Category: Canadian Decisions

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Another Site Taken Down? “Privacy Is Your Right” No Longer Operational

On March 27th, 2023 a group called Privacy Is Your Right appeared seemingly out of nowhere to promote a legal challenge at the Divisional Court of Ontario. There was a press conference held over Zoom. They were to appear on the 30th. The thing was: there was also a lot of begging going on for money. They were already talking about going to the Ontario Court of Appeal if this didn’t work out.

The cause seemed worthwhile enough: patients and a Dr. Sonja Kustka were taking the CPSO to Court in order to prevent them from looking at medical records during an investigation. How did things transpire?

The case was thrown out on the spot, with the reasons coming a few weeks later.

This raises some eyebrows in light of recent events.

Another site, https://fre4justice.ca/, was completely shut down shortly after the attention it received from here. Perhaps there was backlash after pointing out that it would be just a rehash of the other “bad beyond argument” Federal case.

Now, the privacy site hasn’t completely disappeared, at least not yet. However, the site isn’t working, and none of the original links seem to either. It’s been that way for at least a few weeks.

A check on the site https://privacyisyourright.ca/ shows that it was created January 19th, 2023, and that 2 years was paid for. Apparently, the last time the site was updated (in any capacity), was December 22nd, 2023.

The main site, Motion Record, and Factum are only available now via the Wayback Machine, unless they’ve been saved elsewhere. The last time it appears to have been functional — while saved — was January 19th, 2024.

Now, why was it so odd that this group was asking for money, even though they openly conceded they’d probably be appealing it? Turns out that this case, the Kustka, case, was almost identical to the Dr. Rochagné Kilian case which had been rejected for the same reasons. At the time of this fundraising, the Ontario Superior Court had already refused patients standing. See the procedural history, and this review for more information.

That’s right. The big case (Kustka) that Privacy Is Your Right was soliciting money for was a clone of the earlier (Kilian) one.

However, that wasn’t disclosed at the virtual press conference. Going through the website, or at least the archived pages of it, there’s no mention of Dr. Kilian either.

Note: This isn’t to justify what the CPSO has been doing in recent years, but to point out the futility that was obvious from the start.

How many donors would have refused to hand over any money if there had been transparency about this? Probably most of them.

Looking at the ruling, it’s obvious. The Kustka case was a complete rehash of the Kilian case, with only superficial differences. This should have been made apparent prior to soliciting donations.

[10] The issue of public and private interest standing was recently examined in detail by this Court in Kilian v. College of Physicians and Surgeons, 2022 ONSC 5931 (Div. Ct.). The Patient Applicants’ applications for judicial review in this case are analogous to the patients’ applications for judicial review in Kilian. We see no basis to depart from this court’s decision in Kilian, which we find to be persuasive.

[13] In Kilian, at para. 44, this Court confirmed that patients have no private interest standing in the circumstances where the CPSO has initiated an investigation into a member’s conduct, stating as follows:
.
The Patient Applicants do not have a personal legal interest in the ICRC’s decisions to authorize an investigation of Dr. Kilian’s conduct or to place restrictions on her certificate. They have concerns that their medical records will be disclosed to College investigators, but that does not justify a grant of private interest standing, given the purpose of the regulatory regime and the subject matter of the judicial review proceeding.

[14] In Kilian, at para. 45, this Court held that a finding of private interest standing would be contrary to the statutory purpose, which is to regulate physicians’ conduct in the public interest. A finding of private interest standing would “disrupt” professional regulation because it would entitle thousands of patients to standing at the investigation stage: Kilian, at para. 47. This Court also noted that the Code grants patients standing in certain limited circumstances, further demonstrating the legislature’s intention to circumscribe patient participation in the regulatory process.

[15] Moreover, in Kilian, this Court went on to find that the patients have no direct interest in the decisions under review, which involve the regulator and the member. Similarly, the restrictions on the physician’s certificate in that case did not affect the patients’ legal interests: Kilian, at paras. 49-50. We see no reason to depart from the thorough and persuasive analysis conducted by this Court in Kilian.

[16] The Patient Applicants distinguish their applications for judicial review from those brought by the patients in Kilian on the basis that in this case, they seek to challenge s. 76 of the Code, while Kilian was limited to considering an investigation under s. 75 of the Code. In our view, this is a distinction without a difference. In Kilian, the CPSO had brought a parallel application in the Superior Court pursuant to s. 87 of the Code to compel the production of records under s. 76. While, in the circumstances, this Court did not specifically address s. 76, the underlying factual scenario was the same as in this case. The patients in Kilian argued that they had standing to bring an application for judicial review because their private medical records would be disclosed to CPSO investigators.

[17] The production of private medical records pursuant to s. 87 was subsequently addressed by Chalmers J. of the Superior Court in Kilian v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2023 ONSC 1654 (Sup. Ct.) [Kilian SCJ]. In that case, Chalmers J., relying on College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia v. Bishop (1989), 1989 CanLII 2674 (BC SC), 34 B.C.L.R. (2d) 175, held that the expectation of privacy in medical records is subject to the higher need to maintain appropriate standards in the profession: at para. 34. In addition, patient records are protected by the requirement that the CPSO maintain their confidentiality under s. 36 of the RHPA. As a result, courts have rejected the argument that patient-physician privilege precludes an order requiring the production of patient records: Kilian SCJ, at paras. 36 and 51.

The Court denied the patients private standing. Later in the ruling, they are denied public interest standing, again, for the same reasons outlined in the Kilian case.

Again, the group asking for money never disclosed this.

The follow up on the Dr. Kilian case isn’t encouraging either. July 2023, Court of Appeal for Ontario handed down a $16,000 cost award against Dr. Kilian, stating that adding the patient intervenors was a ploy designed to stall the original investigation.

May 8th, 2023, Dr. Kilian was finally ordered to produce the medical records the CPSO demanded. That was upheld by the Court of Appeal in January 2024. Absent a challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada, this case appears to be over.

So, why did Privacy Is Your Right gut their website? One possibility is that they’ve milked the donations for all they can. Now that the ruling is out — and everyone can see that it’s just a rehash — that one will dry up as well.

But just like those anti-lockdown and union cases, the CPSO ones are recycled as well.

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Lawyer In Anti-SLAPP Decision Sued For Malpractice, Incompetence & Negligence

A $600,000 lawsuit was filed in Ontario Superior Court by an Ontario doctor who says that her former counsel was incompetent and negligent to the point that she’s suffered damages. She claims that the representation fell far below what should be considered professional. Specifically the Claim cites:

  • professional negligence
  • breach of fiduciary duty
  • breach of contract
  • incompetence
  • conflict of interest

Kulvinder Kaur Gill and Ashvinder Kaur Lamba, both Ontario doctors, made headlines in 2020, filing a $12.75 million defamation lawsuit against 23 parties. It was primarily over petty online drama, and predictably, it was thrown out. The case was appealed, to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Soon afterwards, their lawyer, “Mr. Bad Beyond Argument”, abandoned them. This was allegedly over prolonged health issues.

Asher Honickman went on to represent Lamba in 2022. It’s interesting, since he’s also the one to commence proceedings against her former lawyer.

One of the main points of contention is that Gill and Lamba should never have joined their cases. While Gill alleged defamation from 23 parties, Lamba only had isses with 2 of them (Angus Maciver and Nadia Alam). Even then, she never really had a case against one of them. It’s argued in this malpractice suit that the asymmetry led to Lamba getting dragged into something much larger than she wanted.

Due to deficiencies in the original suit, it’s pleaded that Lamba wants damages from all 23 Defendants, even though she admittedly had nothing to do with 21 of them.

Also in this suit, Lamba claims she was never properly advised about the cost consequences — full indemnity (or 100%) — which are typical if they’re dismissed under anti-SLAPP laws.

There are many more problems to cover, and we’ll get into that. But first:

Timeline of major events

Pre-2020: Gill and Lamba have prior issues with Maciver and Alam. These predate the “pandemic” and the debate over lockdown measures.

