05. Henry Lu.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Henry Lu:
My name is Henry. I am a computer science student at U of T. I'm a fifth year going on sixth year at this point six due to the mandates. They certain things happen. Mandates were put in place. My education got postponed. I was denied an education based on my unwillingness to go along with the irreversible medical procedure. So what happened was early September. Prior to that, actually, the school sent out emails saying, hey, we're going to have COVID measures in place. At first, at a glance, it seemed pretty reasonable. The school was saying, you have to be vaccinated. If you're not vaccinated, don't worry. We have actual know like these sound like reasonable alternatives, reasonable accommodations to not being vaccinated. So they have testing in place. You're going to have to wear masks, everybody had to wear a mask, etc.. So in the beginning it seemed like the school had some pretty reasonable accommodations in place for people who did not want to take these this ever irreversible medical procedure. But as September started, as the fall semester started, those options started to go away and emails came out saying, you know what? No, actually, we're just going to make you take this or it's my way or the highway and you're out of here. So the the way they enforce that is they said, if you cannot come to campus, if there's any in-person components to any classes, we're going to take you out of those classes so you cannot get the credit for those courses even if you show up.

Henry Lu:
Right. So my situation was I have only one course that I need to take left for my program and I'd be out of there. So I just need one course. But it's really sneaky how they did this, right? They first they tell you you have to take the the education, the injection to come on campus. But then there's a huge push during the fall in the winter semesters to make every course in person except for a couple of, you know, history English courses, these these little humanity courses. Those were online because but every other course is in person, all the hard math courses, all the computer science courses, certainly. So that's my situation. And, you know, it's it's really disturbing. Everybody have their own reasons for not wanting to to take the injection this undergo this irreversible medical procedure and they're all equally valid. Don't get me wrong. Like if somebody says I have a prior medical condition, I don't want to take it. And if somebody simply says I don't want to take it. To me, that's both equally valid. But where I'm coming from, I'm coming from a place of I had Hodgkin's lymphoma while I was in high school. I won six rounds of chemotherapy. Because of that, I believe that my cardiovascular system has been irreparably damaged. So unfortunately, I just don't feel that the this medical procedure is correct for me, but the school is making me take it.

Henry Lu:
And I went to my oncologist, the oncologist, all but the oncologist is all but useless because when I asked them about, hey, is there any is this a comorbidity, is this a thing that maybe the vaccine could negatively negatively impact? Me in some way, since I have taken chemotherapy, I have had cancer before. And then, you know, like the oncologist, all he said was it's safe and effective. I'm sorry. That's not that's not that's not evidence of anything. I was looking for perhaps a single paper or a study that said, hey, here's a population of people who had cancer before and who have gone through chemotherapy, and this is what happened to them. And let's proving it's safe and effective. So there's lack of evidence throughout this whole thing. And, you know, like the school likes to to flaunt about their high vaccination rates. We have 99% of students and faculty all vaccinated. They say that as if it's a good thing. But to me, when I see something like that, when the government flaunts numbers like that, I think it's such a horrible thing. I just think of all the numbers of people, the mass amounts of people who are forced into taking it. That's what I see. I don't see it overwhelmingly. Good thing where, you know, like 99% of the population is vaccinated. It's a good thing in and of itself. You know, I don't see it like that.

Henry Lu:
So. Again, I'd like to just reiterate that I do believe that everybody has their own reasons for not wanting to take the injection. I'm not special in any way, but let's just play devil's advocate here and let's just say perhaps, you know, some reasons are more legitimate than others. I mean, you know, just just because you are able to get exemptions for certain conditions, although that's less, is so narrow. In fact, many people might not know, but in Ontario, it's actually two. So so you have to have gone gone myocarditis from taking the first shot first, as I understand, or you have to have some severe allergic reaction to taking the first shot. So they're making people play Russian roulette with the first shot. And hey, if you survive, then we'll grant you an exemption that's not acceptable for me. And so again, so I do believe that everybody has their own reasons and they're all equally valid. But if we are to say that some reasons are more valid than others, then look, listen, like I think I qualify for that. I'm one of the people that should get an exemption, but I'm not able to. I, I contacted perhaps 20 people from my school faculty members, the vice provost, provost, 20 plus people, and none of them replied except for to the two. That reply was, I believe, the provost office and. One of the mental health czars there. And so they replied back with a legal email filled with legal jargon, saying, Unfortunately, the government has forced our hand.

