Press Releases
October 30, 2024
Press Release: Alberta Business Owners Successful in Certification of Class Action for Illegal Hinshaw “Public Health” Orders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 30, 2024 – Alberta – Rath & Company is pleased to announce today that it has been successful in its application for certification on behalf of Alberta business owners impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and closures imposed through Chief Medical Officer of Health (“CMOH”) Orders.
Justice Feasby of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta released his decision today certifying the class action in Ingram v Alberta, 2024 ABKB 631.
This class action, led by Rebecca Ingram and Christopher Scott (the “Proposed Representative Plaintiffs”), sought to certify a class on behalf of affected Alberta business owners who suffered losses due to the CMOH orders, which were found to be ultra vires—outside legal authority and therefore unlawful—under Alberta’s Public Health Act (“PHA”) in Ingram v Alberta (Chief Medical Officer of Health), 2023 ABKB 453 (“Ingram 2023”).
As a result, the Court Certified multiple claims, including negligence, bad faith and misfeasance in public office. The Court allowed affected businesses to claim compensation for harm and losses incurred due to the illegal CMOH Orders including punitive damages.
Central Allegations of Bad Faith and Call for Punitive Damages
A core component of the case was the allegation that Alberta’s Cabinet acted negligently or in bad faith by issuing orders through the CMOH when Alberta’s Cabinet chose to camouflage their actions as public health orders under the PHA so they could blame the CMOH rather than accept political responsibility.” Specifically, Justice Feasby found:
“The Proposed Representative Plaintiffs plead essentially that Cabinet hid behind the CMOH thereby avoiding democratic accountability. That, in my view, is a collateral purpose that is plausibly bad faith.”
The Court expressly permitted claims for punitive damages to hold Alberta accountable and deter future misconduct. Justice Feasby agreed that this is a reasonable common issue and certified it for consideration. Unlike general damages, which require individual assessments, punitive damages can be addressed as a common issue when the misconduct affects a broad group. Specifically Justice Feasby acknowledged that punitive damages are intended to punish wrongful conduct rather than compensate for losses, and can sometimes be assessed on a class-wide basis.
The Court has certified a class consisting of:
“All individuals who owned, in whole or in part, a business or businesses in Alberta that was subject to full or partial closure, or operational restrictions, mandated by the CMOH Orders between March 17, 2020, and the date of certification. For clarity, “owned” does not include ownership as a shareholder in a corporation or as a member of a cooperative.”
Lead counsel Jeff Rath stated: “This is a huge day for Alberta businesses that were illegally harmed by Jason Kenny and Deena Hinshaw. The Court found that the action can proceed against the government of Alberta on a number of grounds including misfeasance in public office allowing the plaintiffs to seek punitive damages against the Alberta government for wrongdoing.”
Important Notice for Potential Class Members
The application for class action certification seeks to provide a fair and efficient resolution for Alberta business owners who suffered losses due to the CMOH Orders. A class proceeding is the most effective way to address these claims, given the widespread impact on Alberta’s business community. If you believe you are a class member, please retain all relevant records, as this evidence will be essential in the upcoming steps.
For more information and updates on this case, or to complete our intake form if you believe you are a class member, please visit: https://rathandcompany.com/business-class-action/​
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June 16, 2022
CLOSING ARGUMENTS FILED
EDIT - IN PROGRESS - Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have completed a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Jeffery Rath has produced his closing arguments which you can read for yourself through the below link.
UPDATE: We were recently able to obtain Leighton Grey's closing arguments (for the plaintiff) as well as Nicolas Parker's (for the crown). See below.
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The Province was successful in striking down Justice Romaine's judgment on allowing questions regarding cabinet confidentiality in the appeal process. This appears to be a strategic move made by Romaine to avoid triggering a mistrial or appearing influenced by cabinet herself.
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The closing arguments are very detailed and well laid out, regardless of the what the final judgement is, this certainly does demonstrate that the Province was not acting in our best interest and that they were in fact illegally infringing on our charter rights.
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We are standing by to announce the expected judgment date and will update again once known.