Summer/Fall of 2020: Kulvinder Gill gets into many trivial arguments on Twitter, leading to some harsh replies. These are screenshotted to use as evidence.

December 2020: Gill and Lamba, sued 23 individuals and organizations for defamation. This was primarily (although not entirely) brought over Twitter spats that Gill had engaged in.

September 2021: Over the course of 3 days, several anti-SLAPP Motions are argued before Justice Stewart in the Superior Court. These are Motions to dismiss, based on Section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act. This is a section of the law that allows for rapid screening of lawsuits brought to “stifle public interest speech”.

February 2022: Justice Stewart dismisses the suit was dismissed under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP laws. This wasn’t at all surprising to anyone who understands defamation law. It was an extremely weak case. At this point, costs have yet to be determined.

March 2022: The lawyer for Gill and Lamba files a Notice of Appeal, despite the fact that he doesn’t intend to stick around. It also becomes apparent that counsel doesn’t fully understand the purpose of anti-SLAPP laws, nor the standards applied.

May 2022: Counsel for Gill and Lamba succeeds in getting himself removed from the case for “health reasons”. This come despite him actively being involved in other litigation, and even commencing other lawsuits.

July 2022: Gill and Lamba (with new counsel) try to get new cost submissions filed. They claim that their previous lawyer didn’t do anywhere close to an adequate job.

September 2022: The Appeal is “perfected” meaning all the documents are submitted. Note: there still hasn’t been an award of costs yet for the original decision from February.

October 2022: Gill and Lamba are hit with $1.1 million in legal costs from the Defendants, who were successful in getting the case thrown out. But to be fair, Gill took the bulk of the hit. She had sued all 23 Defendants, while Lamba was only pursuing a case against 2 of them.

October 2023: One of the Respondents, the Pointer Group Inc., argues a Motion that Gill should have to pay her costs up front, given how weak the Appeal is.

November 2023: The Motion for security for costs is denied.

December 2023: After many delays, the Appeal is finally heard, but with only a few Respondents left. Most have cut some sort of deal to accept partial payment.

February 2024: The Court of Appeal for Ontario throws out the Appeal against the few remaining Respondents who hadn’t yet settled over this.

Now, what other problems are alleged in this malpractice suit?

Lamba’s relief sought incorrectly lists “all” Defendants

This is from page 7 of the Statement of Claim. Even though Lamba is pursuing defamation claims from just 2 of the Defendants (Gill from all 23), she seeks aggravated and punitive damages from everyone. This is a horribly amateurish error to make. These damages make up $2 million dollars, and it’s demanded that people who aren’t alleged to have wronged her have to pay.

This is the problem with the cut-and-paste lawsuit business. Important proofreading like this gets overlooked.

Claim wrongly lists all Defendants liable to BOTH Plaintiffs

From page 81 of the Statement of Claim, it’s alleged that all the Defendants are liable to both Gill and Lamba for: (a) libel and slander; (b) conspiracy; (c) negligence; and (d) breach of professional obligations.

But, as stated earlier, Lamba had nothing to do with 21 out of the 23 Defendants. Her only stated grievances were with Maciver and Alam. The poorly worded Claim doesn’t distinguish that though.

What else is there?

Lamba alleges she wasn’t advised to file Affidavit

Paragraph 17(d) the Claim reads that Lamba didn’t produce any evidence. By this, it means that she never submitted a sworn Affidavit against the anti-SLAPP Motions.

That matters because the 3rd branch of the anti-SLAPP test requires that the Plaintiffs submit evidence of at least some damages. While it doesn’t have to be a “fully developed brief”, there has to be something for a Judge to conclude that damages occurred.

By failing to do this, it’s guaranteed that the case would be thrown out.

Lamba alleges she was neglected in favour of Gill

Paragraph 17(f) of the Claim reads that the anti-SLAPP Motions Lamba received got nowhere near the attention that the ones targeted at Gill. As such, she felt neglected by her own representation.

Lamba alleges she preferred to settle or discontinue

Paragraphs 17(g), (h), and 33(c) of the Claim read that Lamba would have been better off to go the route of apology, settlement, or possibly discontinuance. This would substantially mitigate cost exposure. She states that her lawyer should have taken that approach.

Lamba alleges junior lawyers did work they weren’t trained for

Paragraphs 17(j) and 33(g) of the Claim read that junior lawyers and/or staff were doing parts of the work that they weren’t trained for, or competent in. There was apparently little oversight to ensure that it was done properly. Then again, it seems that senior counsel isn’t competent either.

By junior lawyers, this presumably refers to Samantha Coomara, who works at that firm. Gill and Lamba have a separate lawsuit in Brampton that names her.

As an aside: Coomara was the lawyer of record who sued this site, after sending threatening letters. She is grossly incompetent, and lacks understanding of basic procedures.

Lamba alleges conflict of interest with her legal representation

Paragraphs 17(k), 33(l) and (m) of the Claim read that Lamba’s own lawyers had their own agenda, and put their interests above their own. Presumably this refers to the Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice cases which allege that there was a global conspiracy. This led to the highly publicized but poorly drafted lawsuits that kept getting thrown out.

Lamba was interested in a straightforward and (relatively) private defamation case. She apparently never wanted to get involved in any of this. She openly calls this a conflict of interest.

Lamba alleges she was never informed of the risks

Paragraph 33(b) of the Claim reads that Lamba was never properly advised about the risks of starting a defamation suit in Ontario. Between the strong anti-SLAPP laws, and the “presumptive full indemnity on costs”, this can get very messy.

The Claim mentions repeatedly that Lamba wasn’t kept in the loop about major decisions within her own case. It’s also claimed many times that the representation she got was incompetent.

Furthermore, she blames the quality of the pleadings on incompetence. It’s stated that her claims focused on the insults which aren’t actionable, versus the actual defamation.

Lamba is resentful at having her name tied to Gill, and to her lawyer’s overall agenda. She views it as very unhelpful. The $7 million suit Gill filed against Amir Attaran for calling her an “idiot” probably doesn’t help. While Lamba may have had valid grievances on her own, connecting with Gill and her lawyer seem to have caused endless headaches.

Keep in mind, all of this is written from Lamba’s perspective. We’ll have to see what the Statement of Defence says.

What are the practical consequences of suing 23 people and organizations? Well, a lot of lawyers are going to get rich billing the hours to defend against these claims.

This was another headache Lamba had to deal with. The bulk of the lawsuit had nothing to do with her, but she was claiming damages against everyone. Once the case was thrown out, she was presumptively on the hook for half of it. Part of the reason Lamba and Gill got separate counsel is that their interests diverged greatly in terms of the costs.

Gill would benefit much more from a 50/50 split
Lamba would benefit from everyone paying their own share

Anyhow, this is only a quick summary. Do read the entire Statement of Claim, as it’s quite the eye opener.

What will happen with this lawsuit?

It’s hard to say, but here’s a personal prediction:

Since it’s a lawyer being sued for negligence and malpractice, insurance will likely cover it. This means they’ll be providing a lawyer to defend it, and pay most of the bills. If it were a claim for dishonesty or misrepresentation, they probably wouldn’t.

Anyhow, insurance companies are businesses, and they don’t like losing money. They may very well force a settlement, or leave the client to fend for himself. They also don’t like insuring high risk subjects.