Henry Lu:
We can't do anything, although they've provided something akin to a reasonable accommodation months earlier. Right. So they're lying. They could do something. I contacted the Accessibility Office. I've contacted the ombudsperson at my school, and they've been unable to help me. They've refused to help me. So I'm somebody who has tried every avenue to to get this resolved. I have put in the effort. Right. And this is this is what happened. Nothing came of it. And I get. A dead ear back. And this is just look like this. This is just to illustrate something like I'm I'm actually somebody who values his medical privacy a lot. I don't go around telling people, hey, I'm a cancer survivor, right? I, I don't go telling people about my vaccination status. In fact, on the you check the vaccine screening website. I am I haven't declared my status. So I'm somebody that values his medical privacy. But the reason why I'm here today is to is to illustrate the people that they're catching in the crossfires with this destructive vaccine mandates and these vaccine policies. And. Yeah. So I'll just speak for a minute more. Perhaps so. So what this mandate has, how this mandate has impacted me as I was out of school for a they knocked me out for for a semester they paused the mandate currently so I'll be going back but I mean if they thought it was cute to, you know, like kick me out of school for a semester, they've actually done so much more damage than just one semester's worth because the course that I need only runs in the winter semester.

Henry Lu:
So they've actually delayed my my education by a whole year. So that's a whole year of professional development that I'm missing out on and missing out on summer internships. I'm missing out on potential salary that I could be making. So, I mean, this is this is what they're doing, right? Like, this is I went to the student union. The meeting that they had on how COVID is impacting school. And they they were talking about superfluous stuff. That doesn't matter. And I came I came in, I said, hey, look, like, how about we talk about the vaccine mandates? I remember being asked when they brought it in, we need to talk about this. And so they were they were being fake, fake, empathetic. I would describe in my personal opinion, they were just saying, oh, yeah, Henry, that's horrible. Yeah. Your condition is we will continue advocating for your for people in your position. That sounds horrible. And the school newspaper was even there, right, to to a parent, apparently, to to record what was going on and to put it in the school newspaper, the varsity. But nothing came of that. All of these people, they just want to throw under the rug and just throw these one in their mind.

Henry Lu:
Right? Like the super slim minority of people under the rug and silence them and they want to pretend that the issue will go away. And so this is why a conference like this is so important. That's why I took by the way, I'm in retail now. You know, I should be doing something computer science related, but due to the mandates, I'm not able to do that. I'm not able to pursue something that is supposed to be my career. I should be, you know, writing program. I should be writing code. But I'm in retail making minimum wage. Like, trust me, I don't loathe it, but this didn't have to happen, right? So there's just so many things that are in play here. And this destructive vaccine mandate has just caught so many people in the crossfires like like me. And so that's why I took a day off from work to come here, because this is so important, what we're doing like this this issue right here, this is what defines a chattel from a free person. You know, if you're not able to decide what goes into your body, then then somebody else owns your body. Just. Just like that, just by implication, alone. So. This is perhaps the most important issue of of my lifetime, and I have to speak out against this. So that's why I'm here. And I'd like to just conclude my presentation right here. Thank you.

Trish Wood:
Wow. Thanks, Henry. It's wonderful to see young people thinking so critically. I mean, that was a masterwork of critical thinking. I'm gobsmacked. I have a question for you just before we go to the panel. Has this shaken your beliefs in science and the infrastructures around science? Because what you're describing is absurd, right? It makes no sense. So tell me about that.

Henry Lu:
So it hasn't shaken my belief of science at all because the science that they tout is not science. I follow the real science. I follow real scientists. I follow evidence. And, you know, for example, my oncologist, he's not he's not a doctor. You know, I'll just say that. I'll just say that because a doctor is supposed to be somebody who looks at each patient on an individual basis and comes up with a a personalized solution to their problem. Everybody has a different problem. Everybody has a different body. So, I mean, he said something to me that is so gross. I said to him, you know, like with no offense, doctor, I feel like I know my body better than you know it since I own my body. Right. And then he he just scoffed. He just scoffed it off. He just. Right. So this is the level of people we're talking about here. They. They get to just repeat marketing slogans like it's safe and effective and like, this isn't science. So it has not shaken my faith in science at all. And the real scientists are speaking out against this certainly sound that distinguished gentlemen and gentlemen here, they're speaking out against this. And those are the real scientists. They follow the evidence.

Trish Wood:
I'll hand it over to the panel who I'm sure full of questions for you, Henry.

Preston Manning:
You know, thanks for taking the time to to do this. To your knowledge, did you of the administration or anybody do any economic impact assessment of what these regulations and that would do on the the impacts on the future careers, on the even current situation of students? Was there any impact assessments of that kind done and made public?

Henry Lu:
To my knowledge, no. But I can give them the data point right here. Right. So just what I've talked about with my career being stunted for for a whole year so that that factors in hugely. But my SAP funding has also been impacted because they they ejected me from school for the one semester so that actually turned me from a full time student into a no show basically. And so in the future, when I get funding, I get less money, I get less, I get less grants. So I'm paying a couple thousand more. And plus, I'm going to have to take an extra semester, right? Like because the the classes, they don't they don't always run in every semester. So like for me personally, I can just. Perhaps it's estimate in a ballpark that it costs at least every student a couple of thousand dollars easily, you know, and they just multiply that out by how many students were ejected from school. And there's a rough estimate right there.

