Western Standard - HANNAFORD： Canada just gave away its public health sovereignty

00:00:00.000 good evening western standard viewers and welcome to hannaford a weekly politics show

00:00:21.440 it is thursday october the second just two weeks ago with no fanfare or parliamentary debate

00:00:29.440 canada quietly ceded operational control of public health in this country in the event of another

00:00:36.400 medical emergency to the world health organization so it's now the world health organization that

00:00:44.160 will tell us when we have an emergency what we should do about it and demand speedy answers

00:00:50.960 back when we've done it on the double according to the regulations if that sounds like handing

00:00:57.120 over canadian sovereignty and control i think it is but i'm known for overreacting with me today

00:01:06.880 is ellison piovich a constitutional lawyer whose work is funded by the justice center for

00:01:13.200 constitutional freedoms welcome to the show miss piovich hi nigel thank you very much well it's

00:01:19.200 great to have you here um look let's then talk am i overacting do you think no i mean you know when

00:01:28.800 we went through kova that was a big shock for most of the world and certainly for many canadians for

00:01:35.520 what happened and and a lot of uh what occurred in this country um through you know governmental action

00:01:43.280 was really looking to the who and what they were telling uh countries to do and the international

00:01:51.360 health regulations have been in place since 2005 but now they've brought forth some amendments which um

00:02:00.320 make it even more difficult for you know provinces to take a different approach well let's talk about

00:02:07.120 some of the things that uh we experienced during covid that we can trace directly back to these

00:02:13.760 regulations and then maybe you can take us to where they've actually made them more onerous sure well

00:02:21.280 during covid uh the chief public health officers of the provinces through different public health acts

00:02:28.560 which gave them power to do so made public health orders which did a variety of things as you know

00:02:33.840 uh imposing lockdowns on society you know you can't go to your your parents house for dinner

00:02:40.000 you can't have people over you can't stand outside and protest with more than five people

00:02:45.200 you can't go to church at all in in a province like manitoba so this whole started with the world

00:02:50.400 health organization well the world health organization was telling people uh what you know telling

00:02:57.120 countries what to do telling leaders of countries what to do but it's actually in these international

00:03:02.240 health regulations from 2005 they actually at article 18 i've got it in front of me they recommend to

00:03:09.360 countries to require proof of vaccination during a public health emergency place suspected persons people

00:03:19.760 suspected of being sick under public health observation implement quarantine or other health measure measures for

00:03:26.320 people so these hotels you fly you fly back from somewhere and you end up going at your own

00:03:32.720 expense to a hotel and that was a horrifying experience that came from the world health organization

00:03:40.080 yeah they've got it right here at article 18 and this was this was drafted originally in 2005.

00:03:45.920 okay now you've got me really scared i'm obviously not overreacting if that's what it was like in 2005

00:03:52.080 what have they done now that's going to really upset us right so they've made some amendments uh

00:03:59.440 last year and canada has agreed to them and they've added a lot of wording in here which requires

00:04:07.120 countries who've signed on to move even more rapidly than before so you thought that things were happening

00:04:13.840 quickly when covid started in 2020 and all of a sudden you know kids can't go to school

00:04:17.760 uh businesses are shut down churches are shut down that happened very quickly and it was very shocking to

00:04:24.400 uh to all of us but the world health organization wants countries to move even more rapidly and just

00:04:31.760 shut everything down immediately and of course when you do that uh there's little time to react and and

00:04:39.760 say well wait a minute what what is the science telling us so far let's talk to a variety of sources

00:04:47.440 and try to ascertain whether these measures are necessary and they just want to steamroll over the

00:04:54.320 process of um getting different opinions getting people together uh and you can do that fairly fairly

00:05:01.200 quickly but you know when they say as rapid as possible you know they're going to act immediately and

00:05:07.440 they expect countries like canada to act immediately well do they have any power to enforce that well

00:05:14.480 it's it's canada they don't have an army well no but i mean canada has agreed and these regulations

00:05:24.160 are binding and so canada has a dualist system so they have to sign on to these international agreements

00:05:30.720 and then implement them through domestic legislation so it would be through the public health acts that

00:05:36.960 these are you know once they're ratified in parliament they would they would show up through the

