22. Louis Browne.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix
22. Louis Browne.mp4: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Louis Browne:
So. Thank you, Madam Chair. Distinguished panelists, colleagues. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Louis Brown. I was just mentioned on the partner with the law firm Wills, Walsh and Brundage LLP here in Regina. I'm going to speak today from a sort of high level about how do we get at the truth. And there's a few different options that I've put on on the slide here, and I'm going to be focusing on the first one. The Freedom of Information requests. But there are certainly other avenues for people to explore discovery of relevant evidence pursuant to litigation. Mr. Manning might be interested in this one, but elected opposition members of provincial legislatures and Parliament using their options to get at evidence and information and documents. Number four, public inquiries. Judicial inquiries. Should any entity with the ability have the courage to do so, whistleblowers and possibly others. So the three questions I will endeavor to respond to in this presentation, Madam Chair, number one, what is a Freedom of information request? Secondly, how can the the FOI or the FOI requests that my clients and I have developed potentially help others across the country? And then thirdly, what are some of the limitations of a FOIA request? So this is what our enabling legislation looks like here in Saskatchewan. But every province would have their own act, which is similar. Section five provides that every person has a right to and on an application made in accordance with this part shall and I've underlined shall be permitted access to records that are in the possession or under the control of a government institution.
Louis Browne:
There there is parallel legislation as well for health authorities, municipalities. But I'm going to focus on on the government institution legislation for today. A record is defined in the Act as meaning a record of information in any form and includes info that's written, photograph recorded or stored in any manner. So it's very broad. And then the duty of the government subject to this act and the regs, a government institution, shall respond to a written request for access openly, accurately and completely. So we're only going to be able to scratch the surface in the time allotted to us today, Madam Chair. But my clients and I have generated 35 pages of records request broken down into these 12 categories or chapters, and I've put a little checkmarks beside a few of the subjects, which I will give some specific examples of the records that we have requested of our Ministry of Health. So here's just the first page, and this part is taken right off of the form. What records do you wish to access? Please provide a detailed description. And with respect to the subject of transmissibility, we referenced a web link which the government put up, which includes the statement. This was back in November 2021. It will reduce the risk of transmission. So in response to that, we've asked for records of the evidence regarding the claim that the COVID 19 vaccines and we did put vaccines in, quote, for reasons that other speakers have addressed, will reduce the risk of transmission, but also records of the evidence suggesting that the COVID 19 vaccines will not reduce the risk of transmission, particularly with respect to Omicron.
Louis Browne:
So here's a shot of the good work by Dr. Paul Alexander. This is just from his website, and he posted 140 research studies affirm naturally acquired immunity and natural immunity did not seem to be granted any sort of a status. It wasn't as if you could be double vaxxed or have natural immunity that you would be allowed to fly or do other things. For example, natural immunity did not seem to be even regarded as anything, so we've asked for records in respect to that. Records of the evidence regarding natural immunity also described as immunity conferred from previous infection in the possession of the ministry. We asked for records regarding the role of natural immunity in ending the pandemic. Our next series of records that we requested, and this also flows from previous presentations this afternoon, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons on their website, November 17, 2021, provided an op ed which covered the various payments going to hospitals in the United States, and it referenced the CARE Act. And this is just a snapshot of what was in that particular article as relates to the Americans. So there's a number of different payments going to hospitals for all sorts of different things. So. Associated with COVID bonus payments for each positive COVID diagnosis. Bonus for COVID 19 admission. Boost Bonus Payments based on the entire hospital bill for use of Remdesivir instead of ivermectin. Bonus payments if patients are mechanically ventilated and then money if patients are attributed that their death is due to COVID, etc., etc..
