 6:36 I don't want to be in that. 6:38 So... 6:41 After that, you know, start to notice, like, focal pain. 6:46 Aside from these, you know, electrical shocks that comes and go and also the burning, some sort of a burning pain in the abdomen with some chest pain. 6:57 When I speak to my family, they're like, yeah, that's not normal. 7:03 You know, we're doing the blood test. 7:04 I don't see anything. 7:06 But then, you know, I saw, like, a bump appeared in my hand. 7:12 um, something like, you know, and before that thing appeared, I was feeling some focal pain, like something major happening in this spot. 7:21 So I asked to see the family doctor again, you know, um, he looked at it, you know, he asked for, um, ultrasound. 7:29 We did the ultrasound. 7:30 They said it's, uh, at the beginning they thought it's a cyst maybe, or, uh, a cystic mass or something. 7:36 Don't worry about it. 7:38 Go home. 7:39 You know, um, 7:41 Pretty much it was a full-time disability, you know, and torture. Speaker 3
7:44 So I'm going to just focus us a little bit. 7:50 Even today, like, so you've got to be careful of triggers or you get this nerve pain over your whole body. 7:58 And it can be like, as you described, torture today. 8:02 You have to avoid carbohydrates. 8:05 You have to avoid cold weather. 8:06 Welcome to Canada. 8:09 Lack of sleep and stress. 8:11 So likely even coming here today is going to be a trigger for you by the end of the day. Speaker 4
8:16 I do have it today. 8:16 That's why you see even, and by the way, even affect the way you talk. 8:21 Like, you know, like you can't remember words. 8:24 You cannot make sentences. 8:25 So you feel like, even when I talk, it's like there's all the time. 8:31 Now it's a little bit better, but it used to be a severe, a very severe version. 8:36 Like when I used to be in, like in my first year, I, 8:41 I cannot do presentations, no matter what, you know. 8:46 So nobody knows what it is. 8:51 At that time, no diagnosis, you know. 8:54 But the interesting thing was like that mass here, it's like the same pain I start to feel right beside it, you know. 9:03 And then I went to the family doctor asking him like, hey, I feel something in my hand, like a severe, 9:11 Something major happening at this spot. 9:15 He's like, I don't know, let's do another ultrasound. 9:18 We do the ultrasound, clear. Speaker 3
9:20 So I'm just going to focus you because I want to get to a video that you sent me. 9:24 Yes. 9:24 But I just want to make clear, like still to this day, you've got this. 9:29 Oh, yes. 9:30 And the fatigue you've got today, the exhaustion. Speaker 4
9:33 It's the same. Speaker 3
9:34 You really... Speaker 4
9:36 You can't walk a block. 9:37 You'd be in pain for days. 9:39 If I do any physical activity, somehow it triggers a punishment, you know, like for the next three or four days. 9:49 You cannot have much of physical activity as much as walking, you know, because for some reason it triggers the pain. 10:01 Right. 10:02 It triggers a very bad kind of a pain where you cannot even sleep. 10:06 You cannot, you know, function in any way or matter. 10:12 You can't study. 10:12 You can't do anything. 10:13 You will be just sitting, waiting for this thing to go. Speaker 3
10:18 And another thing that happened is you get these involuntary tremors. 10:21 They start to shake and you couldn't talk. 10:24 Yes. 10:24 And this went on for at least three and a half years. 10:28 Yes. 10:29 And now, so we're going to play a video that you sent me of you. 10:33 So you're in the hospital. 10:36 And you're having one of these involuntary shaking episodes. 10:40 And David, can we play this video twice? 10:43 Because it's not a long video. 10:46 But that was a mild one. 10:47 This is like a very friendly version of it. 10:51 Okay, so when we're watching this, we need to understand we're watching a mild, friendly, shaking episode. 10:59 David, can we play that? Speaker 1
11:02 Sure. 11:02 Deep breath. 11:05 Yeah. Speaker 3
11:09 And I imagine when your muscles are contracting without control, that they get very sore. Speaker 3
11:45 We'll just play that again because it's short and I got more out of it watching it twice. Speaker 2
11:52 Thank you very much. 11:53 You're welcome. Speaker 3
12:11 And so that's a mild version, and this would be going on for three and a half years over your entire body. 12:17 The entire body. 12:19 And zero control over any of this. Speaker 4
12:23 No. 12:26 I also remember, you know, like at the beginning, like to take a five-step stairs, you cannot do that. 12:33 I have to, like by four, my hands and my legs, like, you know, you have to crawl. 12:39 Like you can't do this. 12:41 I reached some points where my brother and my father had to take me to the washroom. 12:45 I cannot even go. 12:46 You know, so like it has that kind of a nature of episodic where there's some period where you cannot do anything. 12:56 You know, and then some period you have, you know, kind of I wouldn't say normal. 13:02 It's not normal, but, you know, something that you could tolerate where you could sleep. 13:07 You know, but 13:10 Yeah, the pain never goes. 13:14 The shaking thing, the tremors went away, so I'm very happy about it. 13:20 I think I was lucky. 