LAMBA PROFESSIONAL MALPRACTICE CLAIM:
(1) Lamba Statement Of Claim
(2) Lamba Notice Of Intent To Defend

MOTION FOR SECURITY OF COSTS
(1) Gill V. Maciver Amended Notice of Motion – 26 Sept 2023
(2) Gill v Maciver – San Grewal’s appeal for support M54554.MPF.PointerGroup – October 2023.PDF
(3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PbEewt3dAKqAT5Udp6BIIqrM9Y_AhPHv/view
(4) Ruling: Motion For Security Of Costs – Denied

KULVINDER GILL/ASHVINDER LAMBA CASE:
(1) Gill/Lamba Defamation Lawsuit December 2020
(2) https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/stat/rso-1990-c-c43/latest/rso-1990-c-c43.html#sec137.1_smooth
(3) Gill/Lamba Factum Of Medical Post Tristan Bronca
(4) Gill/Lamba Case Dismissed As A SLAPP
(5) https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc1279/2022onsc1279.html#par17
(6) Gill/Lamba Notice of Appeal and Appellants’ Certificate
(7) Gill/Lamba Appeal – Notice of Intention to Dismiss Appeal for Delay, May 12, 2022
(8) Motion To Recuse – Badly Redacted -2022-06-17 – Notice
(9) Motion To Recuse – Badly Redacted -2022 – Motion Record
(10) Gill/Lamba July 15 Letter To Obtain New Counsel
(11) Gill/Lamba Case Conference Brief July 29, 2022
(12) Gill/Lamba Endorsement New Counsel Cost Submissions August 3, 2022
(13) Gill/Lamba Case $1.1 Million In Costs Ordered October 31, 2022
(14) Gill/Lamba Appeal Dismissed As Baseless By ONCA
(15) https://coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/item/22116/index.do

GILL/ATTARAN/UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA CASE:
(1) Gill-Attaran Statement Of Claim
(2) Gill Attaran Affidavit Of Service
(3) Gill-Attaran Notice Of Intent
(4) Gill-Attaran Motice To Recuse
(5) Gill-Ataran Motion To Recuse Motion Record

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Failed “Intimidation Lawsuit” Results In $132,268 Cost Award

December 11th, 2023, Justice Chalmers of the Ontario Superior Court threw out a $1.1 million defamation lawsuit brought against the anti-lockdown group, CSASPP. On February 3rd, he ordered $132,268.17 in costs to be paid within 30 days.

The lawsuit was filed June 28th, 2022 by “Mr. Bad Beyond Argument”, also known as the “King of the Struck Lawsuit”. For more on the CSASPP dismissal, background information is available here.

Justice Chalmers did more than just rule that this was done to stifle debate. He also said that this suit was brought to derail a Law Society complaint filed by Ms. Donna Toews, and to intimidate others from making complaints in the future. In short, this was a deliberate effort to sabotage the internal process of the LSO itself.

From the ruling of Justice Chalmers, dismissing the case

[89] With respect to the claim against Ms. Toews, I am of the view that “what is really going on” is an attempt to intimidate members of the public who may be considering making a complaint about the Plaintiff to the LSO. The effect of the action against Ms. Toews would be to obstruct the regulatory process. The harm this would cause in the LSO’s ability to receive and process complaints about lawyers is, in my view significant.

[98] For the reasons set out above, I find that the Plaintiff brought this action for the improper purpose of stifling debate with respect to his handling of a proposed class action that is being funded by public donations. I also note that the Claim was brought one day before the Plaintiff submitted a response to the LSO with respect to Ms. Toews complaint. I find that the Claim was brought for the improper purpose of limiting the LSO investigation, and to intimidate others from making any LSO complaints about him.

Suing someone to avoid a Law Society Complaint is grounds for disbarment. David Grant Isaac had his licence revoked in November 2022 over exactly this misconduct. But it’s not the only case here.

Multiple lawsuits filed in order to bury Toews complaint

It’s an oversimplification to just say that this is a defamation case. Ms. Toews apparently had the potential to do some real damage by contacting the LSO. It lead to 3 suits, so far. Who knows if more will be brought later?

Galati v. CSASPP et al.
Filed: June 28th, 2022
Case No.: CV-22-00683322-0000

Galati v. Law Society of Ontario et al.
Filed: July 12th, 2022
Case No.: CV-22-00683933-0000

Galati v. Law Society of Ontario et al.
Filed: July 31st, 2023
Case No.: CV-23-00703697-0000

Not only was Ms. Toews sued in order to subvert her LSO complaint, but the Law Society itself was sued itself, twice. And for what?

Taking her story at face value, she donated $1,000 to each of Action4Canada, and to Vaccine Choice Canada. Presumably, she wanted her money back, since neither was advancing an anti-lockdown case in any meaningful way. The value of her donations amounted to a mere $2,000. And it resulted in 3 overlapping lawsuits.

3 lawsuits were filed in order to bury the Toews complaint, over $2,000. Other than in Small Claims, who files a case over that amount? Who files 3 Claims over the same issue? One really has to wonder what people were afraid the LSO would have found during their investigation. What was really going on?

From Justice Chalmers regarding the costs

[7] The Defendants argue that there is no reason to depart from the presumption that the successful party is entitled to their full indemnity costs. The Defendants claim costs in the amount of $159,920.97 inclusive of counsel fee, disbursements, and H.S.T. They argue that the proceeding was complex. The evidence before the court consisted of more than 3,000 pages. The Plaintiff sued four Defendants and cross-examined the deponents of all affidavits tendered on the motion. The transcripts were over 500 pages. The Plaintiff also filed the affidavits of Lee Turner and Alicia Johnson that were subject to a preliminary objection by the Defendants. I found that the affidavits were irrelevant and inadmissible.

[14] I am not satisfied that the Plaintiff’s offer provides a basis for not awarding costs on a full indemnity basis. The offer requires the Defendants to retract and apologize for their comments made about the Plaintiff. In my reasons, I found that the Defendants’ speech was an expression in the public interest. I also found that the defences of justification and fair comment applied. Acceptance of the offer would have satisfied the Plaintiff’s objective in bringing this action, namely, to silence the Defendants from making an expression in the public interest. It is my view that the Defendants were justified in not accepting the Plaintiff’s offer.

[15] The Defendants were required to incur the costs of the motion to strike the action that I found was brought for an improper purpose. I am of the view that there is no reason to depart from the presumption that the moving party is entitled to its costs on the motion and the proceeding on a full indemnity basis.

[16] Although s. 137.1(7) provides that the presumption is that the successful moving party’s costs will be awarded on a full indemnity basis, the court must consider the fairness and reasonableness of the award having regard to the r. 57.01 factors.

[17] Here, the Plaintiff brought an action in which he seeks damages totalling $1,000,000. The s. 137.1 motion was complex and involved a significant number of documents. There had been cross examinations of 7 witnesses. There were over 3000 pages of documents on the motion, including 500 pages of transcripts. The issues involved expressions in the public interest and in particular comments with respect to the counsel retained to conduct public interest litigation. I am satisfied that the issues were of importance.

The case was a typical SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation. It was lawfare from the Plaintiff, using the legal system as a weapon in order to silence his critics. The case was unnecessary, and involved a huge amount of time and expense to deal with it.

Also, Justice Chalmers was not impressed by the “Settlement Offer”. He stated that it would have achieved the Plaintiff’s goal of forcibly silencing his critics.

Then there is this little gem:

[20] I find that the time spent by the Defendants’ lawyers was excessive. The total hours for the preparation of the motion record, including the review of the file and drafting affidavits was 45.8 hours for Mr. Gleason and 92.4 hours for Ms. Rauff. For the preparation of the reply record and preparing for and attending on the cross-examinations, and drafting the factum was 83 hours for Mr. Gleason and 121.3 for Ms. Rauff. From a review of the Costs Outline, it appears that there was an overlap of the work performed by Ms. Rauff and Mr. Gleason. Both docketed for each item of work. There does not appear to have been an efficient division of responsibility.

[22] It is my view that an appropriate counsel fee for the motions is $112,500. This is a reduction of approximately 25% of the Defendants’ lawyer’s actual counsel fee. With H.S.T. in the amount of $14,625 and disbursements of $5,143.17, the total costs are $132,268.17.

Gleason and Rauff may have been overbilling, but at least they won their case on the merits. The same cannot be said for the Nadon reference case. Gonzo logic!

As reported in the National Post, an Appeal of the CSASPP dismissal is already in the works. Appealing a SLAPP decision (unsuccessfully) is presumably on a full indemnity (100% of costs) basis. Can we expect another $50,000+ ruling to come as a result of this?

Who really funded these intimidation suits?

Now, we get to the interesting questions: who really financed the lawsuit against CSASPP? Who funded both of the suits against the Law Society?

