The tragic death of Sheila Annette Lewis on Aug. 24, 2023, testifies to the cruelty and evil of putting ideology ahead of science..Ms. Lewis had a terminal condition, and needed an organ transplant to stay alive. Alberta Health Services (AHS) doctors refused to reinstate Ms. Lewis on the high-priority organ transplant waiting list, thereby failing to care for her and doing nothing to prevent her demise..The pretext for this cruel decision was the AHS requirement that organ transplant patients needed to get injected with the COVID vaccine first, to receive life-saving medical treatment..Ms. Lewis had had COVID twice, and her natural immunity to COVID (among other reasons) negated any valid medical requirement for her to take the COVID vaccine..When she was still alive, Sheila Annette Lewis stated the following 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.”.“I am shocked and appalled that 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. 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.”.In support of her Charter-protected right to bodily autonomy, freedom of conscience, and the freedom to choose without coercion, Ms. Lewis commenced a court action in 2021 and filed expert reports from immunologist Dr. Bonnie Mallard and from Dr. Byram Bridle, who is a vaccinologist and virologist..Their expert reports and oral testimony illustrated the COVID vaccines were still in clinical trials, and the peer reviewed research and raw scientific data led them to seriously question the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines, as compared to traditional vaccines that have been around for decades..Another expert report was filed from a surgeon with a Masters in Health Care Ethics, Dr. Benjamin Turner, who testified the benefit of vaccination for Ms. Lewis was so small it was unethical to require her to get the COVID vaccine prior to her transplant..Ms. Lewis was unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of King’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2022. Both levels of court ruled the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Bill of Rights do not apply to the mandatory COVID vaccine policies developed by AHS..You may remember the government’s promises when the new COVID vaccine was first introduced in early 2021: This “safe” and “effective” substance — even absent any long-term safety data — was promised to 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..We’ve known since at least December of 2021 (and arguably many months earlier) the COVID vaccine did not prevent COVID from spreading, did not provide herd immunity, did not stop people from getting sick with COVID, and did not save people from dying with COVID. But the ideological claim repeated by governments, that this vaccine was “effective,” won out in court, despite facts and evidence..When Danielle Smith became Premier in October 2022, she did not require AHS to change its policy of denying life-saving care to Albertans who choose not to receive the COVID vaccine..On March 29, 2023, Ms. Lewis provided her doctors in the Alberta Transplant Program with a privately funded medical report (“Kinexus Report”) establishing that she had strong natural immunity to COVID and had successfully overcome previous COVID infections..Ms. Lewis had asked her physicians nearly one year earlier to test her blood for COVID antibodies and they refused to do so. The Kinexus report found Ms. Lewis’ blood sample “(1) clearly supports the presence of SARS-CoV-2 immunoreactivity, (2) shows that she was likely infected with SARS-CoV-2 around mid-September 2021, and (3) shows that she was infected with SARS-CoV-2 again more recently and has extremely high levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.”.Faced with this compelling medical evidence, AHS doctors still maintained their position that Ms. Lewis could not receive life-saving medical treatment unless she received the injection. This position was completely indefensible, abhorrent and unethical, without any foundation in science or medicine..With Ms. Lewis enjoying robust natural immunity, and with the COVID pandemic over, the AHS transplant doctors continued to implement their death sentence in 2023 by refusing to put Ms. Lewis on the wait list for her life-saving organ transplant..Some would argue that Ms. Lewis had a choice in this matter and could have simply allowed herself to get injected with a substance she did not need, and for which no long-term safety data exists..Yes, Ms. Lewis did have a choice, in the same way one has a choice when the robber puts a gun to a victim’s head and says, “Give me your wallet or I will pull the trigger.”.This “choice” argument, while technically true, is a thin veneer of clever sophistry that serves to hide the cruelty and injustice of forcing a person to do what she does not wish to do..The fact that one does indeed have a choice to submit (or not) to medical coercion avoids the moral imperative of the Nuremberg Code, which prohibits coercing, pressuring or manipulating people into receiving any medical treatment..The Nuremberg Code makes no exceptions for medical treatments that have been approved by a government; this cannot be the excuse or pretext for violating fully informed and voluntary consent..Let us not forget the medical experiments which Nazi doctors performed on unwilling patients during the Second World War were also approved by the government of the day..Are these AHS doctors guilty of murder?.The short answer is “no,” because it is not known with certainty whether Ms. Lewis would have received her life-saving treatment if AHS had not barred her from the organ transplant waiting list; she might have died anyways due to the shortage of donated organs..However, what can be stated fairly and with certainty is that AHS doctors were, at a bare minimum, guilty of negligence, which removed any chance she had of staying alive..John Carpay, B.A., LL.B. is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which was – and is – honoured to have supported Ms. Lewis in her unsuccessful quest for justice in the courts. Due to a Court Order, the Justice Centre may not reveal the names of the doctors, the hospital, the city where the transplant program is located, nor the name of the organ that Ms. Lewis needed to stay alive.