00:05:40.960 the quarantine act and the public health acts and so it's really it's the it's the federal government

00:05:47.600 um you know taking that taking the lead with this but what else they've done here is they've actually

00:05:54.000 have language in these amendments that requires countries to respond um and to coordinate responses

00:06:01.520 nationally and you know for a country like canada and united states you know we've got um you know

00:06:08.160 multiple different uh areas we've got provinces the u.s has states and so what they want is they want

00:06:15.600 um provinces just to you know hand over authority to the federal government to take care of everything

00:06:20.400 to care of their response tell us what to do and that really in this is a this is a um

00:06:25.760 um uh federalist society there's a separation of powers here and so different provinces you know

00:06:32.880 i'm going to suggest alberta might be one of them in a in a future pandemic might want to have a

00:06:38.400 different response we saw uniform responses last time with covid but like look at florida florida uh

00:06:45.200 governor desensis took a very different approach um so did christy noem of she's the governor of south

00:06:51.520 dakota and when you look at the outcomes of florida versus uh say california florida fared better in

00:06:59.200 terms of the total covid deaths and i know that because it was evidence in our um in one of the

00:07:05.360 cases that i that i argued and my experts talked about florida and use it as an example of a place

00:07:10.640 that actually locked down early but lifted the lockdowns realized the harm they were causing to

00:07:15.840 the population and actually fared very well well let me just take you back to canada for a moment

00:07:23.760 um during covid um bonnie henry the public health officer in bc mandated that churches should be

00:07:33.040 closed and the restaurants should stay open and as soon as you got into alberta it was the other way

00:07:40.560 around that the churches stayed open and the restaurants were closed for periods of time

00:07:46.800 now it was the same virus and whatever the science was i guess it was the same science

00:07:53.040 now some people might say good at last they're getting their act together is going to be the same

00:07:58.480 all over um maybe that's a good thing and you say i would suggest it's not a good thing to leave all

00:08:06.720 that immense power to the federal government to control dictate what happens in all all across the

00:08:16.240 country we've seen what this government has done during covid um exercised its power for example over

00:08:24.560 travelers trying to go visit their family in europe and and uh you know south america internationally you

00:08:32.080 need to get on a plane you can't take a boat and people weren't uh people weren't allowed to get on

00:08:38.880 a like a cruise ship people weren't allowed to get on an airplane to see their loved ones unless they

00:08:45.040 received the covid vaccine which during that time was still in the testing phase and now we know uh

00:08:52.960 that there are significant adverse effects from do we know that scene absolutely their science is there

00:08:59.840 the united states is uh taking a very careful critical look and as it should at the uh horrendous

00:09:06.800 side effects uh that some people have experienced from this vaccine you know heart problems myocarditis

00:09:12.080 strokes blood clots so these are it's really is there a benthamite argument that yes some people got

00:09:19.840 hurt as a result of the vaccine but overall it it saved a lot of lives can you argue that uh you know we've

00:09:27.840 we've had experts during cases where we argued that the unless you're talking about people who are

00:09:34.480 immunocompromised or the elderly when you look at the risks of code to the population for younger people

00:09:41.280 who are you know not not senior citizens not immunocompromised um you know middle-aged younger

00:09:47.440 people with no pre-existing conditions uh they they typically typically fared um pretty well with covid

00:09:55.520 and the vaccines uh had a very um uh had a risk profile for myocarditis for young males meaning

00:10:06.320 adolescent males young males up to age 30 uh were negatively affected by the vaccine in their heart

00:10:14.960 and i do have experts that uh you know relied on peer-reviewed research to show that the vaccine's

00:10:21.680 negative effects on the heart is worse was worse than the risk to them from covet and of course

00:10:28.320 you know experts on the other side will say well covet also presented a risk um to the heart

00:10:35.200 of myocarditis so you might as well get the vaccine anyways to protect you from covet but i mean that's

00:10:40.480 the ridiculous argument and i know there are studies since i argued those cases at court that are that have

00:10:45.840 definitively found that the risk to your heart from covid um is far less than the risk of the vaccines

00:10:55.440 to your heart well let's come back to the uh keeping the regulations harmonized uh you are you i think

00:11:03.200 were in manitoba at the time and uh i believe the winnipeg jets had a very different experience

