The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Suit seeks Covid compensation for businesses

00:00:00.000 Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.

00:00:19.180 For this week's interview, we are joined live with prominent Alberta lawyer, Jeffrey Rath.

00:00:24.680 Rath is the lead counsel on a proposed lawsuit that seeks financial redress for Calgary businesses

00:00:32.700 that were forced to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Rath, thank you so much for joining

00:00:38.120 us today. My pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. So I know that this proposed lawsuit

00:00:44.720 stems from the recent Ingram decision in which the Calgary's Court of Kings bench determined that

00:00:51.040 some of the public health orders were illegal. And you saw an opportunity there to maybe get

00:00:57.820 some redress for some of the businesses that were forced to close. Can you explain how the

00:01:02.120 Ingram decision opened up the possibility for this class action lawsuit?

00:01:06.440 Yeah. And first of all, this isn't a proposed lawsuit. It actually is a lawsuit on behalf of

00:01:11.480 Rebecca Ingram and Christopher Scott. What we're seeking is certification to have the action

00:01:16.440 certified as a class action on behalf of every other business or person in Alberta that was

00:01:22.860 economically harmed as a result of all of the orders of Jason Kenney and Dina Hinshaw that the

00:01:29.580 Alberta Court of Kings bench found to be ultra vires or illegal under the Public Health Act.

00:01:37.720 So the process, you know, moving forward is, you know, there is a lawsuit on behalf of Ms. 1.00

00:01:42.900 Ingram and Mr. Scott, but we've applied to the court for certification of the class action.

00:01:48.160 And the hearing of that certification motion is currently scheduled to take place in the first

00:01:53.440 week of October of this year. So we're talking about a class action lawsuit. How does that work?

00:01:58.920 Do people have to apply to be part of it? Do you automatically just represent all Alberta

00:02:02.660 businesses that would fall under the category? The way it works in Alberta is that if people don't

00:02:09.640 want to be part of it, they would opt out by contacting our office. That being said, if people

00:02:14.660 go to wrathandcompany.com, and again, that's wrathandcompany.com and tap on the business class

00:02:21.660 action tab, you'll see that we've, you know, set out all the pleadings, we've set out the

00:02:27.100 background of the lawsuit. And what we're asking people to do is to fill out a form with all of

00:02:32.540 their information. Because one of the things that we're trying to do is to get a handle on the scope

00:02:38.080 of the losses that people have suffered in this province. We suspect that it's in the, you know,

00:02:43.260 that it's in the high billions of dollars, you know, in excess of $10 billion. Just looking at

00:02:49.080 some of the numbers that we've been seeing and extrapolating from there, some businesses, you

00:02:53.480 know, their losses are as, you know, as little as, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars.

00:02:57.220 But certainly, you know, median size, small businesses, restaurant chains and others, you know,

00:03:01.880 have losses, you know, in the tens of millions of dollars, you know, as a result of all of those

00:03:06.860 illegal COVID orders, and, you know, the government of Alberta unlawfully and thoughtlessly destroying

00:03:15.500 businesses in this province.

00:03:18.140 So when you talk about, you know, you're still sort of in that information gathering portion,

00:03:22.900 you're still looking to hear from businesses to see how they were impacted. Do you have any idea

00:03:26.840 what sort of monetary amount you would be seeking?

00:03:29.380 Well, I mean, it's every business is going to be compensated on the basis of what their

00:03:34.120 losses were, you know, as I've indicated, you know, some businesses that can quickly

00:03:38.020 quantify their losses, you know, like small, you know, beauty salons, physiotherapy offices,

00:03:44.220 dental offices, etc. They can say, okay, I was shut down for six weeks. You know, our, you know,

00:03:50.940 our revenue leading up to that was approximately, you know, X number of dollars per week, you know,

00:03:56.360 multiplied by, you know, however many weeks, you know, we were that, you know, we were shut down,

00:04:01.100 you know, our losses are, you know, several hundred thousand dollars, right? On the other

00:04:04.680 hand, you know, as I've indicated, you know, restaurant chains, you know, people that had

00:04:09.780 groups of restaurants, the losses could be in the, you know, in the tens of millions of dollars.

