Benjamin Klassen is the Research and Education Coordinator at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. He was one of the authors of their new report discussed in this column: Post-Covid Canada: The Rise in Unexpected Deaths. The Covid-era proved to be a test for free speech. In the face of supposed “misinformation,” Canadian politicians, public health officials, Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, other professional regulatory bodies, and many regular Canadians showed their true stance on free speech. Many doctors, nurses, statisticians, and other professionals who dared to challenge the official Covid narrative were silenced, censored, and threatened with the loss of their licence if they disagreed with the dominant narrative.However, Canadian death statistics reveal uncomfortable truths: governments wildly exaggerated the danger of Covid, government lockdowns killed many Canadians, and deaths rose to new heights after most Canadians were considered “fully vaccinated.” .MASON: To leave or not to leave — part two.In a new report, “Post-Covid Canada: The Rise in Unexpected Deaths,” the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms analyzes death statistics by age and cause of death during and after Covid. It examines Statistics Canada death data by specific causes, revealing how specifically Covid case numbers were exaggerated, which causes of deaths showed increases due to government policies (lockdowns and vaccine mandates), and how unexpected deaths remain high into the latest available data in 2024.Using the government's own data, the analysis confirms three major concerns raised by professionals, with their licence on the line. .First, government health officials significantly overcounted Covid deaths, largely by using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) new (April 2020) overbroad definition of Covid deaths. Deaths were assigned to Covid even when Covid was just “assumed to have caused, or contributed to death,” or when death resulted from a “clinically compatible illness.” In other words, terminally ill cancer patients were classified as “Covid deaths” if they tested positive for Covid at the time of death. Unsurprisingly, we found abnormally low numbers of deaths attributed to dementia, Parkinson’s, and other respiratory illnesses. In 2020 and 2021, there were 13,500 fewer deaths in these categories, compared to the reasonably expected number based on trends from prior years. Influenza, which causes hundreds of deaths every year, had less than 20 reported deaths in 2021. The “deficits” in these categories strongly suggest an over-attribution to Covid deaths..ALBERS: A pivot away from national media.Second, lockdowns themselves contributed to the rise in unexpected additional deaths in Canada. This was shown by 6,700 more deaths from alcohol-related illnesses, overdoses, diabetes, and hypertension in 2020 and 2021, all of which are related to the isolation, anxiety, and inactivity that lockdowns caused. Further, an as-of-yet unknown number of Canadians died from cancelled surgeries and delayed diagnoses of cancer and other diseases. Third, unexpected deaths were highest in 2022 (31,370) after most Canadians had been “fully vaccinated” by the end of 2021, and most lockdowns had been removed by mid-2022. Deaths remained as high in 2023 (13,960) as they were in 2020 (14,950) and 2021 (13,510). Preliminary data show 2024 is also on track to stay at this high level. Similarly, deaths attributed to Covid specifically rose from an average of 15,200 deaths in 2020-2021, to 19,900 deaths in 2022, after most Canadians were “fully vaccinated.” And while lower, they remained high in 2023 (8,000). How did Covid vaccines “save millions of lives” as promised? .Covid vaccines are themselves linked to a rise in deaths from diseases of the nervous system (especially among the young), falls among the elderly, issues of the digestive system, and heart diseases. There were up to 4,000 unexpected additional deaths from these causes in 2022 alone. In addition to more Canadians dying, many deaths remain listed as cause “unknown,” especially among Canadians under 45. Approximately 15% (2,640 of 17,780) of 2022 deaths in this age group still remain unspecified, coinciding with a disturbing rise in “mysterious deaths.” .PINDER: The unfortunate values of Mark Carney.Yet, politicians and public health officials seem remarkably incurious, still refusing to address the issue. Are they turning a blind eye? How, for example, should one explain the gap between the 488 deaths from “adverse event following immunization” reported by doctors up to January 2024, and public health officials who have acknowledged only four of them as Covid deaths? In short, while dissenting voices were silenced in the name of “science,” Statistics Canada data makes it clear that the official narrative of politicians, public health officials, and mainstream media was simply wrong..Professionals like Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, Dr. Mark Trozzi, and Denis Rancourt raised legitimate concerns, backed by actual data that challenged the “established science.” Many Canadians failed to remember that “established science” can be very wrong. We should know this from history, when “the science” held that the sun revolved around a flat earth, that doctors need not wash their hands prior to delivering babies, and that thalidomide was safe for pregnant women.Remember when masks were said to be foolproof? When lockdowns were “proven” to stop transmission? When Covid vaccines were said to prevent transmission? Each of these claims was supposedly backed by “established science.” .BERNARDO: Wasting resources on lawful gun owners while criminals walk free.Free speech matters, not to protect consensus but precisely to challenge consensus. Free speech matters because truth matters, and public health matters.Had Canadian politicians and medical authorities listened to the “controversial” expert opinions — or at least not censored them — many Canadian lives could have been saved. Harmful lockdowns and vaccine mandates could have been avoided, and Canadians could have made more informed medical decisions. This report is a crucial warning, containing important lessons. The death statistics scream a truth only those willfully plugging their ears can ignore: the cost of silencing truth is often counted in human lives. Benjamin Klassen is the Research and Education Coordinator at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. He was one of the authors of their new report discussed in this column: Post-Covid Canada: The Rise in Unexpected Deaths.
