Alberta Law Firm Prepares Class-Action Lawsuit Against Feds Over COVID Vaccines

People walk by a sign outside a restaurant advising customers of the Quebec government’s COVID-19 vaccine passport in Montreal, Sept. 6, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

By Matthew Horwood

April 1, 2023Updated: April 1, 2023

An Alberta law firm is preparing a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government and pharmaceutical companies for the harm it says COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates caused to Canadians.

“This lawsuit will allege, not surprisingly, that the vaccines should not have been approved by the government, that they are not safe, and that they’re causing significant injury and death to Canadians,” said Leighton Grey, a senior managing partner at Grey Wowk Spencer LLP.

Grey said the lawsuit stems from a previous COVID litigation case that Grey Wowk Spencer brought against Canadian National Railway (CN) in 2022. A group of CN employees filed a $1 million suit against the company, the minister of transport, and the federal government, alleging that the COVID vaccination policy was discriminatory.

But Grey said they “hit a procedural wall” due to a series of Supreme Court of Canada decisions that deny plaintiffs access to the courts if they are union members. As such, a new class-action lawsuit is being launched against the federal government on behalf of any Canadians who say they were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 vaccines and associated mandates.

This lawsuit would include people who lost their employment and were declared ineligible for employment insurance, as well as those who say they were injured by COVID vaccines or had loved ones who they say were injured or died as a result of taking the vaccines.

Many Canadians have alleged that they were seriously injured by COVID-19 vaccines, including three who recently testified before the National Citizen’s Inquiry, an independent initiative examining the federal government’s COVID policies.

According to Health Canada, out of the 97,597,702 vaccine doses administered in Canada since March 3, 2023, there have been a total of 54,569 adverse event reports submitted, including 10,685 reports that were considered to be serious.

Grey told The Epoch Times that around 300 plaintiffs have expressed interest in participating in the tort lawsuit. He said that the group plans to file the lawsuit in the Federal Court and that any Canadian impacted by the COVID vaccines can participate.

According to Grey, the lawsuit will also include all pharmaceutical companies that had COVID vaccines approved by Health Canada.

Grey said he is expecting “significant resistance” from the defendants in the case, especially with respect to requiring the plaintiffs to definitively prove that the COVID vaccines can cause injury or death. Grey said this is why they chose to proceed as a class-action lawsuit, arguing that once they establish a “reasonable case,” the defendants will “almost invariably settle once we get past the certification stage.”

“We do have some outstanding experts who are prepared to testify on our side. And we also think that if we can get past the certification stage, it’s exceedingly unlikely that the defendants are going to want to actually have a trial on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines,” he said.

Grey said the vaccine manufacturers are shielded from liability due to an indemnity clause they signed with the Canadian government, which means they can’t be sued for vaccine-related harms. But Grey said indemnity agreements can be cancelled in cases of fraud or malfeasance.

“I think that, ultimately, this indemnity situation is going to break down. And if the government tries to test that, our argument would be that the indemnity was signed between the government and Big Pharma, but that doesn’t prevent us from suing for harms that resulted,” he said.

Justice Canada spokesperson Ian McLeod said his department is “not aware of service on Canada in a proposed class action by this firm.”

“Once served, the government will review the proposed action, but we have no further comment at this time,” McLeod said.

‘Cases Were Being Thrown Out’

Christian Jones, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, told The Epoch Times he was let go from his position at CN in 2021 because he refused to get a COVID vaccine. Jones, who previously managed the railway company’s real estate portfolio for Western Canada, then launched a group to organize a lawsuit against the company.

“We launched a suit with Grey Wowk Spencer against the CN Rail and the government of Canada, but we saw that similar cases were being thrown out because of jurisdictional issues. They said, ‘You’re 95 percent unionized, so it’s up for the unions to decide,’” he said.

A CN spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the company “cannot comment on ongoing litigation.”

Jones said many employees from major companies were fired for refusing the COVID vaccine, so it made sense to bring them together and make “one big lawsuit” against the government of Canada for its vaccine policies.

“For the federal government, it was almost like the legend of when Hercules cuts the head off the Hydra and then three more grow back. Because we said, ‘OK, we’ll withdraw our case, but we’re just going to sue the government of Canada.’”

Source: Epoch Times