00:04:14.640 And certainly there are restaurant groups and restaurants in this province that were

00:04:17.920 completely bankrupted, you know, as a result, you know, of these thoughtless and illegal orders.

00:04:23.600 And, you know, what are the costs of, you know, making those people whole for having their

00:04:28.860 families, you know, lives and livelihoods completely destroyed, you know, by somebody,

00:04:34.780 you know, somebody who is so incompetent that she didn't even know the scope of her authority

00:04:40.280 under the statute that she was acting under.

00:04:44.500 When we're talking...

00:04:45.820 I'm referring specifically to Dina Hinshaw.

00:04:48.220 Sure. Yeah, definitely. One of the civil servants, I think we were just chatting about this

00:04:53.020 on the phone the other day, just the amount of money that she herself collected from Canadian

00:04:57.480 and Alberta, specifically taxpayers, I think, to the tune of well over half a million dollars.

00:05:02.300 And then when we look at some of the impact of businesses, it is certainly concerning.

00:05:05.360 I think a lot of people are really excited about this lawsuit.

00:05:07.860 Is there a burden of proof on the businesses to prove how much they lost during the period

00:05:13.160 that they were forced to close?

00:05:14.740 Well, obviously there's going to be a requirement for the businesses to prove, you know, their losses.

00:05:19.240 But one of the great things about this lawsuit is that liability really isn't an issue,

00:05:24.380 you know, thanks to the Ingram decision in the Court of King's Bench.

00:05:27.280 The orders were, you know, by declaration of the Court of King's Bench were all illegal.

00:05:31.700 You know, we had this process where by, you know, Dina Hinshaw claiming to be everyone's doctor 0.90

00:05:36.900 and claiming to act as the chief medical officer of health would go into cabinet

00:05:41.620 and basically take medical advice from a Divinity School dropout, specifically Jason Kenney,

00:05:47.080 with regard to public health orders in the province of Alberta without any thought to the harm

00:05:53.040 that was going to be done by these orders.

00:05:55.540 You know, the other issue that I'd like people to consider with regard to this lawsuit,

00:05:59.220 because I know there's people out there that say, oh, you're suing the Alberta government,

00:06:03.220 so it's our tax dollars, you know, that are going to have to pay for this.

00:06:07.000 You know, people are concerned about that.

00:06:08.460 You know, I'd like to ask them to consider, you know, whether they think would be appropriate

00:06:12.220 if, you know, a government employee driving drunk were to run over one of their parents

00:06:16.940 and the taxpayers were on the hook for that, you know, whether or not, you know,

00:06:21.740 whether or not the government should pay.

00:06:23.700 You know, clearly, you know, everything that happened in this case was as a result of government malfeasance,

00:06:28.960 government negligence, you know, I would say gross negligence in terms of the way all of this rolled out.

00:06:34.500 You know, so, you know, that needs to be kept in mind, you know,

00:06:37.900 by everybody that's looking at this.

00:06:39.660 And we're obviously hoping that citizens in Alberta, you know,

00:06:42.620 will look at the fairness of this situation and say, you know, that, you know,

00:06:47.880 on what model, you know, like, let's even assume, which, you know, I think is wrong,

00:06:52.160 but let's assume for a minute that locking down the businesses of healthy people,

00:06:56.460 preventing them from providing services, you know, to other healthy people,

00:07:00.600 you know, made any sense whatsoever.

00:07:02.140 And let's assume that it was a bona fide good for the public at large.

00:07:06.700 And then what was done was actually for the public good.

00:07:10.100 On what theory should the public benefit at the expense of a small class of Alberta citizens?

00:07:16.860 Right.

00:07:17.060 I mean, we've got people that, you know, have literally, you know,

00:07:19.680 have had a huge fiscal hole put in the middle of their businesses.