Trish Wood:
And if you were asked how they could have done things differently, I applied from what you said earlier, that they started out sort of on the right track offering options, but then at some point abandoned that. What would be your suggestion as to how they could have handled it differently? What would have been to pursue that initial stance? Or is there something else they could have done differently.

Henry Lu:
If they stuck with their initial stance that that would be miles better than what they ended up doing? I'm I'm not really one willing to settle with that, per se. But I mean, if they did that, I would be advocating for the removal of those measures. That's just the type of person I am. But because it's just everybody has to be on an even playing field, you can't just have people. Some are wearing masks and some are not wearing masks and some has to get tested. It just that just shows who is vaccinated and not vaccinated. That's just a breach of medical privacy right there. It just so that's a problem in and of itself. But I would say that is a reasonable accommodation. And and that is that would be way preferable than what we have right now, where it's my way or the highway.

Trish Wood:
Right. Thank you, Henry. Not really a question. I just want to congratulate you for your critical thinking. That is lovely and for being so proactive in trying to make things right in your university. You also beautifully highlighted the importance of informed consent, something that really has been pushed aside, unfortunately, and that's made me very sad over the past couple of years and articulated extremely well the flaws and the roadblocks, you know, at all levels in the process of obtaining informed consent. So thank you for your time today.

Henry Lu:
Thank you. And I also just like to add on the on the on the topic of consent, in my opinion, this is absolutely coercive what the school is doing because the school is using as leverage the tens of thousands of tuition money I've already put towards my education, plus the years that I have already put towards my education as leverage. So they have tremendous leverage to make people take something they don't want to do or undergo an irreversible medical procedure they don't want to do. So that is absolutely coercion. And there's no there's no informed consent in that arrangement at all.

Trish Wood:
All right.

Preston Manning:
Go ahead. Thanks, Henry, for sharing your story. I salute your courage and your character. You are. You are. You are a very attractive candidate for hire when you finish your your education program. I can assure you, as someone who has served, as has been an employer for decades. You're exactly the kind of guy I want to hire so somebody who can think and who's got courage. I'm interested in two aspects. One, with your oncologist. How how long a relationship did you have with your oncologist?

Henry Lu:
So I wouldn't say he's my primary practitioner because this so I'm from Taiwan, so I got diagnosed there. So I have a relationship with an oncologist there primarily, but when I came back to Canada, so this is at the Princess Margaret Hospital, this I only went there on two occasions before and the third time was when I went to go see him for to get an exemption. So that would be the third time. So this isn't a. A long form relationship per se. But he would be my primary oncologist in Canada. Yeah.

Preston Manning:
And I take it that that that you'd give them a pretty poor grade for, for their response to you. And speaking of grades, I'm wondering how you assess your university's response to all of the concerns and diligent and I know that they like to give you grades, but what kind of a grade would you give them?

Henry Lu:
They failed. Yes, they get enough. It's that simple. Right. I just think it's so funny how the average person like us, we get put under a microscope for everything we do wrong. But these big institutions like the schools, the government, they never get held to account. So something like this, something like the citizens hearing, I think it's a it's a very good thing we get to actually put what's on our mind out into the ether. And people can just take it as take it as they are and yeah. So they get enough. Yeah. From me.

Preston Manning:
Thanks for sharing your story.

Trish Wood:
David. This I think when I gather we're going to have medical people talking here, this would be a good question to ask them. At what point if a doctor gives a political diagnosis that that comes from somewhere else versus your point, a personal diagnosis that's applied to your situation? Isn't that a pretty big problem?

Preston Manning:
Yeah, I think it's a pretty big problem.

Trish Wood:
It's an ethical.

Preston Manning:
Problem. Yeah, it's an ethical problem. They've they've they've left their profession and they're obviously practicing some other some other profession. I wouldn't call it a profession, but anyway.

Trish Wood:
Well, Henry, it's interesting that they said that I was thinking the same thing, that that when you saw your oncologist, he was repeating the safe and effective mantra. Right. But did you say you had Hodgkin's lymphoma? Is that. And did he ever provide any evidence to you that they tested the vaccine on people? No, no, no. Okay.

Henry Lu:
I know such things. I mean, at the time didn't exist. I don't know if anything has changed now, but.

Trish Wood:
No. Okay. So as I've done with with the other participants, I need to ask you to affirm that your story is true to the best of your recollection, Henry.

Henry Lu:
My my story is true to the best of my recollection.

Trish Wood:
Okay. Thank you.

Henry Lu:
No problem.

Trish Wood:
Bye.

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