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COVID-19

‘Pandemic Panic’ shortlisted for prestigious Donner Prize

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News release from the Canadian Constitution Foundation

The Canadian Constitution Foundation is thrilled to announce that Pandemic Panic: How Canadian Government Responses to COVID-19 Changed Civil Liberties Forever by CCF Executive Director Joanna Baron and CCF Litigation Director Christine Van Geyn is shortlisted for the prestigious Donner Prize.

Pandemic Panic, which made the best-seller lists on the Globe and MailToronto Star and Amazon.ca, presents a critical and comprehensive assessment of the impact of the pandemic on civil liberties.

“This book is a record of what happened to our rights during the pandemic, from a perspective that civil liberties matter,” said Baron. “The response of many people to the pandemic has been to forget a lot of things – strange, irrational and also oppressive things – that the government did.”

“We are so honoured to be recognized as a shortlisted book for the prestigious Donner Prize,” CCF Litigation Director and Pandemic Panic co-author Christine Van Geyn said. “We are thrilled with the positive critical reception that Pandemic Panic received and want to congratulate the authors of all the other shortlisted books.”

Pandemic Panic is a crucial record of the civil liberties impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had in Canada, and the only one of its kind,” Van Geyn added. “We want to thank the Donner Prize for this honour, and thank all of our thousands of supporters across Canada who bought the book.”

The book was published in November by Optimum Publishing International. It features a foreword by Preston Manning.

“If we forget history, it will repeat itself and the government can violate our rights with impunity. Reading this book will help to ensure those violations do not happen again, or if governments attempt them, there will be an informed citizenry to push back,” remarked Van Geyn.

Readers will learn what went wrong during the pandemic from the nuanced perspective of constitutional experts – when government reactions were over the top, and when the courts failed to correct government overreach. The book presents a balanced perspective, which allows readers to come to their own conclusions.

The Donner Prize recognizes the best public policy thinking, writing and research by a Canadian.

The Donner Prize is meant to encourage an open exchange of ideas and to provide a springboard for authors who may not necessarily be well-known, but who can make an original and meaningful contribution to policy discourse.

COVID-19

Canadian Health Department funds study to determine effects of COVID lockdowns on children

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The commissioned study will assess the impact on kids’ mental well-being of COVID lockdowns and ‘remote’ school classes that banned outdoor play and in-person learning.

Canada’s Department of Health has commissioned research to study the impact of outdoor play on kids’ mental well-being in light of COVID lockdowns and “remote” school classes that, for a time, banned outdoor play and in-person learning throughout most of the nation. 

In a notice to consultants titled “Systematic Literature Reviews And Meta Analyses Supporting Two Projects On Children’s Health And Covid-19,” the Department of Health admitted that “Exposure to green space has been consistently associated with protective effects on children’s physical and mental health.”

A final report, which is due in 2026, will provide “Health Canada with a comprehensive assessment of current evidence, identify key knowledge gaps and inform surveillance and policy planning for future pandemics and other public health emergencies.”

Bruce Squires, president of McMaster Children’s Hospital of Hamilton, Ontario, noted in 2022 that “Canada’s children and youth have borne the brunt” of COVID lockdowns.

From about March 2020 to mid-2022, most of Canada was under various COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns, including mask mandates, at the local, provincial, and federal levels. Schools were shut down, parks were closed, and most kids’ sports were cancelled. 

Mandatory facemask polices were common in Canada and all over the world for years during the COVID crisis despite over 170 studies showing they were not effective in stopping the spread of COVID and were, in fact, harmful, especially to children.

In October 2021, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 jab mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector, saying the un-jabbed would no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, a new report released by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) raised alarm bells over the “harms caused” by COVID-19 lockdowns and injections imposed by various levels of government as well as a rise in unexplained deaths and bloated COVID-19 death statistics.

Indeed, a recent study showed that COVID masking policies left children less able to differentiate people’s emotions behind facial expressions.

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COVID-19

Ontario student appeals ruling that dismissed religious objection to abortion-tainted COVID shot

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

An Ontario Tech University student is seeking judicial review after the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled his beliefs did not qualify as protected ‘creed.’

An Ontario university student who was punished for refusing the COVID shot is contesting a tribunal ruling that rejected his religious objection to the vaccine.

In a November 28 press release, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) announced that a judicial review has been filed on behalf of former Ontario Tech University student Philip Anisimov after his religious objection to the COVID vaccine was dismissed by an Ontario court.

“Mr. Anisimov’s objection to the Covid vaccine was deeply rooted in his religious commitment to live according to biblical precepts,” Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir declared. “He hopes the Divisional Court will clarify that his religious objection was protected by the Human Rights Code and entitled to protection.”

In 2021, Ontario mandated that all students in the province show proof of vaccination unless they had an exemption or agreed to attend a COVID jab education session boasting about the shots. The third option was not available at Ontario Tech University, as schools could choose whether or not they would offer such a program to students.

Anisimov had requested an exemption from the experimental, abortion-tainted COVID shots on religious grounds but was denied and deregistered from his courses.

He was then forced to spend an entire extra year to complete his studies. According to his lawyers, Ontario Tech University’s decision to not approve his COVID jab exemption request “not only disrupted his career plans but also violated his right to be free from discrimination on the basis of religion, as protected by the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

The university’s refusal to honor his exemption prompted Anisimov to take legal action in April with help of the JCCF. However, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario rejected his religious objection, arguing that it was not protected as a “creed” under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Now, Anisimov is appealing the ruling, hoping that his case will serve as a precedent for justice for students who were discriminated against for refusing the abortion-tainted vaccine.

“My hope is that this case helps set an important precedent and encourages Canadians to reflect on the direction our society is taking,” he explained. “My trust is that God does all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called by His purposes.”

Beyond health concerns, many Canadians, especially Catholics, opposed the vaccines on moral grounds because of their link to fetal cell lines derived from the tissue of aborted babies.

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