When the “experts” turn out to be partisan activists
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Summary
Dr. Joe Vipond has become one of the loudest voices in Alberta, and he's become one the doctors most frequently tapped to come on television and talk about what's going on. He's supposed to be a person who helps us make sense of the world and explains the science and everything is happening from a medical perspective. Well, last week he was on CTV and he was losing his mind about the changing categorization of Cytodren as a pandemic.
Transcript
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We need to trust the science, but what happens when the doctors who are promoted as the voice
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of reason turn out to be nothing more than partisan activists? I'm Candace Malcolm and
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this is The Candace Malcolm Show. Hi everyone, thank you for tuning into the program today. Now
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in the last episode of the show, which came out earlier this week, I played a clip of an Alberta
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doctor who quite frankly is a little bit deranged. This is Dr. Joe Vipond and he has become one
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of the loudest voices in Alberta. He's become one of the doctors most frequently tapped to
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come on television and talk about what's going on. He's supposed to be a person who helps us
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make sense of the world and explains the science and everything is happening from a medical perspective.
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Well, last week he was on CTV and he was losing his mind about the changing categorization
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of COVID. It went from being a pandemic to an endemic, which means that we have to learn to
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live with the virus. It makes sense during a time where we're promoting vaccines. The more people
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who get vaccinated, the more people whose life can go back to normal. And that was sort of the point
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of the health experts and the leadership in Alberta. This doctor really didn't like it. And so
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he basically had a temper tantrum on live television. Here is what that looked like.
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It's insane. It's this incredible experiment to see how many people we can get sick, have long-term
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disability and possibly die. Like who does this to their own public? Who does this? Like what,
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what the hell? Who does this to their own public? He shrieked while accusing Alberta's premier and top
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doctor Dr. Dina Henshaw of intentionally trying to kill people. That's what he was saying in that clip.
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And he was rather oddly, I think, dressed up in his operating room scrubs, even though he was clearly
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sitting in his own living room. Well, that is a stunt. It's there to remind you that he is a wise
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and educated and powerful doctor who really knows what he's talking about. Well, his strange behavior
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didn't end when he left the studio of CTV. He then went and helped organize a pro lockdown rally,
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a series of rallies in Edmonton and Calgary. You know, those rallies that only attracted a few dozen
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pro big government protesters, even though it had wall to wall coverage and cheerleading by the legacy
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media. So this is what he said on social media about those rallies. Your risk by taking to the streets
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and toppling this government is less than that of letting them enact this insane policy. We need to take to the streets
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a general strike and a call for an election. Wow. This guy really believes his own hyperbolic rhetoric.
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He wants you to take to the streets and topple a government here in Canada. Here in Canada. Well,
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let me let me tell you how. This is Canada. This is not some hellhole dictatorship.
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Mobs on the streets do not get to determine who is in power. Mobs on the streets do not get to take
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down governments in Canada. Seriously, if he is so worried about the Delta variant, which is what
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he's saying on television, why is he calling for people to aggregate on the streets? And why is he
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calling for a general strike? Presumably that means of his fellow doctors and nurses and hospital
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employees, which would put people in need at further risk. He would put sick patients at further risk
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for a political stunt. It doesn't seem very logical to me. Now at one rally, once again, Dr. Vipond
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showed up wearing his hospital scrubs because of course he did. The media's wall to wall coverage of the
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dozens of protesters continued. Here is a global news report about day two of these riveting pro
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lockdown protests. This time, Dr. Vipond demanded, get this, that the Liberal government intervene in
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Alberta to change this policy that he doesn't like. I call on the Attorney General of Canada to reach out
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to our Premier and say that you are not allowed to violate the charter rights of 4.5 million Albertans.
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What a joke. This guy is so out of touch, it's laughable. Well, he went on to call for the
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resignation of Dr. Hinshaw, the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta. And as I pointed out in my show
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earlier this week, when you or I criticize the public health officials, when we criticize the top doctors,
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we are undermining public trust. We're undermining the integrity of our democracy. But those rules
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only apply to you and I. It doesn't apply to them. The leftist lockdown authoritarians have given
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themselves permission to sow doubt, to undermine public health recommendations, and to criticize the
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top doctors and health experts to their heart's content. Must be nice. Now interestingly, some people
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on social media began to connect the dots and ask questions about this doctor. I'll read you one
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amusing thread from the weekend. So this is Hayden Place. Hayden works for the Conservative government
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Dr. Hinshaw specializes in public health. Dr. Vapont is an Emerge doc. It's unfortunate that
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Alberta's media has made the latter a prominent voice on COVID-19. So good point, but I'll put in the
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caveat this guy is a partisan conservative. So we're supposed to take that with a grain of salt,
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right? Okay. Well, look at this reply. It's from another doctor in Alberta. This is Dr.
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NDP and NDP media loved Dr. Hinshaw until they found out she would not be politically useful to
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the NDP. Then they turned on her. Dr. Vapont is one of a dozen NDP activist doctors, trademark.
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He has no public health or infectious disease expertise, but he is an expert in NDP propaganda.
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Okay. Well, it gets even more interesting because Dr. Vapont himself jumped in on Twitter to reply.
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And he said this reference for me being an NDP activist donor, please. Thanks for that. Otherwise,
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this might be considered slander. If not true, those are fighting words. And just in case he wasn't clear,
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he went on to say this, he replied again, and this is what he said. I am an independent practitioner
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with no ties to the NDP. If you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to produce it. So he is
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adamantly assuring us that he is not connected to the NDP, that he is not an NDP donor, and that he has
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no ties to the party. What he's saying is that he's not a partisan doctor. He's just a concerned
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citizen and an independent activist. Got it? Okay. Well, just wait one second. Our researchers here
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at True North decided to do a little bit of digging. And lo and behold, we found evidence to the contrary.