00:07:23.700 They had to take on partners they never wanted.

00:07:25.900 And businesses that were otherwise debt-free are now in hock to the tune of millions of dollars

00:07:33.980 to banks that they've had to borrow money from to keep their businesses whole and moving forward.

00:07:39.260 And, you know, of course, you know, which, you know, because so much of the equity

00:07:42.300 in their businesses were destroyed by these foolish orders promulgated by Jason Denny and Dina Hinshaw.

00:07:48.500 So, you know, our question is on what theory should the government escape liability for this?

00:07:52.760 So, lead plaintiffs on the case, I know one of them is Chris Scott.

00:07:57.340 Can you explain a little bit about who they are?

00:07:59.840 Sure.

00:08:00.260 Rebecca Ingram, of course, was a gym owner that brought forward the, you know, the Ingram decision.

00:08:06.560 And in that case, that case was actually necessary to provide the foundation to this class action

00:08:12.800 because there's a section of the Public Health Act that says that the government's immune from suit

00:08:18.500 for any actions taken under the Public Health Act.

00:08:23.240 So, it was very important to us, you know, from a legal perspective,

00:08:26.940 that we won the judgment from the Court of King's Bench saying that all of the orders of Dina Hinshaw

00:08:32.920 were ultra-vires the Public Health Act and illegal.

00:08:36.400 So, from our analysis and the work that we did in our office,

00:08:40.380 it wasn't enough to have the court to say that the orders violated the charter.

00:08:43.660 What we really needed was the order saying that the, you know, saying that Dina Hinshaw's public health orders

00:08:49.060 were outside of the scope of the Public Health Act because, as a result,

00:08:53.480 neither Dina Hinshaw or the government of Alberta now enjoy any protection whatsoever from lawsuit

00:08:58.860 because these orders were not issued under the Public Health Act because they were ultra-vires, right?

00:09:04.640 So, that's the first point.

00:09:06.560 And that was the case that Rebecca brought forward when her gym was improperly shut down by Dina Hinshaw. 1.00

00:09:13.620 And, of course, Rebecca's gym was well-run.

00:09:16.060 It was an extremely large facility.

00:09:17.980 So, 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,

00:09:28.400 but if you went to a mom-and-pop on the corner, you're going to get COVID,

00:09:31.540 or if you simply followed the arrows on the floor of the co-op, you weren't going to get COVID. 0.54

00:09:36.280 But if you remember that foolishness...

00:09:38.060 Unfortunately, I do. Unfortunately. 0.88

00:09:39.820 You know, all of those silly orders that were issued, right?

00:09:43.740 You know, so, you know, Rebecca, you know, was running an extremely, you know, well-managed, clean facility. 0.95

00:09:49.100 There's no documented cases of COVID at her facility whatsoever.

00:09:53.040 Yet, she was being shut down and she was forced to sell her business at a loss.

00:09:57.620 Chris Scott, you know, was correctly protesting the fact, you know, that these orders were illegal.

00:10:04.240 As it turns out, he was right.

00:10:06.660 Yet, Chris Scott was taken away in handcuffs and thrown in jail and his business was padlocked

00:10:12.720 and he was prevented from running a business and feeding his family, you know, as a result of these illegal orders.

00:10:21.560 So, of course, Chris is suing, you know, for the business losses that accrue, you know,

00:10:25.900 as a result of these illegal orders.

00:10:27.420 And we'll also be seeking damages on, you know, on Chris's behalf, you know, for the manner in which he was treated,

00:10:33.980 which was completely egregious.

00:10:36.900 When we talk about the illegal orders, specifically right now, we're looking at financial redress for businesses.

00:10:42.840 But have you given any thought to other potential lawsuits that could stem from the Ingram decision?

00:10:47.440 Well, I mean, as far as it goes, we're looking, you know, you know, the class of applicants under Ingram

00:10:54.720 would include any individual that suffered economic losses as a result of the illegal orders.

