17. Greg Hill.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

17. Greg Hill.mp4: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Greg Hill:
I'm Greg Hill, a 32 year veteran of the Air Force, regular and reserve force and a captain with a major Canadian airline for the past 15 years. I resigned from the Air Force and was put on involuntary leave from my airline, both due to the mandate. We sold our home and downsized, burned through some of our life savings. My kids were unable to pursue post-secondary degrees. I was separated from grown children thousands of miles away. That's but one of tens of thousands of similar stories, many far worse. My focus in the time remaining, however, relates more to my role as director of Free to Fly Canada, an advocacy group for aviation professionals and passengers impacted by their inability to work or travel by air. We have 3000 aviation professionals representing every aspect of the industry from pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, security agents, you name it. Along with this, we have close to 40,000 disaffected passengers separated from loved ones, unable to attend births, death beds, decent jobs, you name it. I've heard hundreds, if not thousands of these stories. The citizens inquiry is wisely framed. Canadians are asking questions. Unfortunately, those asking good questions are not yet the majority. I remember awkward moments in high school with teachers after usually some complex mathematical equation rolling out the worn mantra. There's no stupid questions. And most of us in the lower echelons of academia were not keen to test this theory. Years later, as we first locked down and then jabbed up, our society seems to have settled into a similar self preserving silence. But the new mantra is there will be no questions.

Greg Hill:
And the stakes are astronomically higher. One of the most damning consequences of this new mantra is the breathtaking compromise and loss of trust in entire sectors, ones meant to be impartial, guardians of health and safety. These include the political, which was already in the basement, trust wise, medical and scientific communities. The word science is now in the realms of what German scholar UVA Paulson calls plastic words stripped at this point of all substance and import. Innovation. Aviation trust has been decimated in the airlines, unions and most pointedly Transport Canada. Here's the great irony my industry is founded on. It depends on safety and risk mitigation without it. We're nothing. Part of Transport Canada's civil aviation medical mission. Is to close gaps in the scientific knowledge of Canadian aviation medicine, to promote health and safety in the field of aviation and to prevent aircraft accidents due to medically related human factors. Before this mandate was used to extort jobs out of thousands of unwilling Canadian employees and students, I and others asked basic questions of Transport Canada via a senior Transport Canada Canada medical examiner, also known as a doctor. These were about adverse effects, given the plethora of unknowns with these still experimental procedures. How about liability? Should the worst occur and I lose my cat one medical needed as an airline pilot. Questions about a Transport Canada statement that had been on their website as long as I can remember. Quote, Participation in medical trials is not considered compatible with aviation medical certification, end quote. Like many, this Transport Canada doctor speaking points were, quote, These were fully approved by Health Canada.

Greg Hill:
Covid vaccines were not fully approved by Health Canada at that time. They were authorized under an interim order, which I quote allows for the issuance of an expedited authorization with critical information gathered later on a rolling basis. Back in my military years, we'd call this pencil whipping, meaning you get the mission done and you sort out the paperwork later and hope they match up. Health Canada had just issued warnings, after all, in regards to myocarditis and pericarditis. The Transport Canada doctor also insisted my risk from COVID was far worse than from a vaccine. I replied to this email asking what long term studies this assessment was based on, given my known IFR and my natural immunity. I received no reply. Having apparently asked the wrong questions. Why the wrong questions you might ask? Because the week following these pointed questions, the paragraph regarding participation in medical trials was memory. Hold off the Transport Canada website deleted as it was, leading to inconvenient questions that might bar progress towards their desired end state of a fully vaccinated industry. We also sent the two largest pilot unions and the two largest airlines in this country, a well-sourced document prior to the mandate prepared by the medical and scientific community. It outlined in careful but direct language our concerns relating to risks for flight crew and vaccines. Not a single reply has ever been received despite numerous follow ups. I now hear story after story firsthand from vaccine injured pilots. And by that, I mean hours on the phone. Personally with these individuals, I'm appalled by the complete refusal to address or often even respond to questions relating to pilot vaccine injury by our airlines, unions, Transport Canada, doctors and Transport Canada itself.

Greg Hill:
Some of these stories include and this list is from notes taken first hand, generalized chest pain, myocarditis, enlarged heart, blood clots, hearing loss, electric electrical shock system symptoms, partial paralysis lymph issues brought auto immune dysfunction, arterial blockage, major performance decrease among some of our pilot athletes. Some of these pilots have lost their medicals. Others are still flying. Three weeks ago, we, along with a global coalition representing over 20,000 aviation professionals and those in the medical and scientific community sent a letter to Transport Canada asking more questions. These included Mr. Alghabra himself, the minister, the Deputy Minister, Associate Deputy Minister and others. Some of the questions included. How has Transport Canada assessed COVID 19 vaccine suitability for use by 1 to 3 medical certificate holders? Is Transport Canada aware of any COVID 19 vaccine induced adverse events in medical certificate holders? If so, how many? How many medical certificate holders has Transport Canada authorized to participate in phase one, two or three clinical trials? And many more questions. Hundreds of members of the public followed up, affirming their desire for answers. To date, we have received no reply. These questions. Are no more rhetorical than the ones I am compelled to ask as I approach an aircraft with hundreds of lives in my hands. Aviation is a very time sensitive operation. And a lot of times we'll show up in an aircraft running a little bit late with a planeload of passengers.