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
February 17, 2022
TRIAL ADJOURNED UNTIL NEXT WEEK
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have begun a 14 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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For the last few days the trial was consumed with a debate on the scope of the hearing and admissibility of certain key elements that happened after July 2021. The applicants argued that they should all be included as the previous ruling should encompass all such documents leading up the date of the trial. Ultimately the judge ruled that the scope of the hearing would prejudice the respondents and did not allow the documents to be admitted, nor the scope of the hearing changed.
Some of these documents include, but are not limited to, the John Hopkins report on the ineffectiveness of lockdowns, the 4th wave orders in fall of 2022 issued by Dr. Hinshaw, the restrictions exemption program, and the testimony of Brian Peckford regarding charter violations.
As a result of the above debate and the amount of hearing time it consumed, as well as the issue with Dr. B not being available either today or Friday, the trial was adjourned until next Tuesday 22nd. The respondents still had outstanding questions for Dr. B which needed to be concluded in order for the proper schedule of the hearing to proceed, following those questions the respondents will proceed with their opening statements and a new series of witnesses can begin to appear.
The above delays have subsequently driven the need to extend the trial beyond the originally planned 10 days, and due to both Mr. Parker and Justice Romaine having holiday plans beginning next week, the trial will then adjourn and resume in April. The parties did, however, agree to again extend the court working times in order to squeeze as much as possible into the remaining time available next week.
Despite the above delays, this week we did learn some VERY important things about the emergency response plan, or lack thereof, by the Province under the leadership Dr. Deena Hinshaw.
The applicants presented Lieutenant Colonel David Redman, the former head of Alberta Emergency Response Management (AEMA) and one of Canada’s leading experts on this subject matter.
Mr. Redman explained how the related death rates make this virus rank in severity along with a bad pneumonia season, and should have a corresponding response. This expert opinion echoes what many have been saying all along, that it is nothing more than a bad flu.
Redman further explained that not only did the province not prepare an appropriate pandemic response plan according to normal practice, they completely ignored the one they already had in place since 2013. Redman explained that in a standard emergency response plan, experts from impacted aspects of the emergency would work as a team in order to have a comprehensive perspective from which to prepare a plan. In his expert opinion, the Province ignored this well established protocol and invited only limited health officials, which then dictated what the plan would be with little to no regard on aspects like economics, wider public health or social impacts. He argued that all of society needs to be looked at during emergency response planning or it can create more problems then it purports to solve.
Mr. Redman is a very well-spoken and experienced expert in this field, he presented his views in a professional and logical way that any sound person would have difficulty disagreeing with.
We later heard from the managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) from October 2020 to May 2021, Mr. Scott Long. The applicants argued for the record that Mr. Long is an active employee of the province and therefore has a biased opinion of the subject matter due to still being employed by the respondents.
Mr. Long confirmed to us that “no cost benefit analysis was done before implementing the non pharmaceutical interventions (NPI’s)”. In other words, they shoot first and band-aid the problems with money later, like CERB and other financial programs. The Government was making up the plan as they went along, and without any reasonable basis or consideration for their potential damage implemented NPI’s like lockdowns, masking, and social distancing.
Mr. Long did not appear to have the same level of expertise or experience as Mr. Redman, Mr. Long repeated himself quite a bit with buzz words like “in the earliest of days” and much of his testimony was “in his personal opinion” not as an expert witness.
There were numerous other significant revelations uncovered during this week’s testimonies which we will summarize once the transcripts are available.
The Trial will resume Tuesday at 9am, and as far as we are aware Dr. Hinshaw is still set to appear in court next week.
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The trial will be held until February 24, 2022 each day at 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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The trial can be viewed online through webex at the following link: Live trial link
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
March 2, 2022
TRIAL ADJOURNED UNTIL APRIL
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have completed a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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The last week of the trial started with Mr. Parker concluding his questioning of Dr. B. Some of the highlights of that session are:
Dr. B explain that 10's of millions in poorer countries are in starvation due to the NPI policies in western countries, so not only did it impact our country it affected the rest of the world even worse. The Province gave no consideration was given to potential indirect global impacts of implementing NPIs.
He explained that age is the most important co morbidity and that every 7 years your risk of death doubles.
