Juno News - Unvaccinated woman denied organ transplant

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel. I hope you're

00:00:13.580 having a great weekend so far. Let's take a look at what we're going to be talking about on today's

00:00:17.680 show. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith will return to the Legislative Assembly. Smith also said she

00:00:22.880 wants the federal government to cancel its carbon tax and federal fuel tax. The Alberta Court of

00:00:28.600 Appeal upheld a decision to deny an unvaccinated woman an organ transplant, which she will die 0.95

00:00:33.860 without. A former NDP MLA has pled guilty, stay with us to find out why. And Edmonton has introduced a

00:00:41.060 carbon budget. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup. Voters in Brooks Medicine Hat

00:00:47.000 on Tuesday elected United Conservative Party leader and Premier Daniel Smith to represent them as their

00:00:52.940 MLA. Smith was elected with 54.5% of the vote, while NDP candidate Gwendolyn Dirk came second

00:00:59.580 with 26.7% of the vote. Alberta Party leader and candidate Barry Mortishita came third with 16.5%.

00:01:07.400 Independence Party of Alberta candidate Bob Leon received 1.8% of the vote.

00:01:12.440 And the Wild Rose Independence Party candidate garnered 0.4%. Take a listen to Premier Smith's

00:01:18.840 victory speech after the results came in late on Tuesday. My friends, the people of Brooks Medicine

00:01:24.700 Hat have made their choice. And next year it'll be the turn of Albertans to make their choice.

00:01:30.220 And that choice is clear. You can choose Rachel Notley and the NDP that increasingly takes their

00:01:36.780 orders from Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau at the federal level.

00:01:41.620 Or you can choose a united, confident, and energized UCP. A UCP that will keep Alberta strong and free.

00:01:55.060 We are going to deliver more and better jobs, accessible health care, and a lower cost of

00:01:59.580 living for you and your family. That is the choice. That is the only choice. The Premier also said her

00:02:04.820 government will take unprecedented actions over the next few months to help Albertans weather the cost

00:02:09.680 of living crisis. That includes help with electricity bills, targeted help for seniors, another fuel tax

00:02:15.040 holiday, and genuine health care reform. Just one day after that victory, Premier Smith called on

00:02:20.360 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to axe the carbon tax and pause the federal fuel tax. In a letter to the

00:02:26.120 Prime Minister on Wednesday, Smith said her government is taking action to help Albertans through the

00:02:31.520 cost of living crisis. Well, she accused Justin Trudeau's imprudent policies of contributing to

00:02:36.840 inflation. Quote, Canadians need governments to take immediate action to address this affordability

00:02:42.320 crisis. An immediate and simple step your government should take is to cancel the planned increase in

00:02:47.900 the federal carbon tax. Then on Thursday, while speaking at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta Fall

00:02:52.880 22 Convention, the Premier announced the creation of a Ukrainian task force to better engage with the

00:02:58.060 Ukrainian community. She said that task force has been charged with coming up for recommendations with

00:03:02.600 the government by January 15. Take a listen to some more of her comments at that conference.

00:03:06.900 Let's talk a minute, though, about our priorities. In Canada, we are fortunate to be free of this kind of

00:03:13.580 violence and conflict. However, that doesn't mean that we are immune to global instability. The global economy

00:03:20.860 is currently facing a severe crisis of inflation and supply chain disruptions that hits all of us

00:03:26.360 directly and indirectly, including right in our wallets. And while it would be great to have a federal

00:03:32.400 partner who stands with us in fighting the affordability crisis, in truth, Alberta is on its own.

00:03:39.520 When you combine skyrocketing inflation with federal policies that target the energy industry and damage

00:03:44.740 the economy, the result is a crisis for regular working families. Whether it's fuel or electricity,

00:03:50.460 groceries, fertilizer for our farmers, the cost of everything we need to live and to raise our

00:03:56.040 families has soared. We can't solve this inflation crisis on our own, but we can certainly balance the

00:04:03.760 province's books as well as help Albertans cope with the worst financial pressures. So in the coming

00:04:11.080 weeks, and it won't be that long, this government is going to take decisive action to ensure that families

00:04:15.340 don't have to choose between buying food and keeping warm in the winter. We're going to lower

00:04:20.460 the cost of electricity to ease the financial burden for seniors and parents and vulnerable

00:04:25.260 Albertans. Our government is going to ensure that they have more money in their wallets right

00:04:30.240 away to meet the rising costs of life's necessities at this critical time. Our government is also going

00:04:36.280 to lock in removing the provincial fuel tax and ensure that the gas stations lower the prices

00:04:42.340 appropriately when we do that. Moving into the controversy of the week. On Tuesday, the Alberta

00:04:48.480 Court of Appeal upheld a lower court's decision to deny an unvaccinated woman an organ transplant.