Consider the following timeline:

October 11th, 2023: Justice Dow strikes the Claim against the Law Society (the first one), on the grounds that it doesn’t disclose a Cause of Action. He does permit a rewrite, which doesn’t appear to have happened. He also ordered $14,600 in costs to be paid to the LSO for legal costs.

December 11th, 2023: Justice Chalmers dismisses the Toews/CSASPP suit under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP laws, ruling that it was brought for improper purposes, and as an act of intimidation.

January 18th, 2024: CSASPP publishes the decision, and a lengthy commentary piece.

February 3rd, 2024: Justice Chalmers issues his ruling ordering that $132,000 be paid as a result of this failed lawsuit. While a reduction from the $160,000 sought, this is still a large sum of money.

February 4th, 2024: Action4Canada updates its website to announce that they will be doing an “expose” on the so-called agitators within the Freedom Movement.

February 7th, 2024: Kuntz and Gaw have their stream on Zoom, where they claim to be exposing a coordinated “military style” campaign to destroy their lawyer. There are complaints from observers on Zoom that comments are being deleted. The stream itself is a hit piece designed to deflect from the true nature of the criticism.

The Action4Canada, Vaccine Choice, Adelberg (Federal), and Take Action Canada cases were critiqued in detail. At no point is it stated or implied that it’s not worthwhile fighting martial law measures. Instead, the quality of the documents themselves is looked at. They clearly fail to follow the basics of procedure.

Just because someone is skeptical of long delays, and poorly drafted pleadings, it doesn’t mean they’re anti-freedom. It means they’re anti-grifter. There is a difference.

Are Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice Canada funding intimidation lawsuits, such as the one with CSASPP? Although they explicitly deny it, they do lament the drop in donations since 2021.

Interestingly, it’s stated that “he had to act in order to avoid getting disbarred”. Presumably, this refers to the LSO complaint from Ms. Toews. Suing her either for retaliation, or to subvert an investigation, is grounds for revoking a law licence. So, what exactly was so bad? Was there a fear that the LSO would force an audit of the books?

Who’s paying for the $14,600 over the struck suit against the LSO?
Who’s paying for the $132,268 over the dismissed SLAPP against CSASPP?
Who’s paying for the Appeal lodged against CSASPP and the Chalmers rulings?
Who’s paying for when the the second LSO suit is struck?
Who’s paying for the intimidation suit filed against Canuck Law?

Donors to Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice — if there are any left — really need to be asking these questions. Since neither organization is diligently pursuing a case against the Government, are funds being used to silence critics?

The anti-lockdown cases are considered “public interest litigation”. As the name implies, it’s society as a whole, not just private parties, who are impacted. Why the reluctance to be transparent?

A closing thought: if A4C/VCC money was used to sabotage the Toews LSO complaint and/or to silence legitimate inquiry, does it make them accomplices? Are donors now (unknowingly) complicit in illegal activity? Just something to think about.

CSASPP/RG DOCUMENTS (June 2022)
(1) CSASPP RG Statement Of Claim
(2) CSASPP RG Moving Party Motion Record Volume 1
(3) CSASPP RG Moving Party Motion Record Volume 2
(4) CSASPP RG Moving Party Motion Record Volume 3
(5) CSASPP RG Responding Motion Record Volume 1
(6) CSASPP RG Responding Motion Record Volume 2
(7) CSASPP RG Responding Motion Record Volume 3
(8) CSASPP RG Moving Party Supplemental Motion Record
(9) CSASPP RG Moving Party Record Motion To Strike
(10) CSASPP RG Plaintiffs Responding Record Motion To Strike
(11) CSASPP RG Transcript Brief
(12) CSASPP RG Moving Party Factum (Arguments)
(13) CSASPP RG Responding Plaintiff Factum
(14) CSASPP RG Moving Parties Reply Factum
(15) CSASPP RG Reasons For Judgement
(16) CanLII Posting Of Decision

1ST LAW SOCIETY OF ONTARIO CLAIM (July 2022)
(1) Law Society Of Ontario Statement Of Claim
(2) Law Society Of Ontario Intent To Defend
(3) Law Society Of Ontario Amended Statement Of Claim
(4) Law Society Of Ontario Requisition For Amended Claim
(5) Law Society Of Ontario Motion Record, To Strike
(6) Law Society Of Ontario Moving Party Factum To Strike
(7) Law Society Of Ontario Plaintiff Responding Factum

2ND LAW SOCIETY OF ONTARIO CLAIM (July 2023)
(1) Law Society Of Ontario Second Statement Of Claim

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Action4Canada Appeal: Dude, Why Are You Even Here?

February 14th, 2024, Action4Canada finally had their day at the British Columbia Court of Appeal. While there was a large attendance in Vancouver, observers could also attend via Zoom.

It never made sense to file here. This Appeal was to challenge the ruling of Justice Ross to strike the 391 page Notice of Civil Claim (NOCC) in its entirety, but with leave to amend. In other words, the Plaintiffs were allowed to refile, they just had to follow the Rules of Civil Procedure. They weren’t shut off from seeking remedies in the Courts.

Why appeal, when the NOCC could have simply have been rewritten?

STATUS: As of now, the decision is under reserve (deferred until later). The parties agree that the NOCC should have been rewritten. Consequently, the main issue left to determine is whether costs should have been awarded, and if so, should they have been done at the end. The whole Appeal turned out to be a giant nothing-burger.

The Action4Canada case, and its legal representation, can best be described as embarrassing. It’s a clown show that never ends.

As bad as the May 2022 hearing at the B.C. Supreme Court was, the one at the Court of Appeal was even worse. The Justices actually stated that they didn’t understand what was being appealed. They couldn’t figure out why they were there, and asked for clarification. That’s something that no lawyer ever wants to hear about their case.

Since it was agreed that the Claim was “prolix”, or too long and confusing, the logical step would have been to file a new one. Instead, the Court of Appeal Justices appeared baffled at why an Appeal was lodged.

It also seemed that the Plaintiff’s lawyer didn’t understand the difference between a Court making a ruling on something, as opposed to commenting, or making “obiter remarks”. Pretty sad that after 35 years, a person doesn’t know how to read and interpret a Court decision.

The Appellants’ lawyer needed to have it explained to him that Justice Ross gave feedback so that an amended NOCC would be more compliant with the Rules. The panel stated that it was typical for litigants to get a chance to fix their case, so that it would be heard on the merits. This was quite painful to watch. Once again, after 35 years, lawyers should know what they’re doing.

Yes, Justice Ross gave plenty of background information about how he came to his conclusion. He outlined many several problems, but never ruled on any of them.

Action4Canada case was a train wreck from the beginning

First, it took nearly a year to file a NOCC in the first place, in August 2021. Action4Canada had been fundraising since the Summer of 2020 — if not sooner — but never produced anything. When the document is finally revealed, it’s a convoluted mess with no prospect of getting to Trial.

Second, in September 2021, Action4Canada instigates a defamation lawsuit against this site for criticizing the obvious and glaring flaws with the NOCC. Yes, other cases had been picked apart as well, but this appears to have been the final straw.

Third, a year later, the NOCC was struck as “bad beyond argument” for not even following the basics of Civil Procedure. Although Justice Ross only struck the NOCC as “prolix”, he outlined an almost endless amount of errors and defects contained within. The Canuck Law criticisms of the NOCC have aged very well.

Fourth, instead of swiftly filing a amended version, it was appealed in September 2022. A coherent explanation of why that happened has never been offered. Again, the NOCC could have simply been rewritten. Nor is it explicitly stated that remedies Justice Ross (apprently) improperly disallowed.

Fifth, the Law Society of British Columbia included this case in its February 2023 version of the Professional Legal Training Course for new lawyers. See page 15. It’s now to be used as an example of how not to draft pleadings. The LSBC refers to the case as “an example of a wholly inadequate pleading”. As such, the case is now the laughing stock of the legal profession in B.C.

Sixth, Action4Canada attempts to delay and defer the Appeal indefinitely. It’s only after getting called out on that is a hearing date booked.

What Justice Ross actually ordered in the August 2022 ruling

The decision from Justice Ross was very lengthy, but the order itself wasn’t.

