00:02:30.000Good evening I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard and this evening we're going to be
00:02:38.880speaking with a Calgary lawyer who was representing a client who was up against his wife with the
00:02:48.000topic of their children being vaccinated. Now the mother was interested in having the children
00:02:52.880vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus however the father was not. The court case or the case
00:02:59.600landed in court and was settled yesterday and joining me right now is Katherine Kowalczyk
00:03:05.920and Randy Collins from Goetz Collins and Associates. Thanks for joining me tonight,
00:03:10.640ladies. We're going to discuss what went down in court and what the ruling from the justice was
00:03:20.080for your clients thanks melanie for having us today so so the the case was heard and the court
00:03:29.680ruling came down yesterday um what what was the outcome for your clients well the the application
00:03:37.520was heard in november and the court the judge uh justice reserved her decision and it did come out
00:03:43.440yesterday uh essentially the application was for mom to have sole decision making with respect to
00:03:51.360all healthcare related decisions uh with respect what was that was that sorry if you if you're
00:04:03.120having a tough time hearing me sorry um was that um a decision that was different because i
00:04:08.320understand that the parents sort of made joint decisions all this time since their divorce in
00:04:13.6602014. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. But the application brought by the mom was to
00:04:21.180vaccinate the children with the COVID vaccine, COVID-19 vaccination immediately for the child
00:04:29.040who was over 12 and recognizing that the approval was going to be coming fairly imminently by Health
00:04:37.000Canada with respect to the 5 to 11-year-olds seeking preemptive relief in that regard.
00:04:43.240But she also sought to have sole decision-making with respect to all health-related decisions
00:04:49.420with respect to the children as part of her application.
00:04:53.980And so those were the main issues held that we were arguing.
00:04:59.520So when we argued the decision in November, a number of numerous information was provided to the courts with respect to why my client wanted to wait and see to vaccinate the children with the COVID-19 vaccine.
00:05:19.500his concerns were that based on what he had researched that they were not necessarily safe
00:05:27.360or effective and that further long-term studies were required so that we had a better idea as to
00:05:35.360what kind of impacts this could have with respect to children and so that was the basic premise of
00:05:42.080argument to the court that day. Okay. And so the ruling was in favor of the mother. So now
00:05:50.680it sounds like not only are the children going to be vaccinated, but she now takes sole decision
00:05:57.080making power for their medical care. Is that what I understand? Yes, that's correct. We're
00:06:04.620very disappointed with the ruling, but it's not unsurprising how the judge ruled in this
00:06:12.060instance, because as you know, COVID-19 and the issue of vaccines is quite polarized. The judge
00:06:19.040noted that as well in her decision. But what was striking about this ruling is that the judge
00:06:29.360ordered that notwithstanding the father had joint decision-making authority with respect to
00:06:36.240health care related decisions regarding the children that because of them and these are
00:06:43.520the misinformation and conspiracy theories that were argued by the mom that they had stated that
00:06:50.720my client was arguing that all of his information was misinformation all of his information was
00:06:57.200based on conspiracy theories it was based on that premise that she ruled that ultimately
00:07:04.960even though mom has a duty to consult with dad with respect to health care related decisions0.60
00:07:12.140in the future by doing such things as attending counseling and and perhaps other mediation
00:07:18.400perhaps but if they were not able to reach an agreement ultimately that she would have final say
00:07:24.560And so that is to me that that that decision was a huge overreach by this justice in making this decision.
00:07:37.440She acknowledges in the judgment herself that no evidence was provided with respect to previous decisions where the parties might not have agreed.
00:07:50.360In fact, she stated that, in fact, the COVID vaccine decision or issue was the only issue that seemed to be the issue and dispute between the parties.
00:08:02.920But notwithstanding that, because of the information that my client was relying on, that he was essentially not acting in the children's best interest, which is the test used in family law matters, and that ultimately the mom would be granted that authority.
00:08:20.660In addition to why the case is horrible, in my opinion, is that she also has censored my client with respect to what he is allowed to say to his children.
00:08:36.360and in fact ordered that he nor he both himself as well as any third party cannot speak to the
00:08:46.840children about the COVID-19 vaccine or COVID-19 generally so that's a direct violation of section
00:08:54.340two of the charter parents have obviously they should have full authority and autonomy to speak
00:09:02.220to their children about anything that they want to. And the fact that the judge has made this
00:09:07.900ruling is in line with other judges' rulings. For instance, the Justice Germain ruling with
00:09:15.960Pastor Art Pulaski and Chris Scott that came out earlier this year, where Justice Germain
00:09:23.420forced compelled speech on these defendants. So this is a disturbing trend that the courts are
00:09:31.100creeping into the lives of of people and especially now families and parents but this isn't the only
00:09:39.440case in Canada where this issue or the issue of COVID-19 vaccination has has resulted this way
00:09:48.060other jurisdictions have also ruled this way have taken judicial notice of the fact that whatever
00:09:54.900the government of Canada and the Alberta government is saying is safe and effective
00:10:00.140of they're taking them at their word that it is safe and effective not withstanding there is a
00:10:05.820plethora of information available uh to the contrary so so my understanding then is that
00:10:15.200the justice felt that what the mother was providing as far as her research was you know obviously
00:10:22.800the government of Alberta website information,
00:39:45.480And these ladies work with gets Collins and associates1.00
00:39:49.880Catherine qual check and Randy Collins were joining me or are joining me right now and
00:39:54.540And I think the sentiment is there's a lot of questions and there's a lot of confusion around what's happening legally.
00:40:06.140And honestly, I think I could probably host a talk show once a week and have an hour full of questions from people.
00:40:12.880So let's make sure that we touch base again and we'll look forward to you keeping us abreast of what comes from some of the cases that you're working on.
00:40:23.120and we look forward to continuing to tell your stories ladies. Thank you so much Melanie for
00:40:28.720having us on and for recognizing how important this issue is and in particular how important
00:40:34.320this issue with respect to COVID vaccination in children is. We should all be very concerned.
00:40:42.800Well thanks for joining me ladies appreciate it and we will touch base with you again and thanks
00:40:48.080to you for watching tonight and uh we will also touch base with you another time thanks for