00:04:44.000You can believe that vaccines played an important role during the pandemic and still believe that people who experienced serious adverse events deserve help.
00:04:52.280You can support vaccination, and you can still demand accountability from the program established specifically to compensate those who were seriously injured.
00:05:00.980These positions are not contradictory.
00:05:03.820They are what compassion, responsibility, public policy should look like.
00:05:08.460The purpose of these hearings is not to tell witnesses what happened to them.
00:14:07.460my name is dr charles hoff i'm a family doctor from southern british columbia
00:14:22.100where i've worked since since 1993 i serve mostly the nilakapa first nations people
00:14:30.780So when the vaccine rollout began, I tried to alert my colleagues in the area to serious safety signals and was reprimanded by the authorities and told that I was not allowed to say anything negative about the vaccines.
00:14:52.420And so when I started to see very serious side effects in my own patients, within three months of the onset of the vaccine rollout, I had one patient who died suddenly after his shot.
00:15:07.880I had three people who were clearly going to be permanently disabled and a number of others who were seriously injured.
00:15:14.640So I sent an open letter to the British Columbia Public Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, to inform her of these safety signals.
00:15:24.060Her response was to refer this to her top vaccine safety specialist, Dr. Monica Knauss, who assured me without any investigation of any of my patients that these were all coincidences.
00:15:36.940So I said, I've been family doctor to these people for 28 years.
00:15:42.720I know them very well, and there is no other medical explanation for these terrible disabling
00:15:48.440symptoms that they have. She insisted that they were all coincidences and told me to just submit
00:15:54.860vaccine injury reports. So I started submitting the reports, and ultimately I submitted 14 in
00:16:01.220total. And when every single one was denied as a coincidence by public health, I gave up.
00:16:07.160To this day, I have 36 vaccine-injured patients. This is just the COVID vaccines I'm talking about in my practice, and I have a small one-man practice of approximately 1,100 people.
00:16:20.080so so the second response of the authorities to me trying to alert them about what was happening
00:16:28.240to my own patients was to send a warning letter the college of physicians and surgeons sent
00:16:33.880a warning letter to every registered doctor warning them that if they spoke misinformation
00:16:39.260about covid or the covid vaccines that they would be investigated and of necessary discipline
00:16:45.520In other words, this was effectively a gag order to the entire medical community.
00:19:25.740have saved millions of lives is absurd the number of people dying is higher than ever
00:19:32.400the the open verse so as i mentioned vaccine injury reporting in canada appeared to be censored
00:19:43.660as i discovered when when literally of the 14 reports that i submitted 100 rejection from public
00:19:51.860health. So we have to look to other nations since Canada had a censored vaccine injury
00:19:57.660reporting system. So the open VAERS in the United States records 39,000 people who died
00:20:05.540unexpectedly within 28 days of their COVID shot. 39,000 and 72,000 who were permanently disabled
00:20:13.900within 28 days of their COVID shot. And they continue to tell us that this is safe and
00:20:19.100effective. There seems to be no ceiling on how many casualties there need to be before they shut
00:20:25.680this down. So I am part of this Allison inquiry advocating for the safety of my own patients
00:20:33.140and for all Canadians. Thank you. My name is Sean Buckley and I'm a lawyer volunteering with the
00:20:44.160Ellison Inquiry, and I've been involved in interviewing people that have been shortlisted.
00:20:49.200So we have had over a thousand applications. We don't know how many applications we'll have by
00:20:54.800the time the inquiry starts. We're still inviting people to apply. Clearly, your chances of being
00:21:01.420selected is diminishing as we're filling slots, but we want your written story to be recorded.