00:11:12.640 of covet than anybody else they sure did and so did actors and actresses so these you know industries

00:11:20.400 that were making a lot of money for manitoba such as nhl and the movie industry they were allowed to

00:11:27.360 continue winnipeg jets were allowed to practice inside with their coaches teammates um you know

00:11:33.680 whoever needed to be there at the winnipeg true north center still live there they were allowed to

00:11:40.080 continue they were allowed to play against opposing teams and as you know if you watch hockey i'm sure

00:11:45.040 you've seen a hockey game or two uh these guys get roughed with each other they get their faces smashed

00:11:49.760 up against each other and that was just fine that was safe and it was fine but it and it was also safe

00:11:56.400 to uh act in a scene in a movie in manitoba inside where you are doing you know intimate things with

00:12:03.600 another actor as part of the scene or you know getting into fistfights and rolling around brawling

00:12:09.280 as part of a if it was a violent movie that was okay but it was not okay to go to church you couldn't

00:12:16.000 have two people sitting in a church in a grand cathedral in winnipeg because that was that activity

00:12:21.840 was too dangerous and i recall uh during when i was arguing uh the gateway bible uh versus manitoba case where

00:12:29.600 we um we also my my clients uh churches sued the former chief medical health officer dr brent rusen

00:12:38.960 while we were arguing that case we had to do it on video so we were all sitting at home um well my

00:12:45.680 my team we were we were sitting at home on our screens the judge was sitting in the courtroom uh

00:12:50.880 there were no um there were no people in the courtroom other than a few journalists as i understand we weren't

00:12:55.680 allowed to go to court to be the case but the um the team of government lawyers who i used to work

00:13:02.320 with uh wonderful people they were sitting in a boardroom together there were four of them in a

00:13:07.920 boardroom i could see on the camera i used to sit in that boardroom because i used to work there

00:13:12.560 and they were allowed to sit there the four of them in a boardroom probably not much bigger than this

00:13:17.920 room but you couldn't have two people in a giant church cathedral mosque in winnipeg and so when you

00:13:27.840 see things like that happen it it it shakes the confidence of the public in in the seriousness of

00:13:34.320 this virus and therefore when the public is asked not to come over um not to get together at christmas

00:13:40.400 time remember the creamier brian kelster got on camera and he was tearful telling manitobans he

00:13:46.800 couldn't believe he had to do it but he had to tell manitobans you can't visit your loved ones

00:13:51.280 over christmas you can't have christmas dinner together while these movie sets were going on

00:13:56.000 while the winnipeg jets were playing together while you couldn't go to church at christmas time no as

00:14:01.520 a citizen you couldn't go to church could you go to the jets game no you couldn't go to the jets game

00:14:06.880 either no no it was the but the teams could get together and the teams could get together in the

00:14:11.600 change room gee and families didn't form their own hockey teams to get through that's yeah

00:14:18.160 how do you think that officials square these kind of inconsistencies in their own minds because i mean

00:14:22.560 i don't want to start from the premise that everybody is inherently dishonest and a charlatan

00:14:26.400 so they must have had some sense yes this is doesn't really make sense well yeah no in in fairness uh

00:14:32.320 the excuse given by dr rosen uh in his sworn evidence yes was that um people who go to church

00:14:41.920 engage in dangerous activities after church such as hugging um sharing utensils if they have lunch

00:14:48.800 together in the basement of a church and in his in his experience um many people at church embrace

00:14:56.880 each other ignoring the fact that you know that could be one of the when you come to church there could be

00:15:04.320 a request from the minister from the priest from the pastor to say um if you don't mind we're so

00:15:10.080 wonderful you know thank you for coming you know despite the fact that there's this virus going

00:15:15.680 around but wouldn't mind uh not not embracing in the church you know outside is different uh and

00:15:22.720 we're not going to have lunch in the basement today or something like that but the act of getting

00:15:26.720 together and worshiping together communally in person is so critical for the right to um right

00:15:34.080 to worship which is protected under the charter and it was just thrown away did anybody ever um

00:15:38.960 compare the outcomes in manitoba and alberta as a result of people who did go to church and didn't

00:15:44.000 go to church i'm sure somebody has i don't have that i don't have that statistic well there's more