[74] In summary:
a) I find that the NOCC, in its current form, is prolix and must be struck in its entirety;
b) I grant the plaintiffs liberty to amend the NOCC; and
c) This action is stayed pending the filing of a fresh pleading.

[75] On the issue of costs, I note that each plaintiff is pursuing this action seeking money damages from one or more defendant. In responding to those claims each defendant has been put to the expense of answering (if not filing a response) to the NOCC. In addition, the defendants have all been required to prepare for and conduct this application. None of those steps would have been necessary if the matter was properly pleaded.

[76] On that basis, I find it appropriate to award each defendant the costs for the necessary steps of “defending a proceeding”, and for preparing for and attending an application (opposed). Those costs are payable forthwith in any event of the cause.

  • The Claim is prolix (too long), confusing and incomprehensible
  • The Claim is struck, but with permission to amend (refile)
  • The case is stayed (on hold) until a new filing is sent
  • The Defendants are awarded costs for their success

Yes, Justice Ross outlined a litany of defects that the NOCC would likely have, but he made no actual determinations on any of them. He only ordered that it must be struck for being prolix.

All sides agree that original NOCC is prolix

The hearing started off with the Appellant (Plaintiff) lawyer stating that he agreed the case was prolix, and that filing an amended version was fine. That should have been the end of it, which is why the decision to appeal never made any sense.

Appeal is based on things Justice Ross didn’t rule on

Not only did Justice Ross not rule on those things, but it appears to misrepresent what he actually said. He never stated that scientific evidence couldn’t be introduced in a Court. He did however, state that determining the scientific consensus was an improper claim. See paragraph 52 (b) and (f).

Paragraph 52 also listed other things that aren’t permitted in a Civil Court, such as making finding on criminal allegations, international criminal law, the Nuremberg Code, or the Helsinki Declaration. Although Ross mentioned these things, he didn’t explicitly rule on them.

Cost awards are typically discretionary

The other part of the Appeal was that Justice Ross shouldn’t have granted the Defendants costs because success had been “divided”. Supposedly, since leave to amend was granted, it was a partial win for the Plaintiffs. By this logic, there shouldn’t have been any. Or at least, costs should have been reserved until the end.

Considering that cost awards are typically at the Judge’s discretion, it’s unclear what the error was. Successful parties typically get some sort of costs. Whether this award comes immediately, or at the end of the proceedings is again, up to the Judge.

For reference, the Plaintiffs ended up paying out approximately $13,000 total for the Applications to Strike. It could easily have been a lot worse.

What’s the point of appealing a $13,000 cost award, considering everything else that’s at stake? This is small potatoes in the big picture. Again, embarrassing is the best way to describe this.

What exactly was the point of appealing?

The Plaintiffs could have easily filed an amended NOCC, and gone ahead with the case. Justice Ross specifically granted permission to do this. It’s not like the case was struck without leave.

The only finding Justice Ross made was that the case was prolix. Yes, there were many problems outlined, but he never made any determinations on them. All sides agreed it was prolix, and even the Plaintiffs agreed a new NOCC should be filed?

Cost awards are typically discretionary, and no error of law has been pointed out. What then is the issue with this? It was only $13,000.

The hearing ended rather abruptly. All sides agreed that the original NOCC was prolix, and needed to be rewritten. It was further agreed that all of the comments about the quality of the pleading, including the types of relief sought, weren’t adjudicated back in August 2022.

The only live issue was over costs. With that, the panel adjourned, with the promise to get a written decision back quickly.

We’ll have to see how well this piece ages.

Both Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice Canada have been fundraising for nearly 4 years. In the meantime, neither of them have filed a coherent Claim, despite the urgency of the issues. It’s beyond obvious that none of these cases will ever get to Trial.

ACTION4CANADA APPEAL DOCUMENTS:
(1) A4C Notice Of Appeal September 28 2022
(2) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Appearance – VIHA
(3) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Appearance – BC Defendants
(4) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Appearance – Attorney General of Canada
(5) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Appearance – Peter Kwok, Translink
(6) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Appearance – BC Ferries, Brittney Sylvester
(7) A4C Appeal – Appeal Book – Appellant
(8) A4C Appeal – Appeal Book – Respondent VIH And PHC
(9) A4C Appeal – Appeal Record – Stand Alone Respondents VIHA
(10) A4C Appeal – Appeal Record – Stand Alone
(11) A4C Appeal – Factum – Appellant
(12) A4C Appeal – Factum – Respondent Attorney General Of Canada
(13) A4C Appeal – Factum – Respondent BC Ferries and Brittney Sylvester
(14) A4C Appeal – Factum – Respondent HMK -Provincial Defendants
(15) A4C Appeal – Factum – Respondent Peter Kwok and Translink
(16) A4C Appeal – Factum – Respondent VIHA and Providence Health
(17) A4C Appeal – Consent Order – Factum, Time Limits
(18) A4C Appeal – Change In Representation – BC Defendants
(19) A4C Appeal – Notice Of Hearing February 2024

ACTION4CANADA BCSC DOCUMENTS:
(1) A4C BCSC – Notice Of Civil Claim
(2) A4C BCSC – Response to Civil Claim (Health Authority Defendants)
(3) A4C BCSC – Response to Civil Claim (Provincial Defendants)
(4) A4C BCSC – Affidavit No 1 of Rebecca Hill
(5) A4C BCSC – Notice of Application (AG and RCMP applies to strike)
(6) A4C BCSC – Notice of Application (Provincial Defendants applies to strike)
(7) A4C BCSC – Notice of Application (Translink applies to strike)
(8) A4C BCSC – Application Response (Health Authority Defendants consent to strike)
(9) A4C BCSC – Application Response (BC Ferries consents to strike)
(10) A4C BCSC – Application Response (AG and RCMP consent to Prov. strike application)
(11) A4C BCSC – Application Response (Translink consents to HA Defendants strike application)
(12) A4C BCSC – Application Response (Translink consents to Prov. strike application)
(13) A4C BCSC – Affidavit No 2 of Rebecca Hill
(14) A4C BCSC – Application Record (to strike)
(15) A4C BCSC – Application Response (all plaintiffs)
(16) A4C BCSC – Amended Application Response (all plaintiffs)
(17) A4C BCSC – Transcript Application To Strike
(18) A4C BCSC – Reasons For Striking NOCC In Its Entirety
(19) A4C BCSC – Order striking pleadings
(20) A4C BCSC – Order striking pleading in its entirety with costs payable forthwith
(21) A4C BCSC – Appointment to assess bill of costs for Kwok and Translink
(22) A4C BCSC – Notice of Discontinuance (Kimberly Woolman & Estate of Jaqueline Woolman)
(23) A4C BCSC – Notice of Discontinuance (Amy Muranetz)
(24) A4C BCSC – Notice of Discontinuance (Federico Fuoco & Fire Productions Ltd.)

OTHER:
(1) https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2022/2022bcsc1507/2022bcsc1507.html
(2) https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/Website/media/Shared/docs/becoming/material/civil.pdf
(3) https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/168_2009_01#rule3-1
(4) https://justice.gov.bc.ca/cso/index.do
(5) https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/120_2022a#division_d0e3656
(6) https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/doc/2022/2022bcca450/2022bcca450.html#par10

ACTION4CANADA FINANCIAL DOCS:
(A) A4C Docs Profits And Losses 2021-2022
(B) A4C Docs Balance Sheet 2021-2022
(C) A4C-Docs-General-Ledger-2021-2022

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Court Of Appeal For Ontario Upholds “Prematurity” Rulings With CPSO

It’s been challenged many times whether or not professional regulators, like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, or CPSO, can have cases taken from them. Typically, the response is to let the internal processes play out, prior to coming to Court. The latest is an Appellate decision in Ontario that confirmed Rochagné Kilian was supposed to exhaust her options with the CPSO first.

The general reasoning behind these decisions is that any doctor — or any professional — could circumvent the internal discipline process by filing with the Court. While Court challenges have come in abundance in recent years, they tend to be thrown out as premature.

Note: This isn’t to justify the rulings that organizations like the CPSO are making, or injection mandates. It’s just to explain procedurally what is going on.