00:11:00.380 You know, in, you know, in the coming days, we're going to be issuing another press release

00:11:05.440 and announcing a major class action lawsuit with regard to vaccine injuries in the province of Alberta.

00:11:12.600 Because let's not forget that, you know, let's not forget that the injuries as a result of, you know,

00:11:18.800 Dr. Hinshaw's negligence wasn't limited to the illegal orders that she issued.

00:11:24.520 Like, remember, Dean Hinshaw, you know, telling people that, you know,

00:11:28.280 if they had the AstraZeneca vaccine, you know,

00:11:31.600 and after that was discontinued because it was hurting people and injuring people

00:11:35.960 and causing heart disease and other problems,

00:11:38.460 she was standing up in public saying,

00:11:40.860 oh, well, it doesn't matter that, you know, you've already taken a drug that may have hurt your health.

00:11:45.300 You should go out and take whatever other shots available.

00:11:48.460 Take Pfizer, take Moderna.

00:11:50.300 It's all good.

00:11:51.440 Take my vaccine buffet.

00:11:52.940 That's what I've been doing.

00:11:53.840 Well, people were horribly injured as a result of Dean Hinshaw's advice

00:11:58.440 that people sign up for her vaccine buffet.

00:12:01.600 And, you know, so we're representing,

00:12:03.300 we'll be representing individuals that were harmed by that negligent medical advice of Dr. Hinshaw's

00:12:08.160 and her conspiracy to commit assault in a civil sense, not a criminal sense,

00:12:14.100 but a conspiracy to commit civil assault by, you know,

00:12:17.280 acting in lockstep with Teresa Tam and other representatives of the government of Canada,

00:12:23.660 repeatedly telling people that the vaccines were safe and effective

00:12:27.540 while they were simultaneously hiding information from the public about vaccine injuries

00:12:34.280 and how dangerous these vaccines actually were, you know, for people.

00:12:38.480 I mean, it was certainly well known from the Pfizer data itself

00:12:41.800 that if you were a child under the age of 18,

00:12:44.740 you're far more likely to be harmed by the vaccines than you were to be harmed by COVID itself.

00:12:49.740 There's, you know, I refer to it repeatedly in correspondence with the Prime Minister

00:12:53.820 and Dean Hinshaw and Teresa Tam.

00:12:57.020 It was Table 14 of the Pfizer EUA application of the United States,

00:13:01.980 where Pfizer itself submitted documents to the American government

00:13:05.880 that indicated that for children under the age of 18,

00:13:09.780 they would notionally save one life per million of children under the age of 18

00:13:17.420 if they got the Pfizer COVID vaccine from dying from COVID,

00:13:21.560 but they were going to put 34 children into the intensive care unit

00:13:26.940 with intense myocarditis if they took the vaccine.

00:13:31.120 And of course, all of that information was suppressed by Dean Hinshaw,

00:13:34.200 was suppressed by Teresa Tam, was suppressed by the Trudeau government

00:13:37.080 because they didn't want people to really know what the risks were

00:13:41.220 associated with these vaccines.

00:13:43.300 So in effect, what they were doing was conspiring to prevent people

00:13:47.480 from obtaining, you know, full informed consent with regard to the shots.

00:13:53.080 So we say from a legal perspective, you know, beyond negligence,

00:13:56.580 breach of fiduciary duty, public duty, etc.,

00:13:59.040 all of them, including Dean Hinshaw in a civil sense,

00:14:02.500 were conspiring to commit assault and battery

00:14:05.240 on every citizen in Canada by conspiring to hide information

00:14:10.080 with regard to vaccine safety from the Canadian public.

00:14:13.540 You know, another good example of this is the fact

00:14:18.400 that the Minister of Health has the authority,

00:14:20.400 notwithstanding confidentiality provisions,

00:14:23.260 in the vaccine supply contracts to release those contracts

00:14:26.780 to the public if they contained information that would be germane

00:14:30.420 to the public in making a decision as to whether

00:14:32.480 to take the vaccines or not.