00:15:49.760 things buried in this wretched document that you have there it's and there's one thing that um really

00:15:56.000 concerns us here at the western standard and it has to do with the suppression of information um

00:16:04.560 they there is a the the world health organization seems to have a fixation about disinformation and

00:16:14.560 they want to take measures what what is it that in the that we have now agreed to in this revised uh

00:16:22.480 version of the international health regulations that shouldn't that we've done a really bad thing

00:16:29.120 right and before i answer that when i hear the the phrase misinformation and disinformation i can see

00:16:36.320 and hear very clearly uh prime minister trudeau on the tv very slowly enunciating the words that is

00:16:47.360 misinformation and disinformation regarding the public's questions about the vaccines or the lockdowns

00:16:56.000 or anything else that went against what he was telling us we had to do and so it you know perhaps

00:17:03.760 that came from um the language of the who uh behind closed doors i don't know but the fact that they've

00:17:11.920 used the exact same phrase here is interesting uh so this is a section called core capacities

00:17:18.000 requirements for prevention surveillance preparedness and response it's in annex number one and what they

00:17:25.360 have uh got here as part of the amendments is uh each state party shall develop strengthen and maintain

00:17:32.480 the core capacities for risk communication including addressing misinformation and disinformation

00:17:40.720 so in plain language what do they actually uh what what is the government of canada signed up for with

00:17:46.000 that well i think what it said what it what it's intended to mean is when the you know chief public

00:17:54.560 health officer of canada and or the provinces gets on the camera and tells the public you know as we saw

00:18:00.000 on covid almost every day an update on case counts and you know we've we've got all these cases we have

00:18:06.720 to do x y and z i'm really sorry we have to you can't you can't see your loved ones this weekend you

00:18:12.320 can't um you can't go to restaurants you need to get the vaccine before we do x y and z and but because

00:18:20.400 the the risk of this virus is is so high when you're communicating the risks of these activities and

00:18:26.160 that's why we have to to shut them down when you're communicating the risks of the unvaccinated as an

00:18:30.880 example uh you don't want to sit next to somebody on an airplane who's unvaccinated we're going to

00:18:36.000 make sure that you don't have to do that because they're dangerous right that's kind of the the

00:18:42.320 theme right that's the theme of what we heard from the prime minister and uh so if you challenge that

00:18:50.640 that statement you're hearing disinformation so addressing misinformation and disinformation to me

00:18:55.840 sounds like censorship yes and is that going to come uh in the form of uh you know censoring people

00:19:03.840 online um if people are standing on a street corner holding a sign up that says you know lockdowns

00:19:10.240 are harmful or whatever are you going to be you know given a ticket and told you that you can't you

00:19:15.520 can't protest there um you know silencing voices is something that we saw during covid but i it struck

00:19:23.440 me recently i saw a clip on social media of uh i believe it was the uh ceo of youtube um and she

00:19:33.920 she seemed quite gleeful in saying that during covid and i and i believe if i recollect correctly that

00:19:43.920 she said it was due to the request by the biden administration at the time that she censored and

00:19:51.840 scrubbed removed thousands of dissenting voices during covid videos of people i'm going to assume

00:19:59.680 that that means scientists doctors because i you know i would see scientists and doctors and there were

00:20:04.960 many who would who had expressed uh questions serious questions and doubts with what was happening

00:20:13.120 and they had a message they wanted to get to you know the average person to to step back and say wait

00:20:19.600 a minute do we really need to do these things you know and there were freedom freedom types who who

00:20:26.240 would like to do videos and talk about um you know how how they were made to feel during covid and and

00:20:33.840 you know when you're when you're told to put a mask on and go to the grocery store follow the arrows on

00:20:39.200 the floor you're not talking to the person next to you you're not engaging in in conversation when

00:20:44.480 you're not allowed to visit your family you're not you're not communicating and when you shut down

00:20:48.880 communication when you shut down dissenting voices people are left isolated and they're left looking at

00:20:56.800 the tv listening to the messaging not perhaps realizing that there are other people who are who are also

00:21:02.960 questioning what's going on and maybe they hadn't thought about um an inconsistency or that there

00:21:08.320 might be other science that is not being uh pursued and you know i mean the science is not you know a