Dr. B explained that only 3.9% of asymptomatic positive tests later go on to infect someone else. This tells us that the entire narrative of asymptomatic spread was a lie and that countless positive cases that were used to justify imposing NPIs did not have any risk of infecting anyone.
Dr. B, added that he doesn’t know of any reputable study that shows vaccination stops transmission. He explained that the studies show only 20% efficacy in the vaccines and that the vaccines don’t work to stop transmission. In other words, the mandated solution to the pandemic does not work at all, which puts it in the same category as all of the other NPI responses, not only useless but actually far worse than having done nothing. Based on this, one could argue that considering the lack of efficacy in any of the government responses and the damage they have actually caused that this was done deliberately to the people of Alberta. How could our trusted leadership be so incompetent?!
We later heard from Jason Kindrachuk PhD virologist, the province’s expert witness on covid response.
Mr. Parker provided his opening statement where he argued that none of the plaintiffs had any basis to their concerns, and that they should be stricken without further consideration.
We then heard from Dr. Nathan Zelyas, dept of laboratory medicine at U of A. He confirmed to us that only 44% of PCR test samples could be cultured in a lab, meaning that the majority were completely benign and incapable of infecting anyone.
Next we heard from Dr Kimberely Simmonds, professor of epidemiology and reporting directly to Dr. Hinshaw with covid related data analytics. She admitted that homeless populations never had an outbreak, which lead to admitting hand washing (as one example) was not the right public health measure, and had almost no effect on transmission.
She admitted that the models she provided to Dr. Hinshaw were only +/-50% accurate, as a result, she herself even admitted they were largely useless.
Lastly we heard from Deb Gordon, VP & chief of health operations at AHS.
She confirmed that she has no experience in pandemics, none, but was somehow still responsible for dealing with it. She explained that they did not increase hospital capacity during the response unlike, during the H1N1 outbreak, where hospitals did increase capacity to deal with the added patients. Perhaps if the policy was the same we could have avoided hard lockdowns costing the province billions of dollars? How many field hospitals could have been built for the $1Bn handed out to Albertans?
After some additional back and forth between council and Justice Romaine, the trial was adjourned Thursday at 3pm, and will resume again in early April. We will update again once the schedule is confirmed.
We are awaiting the transcripts and once reviewed we will provide some additional highlights.
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
April 4, 2022
TRIAL RESUMED
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have completed a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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The trial has resumed, please use the following link to watch it live: Live Trial Link
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
February 14, 2022
TRIAL SCHEDULE CONFIRMED
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have begun a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Today was the last day for Mr. Parker to question Dr. Bhattacharya (Dr.B), he asked him many "do you agree with" type questions about specific policies implemented by the Province during the various waves, most of which Dr.B disagreed with. For example, he asked if he agreed curb-side pickup was a good policy and Dr. B responded "no, as its not a focused approach"or if he thought vaccine mandates for front line workers in care homes was appropriate, again he responded"no, the vaccine does not prevent transmission and therefore mandating it is useless". Dr. B stressed the importance of having focused policies rather than blanket ones as you cannot treat all circumstances and people the same, especially when it comes to medicine and health related policies.
The judge confirmed that Brain Peckford's testimony is inadmissible as it came after July 21, 2021.
The schedule for the balance of the trial is Rath and Grey questioning Dr. B tomorrow followed by Dr. Redmond until end of Wednesday. Dr. Hinshaw has agreed to up to 4 days as requested by the applicants and will appear in court Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
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The trial will be held until February 24, 2022 each day at 9:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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The trial can be viewed online through webex at the following link: Live trial link
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
February 11, 2022
TRIAL UNDERWAY
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have begun a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Today was a lively debate of some very important issues with Dr. Bhattacharya (Dr.B) as the expert witness for the applicants on public health matters and Mr. Parker, attorney for the respondents. They debated the topic of masking effectiveness and the various studies related thereto and how mandating can result in reduction of public trust in the health system which most often yields far worse impacts later on then they claim to help.
Respondents submitted an application to not allow any documents after July 21 2021 only 20 min before trial started on today. There was several material documents submitted after that date which were accepted by all parties until today, should there have been a reason to not allow anything it should have been requested long ago. In our opinion, this is a blatant tactic to reduce exposure of a loosing argument and they seem to be scrambling to minimize risk exposures.