13:23 But then the masses start to appear, and not only the masses. 13:27 So when I went to try to check for the second spot in here, it showed nothing. 13:32 Then on the other hand, I start to feel the same sort of pain in this hand. 13:40 the family doctor was just, okay, well, I don't know what to do. 13:43 Let's do another ultrasound. 13:45 We do the ultrasound. 13:46 We discovered that there is a mass in this hand and the spot that I was pointing to previously has a small mass as well. 13:55 There is a mass on the other hand here, you know, and they describe them as cystic masses or, you know, something benign, don't worry about it, leave it. 14:04 But the big one, the first one that appeared is, you know, it kind of showed some sort of, at the beginning, 14:10 They said some, they couldn't recognize what it is, but some pieces of stuff inside it, but you shouldn't be worried about it. 14:22 You know, and then another mass appeared in the same hand, you know, which is like, I have like six of them right now. 14:28 But within that process, you know, as well, I realized, let's say, just trying to take a shower, 14:35 I can't stand on my feet, so I was also checking on the sole of my feet. 14:40 There's something wrong. 14:41 I can't stand. 14:43 What it is, it's too painful. 14:46 With the ultrasound, the first time, it was normal. 14:49 The second time, it showed something called plantar fasciitis. 14:53 It showed it only in one foot, and then the other one followed as well. Speaker 3
14:59 And I'm just going to focus you because we have strict time limits today, and I want the MPs to have an opportunity to ask you questions. 15:05 But you basically can't live on your own anymore. 15:08 So you live with your parents, right? Speaker 3
15:12 So, you know, you're basically a young man that now cannot live independently because of what's happening. Speaker 4
15:20 Not only that, let's say even when I'm going to graduate as an engineer, I don't think that I will be employable. 15:28 You know, which companies? 15:29 will accept an engineer that, okay, yeah, you're a software engineer. 15:34 Basically, your brain is the main, you know, kind of functioning part in your whole career. 15:40 So if that thing can go off in a certain period of time, who's going to hire you? 15:46 You know, and it wasn't only that. 15:49 Also, like, I used to get rashes that come and go. 15:54 The only difficulty with knowing what was that is that they come, 15:59 And they go in the same day. 16:02 So, by the time the doctor tried to take a biopsy or like he tried to arrange for a biopsy, the thing disappeared. 16:10 And you don't even know what it is. 16:13 At the same time, all my face, you know, all the gray hair, I lost hair. 16:18 So, you ask me for a post picture, this is the post thing. 16:24 You know, they do blood test, it comes normal. 16:30 Nobody knows what it is. 16:32 At the beginning, I wasn't aware about the heart issues because the severity of the pain and fatigue was. Speaker 3
16:39 I'm going to ask you to reign her in just because we want to give others an opportunity to ask you questions. Speaker 6
16:46 And they're going to ask more questions. 16:48 I'll give Mr. Dawson the list. Speaker 5
16:50 Thank you for being here today. Speaker 4
16:52 You're welcome. Speaker 5
16:54 Your doctors, have they talked about any of those vaccines? 16:57 Have you talked to them? 16:58 Have they said yes or no? Speaker 4
17:01 In the first year, you know, everyone was afraid actually to diagnose you with anything. 17:05 In fact, my family doctor did his best in order to send me to a specialist, but nobody, as soon as they see the, you know, because I see a thing on the transfer, nobody wants to see you. 17:17 So it took almost like 10 or 11 months to be able to see a neurologist. 17:23 Nobody wants to see you. 17:24 And the AFEI report, it doesn't, like, if you want to report, let's say, disability, they have it labeled as permanent disability. 17:35 So that's, I think they fixed it a year later. 17:39 But in the report there, they have permanent disability. 17:43 And they cannot, as a physician, they cannot report a permanent disability unless your symptoms last more than a year. 17:52 Technically, the government doesn't know that we exist, doesn't have the data about us, you know, and they don't even follow up. 18:00 Like even when he reported the symptoms in the written part, I never got a phone call from, you know, public health or anybody to say, hey, 18:12 Did you get any, was there any changes in your situation? 18:15 Did this develop into a disability? 18:19 Was it resolved? 18:20 Because they have a check on the same report, shows like, you know, if it's not resolved, the doctor will say the symptoms are not resolved, you know. 18:32 I believe my family doctor did that, but nobody, nobody, like five years, nothing happened. 18:37 I reach out. 18:40 So then never get a response, you know, reach out to Moderna, nothing from their side. 18:45 You call them, nobody picks up the phone. Speaker 3
18:53 Have you applied to the vaccine injury program? 18:57 Yes. 18:58 And what's your experience been with that? Speaker 4
