2024-06-08 Saturday Peaceful Freedom Rally

11:00am - 12 noon Markham and Lawrence

Nurse Sarah A. Choujounian’s ongoing disciplinary hearing 2024-06-07;

College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) Lawyer Megan Shortreed cross examined Dr Byram Bridle in the morning. Topics included

• dates various vaccines became available in Canada, apparently related to the CNO’s position that Ms Choujounian’s statements should be judged based on the evidence available at the time and not on the current best available evidence.

• the definition of the word “vaccine” with Dr Bridle pointing out that the traditional definition of vaccine included preventing disease and transmission. Canada did not change it’s definition of vaccine as the US did. The Canadian definition had implications for how Ms Choujounian’s statements should be interpreted and for whether the public was able to give proper informed consent to the vaccines

• quite an extensive discussion of PCR tests and cycle thresholds. Dr Bridle testified that labs, not the government set the cycle threshold for the PCR tests which I believe generally supports one of the CNO charges. Otherwise, I think Dr. Bridle helped Ms Choujounian quite powerfully, such as in the proper interpretation of PCR tests.

I must confess to a certain satisfaction in watching Dr Bridle at times appear to “outlawyer” Ms Shortreed. He kept reminding Ms. Shortreed that he was there to explain the science to the best of his understanding and point out scientific nuances that Ms. Shortreed was missing or appearing to try to sweep under the rug with legalistic arguments. At times Dr. Bridle almost started cross examining Ms. Shortreed. Ms. Shortreed appeared to be trying to argue that previous CNO expert witness Dr. Mazzulli - microbiologist in chief Mount Sinai, had credentials that put Dr Bridle to shame in PCR testing . That argument fell flat, at least with me, because Dr. Bridle stuck to the science and made his points clearly and eloquently so that I really didn’t care that Dr. Mazzulli is a full professor, while I think Dr. Bridle is only an associate professor.

Cross exam ended shortly after the tribunal reconvened after lunch. Lawyer Boissonneau-Lehner for Ms Choujounian had no further questions for Dr Bridle. Ms Choujounian who is usually quite stoic, smiled and waved as Dr. Bridle left the conference.

A debate ensued about what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Mr Boissonneau-Lehner argued that the defense strategy was for Ms. Choujounian to testify after there were articles introduced into evidence to support her position. The tribunal had not yet ruled on his motion from 2024-05-31 to introduce additional peer reviewed articles to cover the gaps due to the tribunal partially disqualifying Ms Choujounian’s expert witnesses but will rule prior to the next hearing. Mr Boissonneau-Lehner therefore wanted to delay Ms Choujounian’s testimony until the motion was resolved. Ms Shortreed argued for the CNO that Ms. Choujounian was a fact witness, not an expert witness so her testimony could begin immediately and be followed by further expert testimony if needed.

Unfortunately from my lay perspective, neither of the counsels nor the independent counsel for the tribunal (Mr Wirth) addressed the massive consequences for the public of restricting nurses’ freedom to express themselves. I.e. still no Charter arguments. I would naively think that at least the lawyer for the tribunal would have an obligation to raise the Charter when discussing the public interest, but so far the Charter seems to be a pure formalism here.

The tribunal ruled to adjourn. The next hearing is set for July 3 at 0930. Contact HearingsAdministrationGroup@cnomail.org for the link to the live stream. As best I can tell it will either be further wrangling over how to introduce peer reviewed articles, testimony to introduce further peer reviewed articles or Ms Choujounian will testify.

In the interest of fair and balanced assessment of the parallels to the Soviet legal system which I commented on last week, it has come to my attention that Stalin himself was apparently (just once) sued in a Soviet court, although I derive little comfort from the outcome. To continue the comparison to the Soviet Union from last week, if the CNO truly wanted to protect the public from misinformation as they claim, they ought to leave the hearings up on YouTube as there is absolutely no individual patient privacy at stake.

Legal Disclaimers: I remain not a lawyer and missed parts of the hearing today so please absolutely don’t rely on this as legal advice. Unfortunately the CNO does not permit recording the hearing so these comments are largely from memory. Presumably there will be an official transcript available at cost if you require legally reliable information.

Rally at Markham and Lawrence this Saturday from 11:00am - 12 noon

Please bring a freedom related sign, flag, flyers etc. if you have them.

Healthy Planet has moved across Lawrence into Cedarbrae Mall. I will be experimenting with locations around the perimeter of Cedarbrae Mall, but expect to end up directly outside Healthy Planet towards noon.