00:21:07.540We want you to at least be able to tell your story in writing. And we understand it's been
00:21:13.640communicated to us that some people are afraid to apply. Some people are traumatized by the
00:21:19.660thought of applying. I'll get into that in a moment. And we've had some people that have
00:21:24.100applied and we actually wanted to call as witnesses, but they're not willing to testify
00:21:29.420because they're afraid that they'll be alienated by family members. Some have communicated they're
00:21:35.020afraid that they'll lose benefits. So there's a real fear out there. But I want to share with
00:21:40.000you something special that has been happening we don't have the funds to pay for these witnesses
00:21:46.940to attend so we're having to ask them can you make your way to ottawa and we're actually surprised
00:21:55.060because you know we're interviewing these people we're seeing their their written stories most of
00:22:00.360them have been absolutely devastated because they're disabled they can't work their finances
00:22:05.440are in absolute ruins but they're finding a way and there's one of them named michael
00:22:12.060who lives in a care facility because he's in a wheelchair he's largely paralyzed has some
00:22:17.960some ability to uh limited mobility and in his arms so he can use a wheelchair joystick
00:22:24.400and he actually crowdsourced and he's getting a friend to fly out from victoria he lives in
00:22:31.140ontario and he's chartered a bus that is wheelchair friendly and he sent us an email saying you know
00:22:39.380if anyone else in a wheelchair needs a ride like we'll give them a ride there was another witness
00:22:47.220that um actually is is not is kind of taking up that offer we weren't sure if this witness would
00:22:53.000be able to attend the witness said you know i'm able to take a train you know with my support
00:22:59.040person to Ottawa. But I can't find transportation from the train station because I not only need a
00:23:07.160wheelchair accessible vehicle, but one that can take a tall IB pole also. It actually took that
00:23:13.620person a couple of weeks. And then Michael is going to be picking that person up in his bus
00:23:18.680from the hotel to the inquiry. And we're getting quite touched. You know, another witness said,
00:23:27.620well, you've got to be flexible on which day I testify because I have to schedule dialysis in
00:23:33.000Ottawa. And so you have to work around my dialysis because this person has lost a kidney
00:23:38.020and is waiting for a kidney transplant. We've been absolutely touched by how much these people
00:23:46.440want to help each other, by how determined they are to show up. And this determination is because
00:23:55.820they have not been heard. When I'm interviewing these people, I ask them, every single one of
00:24:02.640them, a question that they don't expect. I ask, what is the most difficult part of this experience
00:24:09.440that you've had? And I'm actually expecting them to say, well, it's becoming a quadriplegic.
00:24:15.400It's the chronic pain. It's the fact that I'm on dialysis six days a week and I'm, you know, 33.
00:24:22.300Even if I get a transplant, that's only going to last 10 years. I know I'm facing dialysis again.
00:24:27.380I'm expecting that or the economic turmoil or the family turmoil.
00:24:32.440But most of them don't talk about that.
00:24:35.880When I ask them what the most difficult part is,
00:24:44.040most of them say the most difficult part has been dealing with the medical system
00:24:49.180they almost all of them use the term gas lit basically what they have is is they're they're
00:24:56.580having these these symptoms that is causing enormous suffering disability loss of function
00:25:05.360and they're basically being told that it's in their head or you know it's something else that
00:25:11.060it's not um and they're actually being treated like modern day lepers um some of them like the
00:25:17.380doctors right out of the gate this is vaccine injury everyone agrees it's vaccine injury but
00:25:22.000they can't get specialists them to help them because the doctor will refer to the specialist
00:25:27.540and because the diagnosis is vaccine injury it's almost like there's a fear it's almost like they're
00:25:33.500they're untouchable there's this unspeakable thing we cannot we cannot say vaccine injury
00:25:41.040We cannot treat vaccine injury. This has become the most difficult experience in their lives, is dealing with the medical system and then also dealing with the vaccine injury support program.
00:25:54.620And let me just share with you kind of some of the unfairness of this program, which was actually we've learned by all of these thousands of stories coming to us because we ask in our questionnaire detailed questions about the vaccine entry program and we interview these people.
00:26:11.980And so basically, you start with a two-part process, which is just a form with two parts.
