A Call to Action on the Human Right to Reject Unwanted Medical Treatments
“The patient/physician relationship, dating back to the oath of
Hippocrates is that the physician should do no harm, should not kill his
patient. There’s nothing in there about being subservient to the good
of the collective, or the good of the state. And physicians can be
wrong, but they can only harm as many patients as they can see. If we
have the government dictating policies to us and it’s the wrong policy,
they can harm millions of people.” Jane Orient, MD – in an interview February 13, 2015
On December 11, 2015, the Ontario government dropped a bombshell on
families who are concerned about vaccination by announcing plans to
amend the provincial Immunization School Pupils Act (ISPA) with a
measure that will restrict families’ right of access to vaccine
exemptions. Since 1984, ISPA has granted families the legal right to vaccine
exemptions for reasons of conscience and religion as well as for medical
reasons. The proposed amendment to the Act would force parents to
undergo a vaccine “education session” before being allowed to file a vaccine exemption for non-medical reasons.
If passed, the proposed changes to the Immunization of School Pupils
Act would come into effect for the school year starting in September 2016. Even though fewer than 2% of school age children have vaccine
exemptions, the Ontario government has decided to tighten the noose
around access to exemptions. It’s a déjà vue of what California has just gone through. First they
changed the law forcing parents to attend an ‘educational’ session on
the ‘benefits’ of vaccination in order to obtain a personal belief
exemption. Then two years later, big pharma and its medical lobby group
allies launched a Bill to abolish personal belief exemptions for
children in school and daycare. Despite the numerous, massive protests
of thousands of parents (reported to be larger than the Vietnam war
protests), as well as testimonies from vaccine injured families, and
medical and scientific experts advocating for informed consent, the
hated law was pushed through by pharma controlled legislators in June,
2015. Non-vaccinating or under-vaccinating families have no choice now
but to home school their children. For the past several years the shrill rhetoric of ‘mandatory
vaccination’ has been repeated ad nauseam in countless main stream media
articles in Canada and the U.S. while an aggressive war has been waged
against anyone questioning vaccines or opposed to vaccine mandates.
As stated so well in this article by a father whose son was severely injured by vaccines, "Proponents of mandatory vaccination want to make choice illegal. Their goal is to extinguish the medical ethic of 'informed consent' for this invasive medical procedure."
In June 2015, the
Board of Directors of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) proposed a
“vaccine mandate” resolution recommending that only medical exemptions
from vaccination be allowed for school-age children to be voted on at
their annual meeting in August. Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) vigorously
opposed the resolution in a letter sent to the CMA which was followed by our No Vaccine Mandates in Canada online
petition directed at the CMA in August and September. People around the
world rallied with an outpouring of concern, and in 12 days the petition
garnered over 5000 public responses. Our follow-up Petition Comments Review presents a recap of the CMA proceedings and the powerful public
protest it inspired. Prior to the vote the CMA toned down it’s ‘vaccine mandates’ resolution.
Clearly this latest threat to our informed consent rights by the
Ontario government flows directly from the reworked CMA resolution
unanimously passed by delegates attending the August meeting. It
stated, “The CMA recommends that governments authorize elementary and
secondary schools to require a declaration of immunization status, to be
followed by a conversation between public health officials and parents
where children are shown to be inadequately immunized.” Further, in a
follow up article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, incoming
CMA president, Dr. Cindy Simpson, pointed to “studies in the United
States, which have indicated that making it more difficult for parents
to exempt their child deters most from obtaining an exemption.”
During its meeting, the CMA also voted AGAINST a vaccine injury
compensation system in Canada, claiming that such a program would “be
used” by those opposed to vaccines. In other words, the CMA policy
mantra that vaccines are safe is far more important than any
vaccine-related death, injury and suffering inflicted on Canadian
families. Never mind that it is babies and young children who bear over
70% of serious vaccine-related injuries in Canada as revealed in this report based on the government's own data. Requiring parents to reveal their children’s medical (vaccine) histories
conflicts with Ontario privacy laws as this legal opinion on the
Personal Health Information Protection Act explains:
"The Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA)
sets out requirements relating to personal health information (PHI) and
the rules that govern health information custodians (HIC or HICs) when
they collect, use and disclose that information. The legislation, which
came into force on November 1, 2004, adopts measures to ensure that an
individual retains a measure of control over the collection, use and
disclosure of his or her PHI, or informational self determination.
Consent is a cornerstone of this legislation.” And, “Fundamental to the
concept of consent, PHIPA recognizes the right of the individual to
withhold or withdraw his or her consent for the collection, use or
disclosure of PHI, including for health care purposes. Further, section
20(2) of PHIPA provides that an individual can withhold or withdraw his
or her consent to the collection, use or disclosure of his or her PHI by
a HIC for the purpose of providing or assisting in providing health
care."