The records in particular that the CPSO was after primarily involved the issuance of exemptions for the injections in 2021. Dr. Kilian is hardly the only doctor to be investigated for doing this, but the procedural history is interesting, to say the least. It’s not just her doing this, but various patients have also tried to intervene.

The Court of Appeal lays out the facts in their ruling, which are largely agreed with. The main issues to be decided were questions of law.

There’s a lot going on, but here’s a timeline.

August 23rd, 2021: Dr. Kilian attends a town hall meeting with Grey-Bruce Health Services (GBHS), which was her employer at the time. She expressed concerns about the injection mandate that was coming up. Around that time, she’d also been issuing exemptions for patients.

On a bit of a side note…

[11] In the late summer of 2021, Dr. Kilian began to sign exemption forms for people who did not wish to get the COVID-19 vaccine. She provided these exemptions in three different ways: through her own practice, through an organization known as “EnableAir”, and through an organization known as White Knight Medical. Her association with “EnableAir” was limited and is now the subject of a complaint to the RCMP in British Columbia. The details and outcome of that complaint are not relevant to the issues we have to determine in this case.

October 1st, 2021: Investigators were formally assigned to look into Dr. Kilian, and to the exemptions that were being issued. They also weren’t happy that she wasn’t complying with the “safe and effective” mantra that was expected.

October 15th, 2021: The ICRC, which is the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee of the CPSO, issued restrictions on Kilian’s medical certificate of registration. In particular, it was supposed to prevent the issuance of more exemptions for injections, masks and testing.

October 21st, 2021: The CPSO files an Application to compel Dr. Kilian to turn over patient records, and to cooperate with their investigation. This comes after repeated requests for that information are refused.

October 27th, 2021: Dr. Kilian received an interim suspension of her license, because these restrictions were not being followed.

November 2021: Dr. Kilian files her own Application for Judicial Review, challenging the constitutionality of what the CPSO was doing. At this time, the she hadn’t attempted to resolve it internally.

January 7th, 2022: The CPSO Application is supposed to be heard, but is deferred until February 8th.

February 7th, 2022: A large number of people, approximately 40, applied to intervene in Dr. Kilian’s case, claiming to be patients of hers, and invoking privilege. This was one day before the Application was supposed to be heard. Note, another ruling incorrectly lists the date as February 14th.

February 18th, 2022: The Ontario Superior Court hears an the Motion to Intervene and reserved the decision.

March 14, 2022: The ONSC schedules a hearing on the Application to compel the turning over of medical records of patients. There were patients asking for Intervenor status, since they viewed their medical records as privileged. Justice Pollak deferred the issue of Intervenors until the other questions were settled.

Justice Pollak wrote: “As I have found above, I agree with Dr. Kilian that the parties must be given the opportunity to make their submissions on what the issues are for determination by this court in the Application and what the subject matter of the Application is.”

This is from the ruling. Keep it in mind.

April 9th, 2022: Justice Pollak stays (puts on hold) an Intervenor Motion from Kilian’s patients. This had been argued o February 18th, and March 22nd.

April 19th, 2022: Justice Pollak, ONSC, stays (prevents) the Application from the CPSO for the production of patient files, related to Dr. Kilian and injection exemptions. This was to be until the Judicial Review was heard from Kilian. It ruling be challenged at Divisional Court.

August 8th, 2022: The Divisional Court granted leave (permission) to appeal the Interlocutory stay from Dr. Kilian’s patients.

September 27, 2022: There’s a Case Management Conference on the Appeal, with the hearing to be scheduled for December 5th, 2022.

November 7th, 2022: The Divisional Court granted a Motion from the CPSO to quash (throw out) the Application for Judicial Review of Dr. Kilian’s patients, and a review of her own case. The Court also granted a publication ban as requested.

Dr. Kilian had asked the Divisional Court to look at 3 ICRC decisions, and all were upheld.

  • Judicial Review of the investigation decision is premature
  • The Restrictions Decision was reasonable
  • The Suspension Decision was reasonable

November 8th, 2022: Justice Leiper issued a decision that it wasn’t in the interests of the various patients to be granted Intervenor status. Rules 5.03 and 13.01(2) were both cited, but prematurity was the concern. The original Application still hadn’t been ruled on, and the Court found this to be unnecessarily complication. The patients had also asked for permission to intervene anonymously. However, since they were denied standing — premature at this stage — it was deemed irrelevant if the Court knew who they were.

January 5th, 2023: The Divisional Court lifts the stay that Justice Pollak had ordered on April 19, 2022. Costs of $7,500 were ordered, with the panel saying that a different Judge should handle the case. The Panel was annoyed with her, saying this:

[18] On February 18th, 2022, the Applications Judge heard the motion to intervene and reserved her decision. On March 14th, 2022 she released a lengthy endorsement (2022 ONSC 1526) in which she set out the positions of the various parties in detail. At the conclusion of her reasons, in paragraph 44, she stated:
.
[44] As I have found above, I agree with Dr. Kilian that the parties must be given the opportunity to make their submissions on what the issues are for determination by this court in the Application and what the subject matter of the Application is. I find that it is not possible for this court to consider the factors to be examined on this Intervenor motion until the subject matter and scope of this Application, which is a major issue in dispute between the parties, is resolved. In light of this significant dispute between the parties on the “subject matter of the proceeding” (the Application), I reserve the decision on this motion until the court has made a determination on the subject matter and scope of the Application.

[19] There was no mention in the March 14th, 2022 endorsement that the Applications Judge was considering imposing a temporary stay.

In other words, Justice Pollak had effectively “scooped” the Application Judge, by imposing a stay that was already under consideration. While this surely was an oversight, it did set things back considerably. And a new Justice would hear the Application.

March 10th, 2023: Justice Chalmers dismissed the Application from Dr. Kilian’s patients to intervene in the proceedings.

April 20th, 2023: The Court of Appeal heard a Motion to stay (defer) pending appeal of the dismissal of the Appellant’s Application for leave to intervene. The Appellants are the patients of Dr. Kilian who wanted intervenor status. They didn’t want the CPSO to hand over their medical data until the other issues were resolved.

April 21st, 2023: The Court of Appeal notifies the Parties that the Appeal has been dismissed, with the reasons to follow.

April 24th, 2023: The Court of Appeal hands down the written reasons. It finds patients “do not have a direct legal interest in the proceedings between the CPSO and Dr. Kilian just because their medical records may be examined in the course of an investigation”. Therefore, they can’t stop the data from being shared with the CPSO while main Appeal is ongoing.

May 8th, 2023: Justice Dineen grants the CPSO’s Application to compel Kilian to cooperate fully with their investigation. Various arguments against it are all rejected.

July 26, 2023: Dr. Kilian is hit with $16,000 in costs from the Court of Appeals. It’s also determined that the strategy of “adding Intervenors” was largely a tactic designed to stall or prevent the release of records to the CPSO.

January 25th, 2024: The Court of Appeal dismissed the Appeal to comply with the CPSO’s requirement to cooperate, and turn over patient information. Dr. Kilian is hit with $18,000 in costs.

It’s unclear if there will be an attempt to go to the Supreme Court of Canada. Who knows at this point? As long as there’s money to be made, it cannot be ruled out.

Regardless of what one thinks of the CPSO getting access to these files, the case was a mess.

As for another “premature” case….

Privacy Is Your Right Fiasco

The Divisional Court of Ontario heard a challenge on March 30th, 2023, and dismissed it right away. The written reasons were issued on April 21st. What was the problem?

It was filed by a Dr. Sonja Kustka, an Ontario doctor who was challenging several moves from the CPSO, such as:

  • The appointment of investigators by the Registrar to investigate Dr. Kustka’s COVID-19 practices, dated February 24, 2022 (the “Appointment Decision”);
  • The ICRC’s interim order, dated May 3, 2022, imposing restrictions on Dr. Kustka’s certificate of registration (the “Interim Order”);
  • The ICRC’s decision, dated June 9, 2022, confirming the interim restrictions but deciding not to suspend Dr. Kustka’s certificate of registration (the “Confirmation Decision”); and

    • The Registrar’s decision, dated June 9, 2022, appointing investigators to investigate Dr. Kustka’s cooperation with the investigation of her COVID-19 practices and her compliance with the Interim Order.