The tragic death of Sheila Annette Lewis on Aug. 24, 2023, testifies to the cruelty and evil of putting ideology ahead of science..Ms. Lewis had a terminal condition, and needed an organ transplant to stay alive. Alberta Health Services (AHS) doctors refused to reinstate Ms. Lewis on the high-priority organ transplant waiting list, thereby failing to care for her and doing nothing to prevent her demise..The pretext for this cruel decision was the AHS requirement that organ transplant patients needed to get injected with the COVID vaccine first, to receive life-saving medical treatment..Ms. Lewis had had COVID twice, and her natural immunity to COVID (among other reasons) negated any valid medical requirement for her to take the COVID vaccine..When she was still alive, Sheila Annette Lewis stated the following 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.”.“I am shocked and appalled that 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. 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.”.In support of her Charter-protected right to bodily autonomy, freedom of conscience, and the freedom to choose without coercion, Ms. Lewis commenced a court action in 2021 and filed expert reports from immunologist Dr. Bonnie Mallard and from Dr. Byram Bridle, who is a vaccinologist and virologist..Their expert reports and oral testimony illustrated the COVID vaccines were still in clinical trials, and the peer reviewed research and raw scientific data led them to seriously question the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines, as compared to traditional vaccines that have been around for decades..Another expert report was filed from a surgeon with a Masters in Health Care Ethics, Dr. Benjamin Turner, who testified the benefit of vaccination for Ms. Lewis was so small it was unethical to require her to get the COVID vaccine prior to her transplant..Ms. Lewis was unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of King’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2022. Both levels of court ruled the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Bill of Rights do not apply to the mandatory COVID vaccine policies developed by AHS..You may remember the government’s promises when the new COVID vaccine was first introduced in early 2021: This “safe” and “effective” substance — even absent any long-term safety data — was promised to 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..We’ve known since at least December of 2021 (and arguably many months earlier) the COVID vaccine did not prevent COVID from spreading, did not provide herd immunity, did not stop people from getting sick with COVID, and did not save people from dying with COVID. But the ideological claim repeated by governments, that this vaccine was “effective,” won out in court, despite facts and evidence..When Danielle Smith became Premier in October 2022, she did not require AHS to change its policy of denying life-saving care to Albertans who choose not to receive the COVID vaccine..On March 29, 2023, Ms. Lewis provided her doctors in the Alberta Transplant Program with a privately funded medical report (“Kinexus Report”) establishing that she had strong natural immunity to COVID and had successfully overcome previous COVID infections..Ms. Lewis had asked her physicians nearly one year earlier to test her blood for COVID antibodies and they refused to do so. The Kinexus report found Ms. Lewis’ blood sample “(1) clearly supports the presence of SARS-CoV-2 immunoreactivity, (2) shows that she was likely infected with SARS-CoV-2 around mid-September 2021, and (3) shows that she was infected with SARS-CoV-2 again more recently and has extremely high levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.”.Faced with this compelling medical evidence, AHS doctors still maintained their position that Ms. Lewis could not receive life-saving medical treatment unless she received the injection. This position was completely indefensible, abhorrent and unethical, without any foundation in science or medicine..With Ms. Lewis enjoying robust natural immunity, and with the COVID pandemic over, the AHS transplant doctors continued to implement their death sentence in 2023 by refusing to put Ms. Lewis on the wait list for her life-saving organ transplant..Some would argue that Ms. Lewis had a choice in this matter and could have simply allowed herself to get injected with a substance she did not need, and for which no long-term safety data exists..Yes, Ms. Lewis did have a choice, in the same way one has a choice when the robber puts a gun to a victim’s head and says, “Give me your wallet or I will pull the trigger.”.This “choice” argument, while technically true, is a thin veneer of clever sophistry that serves to hide the cruelty and injustice of forcing a person to do what she does not wish to do..The fact that one does indeed have a choice to submit (or not) to medical coercion avoids the moral imperative of the Nuremberg Code, which prohibits coercing, pressuring or manipulating people into receiving any medical treatment..The Nuremberg Code makes no exceptions for medical treatments that have been approved by a government; this cannot be the excuse or pretext for violating fully informed and voluntary consent..Let us not forget the medical experiments which Nazi doctors performed on unwilling patients during the Second World War were also approved by the government of the day..Are these AHS doctors guilty of murder?.The short answer is “no,” because it is not known with certainty whether Ms. Lewis would have received her life-saving treatment if AHS had not barred her from the organ transplant waiting list; she might have died anyways due to the shortage of donated organs..However, what can be stated fairly and with certainty is that AHS doctors were, at a bare minimum, guilty of negligence, which removed any chance she had of staying alive..John Carpay, B.A., LL.B. is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which was – and is – honoured to have supported Ms. Lewis in her unsuccessful quest for justice in the courts. Due to a Court Order, the Justice Centre may not reveal the names of the doctors, the hospital, the city where the transplant program is located, nor the name of the organ that Ms. Lewis needed to stay alive.