00:21:15.840 dictator saying this is the way it is it's a discussion and debate and there's always going to be new

00:21:22.080 studies coming out and when scientists get together and debate that's how science is shaped so really

00:21:27.600 and what we're so what we're seeing here i'm putting words into your mouth so if i'm wrong say so but

00:21:36.560 what it's looking like is that the government of canada which we know would prefer it if everybody just

00:21:43.200 accepted what they said in a variety of uh of fields as the gospel truth has now got the world health

00:21:53.440 organization on science and and wants you to think whatever they say in the name of the world health

00:21:59.840 organization cannot be challenged should not be challenged and if you do challenge it you're a bad

00:22:05.920 person is that is that sort of what's happening here yes prime minister trudeau did say those things

00:22:12.560 if you haven't vaccinated uh it was also odd because it doesn't make any sense an unvaccinated person is

00:22:18.880 also misogynist and racist and takes up too much space that's what he said um so yeah i mean okay

00:22:28.000 so we it is actually a fairly black uh outlook one thing that i noticed in the appendix to all this

00:22:36.640 there were 11 countries that actually didn't buy into the improved uh and some of them are fairly

00:22:43.440 substantial countries one was the united states what was there i think um health secretary kennedy

00:22:52.080 put out a statement explaining why they weren't going to go along go along with these new arrangements

00:22:58.960 and what they would do instead what was his reasoning uh i from my recollection he was concerned about

00:23:07.440 the language which i haven't actually addressed in this uh discussion the language in the new

00:23:12.480 amendments that talks about how health products and they define health products as medicines and

00:23:18.160 vaccines and you know ventilators or whatever something like that that you need if if there's a

00:23:24.240 you know and a public health emergency a virus going around that those are going to be distributed um

00:23:31.520 not equally but equity equitably what's equity so equity is different than equality so equality

00:23:41.280 is what we fight for under the charter of rights under section 15 everyone should be treated equally

00:23:46.880 um you know one one group shouldn't be treated differently than another group based on your skin

00:23:52.320 color based on the fact that you're disabled based on the fact that you know your your your heritage or

00:23:57.280 something like that but equity is putting one group ahead of another for could be a variety of reasons

00:24:05.760 uh perhaps the government says well this group has been disadvantaged um therefore they need uh you

00:24:12.640 know special they they need to get paid more you see that in um some some government jobs if you're a

00:24:20.080 member of a disadvantaged group you can have employment equity um but in terms of equity in supplying people with

00:24:29.760 life-saving treatments medicine for example uh he was concerned uh what does that mean the document

00:24:37.120 doesn't explain what it means it's very general so he didn't wanna what i take from his statement is

00:24:42.480 he didn't want to sign up for uh discriminate potential discrimination uh not knowing what that means

00:24:50.160 does that mean that the people who are immunocompromised will get the first round of medicines okay

00:24:54.400 we you can understand why that might be okay um but does that mean that a certain racial group a

00:25:00.240 certain religious group a certain you know a minority group will be singled out and offered the first

00:25:06.800 round of medicine well it probably does so yeah that's concerning so that's i i think that was one of

00:25:12.320 his main concerns i think he was also concerned with the um the speed at which the world health

00:25:18.240 organization wants countries to respond uh instead of slowing it down a little bit i mean you

00:25:24.320 can only slow it down so much when you're faced with an incoming virus but when they want things

00:25:29.360 to go so fast as as i said before there's really little room for any dissenting opinion and gathering

00:25:35.920 the science and sitting down and discussing and also debating uh as as part of what we do

00:25:42.080 therein is the is the problem that's how this doesn't fit our democratic that's right way of i could

00:25:50.080 go on for a long time but we only have 20 minutes so i think we've even roared past that but i do want

00:25:57.040 to thank you for coming into the john galt studio here at the western standard talking to us about

00:26:02.320 these things i know that it this this story is not over because pandemics and epidemics keep coming

00:26:10.640 around we're going to have to deal with this at the next time around right absolutely okay you thank

00:26:17.120 you miss payovich for coming for the western standard i'm nigel hanaford

00:26:34.160 um

00:26:42.400 you

Western Standard - October 05, 2025

HANNAFORD： Canada just gave away its public health sovereignty

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