There is a concern that Dr Hinshaw is to appear for only 2 days but may need 3-4. Despite having an extra flex day at the end of the trial the parties agreed to adjust the working hours to gain more time, starting earlier, ending later and shorter lunch.
The agreed working hours adjustment came after learning that Mr. Parker said he is going on vacation on Feb 25 and therefore the trial cannot run any longer than has been scheduled despite everyone else agreeing to extending if needed. Rath commented that this is the second time this trial has been impacted by someone’s vacation schedule, the first was when Hinshaw failed to show up for court due to a “hospital crisis”, but went on holiday instead (see previous press release).
We will update on the schedule for next week in the near future.
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The trial will be held until February 24, 2022 each day at 9:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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The trial can be viewed online through webex at the following link: Live trial link
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for play by play updates about the trial.
February 10, 2022
TRIAL BEGINS
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice J. Romaine have begun a 10 day trial related to the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of most of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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This long awaited trial is expected to produce some verifiable answers to the many questions this application has posed. For instance, in the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw's sworn affidavit item #115 she states that ".. the PCR test does not specifically identify living, infectious virus in an individual,..", and whereas the PCR test has been the primary driver behind case counts that have been used to justify draconian arbitrary restrictions of our freedoms.
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The timing of this trial could not be better as the world is watching the Canadian truckers hold the line. This trial has the potential to legitimize their arguments and tip the balance of legal power in their favour.
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The trial will be held from February 10 - 24, 2022 each day at 10 am.
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The trial can be viewed online through webex at the following link: Live trial link
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Please join our telegram group "Freedom4canada" for regular updates about the trial.
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Below you can find some of the relevant legal documents that have been subsequently submitted to the court during the discovery process and will be considered during the trial.
LAWYER FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST ALBERTA'S TOP DOCTORS
https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/10/lawyer-files-complaint-against-albertas-top-docs/
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Lawyer Jeffrey Rath has submitted a formal complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) accusing Dr. Deena Hinshaw and Dr. Verna Yiu of unethical conduct and violating the CPSA Standards of Practice.
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March 15, 2021
LITIGATION PLAN ORDERED BY COURT
Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”), counsel for the Province and Justice Kirker have agreed and set a court ordered litigation plan for the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of most of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Lawyers for the province filed a application to strike the application in its entirety which will be heard by the court on April 21.
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If the application to strike is unsuccessful, the lawyers for the Province then intend to file an application to strike parts of the applicants Affidavit Evidence, this application will be heard by the courts on June 1.
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Once both the above applications have been heard by the court, the Province will be required to submit all of its responding evidence on or before July 12 at which point cross examinations can begin.
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Provided all of the above is achieved on time, a 2 week hearing of the merits of the application shall be heard on September 20-Oct 1.
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To view the full litigation plan please click the button below.
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January 15, 2021
PROVINCIAL LAWYERS ATTEMPTED TO DELAY ACTION
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Calgary: Rath & Company (“Rath & Co”), Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., appeared in Virtual Court on January 12, 2021 with James Kitchen and Jocelyn Gerke of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (“JCCF”) and counsel for the Province in front of Justice Kirker to set a litigation plan for the constitutional challenge of the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders that have bankrupted businesses and stripped citizens of Alberta of most of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Rath & Co and the JCCF submitted a joint litigation plan that would have set a trial date in March 2021.
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Lawyers for the Government of Alberta stated that their position is that the litigation plan cannot be set until past the deadline for the Applicants’ affidavits as they will need time to review and gather responding evidence implying that the Government does not have the data and records to justify the imposed restrictions. In other words, the Government needs to see our evidence before they will agree to a litigation plan or provide any of their own evidence.
They further proposed that another case management conference call be scheduled to determine the next steps in the action. Justice Kirker seemed to prefer this approach and counsel from Rath & Company and JCCF reluctantly agreed.