Louis Browne:
So in our FOIA request, we reference that article. We reference the CARES Act. And then we specifically ask for records relating to payments and or fees to hospitals payments and or fees to doctors, any payments, government paid fees or incentives from pharmaceutical companies. We also asked for records relating to any payments or any other incentives to coroners, and then the catchall records relating to any other payments or any other incentives for anything not addressed above. Another category of records that we are requesting relates to the four pillars of pandemic response, and this was largely derived from interviews of Dr. Peter McCullough, and he noticed that there are four pillars of pandemic response. As has been previously mentioned, the response in Canada and other Western countries seems to have focused on only one of them. But we asked for records relating to the extent that doctors were required to provide weekly, monthly reports regarding the four pillars of response records relating to a feedback loop so that physicians on the front line who were treating COVID could inform the protocols and policies that could be changed and updated accordingly. This is pursuant to a 2005 article published in Virology Journal, and back then Chloroquine was noted as a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. So we wanted to know a little bit more about that. We wanted to ask and did ask for records relating to the use of chloroquine and or hydroxychloroquine for early treatment. We referenced that article when we referenced the quote that chloroquine is effective in preventing the spread of SARS coffee and cell culture.
Louis Browne:
The another subject that we wanted to tackle was free speech and integrity of evidence. Something that was seemingly unprecedented in my memory anyways was the muzzling of doctors all across Canada. Here we have our good friend, Dr. Francis Christian, when he was a surgery professor, suspended and terminated for advising parents to be cautious or look into vaccinating children. And I just thought I'd add this clip from the Times of Israel that said, in April of 2021, so a few months before Dr. Christian was suspended, but 93 doctors signed a letter urging government to hold off on vaccinating children. So Dr. Christian certainly was not alone. Here's a CBC story from B.C., B.C. Doctors warned they could face discipline for spreading COVID misinformation. Here's Toronto Star doctor accused of spreading COVID misinformation. Here's from Halifax. Doctor Chris Milburn removed as head of emergency medicine for Eastern Zone. So we asked for records relating to ensuring that Saskatchewan's doctors spoke only in the manner consistent with the established narrative and did not spread misinformation. We further asked for communications with the college, ensuring that doctors would not spread information, and we ask for records relating to the definition of misinformation and how it was determined that any duly licensed doctor's medical opinion was misinformation. To address the question of how our FOI request might assist others, the organizers of this Conference of the Citizens Hearing, they have our FOI request. They're free to share it as they deem appropriate, or anybody out there who's interested can contact me via the number provided at the end.
Louis Browne:
Some people may want to, if they haven't already initiated their own Freedom of Information requests. People involved in litigation could use it to cross reference with the discovery provided by public health authorities. And for anybody who has connections with elected officials, there could be suggestions contained in our 35 pages for open minded elected officials to use the unique avenues available to them, and it could provide a roadmap for a public inquiry should anyone want to bring one forward. With respect to limitations of FOIA requests, there certainly are several. Here is Section 16 of our act. A head shall refuse to give access to a record that discloses a confidence of the Executive Council subject to subsection two ahead may. Refused to give access regarding advice, proposals, analyses, policy. And here's Section nine. An applicant who is given notice is entitled to get access to the record on payment of the prescribed fee. So I'm going to show you the cost estimate that the Ministry provided us for our 35 page FOI request. And here it is. So you can see it's just under $2 million and it requires a deposit of $995,700 in order to move forward. Thankfully, there is a Section nine sub five that allows a process to waive payments of all or part of the prescribed fee if if it's in the public interest and if in our case, $2 million would cause financial hardship. So with that, madam. Sure. Thank you. And that is my contact info.
Trish Wood:
Louis, we're getting really short on time, so if you could get to the summary for us, that would be.
Louis Browne:
I've done that. I'm sure that's it. Oh, that is that.
Trish Wood:
Okay, cool. So we're ending on, on $2 million. Excellent. Well done. That was a great presentation. Thank you so much. We're very, very grateful to you.
Louis Browne:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Trish Wood:
Thank you. Bye bye.
Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.
Automatically convert your mp4 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.
Sonix has many features that you’d love including secure transcription and file storage, automatic transcription software, world-class support, transcribe multiple languages, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.