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

00:14:36.340 in committee in Ottawa stated publicly that the reason

00:14:42.200 that they can't release these contracts

00:14:44.380 is because the vaccine companies themselves

00:14:46.880 don't warrant the vaccines for safety

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

00:14:54.260 long-term safety studies and that the government was, you know,

00:14:59.540 forced to, you know, put the vaccines out under those circumstances,

00:15:02.720 even though the vaccines weren't warranted for safety

00:15:06.140 and the government had to indemnify the vaccine companies

00:15:09.840 from any lawsuits arising from unsafe vaccines being put on the market.

00:15:14.520 Obviously, all of those facts, if they'd been made available

00:15:17.440 to the Canadian public, you know, would have mitigated

00:15:20.140 towards a large number of Canadians not having their children vaccinated

00:15:24.020 or not agreeing to take part in this huge medical experiment

00:15:28.760 that has injured literally tens of thousands of Canadians

00:15:33.200 from coast to coast.

00:15:35.100 So, you know, in this instance, we're looking at financial redress

00:15:38.520 from the Alberta government for affected businesses,

00:15:40.600 but when we're talking more about the COVID injury stuff

00:15:43.600 that you've just mentioned,

00:15:44.640 is there any way for Dina Hinshaw herself 1.00

00:15:48.480 to be held accountable for her actions

00:15:50.340 or is she completely protected

00:15:51.660 as a employee of Alberta at the time?

00:15:55.440 Well, I mean, that's the problem.

00:15:56.700 I mean, there's, you know, there's something you're taught

00:15:58.120 in law school, which is you never sue a man of straw 0.98

00:16:00.460 or a person that doesn't have any means.

00:16:02.480 The problem is that the first successful lawsuit

00:16:05.060 against Dina Hinshaw would bankrupt her 0.97

00:16:06.940 at a personal level.

00:16:09.160 So, you know, suing Dina Hinshaw,

00:16:11.140 unfortunately, doesn't accomplish anything.

00:16:13.220 You know, what we're hoping is that Danielle Smith

00:16:16.520 will live up to the promises that she made

00:16:18.620 when she was running to be premier

00:16:20.900 of the province of Alberta

00:16:22.080 and, you know, and to take measures

00:16:24.920 to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

00:16:27.020 And I certainly think that, you know,

00:16:29.600 one of the things that should be considered

00:16:31.320 by the Alberta government is, you know,

00:16:33.180 is that a criminal investigation be undertaken

00:16:35.340 of every member of AHS

00:16:37.580 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons

00:16:39.580 and others who were involved in, you know,

00:16:43.320 conspiring to hide information from the public

00:16:45.920 with regard to the safety of these vaccines.

00:16:48.800 You know, because clearly, you know,

00:16:51.340 clearly the degree to which all of these people

00:16:55.880 engaged in propaganda, you know,

00:16:58.260 with their safe and effective campaigns,

00:17:00.380 take the first available vaccine campaigns,

00:17:03.580 you know, trying, you know, Dina Hinshaw

00:17:05.140 standing up in public and literally providing

00:17:09.140 false information with regard to children

00:17:12.220 who allegedly died from the vaccines

00:17:14.320 when they actually were dying from,

00:17:16.020 you know, severe pediatric

00:17:17.440 deformations and conditions

00:17:20.400 or alternatively, you know,

00:17:22.180 fourth stage cancers, you know,

00:17:24.680 needs to be looked at from the standpoint

00:17:26.500 of whether it's criminal sanctions

00:17:28.500 or sanctions by the College of Physicians

00:17:30.700 and Surgeons, you know,

00:17:32.000 were the College of Physicians and Surgeons

00:17:33.800 to actually ever take action

00:17:35.340 against anyone that was involved,

00:17:37.640 you know, in this severe breach

00:17:39.220 of medical ethics, you know.