00:26:18.040So you fill in this form where you basically tell your story, and you really only tell it in a couple of paragraphs.
00:26:25.740Now, you don't know what the criteria is because the Vaccine Injury Program doesn't say,
00:26:30.660here are the criteria for us to determine what a vaccine injury is.
00:26:34.020And then you get your doctor or a doctor if a doctor is willing to fill in form two.
00:26:38.680Many of them have not been able to apply because they can't get a doctor willing to sign the form because of this unwillingness to participate in anything connected to vaccine injury.
00:26:50.160Well, then they get your medical records and internally they put together your file.
00:26:57.000It's analyzed or a report is done that you never see.
00:27:00.880And then a panel of three meet and decide things you've never been interviewed.
00:27:06.200So can you imagine, you know, one lady I was speaking to, I think English is her second language.
00:27:13.320She's largely, largely quadriplegic, has some motion in her arms, chronic pain.
00:27:26.640She's hoping to get compensation for pain and suffering.
00:27:29.660She's hoping to get cost of living expenses.
00:27:32.580She's hoping to get cost of care expenses.
00:27:34.640these are people that are in absolute financial crisis they're depending on this program they're
00:27:41.380never interviewed so if you don't tell your story right you're not a doctor you don't know what the
00:27:46.420criteria is you don't know what's important to them and they never get back to you and say well
00:27:51.720what about this what about this what about this and then a decision is made by three unnamed people
00:27:57.320you're told who you know oh it's a family doctor and a neurologist and a physiotherapist but you
00:28:03.600don't know who they are you don't know if there's any bias you don't know if they're actually
00:28:08.420qualified to analyze your file and you get you know maybe a page and a half of reasons so it's
00:28:13.860a really frustrating process and these people that are already traumatized by the medical system
00:28:20.300report that they're being traumatized again so this allison inquiry where the whole purpose of
00:28:27.460this is just to listen to their stories we've come to understand this is so much more important
00:28:32.040than we initially felt we knew that these people weren't being heard we knew that we start we have
00:28:37.420to have a conversation about this that's what we're hoping will happen with the allison inquiry
00:28:42.060but we didn't understand how deeply it's needed by these vaccine entered persons who are literally
00:28:48.780desperate and you know crowd fundraising to get wheelchair accessible buses to get here so we feel
00:28:57.480we're all volunteers we all feel very honored to be able to assist these people and we truly are
00:29:04.300inviting you to participate by watching you know these people are desperate to share their stories
00:29:09.980with you and we invite you to participate we guarantee it will change your lives as it's
00:29:15.480changing ours listening to their stories i am ready for questions hi i'm the atlas and rich
00:29:24.560Shailo, CTV News. So I've read through the details and the parameters of this inquiry,
00:29:30.780and my understanding is there's really no teeth to it. At most, you can maybe suggest questions
00:29:36.920to Parliament. I'm wondering, are you not then just asking these injured Canadians to re-traumatize
00:29:43.360themselves without any real results or accountability? Like, what are you intending
00:29:47.460to get out of this initiative? Sure. First, thanks for coming. We appreciate having CTV in the room.
00:29:53.600You know, I think one of the biggest challenges right now is that people have not felt they have permission to actually talk about this.
00:29:59.180So how do you move forward if no one can talk about it?
00:30:01.740You know, Dr. Huff talked a bit about how people show up and doctors are afraid to actually, you know, diagnose or find help.
00:30:09.100So we've realized by raising awareness, we're hoping to put pressure on the government to the fact that they realize they're already relooking at this program.
00:31:43.840And so, you know, I look at that. I look at this as an opportunity, as an extension of my job and to be able to do this publicly because I'm already doing this privately.
00:31:53.020And as I said, you know, when you talk to some of these vaccine injured people, what you'll find out is that there's a huge reluctance to have any conversations or any meaningful conversation.
