It Was Never About a Virus

Despite what they insist:

An Ontario medical college tribunal has rejected a motion by three doctors critical of COVID-19 policies who sought to stop disciplinary hearings against them.

The doctors are at risk of losing their licences for allegedly committing professional misconduct in certain actions they engaged in while taking issue with some of the COVID-related public health directions given by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO), such as to do with vaccination and treatment.

The doctors involved are Mark Trozzi, Patrick Phillips, and Crystal Luchkiw, who argued in their motion that the CPSO’s prosecution against them is “unlawful” on jurisdictional grounds.

Allegations against them include “making misleading, incorrect or inflammatory statements about vaccinations, treatments and public health measures concerning COVID-19,” “failing to cooperate with College investigations,” and “issuance of vaccine exemptions.”

The trio have been speaking out against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions publicly, appearing in videos and interviews. Currently being suspended from their practice, they sought to have the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal dismiss their cases without referring them to merits hearings.

Their argument was based on both administrative law and constitutional law. The administrative law argument asserted that the allegations are based on investigations that college registrar Dr. Nancy Whitmore lacked statutory authority to launch. The constitutional law argument was that the allegations relied on the college’s COVID-related direction that itself breached two guarantees in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: freedom of expression and the right to life, liberty, or security of the person.

The tribunal dismissed their motion on Jan. 19.

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Crown prosecutors have dropped charges against a Freedom Convoy pastor ticketed for breach of lockdown orders. Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of the Church of God of Aylmer, Ont. challenged quarantine rules that forced churches to close but permitted liquor and marijuana stores to remain open: “What are we afraid of?”

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What can possibly go right?:

A still-developing Canadian COVID-19 vaccine that is delivered by inhaled aerosol rather than an injection is set to enter Phase 2 of human clinical trials at the University of McMaster in Hamilton, Ontario.

Researchers at the university are receiving over $8 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) to proceed with the new phase of trials, according to a university news release, which says the inhaled vaccine possesses “potential to induce robust mucosal immunity against strains of SARS-CoV-2, including Omicron and other variants of concern.”

“If we can show the new inhaled vaccine is safe and effective, as we anticipate, the impact will be significant for human health, medical costs and better quality of life,” said Fiona Smaill, a McMaster professor emerita of the pathology and molecular medicine department.

Smaill, who is leading trials on the inhaled vaccine alongside several of her colleagues, previously predicted the vaccine would “last longer, be more effective and stand up well to future variants,” based on earlier animal trials with it.