00:04:54.060 They argued that clinical judgments are not subject to charter scrutiny. That ended Annette Lewis' bid to 0.96

00:04:59.800 return to the top of the organ transplant list. Health Minister Jason Copping's press secretary,

00:05:04.800 Steve Uick, told me that organ transplant programs are obligated to do all they can to ensure the best

00:05:10.140 possible outcomes of a donated organ. He said patients awaiting treatments are required to be

00:05:15.400 vaccinated against infections like tetanus, meningitis, influenza, COVID-19, and more.

00:05:21.700 Quote, the requirements are set by clinicians to maximize the odds that organ donor recipients are

00:05:26.820 able to live. He also said that the requirements are not new, nor are they specific to COVID-19 or to

00:05:32.600 Alberta, but are comparable to other transplant programs and based on common evidence and standard.

00:05:38.640 But in response to comments from the Health Minister Office, the Justice Centre for Constitutional

00:05:42.860 Freedoms, which is representing Lewis, said the comments fail to consider that the COVID-19 vaccine

00:05:47.900 is new and there is no long-term safety data available. Alison Pajovic, the lawyer overseeing

00:05:53.500 the case, told me the government's response does not consider that the COVID-19 vaccines are new,

00:05:58.360 while the other vaccines required have been around for decades. Quote, forcing terminally ill

00:06:03.320 transplant candidates to take a new vaccine as a condition of life-saving surgery that is still in

00:06:08.180 the testing phase for safety and efficacy is medically unethical. Pajovic pointed to evidence

00:06:13.460 put forward in court where both Lewis and the respondents agreed that there was no long-term

00:06:17.940 safety data for the COVID-19 vaccines because the vaccines have not been around for long enough.

00:06:22.740 She also pointed to the fact that the COVID-19 vaccines are still in phase three clinical testing

00:06:26.740 trial for safety and efficacy. Meanwhile, the appeal court acknowledged that it's a virtual

00:06:30.760 certainty that Lewis will die without an organ transplant. The Justice Centre for Constitutional

00:06:35.720 Freedoms is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. The ruling follows comments from

00:06:40.240 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who said the unvaccinated have faced the most discrimination

00:06:44.440 in Canada she's witnessed in her lifetime. She's also promised to amend the Alberta Human Rights Act

00:06:49.500 to make it illegal to discriminate based on vaccination status. Former Alberta NDP MLA Thomas

00:06:54.980 Dang has pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health Information Act. Dang was charged in June for

00:07:00.580 illegally attempting to access private information contained in the Alberta Health Vaccine Portal in

00:07:05.400 September 2021. He entered a guilty plea in provincial court last week. The Crown is seeking

00:07:11.360 a $10,000 fine, while Dang's defense is asking for under $4,000. You guys likely know the details of

00:07:17.600 this story by now, but let's just do a quick refresher for those of you who are new to it. The MLA said he

00:07:21.880 accessed a site to test vulnerabilities on the newly launched Alberta Health Vaccine Portal. He used

00:07:26.840 former Premier Jason Kenney's birthday and vaccination dates, which are publicly available, to crack the site's

00:07:32.440 privacy safeguards. Between September 19 and 23, 2021, Dang's computer program made 1.78 million queries

00:07:40.680 using Kenney's personal information. Dang admitted to the RCMP the queries were randomly generated guesses,

00:07:47.800 aimed at revealing the Premier's healthcare number. Dang ended up breaching the system and uncovering a

00:07:52.440 woman's private medical information in the process. Okay guys, what we're watching in the weeks to come.

00:07:57.200 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has said she's interested to hear what COVID-19 vaccine skeptic,

00:08:02.880 Dr. Paul Alexander, has to say to officials at Alberta Health Services. Dr. Alexander was a health

00:08:08.640 advisor to former Republican President Donald Trump in the early stages of the pandemic. He's against

00:08:13.600 lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines, which he's called a gene injection bioweapon. And finally, you guys,

00:08:19.680 moving into the Alberta politics funny moment of the week. The city of Edmonton has developed a carbon

00:08:24.880 budget to measure the energy transition required to becoming a climate resilient city. I read this

00:08:30.640 over a hundred page document so that you don't have to. You're welcome. The 2023 to 2026 carbon budget

00:08:37.440 says the city is warming at one of the fastest rates in the world and that GDP costs increase with

00:08:42.640 each degree of additional warming. The city now wants carbon budgeting to guide decisions by providing

00:08:48.000 additional carbon emissions information. The citizens advocacy group Common Sense Edmonton is calling

00:08:53.280 the document a massive waste of time, resources, and taxpayers' money. Okay guys, thanks so much for

00:08:58.000 tuning in. That's all I have for you today, but you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if

00:09:02.080 you want to let me know what you liked about the show or what you think I missed. If you want to

00:09:05.440 support our work over at True North, please visit donate.tnc.news. Thanks so much, have a great weekend, and God bless.

00:09:12.000 You

Juno News - November 12, 2022

Unvaccinated woman denied organ transplant

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