Greg Hill:
And the odds of that aircraft having a catastrophic engine failure or something else on takeoff are absolutely minuscule. And yet I can't skip a walk around. I can't skip asking questions. I don't skip programming the aircraft. I don't skip briefing the departure. I have to ask all sorts of good questions. Has all maintenance been completed? What's the record of any prior safety or maintenance events? Are there items to be monitored? If there are items with any safety record, what are the implications for my flight? What's the forecast, etc.? Transport Canada holds the lives, safety and security wise of millions of Canadians in their hands. Yet they refuse to answer basic questions related to flight crew health and have steadfastly refused to engage on this in any meaningful way from the very outset of this long season of perfunctory disregard. In closing, in order to reestablish trust, we need to end the mandates. To ensure we need to ensure permissive self reporting of injury within our industry. We need to conduct objective aviation screenings and data held by Transport Canada needs to be independently analyzed by a third party. The public must demand this and must demand answers to the many unanswered questions that remain even long after government and corporate entities chose to act in ways that caused irreversible harm to tens of thousands of Canadians. Primo Levi, an Italian chemist, writer and Jewish Holocaust Holocaust survivor, said this. Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men. Functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions. Thank you.

Trish Wood:
Well, that was really something. I guess for me, one of the most profound things you said, because I hear it in a bunch of places, and even as a person who's been an investigative journalist, I don't know how to wrap my arms around. Multitudes of vax injured people. That nobody talks about that aren't really registered anywhere that kind of exist in a no man's land. I mean, it's it's it's really, really destabilizing. I don't know what to do with that information. And I guess I'll ask you, does Air Canada know about those reports? I mean, do they have reports of facts? I don't know what airline you were. Well, some of the let's just say to the airlines know that their staff have been injured by vaccines and they have done nothing in our. I just don't understand.

Greg Hill:
Well, you're pointing towards some of the challenges in dealing with some of this, because at the end of the day, it's it's a matter of private medical information. So the individuals involved need to be the ones that speak to it.

Trish Wood:
And and they don't. Are they afraid to?

Greg Hill:
It's it's a very complicated scenario because a lot of these individuals were coerced into doing something that they absolutely didn't want to do in order to save their jobs. And now they risk by speaking up against it to be in the same position as myself and some of my other colleagues. And I think Mr. Ross very wisely stated, it's a matter of courage begetting courage as well. And we need people that are willing to speak up to show their face, to say their name, and be willing to put it on the line in order to. To speak to the fact that this is the end result of what we've pursued as a society. We continue to take these frontal assaults on the mandates themselves. But if we go at it from the back side and point out the fact that this is the end result is serious harm to people, it becomes far more difficult at that point, I believe, for politicians and corporate entities to continue to pursue a course that ends in personal harm and personal injury.

Trish Wood:
Okay. I'm going to pass to the panel. I just wanted to remark on the other thing you said that really affected me and that was the breathtaking loss of trust for us all, I think, in institutions. Right. That's very meaningful that you said that. I'll pass to the panel.

Greg Hill:
Thanks, Greg, very much for your comments there. They're very, very well thought through. One of the things that I'm hearing a common denominator on here is that is that when when concerns are brought to the attention of authorities and pick one, anyone really that for the most part the response is no response. Supposing that, you know, that we can that there can be a movement in Canada towards towards asking these questions and continuing to ask these questions until until we can get until the people of Canada can get reasonable answers and responsible answers. What recommendation or testimony would you make to a formal inquiry about about how to. Require people in authority to be accountable for their authority. Well, I think the systems are already in place. But what we're seeing is this compromise across the board. I hear stories of interactions at some of these vax injured folks have had with with doctors and they'll say it occurred right after my second shot. And here's what happened. Whether it's chest pain at night or some other worse time of the day. And there's there's an unwillingness to draw any direct parallel. And I understand the temporal challenges in trying to draw direct, direct links to this. Ideally, what people have is some sort of a baseline of health that they can point to and say, here's where I was on day one and here's where I was on day ten. And in some cases that does exist, but the systems are already in place. What we need is for people to be ethical and to.