00:17:40.900 So those are all things that, you know,

00:17:42.440 I think that the premier herself

00:17:43.780 should be pushing and, you know,

00:17:45.520 should be demanding that her attorney general 1.00

00:17:47.520 deal with, you know,

00:17:48.680 at the highest level in Alberta

00:17:50.040 as she promised to do

00:17:51.220 when she was running for the leadership

00:17:52.520 of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.

00:17:56.080 We certainly hope that there's going

00:17:57.480 to be a public inquiry,

00:17:58.820 that all of these things

00:17:59.620 aren't simply going to be swept under the rug

00:18:01.520 as so many of the bureaucrats,

00:18:04.060 you know, who are responsible

00:18:05.020 for all of this hope to happen

00:18:06.620 and that are all pushing behind the scenes

00:18:08.900 to have the government, you know,

00:18:10.320 continue to engage, you know,

00:18:11.800 in, you know, in an ongoing cover-up

00:18:13.760 with regard to, you know,

00:18:15.780 everything that went on during,

00:18:18.100 you know, the, you know,

00:18:19.000 during the phony public health management crisis

00:18:22.200 that we went through in 19,

00:18:24.020 or in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

00:18:26.820 Just my last question here

00:18:29.160 before I let you go.

00:18:30.220 So when you're talking about criminal sanctions,

00:18:31.780 would you like Dina Hinshaw

00:18:33.160 to face jail time for her actions

00:18:35.080 forcing the vaccine on people

00:18:36.480 during the pandemic?

00:18:37.640 You know, I don't think

00:18:38.360 that's for me to determine.

00:18:39.560 I think that there needs to be

00:18:40.780 a proper investigation of all of this

00:18:43.340 by the Attorney General of Alberta

00:18:44.900 with a view towards determining

00:18:46.340 whether culpability, you know,

00:18:48.120 should fall or not.

00:18:49.720 You know, certainly we say

00:18:50.740 from a civil standpoint

00:18:51.980 that Dina Hinshaw should be,

00:18:54.980 you know, and the government of Alberta

00:18:56.180 should be held civilly liable

00:18:57.680 for the fact that Dina Hinshaw

00:18:59.960 was grossly incompetent,

00:19:01.600 didn't understand the limits 0.97

00:19:03.000 of her authority

00:19:03.760 under the Public Health Act

00:19:05.060 and issued, you know,

00:19:06.960 literally, you know,

00:19:08.180 you know, in excess of 100 orders

00:19:11.180 that destroyed businesses

00:19:12.740 on this province

00:19:14.040 that completely exceeded her authority

00:19:16.540 under the Public Health Act.

00:19:17.880 So, you know, that's where

00:19:19.000 that's where we're focused right now.

00:19:20.480 But I certainly hope

00:19:21.300 that Premier Smith understands that,

00:19:23.300 you know, that this isn't,

00:19:25.660 you know, that, you know,

00:19:26.680 that she shouldn't be listening

00:19:28.120 to the bureaucrats that surround her

00:19:30.160 and simply continue to sweep

00:19:31.840 this under the carpet

00:19:32.760 because the people that elected her

00:19:35.060 demand, you know, demand justice

00:19:37.760 and demand a full, you know,

00:19:40.520 a full public inquiry

00:19:41.660 into what went on.

00:19:43.520 Jeff, thanks so much

00:19:44.460 for your time today.

00:19:45.360 I know my viewers

00:19:46.020 really appreciate your insight

00:19:47.600 and all the information

00:19:48.540 about the lawsuit you're working on.

00:19:50.220 We will certainly be following

00:19:51.380 that story with interest

00:19:52.700 in the coming months.

00:19:53.820 And to the rest of my viewers,

00:19:54.820 we will be back

00:19:55.700 with our regular programming

00:19:57.080 on Saturday.

00:19:58.620 You won't want to miss

00:19:59.280 this week's episode.

00:20:00.000 As always, thanks for tuning in.

00:20:01.380 I'll see you guys in a couple days.

00:20:02.560 God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - February 22, 2024

Suit seeks Covid compensation for businesses

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