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COVID-19

Attorneys request Freedom Convoy leaders’ video statements be allowed as ‘evidence of the truth’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The trial, presided over by Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, will go until March 15.

The trial for Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber resumed Wednesday for a three-day stint in an Ottawa courthouse and their lawyers argued that video statements made by the leaders should be allowed as “evidence of the truth.”

The Democracy Fund (TDF), which is crowdfunding Lich’s legal costs, noted that the day began with Lich’s and Barber’s lawyers “arguing that certain videos and statements made by Ms. Lich should be admitted as evidence of the truth of their contents under a hearsay exception” and the “complete evidence rule.”

Thus far, the government has asserted “that the absence of violence or peaceful nature of the protest didn’t make it lawful, emphasizing that the onus was on the Crown to prove the protest’s unlawfulness.”

The government has held steadfast to the notion in trying to prove that Lich and Barber somehow influenced the protesters’ actions through their words as part of a co-conspiracy. This claim has been rejected by the defense as weak.

The reality is that Lich and Barber collaborated with police on many occasions so that the protests were within the law.

Eric Granger, Lich’s counsel, suggested to the court that it would not be fair for the Crown to “cherry pick” and “inculpatory statements and videos.”

Granger argued that “case law allows a court to consider the entirety of statements if they are so related as to comprise a single narrative,” the TDF mentioned.

In response, the Crown noted that the defence is “seeking to have statements admitted for the truth of their contents that are hearsay and are not, in fact, so related that they form a single narrative,” the TDF said.

Diane Magas, Barber’s counsel, observed that as the Crown has charged her client with counseling mischief, as “part of this,” they must prove the “actus reus” or guilty act.”

Magas also pointed to the exculpatory statements of her client that “should be admitted in addition to those statements that the Crown claims are inculpatory.”

The trial, presided over by Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, will go until March 15. LifeSiteNews has been covering the trial extensively since it began last year.

The trial resumed for one day last week for only the second court date since the new year, with Perkins-McVey deciding to dismiss an application by the Freedom Convoy leaders that asked the court to throw out so-called conspiracy charges.

Lich and Barber are facing multiple charges from the 2022 protests, including mischief, counseling mischief, counseling intimidation and obstructing police for taking part in and organizing the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy. As reported by LifeSiteNews at the time, despite the non-violent nature of the protest and the charges, Lich was jailed for weeks before she was granted bail.

Besides the ongoing trial, Lich and Barber and a host of others recently filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Trudeau government for its use of the Emergencies Act (EA) to quash the Freedom Convoy in 2022.

In early 2022, thousands of Canadians from coast to coast came to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government enacted the Emergencies Act on February 14.

During the clear-out of protesters after the EA was put in place, an elderly lady was trampled by a police horse and one conservative female reporter was beaten by police and shot with a tear gas canister.

COVID-19

AstraZeneca withdraws COVID vaccines worldwide amid lawsuits alleging severe harm

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From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has withdrawn the marketing authorization for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine at the manufacturer’s request.

AstraZeneca insists that its intention of pulling it COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, from markets around the globe is based solely on decreased demand as other more effective vaccines have become available.

However, the announcement comes as the pharmaceutical giant faces lawsuits concerning severe harm — including death — to some of the vaccine’s recipients.

AstraZeneca admitted in a court document submitted in February that Vaxzevria, “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS,” while adding, “The causal mechanism is not known.”

TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome) is perhaps better described as  VITT, “Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia,” coined in March 2021, not long after the COVID-19 vaccines were being mandated around the globe.

VITT denotes a condition where blood clots form, reducing normal blood flow after reception of certain COVID-19 vaccines.

Young people were soon found to be at higher risk for developing the condition.

As early as May 2021, those under age 40 were being directed away from taking the AstraZeneca jab.

The UK government revealed in 2022 that 247 cases of fatal blood clots in those who had received AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine had been reported up until March 31 of that year. During that same period, 3,385 non-fatal blood clots were reported.

“It has taken AstraZeneca a year to formally admit that their vaccine can cause the devastating blood clots, when this fact has been widely accepted by the clinical community since the end of 2021,” Sarah Moore, a partner at law firm Leigh Day representing the victims, told The Telegraph in April.