She also had patients apply to be Intervenors, to involve themselves in the case, and to claim that the CPSO seizing medical records amounted to a breach of medical privilege.

In short, it was a rehash of the Kilian case above.

Back in March 2023, there was a fundraising drive that went on to finance this litigation. At present, it’s before the Court of Appeals. But it wasn’t disclosed that all of the major issues had already been argued and decided ahead of this.

Parallel between CPSO cases and certain employment suits

There is significant overlap between some of these doctors’ challenges, and cases involving unionized or government employers. In both cases, it comes down to lack of jurisdiction.

  • With these types of suits involving doctors and their regulators, Courts are routinely finding that the internal investigations should have been carried out prior to commencing litigation. The Courts may be asked to review only afterwards.
  • With many (former) employees, they aren’t following the terms of their collective bargaining agreements, or for public sector workers, applicable legislation. This usually means that there is some grievance process that must be followed, which often leads to arbitration. There’s no inherent right to sue, unless the process is corrupt or unworkable.

Just because a dispute may involve constitutional issues, the Courts aren’t necessarily able to hear them if there are other avenues to settle them.

Saying that a case is brought prematurely is a polite way of saying that there’s no jurisdiction to hear them. It would be interesting to know what kind of advise such litigants are getting. It seems to be common sense that their lawyers would inquire about their circumstances in advance.

Court of Appeal for Ontario
2024-01-25 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Kilian, 2024 ONCA 52
2023-07-26 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Kilian, 2023 ONCA 515
2023-04-24 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Kilian, 2023 ONCA 281

Superior Court of Justice
2023-05-08 Kilian v College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2023 ONSC 2689
2022-03-14 College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Kilian, 2022 ONSC 1526

Divisional Court
2022-12-09 Kilian v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2022 ONSC 6871
2022-11-08 The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. Kilian, 2022 ONSC 6345
2022-11-07 Kilian v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2022 ONSC 5931
2023-01-05 Kilian v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, 2023 ONSC 5

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Take Action Canada’s Case Conference Adjourned Indefinitely, Still No Activity

January 24, 2024, the Ontario First Responders suit (organized by Take Action Canada), briefly appeared in Court for a case conference. It had been expected that this was to set down dates to bring a Motion to Strike the pleading, since it didn’t follow the Rules of Civil Procedure, or for Summary Judgement.

The lawsuit was coordinated in the Fall of 2021, but nothing was actually filed until March 1, 2023. Here we are, almost another year later.

For context, this is a lawsuit involving about 100 current and former: (a) police officers; (b) medical personnel; (c) firefighters; (d) city workers; (e) transit workers; and (f) related employees. They objected to the new requirements to take the injections in order to stay employed. However, there were a few major obstacles to this going forward.

This is not to say that coercing or pressuring people to take experimental injections, for a non-existent virus, was a legitimate move. It certainly wasn’t. Realistically though, this case will have some serious problems.

First, most — if not all — of the Plaintiffs are either employed by some level of Government, or have some kind of union or collective agreement. This means they typically have the right to grieve, which can lead to arbitration. However, they don’t necessarily have the right to sue.

Second, the pleading was written so poorly that it would likely be struck in its entirety. There are specific rules (like 25.06 in Ontario), which lay out the requirements to plead facts and particulars. Simply making bare accusations without specifics isn’t enough.

If prospective Plaintiffs are required to grieve, there are a few limited ways they can get into Court.

(1) If the grievance process is corrupted or unworkable, then the Court may allow the person in anyway. However, the burden will be on them to show that they made every effort to go through proper channels. Keeping letters, emails, texts, etc… would be very handy to have as evidence.

(2) If the matter has already gone to to adjudication or arbitration, and was unfair, a person can sometimes come to Court and ask for a review. This is analogous to appealing a verdict.

However, it doesn’t appear from the pleading that any of the Plaintiffs attempted (1). And (2) wouldn’t apply since there was no internal adjudication.

To be fair, the Amended Statement of Claim does list some 35 workers who sought to get exemptions from the injection requirement. But it still doesn’t say that they tried the formal process to grieve.

The injection mandates happened in 2021, and we are now into 2024. The Plaintiffs presumably let their ability to grieve lapse a long time ago. And even if they were to hire new counsel now, they may be time barred by the Statute of Limitations from refiling in Court. To be blunt, they have no options now.

In the big picture, a lot has been going on, it’s important to remember that this isn’t the only lawsuit happening. Plenty of bogus claims are being filed, with clients oblivious to the realities.

Timeline of major events in this matter

July 6, 2020: Vaccine Choice Canada files an $11 million lawsuit against Federal, Provincial and Municipal authorities in Ontario. The suit is almost 200 pages, incoherent, unintelligible, and fails to meet the basic requirement of Ontario Civil Procedure. Rather than immediately bringing a Motion to Strike, the Parties are okay with letting it sit idly for years. Despite the media blitz, and promises of an emergency mask injunction, there’s no activity.

Summer, 2020: Action4Canada begins regular fundraising for a challenge out in B.C., but it would be approximately a year before anything was filed.

April 20, 2021: Organized by Police On Guard, group of police officers file a Notice of Application, requesting declaratory relief and clarification about what their jobs actually involved. To date, it hasn’t had a single Court appearance, and counsel and admitted that it’s “moot” and not being pursued.

April 20, 2021: Children’s Health Defense (Canada) files a Notice of Application, requesting declaratory relief and clarification about what their jobs actually involved. To date, it hasn’t had a single Court appearance, and counsel and admitted that it’s “moot” and not being pursued. Additionally, these 2 Applications are virtual clones of each other.

August 17, 2021: The Action4Canada lawsuit is finally filed in Vancouver. It terms of being incoherent and unintelligible, it outdoes the VCC case in every way. It’s almost 400 pages, and is almost completely irrelevant in terms of pleading for CIVIL remedies in British Columbia.

Fall 2021: Take Action Canada starts to organize a challenge for “Ontario First Responders” who are going to be impacted by injection mandates. These include police, firefighters, paramedics, and transit workers. Prospective clients are asked to pay $1,500 each, for work that is being sold as top rate. (See archives here and here).

Fall 2021: Take Action Canada puts out this hit piece, gloating over the fact that this site was sued for millions for critiquing these anti-lockdown cases. (See archive here). Keep in mind that despite this, TAC hasn’t actually filed their lawsuit, and they won’t for a very long time.

May 25, 2022: The Adelberg (Federal) suit is filed, challenging injection mandates for Federal employees, and workers in Federally regulated industries. Over 600 Plaintiffs are expected to pay a retainer fee of $1,000 each, making the initial amount over $600,000.

May 31, 2022: The Action4Canada Motion to Strike is heard, with the decision being reserved, or deferred.

June 28, 2022: Ted Kuntz contacts the Law Society of Ontario and tries to assure them that there’s no basis for the Toews complaint. See page 9. He defends the practice of “not revealing [VCC’s] litigation strategy to the general public”. In a backhanded way, he admits that Toews — and everyone else — have been kept in the dark about what’s been going on.

June 28, 2022: CSASPP is sued for $1.1 million. This is (partly) for criticising the lack of activity in the Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice Canada cases. But the real goal was to subvert and undermine the Toews complaint to the Law Society of Ontario, requesting an investigation of donations. Get the backstory here and here.

June 29, 2022: The Law Society is contacted to inform them of the lawsuit against Toews, CSASPP, and its leadership. This is done to further shut down the Toews complaint.

July 12, 2022: The Law Society of Ontario is sued. This is another effort to silence the Toews complaint, and make sure it’s not heard.

July 13, 2022: Before CSASPP and the LSO are even served, the idiotic decision is made to announce their respective cases on a VCC livestream. It takes a special kind of stupid to admit publicly that someone was sued for instigating a LSO complaint. For obvious reasons this isn’t allowed, as it would allow lawyers to bypass complaints, simply by suing whoever made them.

