The National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI), a non-government public inquiry into COVID-19 being organized by Canadians, said it had been suspended by YouTube for a two-week period.
The temporary suspension, announced by NCI on April 26, means the Alberta hearings, being held in Red Deer, will not be broadcast or livestreamed on the organization’s YouTube channel.
Other social media channels are still carrying the hearings, and this is not the organization’s first ban. Earlier in April, the NCI was also restricted by YouTube for a period of seven days and livestreamed Toronto hearings on other social media platforms.
“We believe in transparency, accountability, and the right of citizens to express their views, and TikTok’s decision to suspend us is wrong. By suspending our account, TikTok is silencing the voices of citizens who want to participate in this critical inquiry. We call on TikTok to reverse this decision and allow us to continue our mission to listen, learn, and recommend. Join us in the fight for democracy and the right to express our views freely,” the NCI said at the time.
The organization said it had gained 11,000 followers in just one month and the channel “was a great resource to get short and impactful clips from testimonies out to the public.”
The NCI expects 133 Canadians will testify, plus an additional 58 experts, at eight cross-country hearings.
The National Citizen’s Inquiry is a citizen-led and citizen-funded initiative that is completely independent from the government. It officially began on March 16. At the first hearing, two physicians testified they lost their jobs for questioning if harm was being done by the government’s public health measures.
