A Canadian legal advocacy organization is challenging the narrative by governments, media, and medical associations that Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been “successful.”
“It seems, however, that ‘success’ has been defined only as high vaccination rates, as compliance with public health orders, and as reduced mortality from Covid,” the authors wrote.
‘Enthusiastic Cheerleaders’
The Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) published a study on June 27 saying that Canada performed better than most within the Group of 10 (G10) countries with respect to COVID health burdens, the JCCF report noted.The CMAJ study defined G10 as including Canada plus 10 other countries with similar medical, economic, and political systems: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The JCCF says that as a result of the study, many media outlets joined in to parrot the narrative.
“Canadian media organizations (most of which have been enthusiastic cheerleaders for often contradictory government policies) received this study with an uncritical tone,” the JCCF report said.
‘Excess Deaths’
The JCCF cited data extracted from Statistics Canada on July 14, arguing that more people were dying than anticipated in the second half of 2021.“In Quarter 3 (weeks 27-39) and Quarter 4 (weeks 40-52) of 2021, there were nearly 8,000 (4,610 + 3,349 = 7,959) more deaths from non-Covid causes than the expected number of deaths predicted by Statistics Canada from all causes, excluding Covid,” the report said.
“Excess deaths especially impacted the younger-than-45 demographic,” it added.
The authors also noted that nearly every week during that period, the number of non-COVID excess deaths exceeded the number of COVID deaths. “In other words, Covid was not solely responsible for excess deaths.”
Statistics Canada defines excess death as “mortality above what would be expected based on the non-crisis mortality rate in the population of interest.”
Delayed and Missed Health Care
The JCCF report attributes health-care disruptions—cancelled or deferred medical procedures due to lockdown policies—and drug overdoses to be the likely causes of excess deaths in Canada since 2020.Opioid Deaths
Deloitte’s study suggested that “substance use may have become more dangerous during the pandemic as individuals have been potentially consuming harmful substances in isolated settings more frequently.”According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, a total of 7,560 apparent opioid toxicity deaths occurred between January and December 2021.
“Pro-rating for Q3/4 of 2021 (for which figures are not yet available), one may reasonably assume that approximately 3,700 opioid deaths occurred in Q3 and Q4 of 2021 compared to an average of 2,129 deaths for the same period during the previous five years,” the JCCF report said.
John Carpay, president of JCCF, says attempts to propagate the “successful” narrative cannot pass unchallenged.
“Canadian governments have a legal obligation to demonstrate that any restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms are justifiable and the least restrictive means to solve a problem.”