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And so as per Dr. Vapont's request, we have felt free to release it. Here is data from Alberta's
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political contributions database. And you can go through and you can see someone named Joe Vapont from
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Calgary donating thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to the
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provincial NDP, going back all the way from 2014 to as recently as the 2019 campaign. So Joe Vapont is a
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NDP donor. As you can clearly see, he donated multiple times, lots and lots of money to True North
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Scout, nearly $20,000. Given the limits and the constraints on campaign contributions and financial
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donations, I imagine he's actually one of the largest individual donors to the NDP party in
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Alberta. But surely it can't be the same guy, right? The media would have had to disclose that
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when they were interviewing him and promoting him. And this trusted and honest doctor who was
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adamantly denying any ties to the NDP, he wouldn't have done that, right? Well, get this,
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True North reached out to Dr. Vapont to find out if it was him who was donating to the NDP. And if it
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wasn't him, who was it that was using his name to give the NDP all this cash? Well, this is the message
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that Dr. Vapont sent to us. He said this, quote, I have no ties with the NDP other than past donations.
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As a strong supporter of climate action, I felt it was my duty as a citizen to support a party that
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acknowledges and acts on climate crisis. Okay, interesting, isn't it? This very educated and
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very outspoken doctor who is held up as an ideal in the legacy media. In the same sentence, he says
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that he has no ties to a political party, while also admitting that he has been writing them a series of
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four-figure checks to the amount of nearly $20,000 over the past five or six years. It's the same
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sentence. He says, I have no ties to the NDP other than past donations. Can you imagine making that
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statement and thinking that it makes sense? But it's a-okay, folks, because he says that he donated
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because of the climate crisis, not because of the COVID crisis. So it's totally different and it's
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totally fine. I wonder if he disclosed his sizable donations to CTV, CBC, and Global before going on air
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and pretending to be a neutral, apolitical doctor. And further to that, I wonder if anyone at those
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news stations bothered to look into this. True North is a small team. We have a small group of
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investigative reporters and researchers, and yet we were able to pull up this information in a matter
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of minutes quite easily. So why wouldn't the hordes of staffers in the newsrooms over at CTV, Global,
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and CBC bother to do a very simple background check on this doctor before giving him all this
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credibility and giving him a huge microphone to blast his alarmism, to blast his fanaticism,
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and his demands for authoritarian lockdown messages on their airway? This seems like pretty basic
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journalism to me. But of course, the legacy media too often doesn't do journalism. They do activism.
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And this activist doctor fit right into their worldview, and so they blasted his message throughout
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the pandemic. Well, Alberta is not the only province to see politics mixed in with public
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health experts and doctors. Take a look at this story from my colleague Anthony Fury over at the
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Toronto Sun. It says the headline, doctor running for provincial liberals will remain on Ontario Science
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Table. Physician Dr. Nathan Stahl is set to be a star candidate in Toronto St. Paul riding. So much for
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being nonpartisan. A prominent doctor who sits on the Ontario Science Table is expected to be acclaimed
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later this month as an Ontario Liberal candidate for next year's provincial election. Dr. Nathan Stahl,
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a specialist in geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital, is currently the sole vetted contender for the
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nomination process for the riding of Toronto St. Paul's, as first reported by Queens Park Observer.
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However, if Stahl does win the nomination and becomes a visible and vocal Liberal, he'll remain as a member of
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the nonpartisan Ontario Science Table. I have informed Drs. Brown and Schwartz of my decision to
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seek the Ontario Liberal nomination in Toronto St. Paul, still told the Sun via email. Following
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that conversation, I appreciated their decision for me to continue offering my professional scientific
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advice as one of 40 volunteers on the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, noting that my
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contributions to the table are not political, they are strictly scientific. So you get that? This guy has
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given himself permission to remain on this apolitical scientific panel while also getting involved in
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partisan politics. So what exactly is the Ontario Scientific Advisory Table? Well, let me read a little
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bit from their website. The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table is a group of scientific experts and
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health system leaders who evaluate and report on emerging evidence relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic to
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inform Ontario's response. It goes on to say the Science Table is an independent group hosted by the
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Dalla Lana School of Public Health. There is no compensation. So how are they independent if they
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have a politician sitting on the panel and a politician so brazen that he says he won't even bother resigning
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from the position if he is elected and chosen as a Liberal candidate? I'm sorry to say, but that is no longer a
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political, it's no longer independent. Look, there's nothing wrong with doctors making political donations
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or running for public office. It's actually probably a good thing to have more doctors involved. And
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there's nothing wrong with partisan politics in and of itself. As I've told you before, when I was in
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university and after I graduated, I dabbled in partisan politics myself. I volunteered for the Liberal
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Party in British Columbia. And then a little later on, I worked for the Wild Rose Party in Alberta for
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Danielle Smith. And I worked for the Conservative government in Ottawa for a little less than a year.
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And this is all over a decade ago. I haven't made any political contributions, and I am not a member of
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any political party. But you probably knew that about me already. I'm open and transparent about who I am
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and what I believe. The problem is that too often, these doctors are not. And the media in this country
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are more than happy to hold up these doctors and other political activists like them and mislead the
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public about who they are, what their agenda is, and what they believe. This is just another reason
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for you to turn off the legacy media and instead to promote and support independent news outlets like
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true north. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.