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The Government lawyers also informed the Court that they would likely be seeking to file applications for summary dismissal or to strike portions of the Originating Application and certain Affidavits filed in support of the Originating Application. Justice Kirker was unimpressed with the vague threats and instructed the Alberta lawyers to formally provide the basis for their potential application to Rath & Co and JCCF with the expectation that counsel find a mutually beneficial path forward.
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Next steps for the action:
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• January 22, 2021 deadline for affidavit evidence in support of the Applicants
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• January 29, 2021 case management conference call to set further steps in the litigation plan
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December 21, 2020
COURT OF QUEEN’S BENCH REFUSES APPLICATION TO SAVE CHRISTMAS
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Calgary: After hearing today’s Application for Injunctive Relief against Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s COVID-19 Orders, Justice Anne Kirker refused to grant the requested relief.
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In her Decision, Justice Kirker ruled that the Applicants had serious questions to be tried and were going to suffer irreparable harm through the cancellation of Christmas, however, found that she was bound by case law to “assume” that Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s Orders were in the public interest.
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In making this ruling, Justice Kirker was careful to state that this ruling is not a reflection on the merits of the case and that the end result upon the hearing of the Originating Application could be quite different from the result of the Injunction Application. On a hearing of the merits of this matter, Justice Kirker pointed out that the onus of justifying the restrictions under s. 1 of the Charter and the test in R. v. Oakes shifted to the Government.
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Upon, a hearing of the merits, the Government will have to prove that Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s Orders were reasonable, impacted the rights of the Applicants “as little as possible”, and that the Government and Dr. Deena Hinshaw had properly considered alternatives to the Orders to ensure that society as a whole would be impacted as little as possible.
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The Applicants have submitted a Litigation Plan that calls for a Judicial Review Hearing to be heard prior to the end of February 2021.
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Counsel for the Applicants, Jeffrey Rath, noted that under the Oakes test, the burden of proof on the Government for justification of its Orders was based “on a preponderance of probabilities”.
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Mr. Rath stated that “Dr. Hinshaw appears to believe that you are safe from the virus if you attend a Church service of 150 people based on Fire Code capacity, but if you attend a funeral service or wedding with 11 or 12 people, the virus knows you are fair game. This is clearly ridiculous and not based on science.”
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Mr. Rath added that Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s recent Orders allowing single mothers and fathers to have adult companionship from “two other people”, while denying this same accommodation to married people is discriminatory on its face, arbitrary, and demonstrative of the fact that Dr. Deena Hinshaw is simply making things up as she goes along.
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In written materials submitted to the Court on behalf of Rebecca Ingram, Rath & Company noted that Dr. Deena Hinshaw appears to be engaged in a cruel experiment with the lives of citizens of Alberta. Dr. Hinshaw has provided no scientific proof that limiting family gatherings over Christmas or incarcerating healthy Albertans in their homes, as opposed to providing enhanced protection to “vulnerable citizens” of Alberta will result in fewer deaths.
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Mr. Rath noted outside of the Court Application and materials filed with the Court, that cowardly politicians like Mayor Nenshi, Premier Jason Kenney, and MLA Rachel Notley should all be held to account at the ballot box by the silent majority of this Province who are completely disgusted with the degree to which these politicians think it is appropriate to destroy businesses and the economic lives of the citizens of this Province.
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Freedom Corp., which supports Rebecca Ingram’s litigation, is extremely concerned that Premier Jason Kenney has allowed Dr. Deena Hinshaw to destroy businesses in Alberta, cause a 46% increase in opioid deaths in the Province, as well as forcing Alberta families onto social assistance and into Food Banks for the first time in their lives prior to the Christmas holiday.
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Jeffrey Rath, counsel for Rebecca Ingram, stated that the most remarkable thing about the Government’s response to this Application, was the complete failure by the Government of Alberta to provide any scientific proof that the restrictions were either necessary or effective. Mr. Rath stated that all of Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Orders to date which she entitled “Records of Decision”, are little more than Dr. Deena Hinshaw stating that these Orders will take effect because I am Dr. Deena Hinshaw and I said so.
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Mr. Rath went on to say that Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s Affidavit was simply more of the same, with a number of cartoonish charts and graphs attached to give the appearance that her Decisions were somehow based in science. What was apparent from Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s evidence was that the Government of Alberta has done an abysmal job of contact tracing and that on Hinshaw’s own evidence, the Government of Alberta does not have a clue as to the origin of 78% of the COVID-19 cases in Alberta.
