Juno News - Suit seeks Covid compensation for businesses

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emmanuel

00:00:19.200 for this week's interview we are joined live with prominent alberta lawyer jeffrey rath

00:00:25.040 Rath is the lead counsel on a proposed lawsuit that seeks financial redress for Calgary businesses

00:00:32.640 that were forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Rath, thank you so much for joining

00:00:38.080 us today. My pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. So I know that this proposed lawsuit

00:00:45.040 stems from the recent Ingram decision in which the Calgary's Court of Kings bench determined that

00:00:51.360 some of the public health orders were illegal and you saw an opportunity there to maybe get

00:00:57.680 some redress for some of the businesses that were forced to close can you explain how the ingram

00:01:02.320 decision opened up the possibility for this class action lawsuit yeah and first of all this isn't a

00:01:07.920 proposed lawsuit it actually is a lawsuit on behalf of rebecca ingram and christopher scott

00:01:13.760 what we're seeking is certification to have the action certified as a class action on behalf of

00:01:19.920 every other business or person in alberta that was economically harmed as a result of all of the

00:01:26.400 orders of jason kenny and dina hinshaw that the alberta court of king's bench uh found to be

00:01:32.560 ultra vires or illegal um under the public health act so um the process you know moving forward is

00:01:41.040 you know there is a lawsuit on behalf of missing room and mr scott but we've applied to the court

00:01:45.280 for certification of the class action and the hearing of that certification motion is currently

00:01:51.360 scheduled to take place in the first week of october of this year so when we're talking about

00:01:56.960 a class action lawsuit how does that work do people have to apply to be part of it do you

00:02:00.720 automatically just represent all alberta businesses that would fall under the category

00:02:05.600 uh the way it works in alberta is that if people don't want to be part of it they would opt out by

00:02:12.000 contacting our office. That being said, if people go to wrathandcompany.com, and again, that's

00:02:16.920 wrathandcompany.com, and tap on the business class action tab, you'll see that we've, you know,

00:02:25.100 set out all the pleadings, we've set out the background of the lawsuit. And what we're asking

00:02:29.420 people to do is to fill out a form with all of their information. Because one of the things that

00:02:35.300 we're trying to do is to get a handle on the scope of the losses that people have suffered

00:02:39.960 in this province we suspect that it's in the you know that it's in the high billions of dollars

00:02:45.020 you know you know in excess of 10 billion dollars just looking at some of the numbers that we've

00:02:50.200 been seeing and extrapolating from there some businesses you know their losses are as you know

00:02:54.840 as little as you know a few hundred thousand dollars but certainly you know median size small

00:02:59.220 businesses restaurant chains and others you know have losses you know in the tens of millions of

00:03:04.560 dollars you know as a result of all of those illegal um uh covet orders and you know the

00:03:11.080 government of alberta unlawfully and thoughtlessly uh destroying businesses in this province

00:03:16.840 so when you talk about you know you're still sort of in that information gathering portion you're

00:03:22.980 still looking to hear from businesses to see how they were impacted do you have any idea what sort

00:03:27.700 of monetary amount you would be seeking well i mean it's every business is going to be compensated

00:03:32.820 on the basis of what their losses were you know as i've indicated you know some businesses that

00:03:37.540 can quickly quantify their losses you know like small uh you know beauty salons physiotherapy

00:03:43.340 offices dental offices etc they can say oh okay i was shut down for six weeks um you know our

00:03:50.300 you know our revenue leading up to that was approximately you know x number of dollars per

00:03:55.440 week you know multiplied by you know however many weeks you know we were that you know we were shut

00:04:00.440 down you know our losses are you know several hundred thousand dollars right on the other hand

00:04:04.980 you know as i've indicated you know restaurant chains uh you know people that have groups of

00:04:10.220 restaurants the losses could be in the you know in the tens of millions of dollars and certainly

00:04:15.220 there are restaurant groups and restaurants in this province that were completely bankrupted

00:04:19.180 um you know as a result you know of these thoughtless and the legal orders and you know

00:04:24.720 what are the costs of you know making those people whole for having their families you know lives

00:04:30.260 and livelihoods completely destroyed uh you know by somebody you know somebody who is so incompetent 0.57

00:04:37.300 that she didn't even know the scope of her authority under the statute that she was acting

00:04:42.420 under when we're talking i'm referring specifically to dina hinshaw sure yeah definitely one of the 1.00

00:04:51.220 civil servants i think we were just chatting with us on the phone the other day just the amount of

00:04:54.660 money that she herself collected from canadian and alberta specifically taxpayers i think to the

00:04:59.620 the tune of well over half a million dollars. And then when we look at some of the impacted

00:05:03.480 businesses, it is certainly concerning. I think a lot of people are really excited about this

00:05:06.880 lawsuit. Is there a burden of proof on the businesses to prove how much they lost during

00:05:12.720 the period that they were forced to close? Well, obviously there's going to be a requirement for

00:05:16.920 the businesses to prove their losses. But one of the great things about this lawsuit is that

00:05:21.960 liability really isn't an issue, thanks to the Ingram decision in the court of King's bench.