00:32:02.460Really, what we hope they'll do is they'll have permission that we want to give them permission to speak publicly about these things.
00:32:08.740And so I don't look at it as that. We're not trying to find facts to beat up the government. It's open to everybody. We invited all parties to sit in and listen to this. And so my response to that is I believe this is an extension of my job. And MPs do this in a variety of ways all the time, all across their ridings.
00:32:28.180We're trying to do it more publicly because the input I've received over the last three or four years from people across the country, voicemails, text emails, all those things were saying like we have like no one's had a conversation.
00:32:38.860We we don't know what's going on and we need help.
00:32:40.960So we were trying to raise awareness and the government admits themselves at the end of the day.
00:32:45.920They started the program, this program, because they realized people were injured.
00:32:49.580And government's own health records have some 60,000 people are injured, 11,000 serious, 3,500 applied to the program.
00:32:57.360When 3,000 got accepted, only 252 received any types of compensation.
00:34:29.940And my question is a little similar to my colleagues here.
00:34:32.820You said in your opening statement, Canadians deserve answers on these questions around the vaccine and around the support program for the vaccine injured.
00:34:40.300But your inquiry also says it will not make any findings of fact or reach any conclusions.
00:34:44.020So where are the answers going to come from that you're looking for?
00:34:49.020And, you know, once again, there's been no conversation around this topic at all for the last, you know, three or four years.
00:34:55.380What we are hoping to do as we raise this issue, just like I would raise the issue if I was doing a town hall back in my ride in the Niagara West.
00:35:02.660As people listen to this inquiry, we're hoping the government right now is right in between programs.
00:35:08.060They're looking at what they can do differently from before.
00:35:10.820We hope that there'll be people listening and they'll be able to have an opportunity to do that.
00:35:15.140By all means, you know, I'm always happy to make recommendations, send something into committee, et cetera, et cetera.
00:35:22.140Our whole point of this was that we were not looking at anything other than listening to people, hearing their stories, and trying to make sure that people could get access to these programs.
00:36:48.140We're going to share some of the situations why people are reluctant to actually look at those kinds of things.
00:36:53.660But we are hoping the government is taking notice of what is going on and some of the frustrations that people have trying to navigate the systems.
00:37:00.680sorry so is it about the program is it about the safety of vaccines is it about it's it's it's
00:37:07.160about it is about listening to canadians and it's about people trying to get access to programs
00:37:11.840and can you talk a little bit about the you've called this an inquiry but you know inquiries
00:37:16.980definitely have a format they have a commissioner they have opposing counsel they have legal budgets
00:37:22.580i know you said you don't have any of those things so what is the format of this going to
00:37:25.720look like is is this going to be just 50 people getting up and telling their stories yeah so i
00:37:31.000mean at the end of the day this is this would be very similar to what we we do in our writings all
00:37:35.380the time we we talk to people every single day about a number of a variety of issues so what we
00:37:41.700will do is we'll be talking to individuals throughout the course of that and we will bring
00:37:45.720in uh some people from time to time to give some context to you know maybe go through government
00:37:50.900numbers and try to explain to us uh what what they mean and what what they are but no you're
00:37:55.580absolutely correct we're not trying to find any kind of finding we found that one of the greatest
00:37:59.700things and i know sean alluded to this people are are having such a hard time not being able to feel
00:38:06.220like they can actually have a conversation so there's a lot of mental anguish around that that
00:38:10.680people feel like they've been gaslit and all those other kinds of things i think this heart starts a
00:38:15.240healing process to say listen we we are listening we encourage mps to come and hear the stories
00:38:20.600and maybe that can begin the healing process for some of these individuals and if my colleague
00:38:25.000who will indulge me um do you have support from other conservative mps for holding this inquiry
00:38:30.380do you have support from the conservative leader pierre paulia for holding this inquiry no absolutely
00:38:34.400as a matter of fact i know that uh pierre when pierre is out on the road uh he's told me as
00:38:38.620himself that individuals have come up to him and as you know pierre he'll if he's at an event he'll
00:38:44.180stay for an hour or two until every person comes through i think one of the greatest litmus tests
00:38:49.760of an MP is when you're out in the riding
00:39:47.740And once again, I think it was pointed out, we don't have the ability to compel witnesses.
