Remember Adam Skelly? He’s the owner of Adamson Barbecue, the Ontario restaurant that refused to close down indoor dining when Ontario issued yet another lockdown order in November 2020. You may recall the videos of police arriving several days in a row to shut the place down, as Skelly continued to defy the order and enthusiastic patrons swarmed in to support him. Ultimately, Skelly was charged with six different offences, some provincial and some federal..On June 28 and 29, his numerous charges will be heard in court. An expertly run crowdfunding campaign has garnered more than $338,000 to be used towards his legal fees and related expenses. He plans to make good use of it. .Skelly is challenging the constitutionality of the legislation that gave rise to the charges. In my view, the lockdown and stay-at-home orders violate several provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and the right to life, liberty and security of the person – to name a few. .But the Charter also contains what I call the “weasel clause,” section 1, which gives governments the right to trample all over individuals’ rights and freedoms provided it can later convince a court the trampling was “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” .This is where the big fight will occur. The Ontario government’s position is lockdowns have been necessary for public health purposes. Skelly’s legal team and expert witnesses are eager to demolish that argument. .Ontario’s evidence is contained within a single 14-page affidavit, sworn by Dr. Matthew Hodge, a member of the province’s public health team. It contains the usual talking points that Premier (Doug) Ford and his minions have made throughout the pandemic, referring to guidance from the World Health Organization, and relying on 19 exhibits, including an article from The Toronto Star. If you want to finally find out what the premier has been relying on when he chose to destroy Ontario’s economy and bankrupt many of its citizens, these exhibits are the place to look. .By contrast, the evidence on behalf of Skelly is contained in 10 affidavits from five expert witnesses (each witness provided an initial affidavit and a rebuttal to Dr. Hodge). The witnesses’ credentials and the subjects they have testified on are summarized in a video posted to Rumble. The evidence covers a broad range of issues, challenging each and every assumption made by provincial authorities in their decision-making process. .For instance, the province advances uncritically the proposition that there had been 499,412 “cases” of COVID-19 at the time Dr. Hodge swore his affidavit on May 14, 2021. However, the evidence of Dr. Byram Bridle in his 48-page affidavit contains a detailed discussion of the flaws in the PCR tests that the government used to establish its case count. Anyone who has been reading alternative media throughout the pandemic is already well aware that the PCR tests were never designed to be used as diagnostic tools, and that they are being operated at cycle thresholds which even the famous Dr. Fauci has admitted will return large numbers of false positives. Dr. Bridle drives this point home with numerous cross-references to scientific studies. He concludes: “PCR testing…in the context of high Ct values (i.e. greater than 22-30 cycles), is an inaccurate way to diagnose cases of COVID-19. A substantial, but unknown number of cases of COVID-19 that have been reported in Ontario…were never true cases of disease.” .In other words, the government based its actions upon false beliefs. Garbage in, garbage out. .One of the constant criticisms made of Ontario’s lockdown policy by individuals such as MPP Roman Baber (who got thrown out of the Conservative caucus for his pains) is lockdowns have done – and continue to do – more harm than good. Bankruptcies, suicides, cancer deaths, crime and family violence have all risen dramatically since the start of 2020 and are now causing more death and suffering than the virus..This is corroborated by the evidence Dr. Douglas Allen, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University. Professor Allen examined over 80 studies to perform a thorough cost/benefit analysis of Ontario’s policies, something the government apparently never bothered to do. Stated in terms of life-years lost, and using a range of assumptions, he calculates that the lockdowns cost the population somewhere between 3.6 years of life and 282 years of life for every year of life they saved. .There are many more goodies in store for those who watch the hearing, including a discussion of ivermectin, an effective and inexpensive COVID treatment governments across Canada have steadfastly ignored. The existence of this safe, effective treatment completely undermines the government’s case that lockdowns were justified. .Will the judge have the courage to accept evidence that flies in the face of all the propaganda we’ve been fed for the past year and-a-half? We’ll know soon..Karen Selick is a Columnist for the Western Standard. She is the former Litigation Lawyer of the Canadian Constitution Foundation and is the owner of KeenEyesEditing.ca.
