How much longer must patients in Alberta continue suffering from lethal discrimination at the hands of Alberta Health Services?.While the human rights abuses of vaccine passports were thankfully ended in early 2022, along with mandatory masking and other lockdown measures that had harmed the physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial well-being of millions, Alberta Health Services continues to demand a vaccine passport for life-saving medical treatments..Sheila Annette Lewis has a terminal condition and needs an organ transplant to survive. In March 2021, physicians working within an Alberta Health Services transplant program threatened to remove Lewis from the high-priority organ transplant waiting list for not receiving the COVID shots so many others were pressured into getting. They had no written COVID-19 vaccine policy, and their policy was not required by Alberta Health Services..By November 2021, Lewis was informed by one of her transplant physicians Alberta Health Services was now requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for all transplant candidates. Although Justice Centre lawyers were temporarily able to secure Lewis’ place on the transplant list, Alberta courts upheld the formalized written policy requiring transplant patients to get the COVID-19 shots..A court-ordered publication ban prohibits mentioning the names of the city, the hospital, and the specific organ Lewis needs. Also shielded from public scrutiny are the names of the taxpayer-funded doctors who effectively consigned Lewis to death by removing her from the high-priority organ transplant waiting list..The details of Sheila Annette Lewis's story are heart-breaking. In her own words, in a court-filed affidavit:.“I am a wife, mother, and grandmother, and I want to live as long as I can to be there for my family and be a part of their lives while they grow and mature. I want my grandchildren to know their grandmother, and I have a lot of life and love left to give. This decision whether or not to take this experimental COVID-19 vaccine has been agonizing for me and has caused me incredible stress and sorrow. I went back and forth with this decision because I do not want to die.”.“I am under incredible stress over the fact these doctors are demanding I take this vaccine in order for me to get my life-saving surgery. I am having trouble sleeping. I am filled with mental anguish knowing I will die without this surgery and I am being pressured in this way to take this experimental treatment.”. Sheila Annette LewisSheila Annette Lewis .“I am shocked and appalled my ability to get life-saving surgery depends upon me taking a new drug with Health Canada warning labels that is still in the experimental stage. I am under extreme duress knowing my choice not to comply will result in the loss of my life. I cannot give informed consent under duress.”.“Taking these vaccines goes against my conscience; the vaccines are still in clinical trials and will be until at least 2023. There is no long-term safety data available, and I am afraid of how this vaccine may affect me in the long-term. Given my fragile state of health, I cannot risk participation in an experimental drug trial.”.We remember the government’s promises when the new COVID-19 vaccine was first introduced in early 2021: This “safe” and “effective” substance — even absent any long-term safety data — would give us herd immunity, stop transmissions, save people from sickness and death, and ensure a permanent end to lockdowns and other freedom-violating government policies..Fast-forward 18 months..Many people are now skeptical of the standard medical advice that this vaccine prevents both contraction and transmission of COVID-19. Governments initially insisted the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, but withdrew it for Canadians under 55 in relation to its link to blood-clotting. Many also wish to know why by July 2022, “ill-defined and unknown” had become the leading cause of death in Alberta. Certainly, documented and anecdotal evidence about people dropping dead after receiving their shot(s) accumulates by the day..The government’s vaccine promises from 2021 have not been validated. All that remains is the unverifiable claim that “without this shot, you would be a lot sicker.” Nevertheless, Alberta Health Services doctors and policies continue to tell patients on organ transplant waiting lists that they must get this vaccine, or get off the waiting list and die..While patients do indeed have a “choice” as to what their response will be, this is akin to the “choice” of handing your money over to an armed robber or testing his willingness to follow through on his threat to kill you if you refuse his demand. For many years, transplant candidates have been required to receive the childhood vaccines that have existed for decades, and Lewis had no objection to being injected with them again, as she could not locate her childhood vaccination records. But this is the first time a novel vaccine that's still in clinical trials (which test for safety and efficacy) has been required..In her legal challenge, Lewis asked Alberta’s courts to uphold her Charter-protected right to conscience, bodily autonomy, freedom to choose without coercion, and freedom from discrimination, and her right to liberty and security of the person as protected by the Alberta Bill of Rights..In support of her Charter and Alberta Bill of Rights arguments, Lewis filed expert reports from two immunologists; Dr. Bonnie Mallard is an award-winning immunologist who taught Immunology at the post-secondary level for 30 years. Dr. Byram Bridle, who is a vaccinologist, as well as an immunologist, was recently invited to be a reviewer for the Canadian Institute of Health Research College of Reviewers, and was recognized in 2021 as one of their outstanding reviewers. Part of his job description includes developing vaccines for human beings..These experts are not, as some media outlets have falsely alluded to, veterinarians. Their expert reports and oral testimony showed the COVID-19 vaccines are still in clinical trials to assess their safety and efficacy, these vaccines are not effective and they have a concerning safety profile. The peer-reviewed research and raw scientific data led these experts to seriously question the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines as compared to traditional vaccines that have been around for decades..Sheila Annette Lewis is not the only Albertan (and not the only Canadian) being coerced and pressured into taking this questionable and unnecessary injection..Some courts still cling stubbornly to the government’s debunked safety and efficacy claims from 2021, thus far refusing to uphold Lewis’ Charter rights and freedoms..Fortunately, courts are not always the last resort. Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Jason Copping can save Annette Lewis and other Albertans from certain death, simply by instructing Alberta Health Services and doctors to end their policy of lethal and unethical discrimination against Albertans who exercise their right to bodily autonomy..John Carpay, B.A., LL.B. is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca), which has provided legal representation to Sheila Annette Lewis and other Canadians facing discrimination on account of vaccination status.
