SLOBODIAN: Final victory for nurse who challenged the system over vaccination

Former registered nurse Julianne Johnson, who refused to take the COVID-19 jab, has just won a two-year battle with the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA.)Johnson learned February 7 that the CRNA dismissed complaints against her — made by a co-worker and a social media troll in England. It won’t take further action due to insufficient evidence of professional misconduct.It took two years to figure that out? Or did the CRNA concede it couldn’t break her and back off?Johnson resigned from her job at an Alberta hospital in October 2021 rather than get vaccinated. The CRNA’s COVID-19 posse came after her because she posted her resignation letter on her Facebook page outlining concerns — for staff and patients — about the mandatory vaccine.“Only those who agree with every AHS mandate are allowed to remain. Now you have totalitarian healthcare. Deadly at best. Genocidal at worst,” she wrote.She chastised the AHS’s “disdain for patient autonomy” when refusing care to the unvaccinated.Johnson refused to back down throughout the intimidation, interrogation, accusations and threats to revoke her license. She refused to pay $700 in fines, admit guilt and be placed on a professional “naughty” list.It cost the mother of three about $4,000 in legal fees. It forced her to leave Canada and move to Colorado where she’s employed as a licensed nurse.She said it was worth it. She kept her integrity, fought for her rights and didn’t abandon her Christian beliefs.“We’re happy here,” said Johnson.A good nurse was lost to the US, not because of complaints about her work, only her beliefs — as Canada grapples with a severe nursing shortage faced even before the alleged pandemic.Thousands of Canadian health-care workers who opposed the experimental jab paid a heavy price. Placed on unpaid leave or terminated. Ridiculed. Ostracized. Careers destroyed. Coworkers turned into tattletale spies. Coerced into getting vaccinated to put food on the table.Some fought back. The masks are off, the mandates lifted, but many are still wounded, still fighting. Johnson’s proof that the regulatory machine doesn’t always win.“CRNA got pushed back. These regulatory bodies are being shown that they can’t just bully people for standing up for the truth and that there are people who will stand up against intimidation tactics,” said Johnson.“What I’d really love to come through in all of this is to encourage other nurses and health care professionals to freaking stand up for what is right.”“This took two years of fighting not knowing if I would still have a licence at the end, having my reputation dragged through the mud, being called all matter of things and accused of all kinds of things.”“In the end, it doesn’t matter because truth wins. We just have to stand up for it, we just have to.”The inquisition into this ‘heretic’ began after her letter went public.A nurse at the same hospital in a different department reported Johnson, accused her of professional misconduct and demanded her licence be revoked.'Ms. Busybody' said Johnson spread misinformation and “lies that people were having hindered access to care depending on their vaccination status.”“She didn’t like the words I used in my resignation letter such as ‘this could be genocidal at its worst.’”She objected to Johnson objecting to the mandatory jab.“Then I got another complaint from some unknown guy in England. It sounds like he’s a guy who lives his life on the Internet looking for trouble. He scrolled through my entire Facebook history and copied and pasted pages and pages of things and sent them to CRNA.”The CRNA rattled its sabre and went after her in a helter-skelter manner. When one tactic to grind her into submission didn’t work, it tried another.She was ordered to pay fines, take a professional communication course, and sign a document admitting to professional misconduct.“They offered a disciplinary resolution without an investigation. Pay hundreds of dollars, do this course, we publish your name for years on a naughty list.”Her first lawyer Carol Crossan, who specialized in constitutional law, responded that Johnson admitting to professional misconduct “would be lying.”“They eventually got back to me months later saying no, no. That’s not good enough.”After Crossan passed away in 2023, lawyer James Kitchen, formerly with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF,) took her case.“He was amazing. This is going to sound like a paid commercial for a lawyer but its not. He was on offence from Day One. He has no patience for this kind of draconian control from the regulatory bodies. He represents a lot of health care professionals who want to stand up for truth and freedom.”“He instilled so much confidence in me. He said this college needs to know they can’t push people around and if they want to take this to court, we’ll fight them in court.”The CRNA launched another investigation assigning an investigator to interrogate Johnson for hours.“It was a year of investigating my entire practice. I had no idea what they were going to investigate. They hauled up, I think nine nurses I previously worked with looking for dirt on me. Some said negative things, some didn’t.”The CRNA summoned Johnson and presented the ‘evidence.’“Which was very fascinating because so much of what these girls complained about against me had nothing to do with nursing practise, but the fact that I was a Christian. I was really surprised by that. For them, what I did in my personal life and what I did at work, that line was completely blurred.”Her Christian faith motivated her, said Kitchen.“I wouldn’t say in the overt sense that as a Christian (they said) she shouldn’t be a nurse. It was more her Christian-motivated expression,” he said.“Who knows, maybe they hate Christians. I’m trying to be charitable…Christians would say things that they couldn’t stand, that they disapproved of, that they thought was disinformation.”He has represented four Alberta nurses and three in BC. So far, most settled out with either disciplinary or non-disciplinary agreements. Snitching “pro-COVID narrative” coworkers were “typically” the complainants.He's aware of a “fair number” of professionals who “had enough” and fled south of the border.“Julianne was someone who was criticizing the COVID narrative. The buzzwords like misinformation and disinformation, they were accusing her of that. Of course, CRNA ate that up initially as they did with a number of other nurses and similar complaints.”First, they offered her a disciplinary resolution agreement with no hearing. But there’s a disciplinary statement of record.“She said ‘No, I’m not going to capitulate and I’ll fight this.’”“Then they offered a non-disciplinary, which is almost a Nothingburger. At the same time, if you’re a person of conscience and principle like her, it’s still a problem because you’re thinking ‘I didn’t do anything wrong so why would I agree to this?’”She said no.Then there was the investigation process.“I helped her through that and that’s important because these health professionals, their training isn’t in this area. You’ve got to be smart when you’re being cross-examined by these regulatory bodies. They really are out to get their members.”“I told her, ‘They have nothing on you of substance.’ It’s a political problem that you criticized the vaccines, criticized the mandates, criticized that the masks don’t work, or whatever. It’s a political problem for these regulatory bodies that want to shut all these people up.”The CNRA “dropped” it.“That’s the proper outcome … I was happy to see that the CRNA finally did the right thing and left this nurse alone.”“The moral of the story is, don’t give up, stand your ground with these colleges, be brave, be courageous. Be willing to sacrifice a little bit for your principles and your beliefs because it’s worth it in the end.”“Julianne obviously had to pay me, which is wrong. She shouldn’t have had to hire a lawyer and pay a bunch of money to defend herself.”“In the end, she kept her integrity. She’s very happy about that. She stood her ground and the college backed off.”“My clients are the best of the people in the world. My clients are the ones who speak truth, didn’t take the shots, took the risks, stick to their principles. They’re at peace with themselves.”“So many people have all these regrets because they backed down.”The Western Standard reached out to the CNRA for comment.