REGINA, Saskatchewan (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian nurse who conveyed her opinions against COVID jabs and mandates on social media is currently in a disciplinary hearing before her provincial medical college for doing nothing more than expressing her views.
The College of Registered Nurses of Saskatchewan (CRNS) claims that Saskatchewan nurse Leah McInnes was “guilty of professional misconduct when she joined protests against existing and anticipated vaccine mandates and vaccine passports during the Covid pandemic.”
McInnes’ four-day tribunal hearing began yesterday in Regina.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which is representing McInnes, said in a recent update that the CRNS is accusing the nurse of social media posts as well as statements made to the media from August to October 2021. As noted by the JCCF, McInnes should be free “to express her opinions regarding vaccine mandates and vaccine passports and other related issues such as freedom of choice and medical privacy.”
The JCCF stated that the College claims McInnes’ opinions regarding the COVID shots and mandates were “restricted to Saskatchewan-related vaccine policies,” as there were no “mandates” ever “brought into force in Saskatchewan.”
When it comes to COVID jab mandates for healthcare workers, Saskatchewan health officials never enacted them per se but strongly recommended that people get the shots.
The CRNS, however, claimed that McInnes’s public statements concerning COVID “mandates” amounted to “misinformation,” “disinformation” and “misleading” information. The College also claimed that McInnes, as the JCCF put it, had “misused her position of power as a nurse.”
The JCCF explained that “virtually the entire media apparatus, government officials and medical authorities have frequently (and almost unanimously) referred to vaccine policies by government and other entities as ‘mandates,’ in Saskatchewan and across the country.”
The CRNS proposed an agreement stating that McInnes would have to admit that she had committed “professional misconduct;” however, she flat-out rejected this offer. Instead, she chose to fight for her “Charter right to express her opinions,” the JCCF said.
McInnes was charged by the CRNS on March 28. McInnes later demanded that the College give clarity concerning what it meant by saying she had been allegedly spreading “misinformation,” “disinformation” or “misleading” information.
The JCCF pointed out that there are similarities between McInnes’ case and Strom v. Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association from 2020 that involved a Saskatchewan nurse who expressed concern about the healthcare system on social media.
In that case, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal overturned a discipline committee’s finding of professional misconduct against Carolyn Strom, who had criticized the long-term care facility that was treating her now-deceased grandfather.
While the outcome of McInnes’ tribunal is yet to be known, some rulings have gone in favor of those targeted for not going along with COVID mandates or rules.
LifeSiteNews reported in August that that an arbitrator from British Columbia ruled in favor of an independent company that fired its COVID vaccine-free employees, saying their dismissal was “reasonable.”
COVID vaccine mandates, which came from provincial governments with the support of Justin Trudeau’s federal government, split Canadian society. The mRNA shots themselves have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.
The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result of this, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.
Last month, Health Canada approved a revised Moderna mRNA-based COVID shot despite research showing that 1 in 35 recipients of the booster have myocardial damage.
Adverse effects from the first round of COVID shots have resulted in a growing number of Canadians who have filed for financial compensation over alleged injuries from the jabs via Canada’s Vaccine Injury Program (VISP).
Thus far, some VISP has paid over $6 million to those injured by COVID injections, with some 2,000 claims remaining to be settled.