A London, Ontario nurse testified in Ottawa she could not stay silent about the harms she saw in the pandemic response, though it cost her her job, reputation, and money..Kristen Nagle gave her testimony to the National Citizens Inquiry on the first day of hearings in Ottawa May 17. She said her first surprise came when her colleagues put on masks without protests after a long and successful fight that showed this requirement was illegal during flu season..“From November 'til April, if you did not receive the flu shot, you would have to wear a mask throughout your whole shift whether you had symptoms or not. And so we fought for years. And finally in 2018...our nurses union...proved that the masks were discriminatory and did not stop transmission of viruses. And we no longer had to wear a mask,” she said..“Two years later, I was shocked to see when they mandated...not just masks, but now goggles...to wear throughout our entire 12 hour shift...And everyone complied after years of fighting to not have to wear masks for this very purpose.”.Nagle, who got her licence to nurse in 2006, worked in neonatal intensive care during the pandemic. She said only one parent was allowed to be with the baby at a time and had to wear a mask..“A premature baby is a very scary, detrimental time. And they had to take on all that information by themselves and be alone and isolated at the bedside and you weren't allowed to share that with a partner,” Nagle explained..“If a mother had to have a C-section, even though there was a whole bunch of personnel in the in the room, the husband was not allowed to be in the room...to witness and the birth of his baby or support his wife. So if the mother was put under general anaesthetic, both parents missed the birth of their baby.”.Sometimes mothers had to be in hospital for an extended time, but they could choose only one individual to be allowed visitation rights the entire duration of their hospital stay..“That would mean going you know without being family, friends, loved ones, sometimes even their own children for that time. So it was quite sad what was happening. I was speaking out about it.”.In September 2020, Nagle spoke to London, Ontario City Council about the harms masks were causing children. Schools, playgrounds, and activities were shut down, and many parents reached out to Nagle after she went public..“I was getting floods of emails from parents, some as young as six years old, talking about how they hate their life. And they were using parents' credit cards to try and pretend to cut their wrists, and so I continued to speak out. And I'm feeling very emotional from that last testimony, it just reminded me of why we're speaking out as well for the children and for all Canadians.”.Nagle hosted a “freedom rally” in London in November 2020, which led to backlash..“CBC News picked up on that and completely defamed me. It was...ICU nurse Kristen Nagle put premature babies in danger, that I was a reckless nurse. And of course, you can just imagine the slander that came from that. My entire reputation and character was destroyed in my community.".“I was put under indefinite suspension at this time and then placed under investigation by the College of Nurses of Ontario. By this point, it was a 600-page disclosure of social media posts, things I had said, talks, and then reports from colleagues and people in my community.”.Some of Nagle's co-workers did not support her..“My colleagues...put in complaints about me to management to say that I was not wearing proper PPE because when I was sitting at a desk for myself, I put the goggles on my head to do charting, so I could see. Apparently, that was scary for them. So I ended up being suspended from work in November of 2020 for being insubordinate, for not wearing proper PPE.”.Nagle joined forces with Toronto nurse Sarah Choujounianin and six nurses in the US to form Global Frontline Nurses. They gathered to talk about health and freedom at the Supreme Court..“This just so happened to be January 6 [2021]. I will admit that I was politically naive. And we just wanted to share what we were seeing, the horrors that were happening,” she recalled..“When we flew home from Washington DC, I and Sarah Choujounian were both deemed domestic terrorists for the storming and rioting at the Capitol. We were terminated from our jobs and we were internationally defamed at this point. We received an incredible amount of of hate through social media, through other avenues that could reach us,” Nagle said..“The RCMP even came to our house to ask about our involvement in the storming and rioting at the Capitol. I had nursing colleges teaching their students about me, about accountability and what not to do. 'Don't do what Kristen Nagle did in storming the Capitol.' So it was yeah, it was pretty dark. However, after all the hate, a bunch of loving support came in and many from nurses from around around the world supporting us and wanting to speak out.”.The college of nurses issued a statement in December 2020 that said nurses would be censured if they spoke out against masks, social distancing, vaccination, or public health measures. Nagle and other medical professionals held a virtual press conference January 25, 2021 to publicize how the emergency department was slow, and yet the gynecology wing had been shut down to handle an expected overflow that never happened. Nagle formed Canadian Frontline Nurses (CFN) and held a protest in front of the nursing college April 14, 2021. .The nurse was found guilty of defying the Reopening Act of Ontario by speaking at the Aylmer Church of God on April 25, 2021. She was fined $10,000 plus court costs of $2500, and the judge demanded the full amount be paid before he would accept an appeal..Nagle satisfied her hungry baby during her virtual testimony and began nursing her child out of camera view, then explained how she had organized national hospital rallies September 1 and 13, prompting another investigation by the college..“We were defamed by the media. This time, we actually were concerned for our lives and our children were doxxed. The threats were quite vile at this point and even threatening our children. They said that... we interfered with ambulance access, we stopped cancer treatments from happening, and we assaulted health care workers which was not the case because we were there in support of health care workers,” she recalled..“People believed that we had blood on our hands...They posted our home addresses. They told people to showed up and it became scary about where to go in public and where it would feel safe to go out.”.Next Nagle and her nurse colleagues went to the trucker convoy to do interviews and publicize the issues that brought people to Ottawa..“We were there right 'til the very end when the police finally removed all the peaceful protesters from the streets. I myself was pushed down to the ground by by an officer at that time.” The police action prompted Nagle and CFN to sue the federal government over wrongful use of the Emergency Measures Act..Nagle said she has no faith in the legal system as a result of her experiences and that silencing nurses won't go well for the medical system either..“We're supposed to be the last line of defence for the public. We're supposed to stand up to doctors, we're supposed to ask questions, we're supposed to critically think. This is what we were trained trained to do, and they take that away. .“And if nurses can't speak out, if nurses can't advocate for you, then I don't know who will anymore in that system.”
