COVID-19 tyrants pushed their plans in a cowardly way. Mask us, isolate us, push experimental vaccines on us, punish us for not complying — and sic the cops on us to do their dirty work. Let the angry public hate the boys in blue.Even pro-police backers like me couldn’t choke back disgust over shows of force on peaceful Freedom Convoy truckers, or pastors swarmed and hauled to jail in handcuffs. No doubt some swaggering cops blindly obeying orders got all pumped up on the power of trampling on good people’s Charter rights.Were they among the “mob” that made life hell in a “toxic” and “hostile” work environment for fellow officers and civilians with Edmonton Police Service (EPS) who didn’t do the same?Where were you, Chief Dale McFee? You head a service that protects the public. What did you do when “mob mentality” ran wild and employees under your charge were called “dirty unvaxxed, diseased, lepers” and “heavily targeted for discrimination” — by their own colleagues? It's right there in a report, prepared from documents released under freedom of information requests!Those fighting to protect the public and themselves by demanding answers about vaccine and mask safety were abused, according to this damning report. It’s the product of these sworn members and civilians who couldn’t get answers, and so therefore pushed information access requests.Battered but not broken. That’s the stuff heroes are made of. Brass and those in departments paid to support them didn’t. On the contrary.“Mob mentalities came out when incited by management messages,” wrote former regulatory investigator Natasha Gonek, author of the report.“In units there were calls for the unvaccinated to be locked up, the rhetoric from some was that they wished the unvaxxed would ‘just die,’ these were open discussions of imprisonment and wishing of death on co-workers.”This occurred when employees described a “loss of multiple coworkers” to “on-duty deaths, suicides, unexpected medical events.”Apparently, none of the employees “conducting themselves with this unprofessional and unlawful way” were corrected.Are any of them now among the vaccine-injured at EPS, that according to the report, are on short or long-term disability, have been hospitalized, are walking wounded suffering various ailments — or not around anymore?The report claims that the number of cases of COVID-19 “injury, illness and alleged death” to EPS employees are “growing with time.” Horrific. No matter what stand anyone took, no one deserves that.“The EPS is aware and has been accommodating vaccine injured and ill employees, as well as those who had sustained other harms from other COVID-19 pandemic measures,” it states.Was it worth earning bully brownie points from EPS leadership, that according to the report — based on countless interviews and 8,717 pages of documents released under information access requests — knew vaccines might be harmful but mandated them for officers and civilian employees, anyway?“The employer had knowledge of serious worker injury, hospitalization from side effects, prior to the vaccine protocol being implemented in October of 2021,” states Gonek’s Executive Summary: Analysis of Freedom of Information Disclosure Documents Relating to the Edmonton Police Service COVID-19 Pandemic Response.“EPS meeting minutes and disclosed information shows that adverse events, and the experimental status of the COVID-19 vaccines were known in January of 2021. These were discussed within the Pandemic Committee and EPS leadership,” wrote Gonek, a former regulatory investigator.The report’s revelations are so damning Gonek’s recommendations include investigations, criminal and otherwise. Criminal Code violations? Charter violations. Violations of health regulations? Occupational health and safety violations?All of the above.Hey, but their association was there for them! Not completely. In fact, the report recommends a “review of the actions and failure of representation” by the Edmonton Police Association.“The current president of the EPA holds the file containing known vaccine injury, illness and related deaths of workers. There is a duty as a police officer to report and investigate the harm,” said the report.“The Edmonton Police Association violated their obligations to maintain confidentiality and protection of personal information when they sent the member names with the complaints and concerns directly to EPS leadership.”Members didn’t consent to have this information shared.During the EPA’s October 2023 annual general meeting (AGM) concerns were raised about the EPA’s plan to host the vote for motions relating to pandemic response.“Employees asked how it was OK to put out an online vote to those that bullied, harassed and tormented their co-workers, that was allowing the abusers to decide on whether they are investigated.”“Many employees have been approached to ‘just drop it,’ ‘move on,’ ‘let it go.’ This adds to the intimidation, harassment and toxicity of the workplace.”Medical privacy was violated in multiple ways, FOIP documents revealed.The report called for a NetCare access audit. No employees recalled consenting to their health information being shared with Occupational Health and Safety (OHS.)“Inappropriate usage, access, disclosure of private medical records, unlawfully used for employment reasons, not in the provision of direct patient care. NetCare records cannot be accessed for OHS compliance, this is not in the provision of patient care or treatment. Netcare cannot be accessed to audit for employer monitoring or compliance with employment policies, procedures, or protocols.”“The employees had very legitimate concerns relating to violations of their privacy in relation to all the pandemic measures no matter their vaccination status. These were raised to the employer and there was never any justification or legal ability presented to them that would give the employer the legal right to demand their personal medical information.”“It is very concerning was the communication of members names in the Pandemic Committee Team meetings minutes, emails, and Executive Situation Reports, in relation to positive COVID-19 tests, close contacts and those off for illness.”Other infuriating tidbits.On December 30 2021, there was an email discussion about 51 active COVID cases.“To give you another perspective on today's numbers I can tell you that of the 51 active COVID cases in the organization, 47 are members that are vaccinated and 4 are not vaccinated. I think we may have believed the opposite would be true,” reads an email to EPS leadership, including the chief.But the push for mandatory vaccination ramped up.And EPS morale — in the tank pre-COVID-19 — took a blow when a flag order was issued.“When the Trucker Convoy in February 2022 started, the employees were told that they must remove Canadian flags from their personal vehicles. Because those were a symbol of radical anti-government groups. However, employees could keep the Ukrainian flags and other groups when the conflict there started.”Those who participated in the Freedom Convoy were punished. Hence, the recommendation that all disciplinary actions be reviewed.“Should this review find that the employees have been unlawfully disciplined they should be compensated including an offer for their reinstatement at the same or equivalent position and pay.”The unvaccinated were banned from the cafeteria and forced to eat apart from others in a “shame room.”Gonek’s recommendations also include:• Referral to minister of Public Safety and the justice minister requesting an independent investigation as per section 46.1.2 of the Police Act, in relation to the serious injuries and alleged deaths of EPS officers.• Review and reform of the Police Act to ensure and impartial and procedurally fair disciplinary process.“The ability for the Chief of Police to have unilateral, unchallenged control of the outcomes of professional discipline and complaints has led to the misuse of the PSB (professional standards branch) and complaint process.• All EPS members experiencing medical issues post COVID-19 vaccination or testing undergo independent medical assessment and have results documented for investigation. Provide a pathway for access to required medical care.• Submit complaints to the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) regarding the unprofessional conduct of involved registered nurses who allegedly violated the Alberta Patient Charter outlined in the Alberta Health Act.“This would include any employee specific violation for privacy breaches, review of the Netcare access to audit the personal medical information, disclosure of personal medical information without consent.”“Harassment and threatening of employees for their personal medical information, working out of scope by providing medical advice outside of their area of practice, failure to ensure informed consent was obtained, threatening punitive measures or blocking of training for non-compliance with COVID-19 pandemic measures, failure to provide evidence-based nursing care in their area of practice.”• Submit complaints to the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) regarding OHS staff for unprofessional conduct and a violation of their code of ethics. This includes discriminating and harassing workers and failure to provide information related to safety and justification for workplace measures.• Investigation of human resources, OHS and OHN (occupational health nurses) into handling of personal medical information. “There should also be an audit to ensure that there was no unlawful access of the 1,996 vaccination records that were audited by the employers OHN.”• Establish or access to operational stress injury and post-traumatic stress injury.• EPA support reimbursement for “invasive” rapid COVID-19 tests mandated at their own expense every 72 hours or face indefinite leave without pay.• A criminal investigation into the harm of these forced medical procedures.“There needs to be reform,” said Gonek.“People are still being disciplined and harmed in all of this …”