00:05:27.120 The orders were, you know, by declaration of the court of King's match were all illegal.

00:05:31.680 You know, we had this process where by, you know, Dina Hinshaw claiming to be everyone's doctor and claiming to act as the chief medical officer of health would go into cabinet and basically take medical advice from a Divinity School dropout, specifically Jason Kenney, with regard to public health orders in the province of Alberta without any thought to the harm that was going to be done by these orders.

00:05:54.920 You know, the other issue that I'd like people to consider with regard to this lawsuit, because I know there's people out there that say, oh, you're suing the Alberta government, so it's our tax dollars, you know, that are going to have to pay for this.

00:06:06.980 You know, people are concerned about that.

00:06:08.520 You know, I'd like to ask them to consider, you know, whether they think would be appropriate if, you know, a government employee driving drunk were to run over one of their parents and the taxpayers were on the hook for that, you know, whether or not, you know, whether or not the government should pay.

00:06:23.240 You know, clearly, you know, everything that happened in this case was as a result of government malfeasance, government negligence, you know, I would say gross negligence in terms of the way all of this rolled out, you know, so, you know, that needs to be kept in mind, you know, by everybody that's looking at this.

00:06:39.580 And we're obviously hoping that citizens in Alberta, you know, will look at the fairness of this situation and say, you know, that, you know, on what model, you know, like, let's even assume, which, you know, I think is wrong, but let's assume for a minute that locking down the businesses of healthy people, preventing them from providing services, you know, to other healthy people, you know, made any sense whatsoever.

00:07:02.120 and let's assume that it was a bona fide good for the public at large and then what was done was

00:07:07.700 actually for the public good on what theory should the public benefit at the expense of a small class

00:07:15.160 of Alberta citizens right I mean we've got people that you know have literally you know have had a

00:07:20.300 huge fiscal hole put in the middle of their businesses they had to take on partners they

00:07:25.260 never wanted businesses that were otherwise debt-free are now in hock to the tune of millions

00:07:33.340 of dollars to banks that they had to borrow money from to keep their businesses whole and moving

00:07:38.140 forward and you know of course you know which you know because so much of the equity in their

00:07:42.580 businesses were destroyed by these foolish orders promulgated by jason kenny and uh and dina hinshaw

00:07:48.280 so you know our question is on what theories should the government escape liability for this

00:07:52.740 so lead plaintiffs on the case i know one of them is chris scott can you explain a little

00:07:58.020 bit about who they are sure rebecca ingram of course was a gym owner that brought forward the

00:08:04.420 uh you know the ingram decision and in that case that case was actually necessary to provide the

00:08:10.900 foundation to this class action because there's a section of the public health act that says that

00:08:16.500 the government's immune from suit for any actions taken under the public health act so it was very

00:08:24.020 important to us you know from a legal perspective that we won the judgment from the court of king's

00:08:29.220 bench saying that all of the orders of dina hinshaw were ultra vires the public health act

00:08:35.300 and illegal so from our our analysis and the work that we did in our office it wasn't enough to have

00:08:41.300 the court to say that the orders violated the charter what we really needed was the order saying

00:08:45.860 that the uh you know saying that dina hinshaw's public health orders were outside of the scope 0.97

00:08:50.740 of the public health act because as a result neither dina hinshaw or the government of alberta

00:08:55.620 now enjoy any protection whatsoever from lawsuit because these orders were not issued under the

00:09:01.700 public health act because they were ultraviolet right so that's the that's the first point um

00:09:07.300 and that was the case that rebecca brought forward when her gym was improperly shut down by 1.00

00:09:12.260 by Dean Hinshaw and of course Rebecca's gym was well run it was an extremely large facility so

00:09:18.260 you know even if you believed in all the social distancing nonsense that they were promulgating

00:09:22.980 and telling people that you know if you went to Walmart or Costco you weren't going to get COVID

00:09:28.260 but if you went to a mom and pop on the corner you're going to get COVID or if you simply follow

00:09:32.500 the arrows on the floor of the co-op you weren't going to get COVID if you remember that foolishness 0.65

00:09:38.020 unfortunately i do unfortunately you know all of all of those silly orders that were issued right

00:09:42.420 um uh you know so you know rebecca you know was running an extremely you know well managed clean 1.00

00:09:48.580 facility there's no documented cases of coveted her facility whatsoever yet she was being shut 1.00

