On November 2nd, 2022, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning held a press conference in Ottawa to announce he’d be chairing a citizen’s group examining Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The group had created a federally incorporated not-for-profit company to finance the inquiry and had begun development on a website.
Manning has since stepped aside as a public spokesperson for the citizens inquiry as he was appointed by the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, to head a review of how the province of Alberta handled the COVID-19 public health emergency.
On the inquiry’s website it states:
The National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI) is a citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative that is completely independent from government. In early 2023, the NCI will hear from Canadians and experts and investigate governments’ COVID-19 policies in a fair and impartial manner.
The NCI’s purpose is to listen, to learn, and to recommend. What went right? What went wrong? How can Canadians and our governments better react to national crises in the future in a manner that balances the interests of all members of our society?
The National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI) commenced in Truro, Nova Scotia on March 16th. Since I live less than an hour away I decided to drive up and check it out. I attended the first day of hearings, which to me was a historic undertaking. However, to my surprise, there wasn’t a single news reporter in the room.
To the media in Nova Scotia, it was as if the inquiry wasn’t even happening. The Todd Veinotte Show, the biggest radio show in the province, seemed oblivious to the matter when questioned about it during the call in portion of his show. Halifax, the capital and media epicentre of Nova Scotia, is less than an hour from Truro. Not a single news organization - CBC, CTV, Global News, CityNews 95.7, the Halifax Examiner,etc - bothered to send anyone to cover this.
To Todd Veinotte’s credit, he did have someone on the following week to discuss the NCI, but that was after listeners kept bringing it up to him and asking why he wasn’t covering it.
Back to my experience attending the inquiry. Throughout the day I heard testimonies from people with different backgrounds about their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I heard Dr. Chris Milburn, who was fired as Chief of Emergency for Nova Scotia’s Eastern Zone for comments made on a CBC Cape Breton morning show about the COVID vaccine being new and there being no way of knowing long term risks. I heard local residents tell stories of how they were pressured into taking the vaccine and suffering the kinds of injuries that will be with them possibly forever. I heard a local resident testify about the discrepancy between the COVID-19 data reported in the media and the government data she received through freedom of information requests, and other compelling testimonies from doctors and concerned citizens.
I only attended one out of the three days of hearings held in Truro, but I was pleased with what I saw, and disappointed at the lack of local media coverage.
After the Nova Scotia hearings the NCI carried on its cross Canada tour with stops in Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Red Deer, and upcoming hearings in Vancouver, Quebec City, and ending with three days of hearings in Ottawa from May 17-19.
Lawyer Catherine Christensen testified at the Red Deer hearings about the experiences of Canadian Armed Forces members who refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine. To quote Ms. Christensen, "The right to refuse did not exist, according to the chain-of-command.”
LCol (Retired), and former head of Alberta’s Emergency Management Agency, David Redman also testified at the Red Deer hearings. Redman said there are four important metrics of responding to pandemics, and Canada failed at all four. "Our societal order has been destroyed, all in the name of protecting the healthcare system,” Redman said.
Former RCMP officer Daniel Bulford also testified at the Red Deer hearing. He was quoted as saying, "We keep seeing these incremental steps into our privacy...if we say, oh well, eventually we will get to the place where the authoritarianism will impact you..." So true. I wish more people could see that.
There were many compelling and heartbreaking testimonies heard over the course of the NCI’s cross Canada tour, and I am sure there will be many more as they begin the Vancouver hearings this week.
It’s a damn shame the lack of media attention the National Citizens Inquiry has been getting since it began back in March. If Canada were a serious country with a functioning media every major media organization would have a reporter, or reporters, covering every single day of hearings.
For the smaller media outlets, they wouldn’t even have to spend the money to send someone to attend each individual hearing as each day was and will continue to be live-streamed. You can watch it on their Rumble channel. Don’t bother trying their YouTube channel, as they continue to be censored there. Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC, should be live-streaming every day of hearings for all Canadians to see. Instead you have to dig on their website to find any mention of the NCI.
I think the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the worst public policy blunder in Canada’s history. Due to government mandates, restrictions, edicts, people have lost jobs, friends, relationships, families have broken apart, people weren’t allowed to attend funerals of loved ones… I could go on with a list of how government decisions, often lacking in transparency or scientific rationale, ruined people’s lives in irreparable ways.
Despite the lack of publicity, the NCI is doing great work. Lead and funded by citizens like you and I, it’s giving many people a chance to tell stories that would otherwise never be heard. Doctors are able to speak to a national audience about what they have seen and experienced over the course of the last three years, experts who were not given a chance to say what they saw, heard or thought are now getting a chance to speak. Data is being revealed that most people had no idea about, such as Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Nova Scotia, Dr. Robert Strang, receiving weekly emails informing him of vaccine injuries and not informing the public. Dr. Strang didn’t take that information and inform the public, but instead kept pushing the vaccine as “safe and effective.”
The trust between Canadians and their health care system has now been broken. Who knows how long it’ll take to repair the damage, if ever. The first step would be for the people in charge to acknowledge the wrongs and apologize. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Thanks for writing this. It is so sad that the majority of Canadians haven't heard about NCI. Sometimes I despair.
I hope more people will tune in and realize the huge tragedy that has taken place in our country!!!!!!