00:39:52.020And so we really wanted to keep this a narrow focus, listening to people's stories and hopefully being able to raise the alarm on how difficult the program has been to access.
00:40:03.320Global News did a great article on a four-part series last year, which was something that the health committee was thinking about for a period of time.
00:40:15.120And I think that at the end of the day, we'd love to see an opportunity for the government to do better in the second round of what they do.
00:40:22.560And we know that you were a little against you were against vaccines back in 20.
00:40:30.240I was I was I supported choice choice. OK, agreed.
00:40:33.900Fair point. And I guess I'm wondering if you're going to be hearing from experts who believe in the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine who may have a different perspective from you.
00:40:43.060Yeah, no, we're we're basically want to hear from constituents across the country and what they're what and what they're doing and what the challenge they've had to access these programs to try and make it better.
00:40:55.080And I noticed on the website, you're canvassing donations as well.
00:41:00.700Where are the funds from those donations going to I believe that there was a nonprofit set up that kind of overseeing this inquiry, but I would like to know more specifically where those donations would actually be going.
00:41:12.180Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, so that basically it's just the cost.
00:41:18.360So everyone is a volunteer except for, you know, web contractors and,
00:41:22.780and the like for setting up the infrastructure.
00:41:25.820We're paying some travel for witnesses, but we don't,
00:41:29.540we were actually hoping we'd have enough to pay for all.
00:41:32.880So it's all just, so there's no salaries other than, you know,
00:41:36.700web, web people and graphic people and the like. So, you know,
00:41:40.300I'm a volunteer, my wife, Teresa is a volunteer, the people vetting the witnesses are volunteer,
00:41:45.280you know, doctors that are helping to vet witnesses. As it turns out, most witnesses
00:41:49.480will be calling their own doctors that are agreeing that it's vaccine injury. But there's
00:41:53.440been some where we've had a panel of doctors look at it and see if it's a realistic thing.
00:41:59.660Because we came to realize there's that difficulty. So yeah, and right. So that's basically it is. So
00:42:05.660we set up a non-profit um so that we could collect funds and have a legal vehicle to pay for this
00:42:12.700so thank you i might just ask one more question as well it's just a bit more of a follow-up on
00:42:17.820my colleagues questions about what the um actual focus is i mean in my questions to you just now
00:42:23.180you talked about the vaccine injury program itself um my gathering from uh dr hoff was about some of
00:42:29.820the safety of the vaccine. So I'm just really wondering, you know, what is the actual focus
00:42:35.840of this? And if it is just about the vaccine injury program, which we have seen some criticism
00:42:43.720of, or if it is actually just to listen about the safety of vaccines and people's opinions on
00:42:49.160vaccines. Yeah, no, it's, I think what Dr. Hoff was trying to illustrate is the difficulty around
00:42:54.980doctors being able to identify these things because of fear of what they have to deal with.
00:43:00.500What we are doing, what I set up to do is to listen and to then advocate on behalf of these
00:43:06.980individuals for the vaccine injury program. Once again, you know, good work from Global News last
00:43:12.360year. Some of these things may never come forward. And so I think that if we could do that, I think
00:43:17.360that would be helpful. People have a chance to, you know, talk about what they've struggled with
00:43:22.400and they feel like they've been alone.
00:43:23.920The word that keeps coming up is people feel like they've been abandoned.
00:43:27.280And so if we could deal with that, and then the next part would be
00:43:30.000if the government's listening, we'd love definitely for them to do a better job,
00:43:35.020maybe create more money, streamline the process.