1. The consent must relate to the treatment.
2. The consent must be informed.
3. The consent must be given voluntarily.
4. The consent must not be obtained through misrepresentation or fraud
The move by Ontario to restrict availability of vaccine exemptions is a
direct attack on the foundational medical ethic of informed consent
which governs all invasive medical procedures and drugs. By extension
it is an assault on the basic human right of individuals to make
voluntary and informed medical decisions for themselves and their
children without interference or coercion and contravenes international
treatise protecting the human right to informed consent as articulated
in Article 6-Consent, of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights to which Canada is a signatory and which states:
“Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only
to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the
person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should,
where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person
concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or
prejudice.”
By any definition, vaccines are powerful drugs comprised of complex
biochemical compounds which, once injected, cannot be deactivated or
removed. As such, treatment with vaccines must remain voluntary.
It is well known that it is mostly educated and well informed parents
who choose to either delay vaccines, vaccinate selectively or forgo them
altogether who are exempting their children from vaccination. (To use this link, subscribe for free to Medscape) The real epidemic that health officials avoid talking about and continue
to deny is the spectrum of autistic disorders, develomental disabilities, and chronic illnesses.
These disabilities were not on the public health radar a few decades
ago but parallel the massive increase in numbers of vaccines now
injected into most children that can derail both immune function and brain development. Even though the 1984 amendment of Ontario’s Immunization of School
Pupils Act (ISPA) brought the Act into compliance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the individual’s right
to freedom of religion and conscience, and the legal right to security
of the person, it’s been an
uphill battle to inform the public of its legal right to exemption from
vaccination. Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has
deliberately obfuscated the public’s access to legal exemptions under
the Act and has cultivated a climate of fear by issuing mandatory
vaccination notices to students across the province with ongoing threats
of school suspension when vaccine records are incomplete. Vaccine Choice Canada has been tracking this obfuscation and denial of students' right to informed consent for many years and has filed a formal complaint with the Ontario Ombudsman. The Act should have firmly anchored the public’s right to reject
unwanted vaccines being forced on families against their will. The 1984
amendment should have motivated the Ontario government to be up front
and honest about the availability of legal exemptions from vaccination
for school children. Instead the provincial government has, for over 30
years, played a denial game with Ontarians’ right to legally exempt
their children from vaccines as stipulated by the Act. By virtue of
omission of exemption information on its website, and threats of
suspension to thousands of students every year, public health officials
have succeeded in instilling the misperception that students do not have
choice and that vaccination is mandatory for school entry. Now with the provincial government poised to make it more difficult for
parents to access vaccine exemptions, we face a huge political struggle
to protect our basic human right to bodily integrity. Whatever happens
in Ontario will roll across the country. It is important to understand that the reason most other provinces have
NOT introduced coercive vaccine legislation is because Ontario was
forced to bring its Immunization of School Pupils Act into alignment
with Charter guarantees as articulated above. The 1984 amendment to
ISPA and insertion of a personal belief exemption clause, sent a strong
signal across the country of the futility of attempting ‘mandatory’
vaccination legislation in other provinces because such an attempt would
be nullified by the legal and human rights protections we are
guaranteed in the Canadian Charter. It is ONLY because of the determined efforts of concerned citizens over
30 years ago that the government of Ontario was forced to amend the Act and to
insert a personal belief exemption clause from vaccination. This set an
important legal precedent across Canada dissuading other provinces from
attempting similar legislation. Politicians and health officials across
Canada have understood very clearly that any legislation threatening
people’s right to refuse unwanted drugs, and medical procedures like
vaccination would immediately be challenged under the Canadian Charter.
Nevertheless they are attempting, yet again, to undermine the human
right to informed consent. This is a national issue of great urgency for everyone who values their
basic human right to decide what goes into our bodies and that of our
children. If you value the right to voluntary and informed consent to
medical risk taking and the right to say NO to unwanted medical
treatment or drugs, now is the time for all concerned people to stand up
against this ominous slide into medical tyranny. We invite all
Canadians who value medical freedom to act now to stop this erosion of
our basic freedoms. This is an URGENT call to Action and formation of a group of concerned citizens to lead
the political fight against restricted access to vaccine exemptions for children
attending school and daycare. Letters of protest to all provincial MPs
will be a big part of this Action. If you wish to participate in this
Action group, please contact us at: info@vaccinechoicecanada.com
*****
The Board of Directors of Vaccine Choice Canada wish you and your loved
ones a safe and happy holiday season and good health in the New Year. We
look forward to your continuing support as we anticipate increasing
challenges to our democratic freedoms which will require all of us to
engage in protecting our right to “freedom of choice” and “informed
consent”.
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