19:01 That was a scam, you know. 19:05 I believe this is what, from my experience with it, it was designed just to give you a false hope. 19:10 So you don't, you don't talk, you know, you always be like, okay, you, because I reached out to the MP at that time and she was a minister. 19:18 She was, her name was Yara Sack, you know, she reached out to the federal minister of health. 19:24 Like they know about me. 19:26 It's not that they don't know, but they cannot do anything. 19:28 And at some point, even this, the staff in the office told me it's political. 19:33 I, 19:33 I think any done, you know, but yeah, we did that vaccine injury support program. 19:39 You should apply. 19:39 I applied. 19:40 I actually waited for almost like a year. 19:46 I was lucky to get a very, you know, nice lawyer as well to help me out through the process. 19:52 They rejected the case saying that the situation represent fibromyalgia. 20:00 And they had like three physicians. 20:04 who assist my case. 20:06 So, you know, Daniel tried to appeal. 20:11 They did not allow the appeal. 20:13 They refused. 20:14 And they, like a year later, somehow he managed to let them accept the appeals. 20:21 So we were about like, yeah, okay, now we could request the documents from, and see what they were working on actually. 20:29 So we could submit an appeal for it. 20:33 They send us the documents through the mail. 20:36 And I was surprised that some of the documents that was sent to them was not my documents. 20:43 It was my father's document. 20:46 So they had the cardiologist at that time to assist my case. 20:52 But I wasn't even aware that I have, I wasn't even aware about the blood pressure situation goes up and down or my heart rate goes to 180 21:03 and sometimes goes like 240, you know. 21:06 I wasn't like, you know, the pain and fatigue was so severe that I was in bed. 21:11 So I wasn't aware about how the heart feels because I was basically waiting. 21:18 Maybe I'll die or something happen to me. 21:19 I'm not sure, but I was in bed most of the time. 21:22 So when we discovered that they were assessing my father's document, you know, and they had a cardiologist in the case, I was like, okay, 21:34 At that time, I didn't have any cardiologist appointments. 21:37 Like, so how come did you guys like, you know, hire a cardiologist for it? 21:46 You don't get an answer. 21:47 They start to respond back once every four months, quarterly. Speaker 6
21:51 I want to ask one more question. 21:55 Okay. 21:55 We're almost out of time. 21:56 All right. 21:57 So, VISP rejected your claim. 21:59 Is that correct? 22:00 Yes. 22:00 However, you were also one of the first people to be recognized under the Ontario Disability. Speaker 4
22:06 I believe I was the first one. Speaker 6
22:07 First one? 22:08 Yeah. 22:08 And the reason was what? 22:10 Post-COVID vaccination syndrome. 22:12 So, think about that. 22:14 BISP rejected your program, but you were the first person to be recognized under the OSTP. 22:21 Was it OSTP? 22:22 OSTP. 22:23 Yeah. 22:23 Right. 22:24 And they took me off of it. Speaker 4
22:26 Oh, my goodness. 22:28 And we had to fight back again. 22:32 But here's the thing. 22:33 We appealed with BISP eight or seven months later. 22:39 We saw the lawyers start reaching out to them like, hey, we sent you the studies. 22:43 There is a situation like that. 22:45 It's not fibromyalgia. 22:46 People are experiencing this kind of symptoms. 22:49 And it's a major disability. 22:52 You can't do anything in your life. 22:54 We need an answer. 22:55 Where are you? 22:57 Oh, oops, the case manager changed. Speaker 4
23:00 You know, that's the classical move. 23:04 Exactly. 23:05 The case manager changed, so now there's a new one. 23:08 The new one came after, you know, and we had to wait, like, for four months. 23:12 And he came to us and saying, yeah, we were reviewing the documents, but we just realized that the forms were – 23:25 You know, you have to sign a form for the lawyer to represent you. Speaker 4
23:28 So we have, we just, we don't, we don't, we don't, I mean, he was fighting with them with the government for almost a year and a half. 23:36 Darwin, I hate to cut you off. Speaker 6
23:38 You know. 23:39 You were getting the runner, you were saying you've got the runaround even from ODSP. 23:43 So. 23:44 Listen, I want to thank you for coming. 23:46 Your story is very good. 23:47 And to my colleagues, we see someone at the end of the table that looks perfectly, he showed up, you're sitting down, he looks normal. 23:53 And the challenges in your life have been almost insurmountable in terms of health. 23:58 And that's an issue that we have to address. 24:02 It's like, you know, you're living in a 90 years old body. 24:05 You can't do much. 24:06 Thank you so much. 24:07 Thank you so much. Speaker 4
24:10 But by the way, so nothing happened with the appeal. Speaker 3
24:12 And we've got a 24:14 We're out of time for you. 24:16 So that was the thing. 24:17 So we'll move on to it. 24:19 And we'd love to give witnesses all day, and we realize that we're cutting people short. 24:24 We just made a decision. 24:26 We could have a few witnesses speak for long periods of time, or we could give more people a voice, but the tradeoff is they have less time. 24:34 So we hope everyone respects that.