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Given Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s stated ignorance of the origin of 78% of the COVID-19 cases in Alberta, it is clear to Freedom Corp. that the Government of Alberta, in destroying livelihoods and businesses, is simply playing God with regard to which businesses are allowed to survive and which businesses will be driven into bankruptcy. This is the very thing that Premier Kenney offered his heartfelt apology for not three weeks ago.
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Rebecca Ingram provided evidence that any so-called relief programs designed by the Government of Alberta are not sufficient to replace the lost revenue generated by businesses. Dr. Hinshaw’s arbitrary selection of winners and losers in the Alberta economy will devastate this Province for the foreseeable future.
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Mr. Rath, noted to the Court that the Government of Alberta has even failed to provide evidence to the Court that anyone in the Province has in fact died from COVID-19 as opposed to the numerous fatal diseases that people alleged to have died from COVID-19 are said to suffer from. Mr. Rath noted that the best that could be said on the Government’s evidence is that a number of people, who have either tested positive or false positive for COVID-19 have died, in all likelihood from pre-existing fatal comorbidities, including being in their 80s, 90s, or 100s.
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At the conclusion of the Hearing, Government lawyer, Nicholas Parker, could not resist pouring salt on the wounds of the millions of Albertans that were hopeful that Madam Justice Kirker would lift the family gathering restrictions in time for the Christmas holiday. At the conclusion of Madam Justice Kirker’s Decision denying injunctive relief, Mr. Parker cheerfully wished Justice Kirker a Merry Christmas after submitting on behalf of Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw that that same Merry Christmas should be denied to 4.4 million Albertans.
December 16, 2020
LAWYERS ASK THE COURT TO SAVE CHRISTMAS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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December 16, 2020
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Calgary: Rath & Company, Barristers and Solicitors, retained by Freedom Corp., appeared in Court yesterday with James Kitchen of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom.
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The Government of Alberta requested an adjournment of the December 17, 2020, Hearing to 9:30 am on December 21, 2020. The Province of Alberta has been seeking to delay and adjourn this matter until well after Christmas, claiming to the Court that they required additional time to gather evidence to justify the present lockdown Orders.
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Jeffrey Rath submitted to the Court that the Province’s suggestion that they needed further time to gather evidence was shocking under the circumstances. Mr. Rath advised the Court the Government should have had evidence to justify incarcerating 4.5 million Albertans in their home for Christmas before issuing Orders.
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To date, the Chief Medical Officer of Health has issued 42 often-contradictory and arbitrary Orders, bankrupting businesses and stripping citizens of Alberta of virtually all of their rights under the Alberta Bill of Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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The Injunction Application is supported by a number of prominent Alberta physicians, as well as David Redman, the former Executive Director of Emergency Management Alberta, who has sworn an Affidavit in this action stating, as a matter of fact, that the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s draconian Orders fly in the face of the Alberta Pandemic Response Plan that he was instrumental in developing.
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It is clear on the evidence before the Court that the only tools being utilized by the Chief Medical Officer of Health to manage the COVID-19 outbreak in Alberta are extreme restrictions of human rights, while she hopes for the speedy delivery of a vaccine.
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Evidence has been tendered to the Court by a prominent Alberta physician stating that American treatment protocols that have reduced COVID-19 mortality by as much as 400% have been ignored by Alberta Health Services. The only treatment option being offered by Alberta Health Services consists of telling citizens, including senior citizens testing positive for COVID-19, to return to their homes and isolate until such time as they can’t breathe, at which point, they are directed to call 911 to determine whether a hospital bed will be made available.
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American treatment protocols that have greatly reduced COVID-19 mortality include, low dose ASA, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, and Zinc, and Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory drug that is readily available in the Province of Alberta.
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To date, in the Province of Alberta, only 0.000025% of the total Alberta population has died from an alleged COVID-19 infection absent any other fatal comorbidities.