00:09:54.100 down and she was forced to sell her business at a loss chris chris scott um you know was correctly

00:10:01.220 protesting the fact you know that these orders were illegal as it turns out he was right yet

00:10:06.740 Chris Scott was taken away in handcuffs and thrown in jail and his business was padlocked and

00:10:13.860 he was prevented from running a business and taking feeding his family you know as a result

00:10:20.100 of these illegal orders so of course Chris is suing you know for the business losses that

00:10:24.580 accrue you know as a result of these illegal orders and will also be seeking damages on

00:10:29.540 you know on Chris's behalf you know for the manner in in which he was treated which was completely

00:10:34.580 egregious when we talk about the illegal orders specifically right now we're looking at financial

00:10:41.540 redress for businesses but have you given any thought to other potential lawsuits that could

00:10:46.100 stem from the ingram decision well i mean as far as it goes we're looking you know you know the

00:10:51.780 class uh of applicants under ingram would include any individual that suffered economic losses as

00:10:58.180 a result of the illegal orders um you know in you know in the coming days we're going to be

00:11:04.100 issuing another press release and announcing a major class action lawsuit with regard to vaccine

00:11:10.180 injuries in the province of alberta because let's not forget that you know let's not forget that

00:11:15.380 the the injuries as a result of uh you know dr hinshaw's negligence wasn't limited to the illegal

00:11:22.660 orders that she issued uh like remember dina hinshaw you know telling people that you know

00:11:28.180 if they had the astrazeneca vaccine um you know and after that was discontinued because it was

00:11:34.340 hurting people and injuring people and causing heart disease and other problems she was she was

00:11:39.380 standing up in public saying oh well it doesn't matter that you know you've already taken a drug

00:11:43.780 that may have hurt your health you should go out and take whatever other shots available take pfizer

00:11:49.060 take moderna it's all good take my vaccine buffet that's what i've been doing well people were

00:11:54.660 horribly injured as a result of diva hinshaw's advice that people sign up for her vaccine buffet

00:12:01.460 and you know so we're representing we'll be representing individuals that were harmed by

00:12:05.220 that negligent medical advice of dr hinshaw's and her conspiracy to commit assault um in a civil

00:12:12.820 sense not a criminal sense but a conspiracy to commit civil assault by you know acting in lock

00:12:18.180 step with Theresa Tam and other representatives of the Government of Canada repeatedly telling

00:12:24.660 people that the vaccines were safe and effective while they were simultaneously hiding information

00:12:31.780 from the public about vaccine injuries and how dangerous these vaccines actually were

00:12:37.460 you know for people. I mean it was certainly well known from the Pfizer data itself that if you were

00:12:42.900 were a child under the age of 18, you're far more likely to be harmed by the vaccines than you were

00:12:48.240 to be harmed by COVID itself. I refer to it repeatedly in correspondence with the Prime

00:12:53.500 Minister and Dina Hinshaw and Theresa Tan. It was table 14 of the Pfizer EUA application of the

00:13:01.200 United States, where Pfizer itself submitted documents to the American government that

00:13:06.540 indicated that for children under the age of 18, they would notionally save one life per

00:13:12.760 million um of children under the age of 18 if they got the pfizer covet vaccine from dying from

00:13:21.160 covet but they were going to put 34 children into the um intensive care unit with intense myocarditis

00:13:29.240 if they took the vaccine and of course all of that information was suppressed by dina hinshaw

00:13:33.960 was suppressed by theresa tam it was suppressed by the trudeau government because they didn't

00:13:38.120 want people to really know what the risks were associated with these vaccines so in effect what

00:13:44.040 they were doing was conspiring to prevent people from obtaining uh you know full informed consent

00:13:51.800 with regard to the shots so we say from a legal perspective you know beyond negligence breach of

00:13:56.760 fiduciary duty public duty etc all of them including dina hinshaw in a civil sense

00:14:02.280 We're conspiring to commit assault and battery on every citizen in Canada by conspiring to hide information with regard to vaccine safety from the Canadian public.

00:14:13.540 You know, another good example of this is the fact that the Minister of Health has the authority, notwithstanding confidentiality provisions in the vaccine supply contracts,

00:14:24.960 to release those contracts to the public if they contained information

00:14:29.080 that would be germane to the public in making a decision

00:14:31.960 as to whether to take the vaccines or not.

00:14:34.220 Well, a Liberal MP by the name of Housefather in committee in Ottawa

00:14:39.620 stated publicly that the reason that they can't release these contracts

00:14:44.360 is because the vaccine companies themselves don't warrant the vaccines for safety

00:14:48.780 and that the vaccines themselves didn't undergo adequate safety, long-term safety studies

00:14:57.720 and that the government was, you know, forced to, you know, put the vaccines out under those circumstances

00:15:02.700 even though the vaccines weren't warranted for safety

00:15:06.100 and the government had to indemnify the vaccine companies from any lawsuits arising from unsafe vaccines being put on the market.