Greg Hill:
Let's say what needs to happen is people need to have a willingness to to lose something in the process for the greater good of society as a whole. We've got to take a look at where our children and our grandchildren are going to end up. And this this desire to guard your golden pension so you can sit in a rocking chair on a porch, in a house that's been decimated by inflation over the next ten or 15 years. And watch your poor children descend into a dark authoritarian state makes no sense to me. And people have got to draw those kind of connections from where we are today. On this day in June 2022 to where you want to be next year, five years, ten years down the road. And you've got to be willing to give things up now, maybe not for yourself down the road, but for your kids and for your grandkids. And that goes whether it's a Transport Canada doctor or whoever you might be, you've got to be willing to sacrifice in the process of doing the job and the calling that you've stepped into.

David Ross:
That's starting to make me think that that what you're saying is a call to Canadians. It's the same kind of call to Canadians that were made to my uncles in, say, 1940. So it's starting to sound like the same thing. We're not using rifles, but it's a different it's it's the same courage, but it's a different make no mistake. It's a different requirement now. Now. Thank you.

Preston Manning:
Almost the same as David's question. But we've heard this now from a number of testifiers of people who have asked questions of the various authorities, in your case, transport, in other cases, the health authorities, other cases, the Justice Department, and getting no response. What would be helpful to us is, and I gather the letters you sent to Transport Canada or public to get your list of questions, because I think one of the things we got to do at the end is have this huge list of unanswered questions. If a formal legal investigation is actually set up with any kind of legal authority, of course, you can compel, you can subpoena the people that ought to answer these questions and require them under oath to answer, which I think is almost the point we're getting to, because you're not getting it to by being being polite and asking for responses. But my question to you, we could get on to what should be the form of that inquiry. But one of the things we're going to be wondering at the end of this three days is what could be the next step for us or for the group that's putting this on to move this along so that this doesn't just become a one shot deal and just one, if you have any suggestions as to what could be the next step to keep up this pressure to ask questions, get answers, including the ones in your area.

Greg Hill:
Right. Well, you mentioned the letter that we sent and we did ask it was an open letter that was sent out. And we did ask citizens as a whole to engage with their government, because government is meant to serve the people, of course, and to to ask for answers to these questions. And and I get your question fairly often, and I feel a little bit like an idealistic 17 year old when I come back with the. Continue to engage continue to ask good questions. But I think what we've seen happen over this past week, even with these mandates being suspended for now at least, came about not through some great white savior on a horse that rolled into town and turned things back. It was the persistent, relentless action of courageous Canadians engaging and continuing to push their government to the point where even just to save their own political skin, they had to change direction. Now, are they going to do that long term? The answer to that is really up to the Canadian population, whether they want to stand up and continue to engage with government. So I think that's really the answer to the question. It's not a it's not a compelling one because it's tiring. It's kind of boring hammering away. It's it's nobody wants to call their MP again and have that conversation. But the squeaky wheel. To a certain extent, extent is true, as clichéd as that may sound, although you could probably answer that better than I could. So.

Trish Wood:
Thank you. I think part of what happened in the pressure campaign to have the mandates suspended, not dropped, obviously, was that a reporter from legacy media actually asked I think it was Mendocino in a scrum what evidence they had to back up continuing them. What? Show us the data, basically. Right. And and once you start doing that, that's really powerful because they have no answer. They can't they.

Greg Hill:
Can't do it to come out in some of these court cases as well in in disclosure. Right.

Trish Wood:
So will you fly again quickly? Do you think you'll ever be able to fly again?

Greg Hill:
That is that is unknown at this at this point. It's it's it's a compelling question for all of our members right now. Some of these airlines and other companies have essentially said, stand by for further. It'll be subject to a whole bunch of things, operational requirements and otherwise.

Trish Wood:
So and then quickly, quickly, because I'm getting a wrap up. But is airport chaos around the world in any way contributed to by your story? Is are they just not admitting it's because they fired all the unvaccinated people or is there actually something.

Greg Hill:
Else, an element to that? I couldn't tell you exactly what it is. But but I'll tell you this, it's not strictly a numbers game. The people that are sitting on the sidelines right now are some of the most experienced people in the industry. So it's not just the fact that you don't have the employees at work. It's the fact that you're missing tens of thousands of hours of experience. And that matters. It impacts efficiency and impacts safety as well.

Trish Wood:
Thank you very much.

Dr. Susan Natsheh :
I just ask one quick question.

Trish Wood:
Absolutely. Sorry. Yes, I was.

Dr. Susan Natsheh :
Just wondering if you were aware of or would you recommend in the future a specific pharmacovigilance or an adverse event reporting system specific to airline professionals? Because you really are a vulnerable group with regards to your health and its impacts on safety for a number of people.

Greg Hill:
Well, that's a great question. And that was the document that we presented, because aside from maybe deep sea divers, you're not going to find people that are in that same kind of an environment, thin air at high altitudes for very long periods of time on a monthly basis. So we've actually engaged with your cares people who are doing fantastic work. And there's actually an opportunity for for those that are in that environment, flight crew wise to report specific to that, because I do think it's compelling and it's important given their unique environment.

Trish Wood:
Thanks so much for coming. Very, very meaningful presentation. We're grateful to you. Thank you.

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