Today’s news of Astrazeneca’s withdrawal of its vaccine European markets “will be seen as a decision linked with AstraZeneca’s recent admission that the vaccine can cause TTS, and the fact that regulators across the world suspended or stopped usage of the vaccine following concerns regarding TTS.”

Despite the acknowledgement of cases of TTS contracted by recipients of its COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca has insisted that its product met industry standards.

“Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems,” the Big Pharma corporation said in a statement. “Patient safety is our highest priority, and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

“AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was first given the nod by the EMA in January 2021,” a report by the Associated Press (AP) noted. “Within weeks, however, concerns grew about the vaccine’s safety, when dozens of countries suspended the vaccine’s use after unusual but rare blood clots were detected in a small number of immunized people. The EU regulator concluded AstraZeneca’s shot didn’t raise the overall risk of clots, but doubts remained.”

“Partial results from its first major trial — which Britain used to authorize the vaccine — were clouded by a manufacturing mistake that researchers didn’t immediately acknowledge,” the AP report continued. Sadly, “Insufficient data about how well the vaccine protected older people led some countries to initially restrict its use to younger populations before reversing course.”

Some are questioning the morality of AstraZeneca’s leadership, fully supportive of its mandated vaccine even as evidence of serious side effects arose.

“When I met the AstraZeneca boss in Davos, he claimed Covid vaccine mandates were needed to PROTECT as many people as possible,” Rebel News reporter Avi Yemini  recounted on X.

“Today, his drug was pulled off the market after it was revealed it HURT the same people forced to have it,” Yemini said. “Let that sink in.”

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COVID-19

Elon Musk’s X will help fund COVID shot critic’s ongoing legal battle against Canadian university

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Dr. Matthew Strauss is an Ontario physician and a federal Conservative Party candidate nominee who has been critical of COVID lockdowns and mandates for years.

Elon Musk’s X announced that it will fund the legal battle for a Canadian doctor critical of COVID lockdowns against his former employer Queen’s University after it forced him to resign.

“X is proud to fund a lawsuit filed by Dr. Matthew Strauss, an Ontario critical care physician and professor, against his former employer, Queen’s University,” @XNews posted last Friday.

“After Dr. Strauss argued against wide COVID lockdowns and mandates on his X account, @strauss_matt, Queen’s University (@queensu) publicly ostracized him, retaliated against him, and ultimately forced him to resign because his opinions did not conform to the university’s political orthodoxy.”

Musk’s X News said it “supports Dr. Strauss’ efforts to vindicate his free speech rights without fear of unfair retaliation!”

Strauss is an Ontario physician who is also a federal Conservative Party candidate nominee for Kitchener-South Hespeler. For years, he has been critical of COVID lockdowns and mandates. In 2021, he observed that full hospitals in Canada have been the norm for decades.

“Hospitals have been full since I started medical training in 2004. Out of 33 OECD countries, Canada comes in 31st place for hospital beds per capita. I will not surrender my human rights to the health care mis-managers who bungled this for the last 20 years,” Strauss wrote.

Strauss’s lawsuit claims that he was the target of Queen’s University after it allegedly censored him and enacted professional reprisals against him because of his outspoken views against COVID mandates and lockdowns.

Last Friday, Strauss reiterated the importance of academic freedom and thanked both Musk and X for helping him fund his legal battle.

“Academic freedom is critical to the proper function of a university,” Strauss posted on X.

Regarding his claims against Queen’s University’s medical faculty, Strauss said the university resorted to “malicious, aggressive, condescending, and defamatory statements” to kick him out of his position.

His lawsuit will seek compensation from what he says was Queen’s University damaging his professional integrity and infringing on his rights to freedom of expression.

For a time, Strauss served as the acting medical officer for Haldimand-Norfolk in Ontario.

He is not the only Canadian doctor critical of COVID mandates who has in recent weeks received financial backing from Musk’s X. Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, an Ontario pediatrician who has been embroiled in a legal battle with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) for her anti-COVID views, has also received the support of Musk.

Many Canadian doctors who spoke out against COVID mandates and the experimental mRNA injections have been censured by their medical boards.

In an interview with LifeSiteNews at its annual general meeting in July 2023 near Toronto, canceled doctors Mary O’ConnorMark Trozzi, Chris Shoemaker, and Byram Bridle were asked to state their messages to the medical community regarding how they have had to fight censure because they have opinions contrary to the COVID mainstream narrative.

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