00:15:14.460 Obviously, all of those facts, if they'd been made available to the Canadian public,

00:15:18.780 you know, would have mitigated towards a large number of Canadians not having their children vaccinated or not agreeing to take part in this huge medical experiment that has injured literally tens of thousands of Canadians from coast to coast.

00:15:34.220 So, you know, in this instance, we're looking at financial redress from the Alberta government for affected businesses. But when we're talking more about the COVID injury stuff that you've just mentioned, is there any way for Dina Hinshaw herself to be held accountable for her actions? Or is she completely protected as a employee of Alberta at the time?

00:15:54.820 Well, I mean, that's the problem. I mean, there's, you know, there's something you're taught in law school, which is you never sue a man of straw or a person that doesn't have any means. The problem is the first successful lawsuit against Dina Hinshaw would bankrupt her at a personal level. So, you know, suing Dina Hinshaw, unfortunately, doesn't accomplish anything.

00:16:13.200 You know, what we're hoping is that is that Danielle Smith will live up to the promises that she made when she was running to be premier of the province of Alberta and, you know, and to take measures to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

00:16:26.680 And I certainly think that, you know, one of the things that should be considered by the Alberta government is, you know, is that a criminal investigation be undertaken of every member of AHS and the College of Physicians and Surgeons and others who were involved in, you know, conspiring to hide information from the public with regard to the safety of these vaccines.

00:16:48.220 You know, because clearly, you know, clearly the degree to which all of these people engaged in propaganda, you know, with their safe and effective campaigns, take the first available vaccine campaigns, you know, trying, you know, Dina Hinshaw standing up in public and literally providing false information with regard to children who allegedly died from the vaccines when they actually were dying from, you know, severe pediatric

00:17:18.220 uh deformations and conditions or alternatively you know fourth stage cancers uh you know needs

00:17:24.940 to be looked at from the standpoint of whether it's criminal sanctions or sanctions by the

00:17:29.740 college of physicians and surgeons you know were the college of physicians and surgeons to actually

00:17:34.300 ever take action against anyone that was involved you know in this severe breach of medical ethics

00:17:40.380 you know so those are all things that you know i think that the premier herself should be pushing 0.99

00:17:44.860 And, you know, should be demanding that her attorney general deal with, you know, at the highest level in Alberta, as she promised to do when she was running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.

00:17:55.800 We certainly hope that there's going to be a public inquiry, that all of these things aren't simply going to be swept under the rug, as so many of the bureaucrats, you know, who are responsible for all of this hope to happen and that are all pushing behind the scenes to have the government, you know, continue to engage, you know, in, you know, in an ongoing cover up with regard to, you know, everything that went on during, you know, the, you know, during the phony public health management crisis that we went through in 19 or in 2020, 2022.

00:18:25.800 21 and 2022. Just my last question here before I let you go. So when you're talking about criminal

00:18:31.260 sanctions, would you like Dina Hinshaw to face jail time for her actions forcing the vaccine on 0.99

00:18:36.300 people during the pandemic? You know, I don't think that's for me to determine. I think that

00:18:40.020 there needs to be a proper investigation of all of this by the Attorney General of Alberta with a

00:18:45.300 view towards determining whether culpability, you know, should fall or not. You know, certainly we

00:18:50.500 say from a civil standpoint that Dina Hinshaw should be you know and the government of Alberta

00:18:56.160 should be held civilly liable for the fact that Dina Hinshaw was grossly incompetent didn't 1.00

00:19:01.840 understand the limits of her authority under the Public Health Act and issued you know literally

00:19:07.300 you know you know in excess of a hundred orders that destroyed businesses on this province that

00:19:14.560 completely exceeded her authority under the Public Health Act so you know that's where that's where

00:19:19.360 we're focused right now but i certainly hope that premier smith understands that uh you know that

00:19:24.320 this isn't uh you know that you know that she shouldn't be listening to the bureaucrats that 1.00

00:19:29.340 surround her and simply continue to sweep this under the carpet uh because the people that

00:19:34.240 elected her uh demand uh you know demand justice and demand a full uh you know a full public 1.00

00:19:41.160 inquiry into what went on jeff thanks so much for your time today i know my viewers really

00:19:46.320 appreciate your insight and all the information about the lawsuit you're working on. We will

00:19:50.420 certainly be following that story with interest in the coming months. And to the rest of my viewers,

00:19:54.780 we will be back with our regular programming on Saturday. You won't want to miss this week's

00:19:59.700 episode. As always, thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys in a couple of days. God bless.

Juno News - February 21, 2024

Suit seeks Covid compensation for businesses

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