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The position of the Injunction Applicants is that the fear and hysteria being promoted by politicians, like Mayor Nenshi, is not supported by science. Given the high number of false positives generated by the PCR test used by the Province of Alberta, it is impossible to say with any accuracy what the actual number of COVID-19 positive Albertans is, let alone whether the person alleged to have died with COVID-19, died from COVID-19 or one of their pre-existing fatal comorbidities.
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Evidence tendered by the Applicants clearly demonstrates that provincial statements with regard to hospital and ICU capacities are deliberately misleading. Prominent Alberta physicians and respirologists have provided sworn evidence stating that any increase in hospital load and ICU load is completely in line with annual increases in respiratory illness associated with the onset of the flu season.
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Given that it appears influenza numbers are simply being recorded as COVID-19 numbers, it remains an open question as to how many so-called COVID-19 patients in Alberta hospitals are actually infected with COVID-19 as opposed to the seasonal flu. To date, the Government of Alberta has not provided any evidence in this regard or disclosed the type of PCR test being used in the Province of Alberta and whether that test is accurate enough to support the complete violation of the civil rights of an entire Province.
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The Portuguese Court of Appeal recently rescinded Government COVID Quarantine Orders on the basis that the PCR test is too inaccurate to be used to justify forced quarantine orders.
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Jeffrey R. W. Rath
Rath & Company
Barristers and Solicitors
December 04, 2020
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Freedom Corporation has retained and instructed Rath & Company, Barristers and Solicitors, to work jointly with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) to file an Application in the Court of Queen’s Bench setting aside the recent Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) Orders that trample the constitutionally-protected rights of citizens of Alberta.
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The pleadings filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench on December 4, 2020, claim that the CMOH Orders are ultra vires the Province pursuant to the Alberta Bill of Rights and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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Freedom Corporation and the JCCF are applying to the Court on behalf of private citizens and churches who believe their civil rights, including their rights to religious liberty, have been violated by Dr. Deena Hinshaw in a completely arbitrary and capricious manner.
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One Applicant notes that her 12, 14, and 15 year old children are prohibited from attending high school while her 18 year old has been permitted by Dr. Hinshaw to attend a bar, casino, or strip club. Other Applicants note the cruelty and inhumanity inherent in advising grieving family members that they are prohibited from attending a loved one’s funeral should their family exceed 10 in number, while permitting as many as 400 people to attend a Church service every Sunday if the Church in question has a Fire Code capacity of 1,200.
The Originating Application and supporting materials allege that Dr. Hinshaw’s Orders have been issued without lawful authority as the Legislature of Alberta has not passed legislation saying that Dr. Hinshaw’s authority is absolute, “notwithstanding” the Alberta Bill of Rights.
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The Application further sets out all of the various Alberta Bill of Rights, Charter, and Constitutional provisions that Dr. Hinshaw’s Orders contravene.
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The Application identifies a lack of justification on the part of the Government and questions whether a bona fide emergency even exists.
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“The mere existence of COVID-19 in Alberta does not constitute an emergency. For Albertans under the age of 60 years, the chances of dying of COVID-19 in Alberta are currently 1 in 210,000, while the murder rate in Calgary is 6.1 per 100,000. Put in another way, a Calgary under the age of 60 is 12 times more likely to be murdered than to die of COVID-19.”
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Jeffrey Rath, counsel for Freedom Corp., said, “In preparing this action, we have consulted numerous public health experts. All of the experts that we have spoken with are horrified that the economy of Alberta and the future of Alberta’s children are being devastated by a gross over-reaction to an outbreak of an entirely manageable upper respiratory infection.”
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Jeffrey Rath notes that the Court of Appeals of Portugal has recently struck down quarantine orders in that country based on the same COVID-19 test used in the Province of Alberta on the basis that this test is highly inaccurate and unreliable.
Serious questions remain to be answered by the Government of Alberta with regard to the degree to which hysteria has prevailed over the rights of citizens of Alberta and our economic wellbeing.
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The Originating Notice of Application filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench is returnable on December 15, 2020. It is the hope of the Applicants and their legal counsel that Albertans’ civil liberties will be restored by the Court prior to Christmas.
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Jeffrey R. W. Rath
Rath & Company
Barristers and Solicitors