Keep in mind, suing someone in order to ward off a Law Society complaint is something that causes lawyers to get disbarred. There is precedence for this. Suing the LSO itself is even worse.

August 29, 2022: The Action4Canada case is struck in its entirety as “bad beyond argument”. Justice Ross states that it fails to meet any minimum standards of professionalism or coherence. That said, a rewrite of the Notice of Civil Claim is allowed.

September 28, 2022: Instead of filing a proper Claim, Action4Canada appeals the ruling instead. It centered around what types of remedies a Civil Court could pursue. Problem is, none of the necessary legislation exists to allow for such remedies

January 17, 2023: Vaccine Choice Canada finally has their first Court appearance, for their 191 page Claim filed July 6, 2020. That’s right, it sat idly for 2 1/2 years. That’s on top of the October 24, 2019 lawsuit, which hasn’t had a single appearance in over 4 years.

January 19, 2023: The Adelberg Motion to Strike is heard, with the decision reserved.

February 21, 2023: The Adelberg (Federal) case is struck as “bad beyond argument”.

February 24, 2023: Angry and disgruntled clients leak this letter, which demands another $1,000 each in order to appeal the Adelberg ruling. Despite the gross incompetence of counsel, clients are expected to pay more money.

Reminder: despite all of the obvious delays and shoddy work produced to this point, the suit from Take Action Canada hasn’t yet been filed.

March 1, 2023: The Statement of Claim is eventually filed in the FR/TAC case, nearly a year and a half after injection mandates came into effect in Ontario, and elsewhere. Aside from changing the names, it’s about 90% cut-and-paste from the Adelberg (Federal) case, which had just been thrown out. It also has many of the same defects as the Action4Canada case, also struck.

March 11, 2023: Sandra Sable (who helps run Take Action Canada), and Tanya Gaw (Action4Canada) swear out Affidavits against the CSASPP anti-SLAPP Motion. The content is interesting, to say the least. The timing is also curious, as it comes only days after the TAC suit is eventually filed. A cynic may wonder if it was done as leverage in order to get the Sable Affidavit out.

March 13, 2023: Ted Kuntz of Vaccine Choice Canada swears out an Affidavit against CSASPP as well. In it, Kuntz displays anger at having being forced to explain to donors what’s going on. Apparently, he preferred to keep them — and opposing counsel — in the dark about the details of their case.

July 18, 2023: An Amended Statement of Claim is filed in the FR/TAC case. Paragraphs 9A and 22A outline some 35 employees who apparently sought exemptions, but were denied. These changes appear to be an attempt to fix some of the defects that were present in the Adelberg case.

July 31, 2023: The Law Society of Ontario is sued for a second time, while the Toews/CSASPP and other LSO complaints are still pending. While VCC/A4C/TAC and others are assuring clients and donors that their cases are being advanced, counsel is ensuring he’s forced out of the profession.

August 16, 2023: The City of Hamilton files a Notice of Intent to Defend against the FR/TAC suit. This is not the same as filing a Statement of Defence, just an indication that they will at some point.

November 24, 2023: This letter is sent to the Plaintiffs in the FR/TAC case. Presumably, they weren’t happy, and it was soon leaked. This is a demand letter for another $4,500 (per Plaintiff), otherwise, the suit may be discontinued. Considering the number of Plaintiffs, this would be close to another half million. The deadline was given as January 24, 2024. Their lawyer had already received about $150,000 from clients, and had done nothing to advance their interests.

While there were questions about the letter — as it was unsigned — the hearing did happen (sort of) on that date.

January 24, 2024: The FR/TAC suit has their first case conference, which is adjourned. There’s still be no meaningful activity, up to this point. No evidence has been sworn, no Motions or Applications filed, no witnesses called, or other hearings. As with the above cases, there’s no urgency whatsoever to bring this case forward. According to the November 2023 letter, it was to set dates for a Summary Judgement Motion.

January 30, 2024: Vaccine Choice Canada will finally have their Motion to Strike heard, after the case had been dormant for about 3 1/2 years. It’s to be held over 2 days.

This timeline matters, as there was an abundance of information available prior to Take Action Canada filing anything. It doesn’t seem that any consideration was given.

Now, let’s hear from Sandra and Ted themselves!

From the Affidavit of Sandra Sable

In her Affidavit (from the CSASPP case) Sable blames the organization, its leadership, and this website for the comments criticising the other anti-lockdown cases. She specifically states that it caused many prospective clients to either withhold funds, or to demand refunds. In short, these reviews (allegedly) threatened the financial viability of the Ontario First Responders lawsuit.

There is another way to look at this. Sable knew ahead of time that the sort of lawsuits being filed didn’t follow the basics of Civil Procedure. She also knew that they were needlessly delayed, preventing real justice. The truth was staring her in the face, yet she pushed on, soliciting for more clients.

There’s no mention of why none of the 100 or so Plaintiffs never went through the formal grievance process before attempting to litigate. At least, it’s not spelled out if they did. This is very basic employment law.

In regard to Take Action Canada, there’s no explanation offered as to why it took almost 18 months to file a Statement of Claim. It wasn’t some novel pleading, but a rehash of old ones. Beyond that, this case was a rehash of content thrown out, and more than once.

Instead of doing due diligence, Sable lashed out this site, and at CSASPP.

She bragged in 2021 about this site being sued for defamation, and sarcastically says “Good luck, Canuck Law”. Well, thanks Sandy! Good luck when you get sued for fraud, or at least negligence.

From the Affidavit of Ted Kuntz

Ted Kuntz from Vaccine Choice Canada swore an Affidavit in the CSASPP case, and an almost identical one here. And it also is very interesting.

At paragraph 20, he laments the CSASPP/Canuck postings which caused VCC members to demand answers. Although he doesn’t specify, the comments truthfully stated that there had been no meaningful activity since the July 6, 2020 filing. Understandably, clients and donors wanted answers.

Instead, Kuntz comes up with the excuse that VCC didn’t want to expose their litigation strategy, nor reveal solicitor-client information. However, the privileged information is a red-herring, as no one was demanding the release of confidential data. But there were legitimate concerns about the total inactivity, and shoddy pleading of the Claim overall. Clients and donors had real questions.

The defence of “not wanting to reveal the litigation strategy” is absurd. Anyone who has ever been involved in litigation knows you have to show your cards well in advance. The cloak-and-dagger approach isn’t received too well. Springing last minute surprises on opposing counsel is referred to as “sandbagging”, a practice Judges almost universally reject.

At paragraph 25, Kuntz indignantly rejects the idea the VCC is just another “fundraising arm”. He states that it is just a group who hired a lawyer to pursue a case.

However, this is directly contradicted by Exhibit “C”, on page 18.

Exhibit “C”, page 20, Kuntz references a newsletter which stated that VCC was involved with coordinating litigation before the CPSO, or College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. It implies that VCC has helped to finance these cases as well.

For reference, none of the CPSO challenges ever went anywhere. Attempts to remove from internal investigations, and get them into Court, always failed for “prematurity”. This isn’t to condone the CPSO’s heavy handed approach, but they were doomed from the start. Similar to suing union or Government employers, it would be necessary to demonstrate that internal methods were corrupt or inadequate. That didn’t happen.

Exhibit “C”, page 20, Kuntz states that “in concert with the overall plan, other legal actions” had been filed. Page 21, item 4, it’s specifically listed that doctors who have been maligned on social media have also filed suit. This presumably refers to Kulvinder Gill’s December 2020 and March 2021 defamation lawsuits.

Gill and Ashinder Lamba are suing former counsel in a Brampton Court, but it’s a very small amount, less than $6,000. This is probably what they had to pay out of pocket personally. It seems unlikely their joint case was performed on contingency, since it was so weak. There was no prospect of winning. This raises the question of who paid the rest of the bills. And there are a few obvious suspects.

Their $12.75 million case from 2020 was thrown out as a SLAPP, and in October 2022, a cost award of $1.1 million came down. So, who really orchestrated this?

For someone who objects to the term “fundraising arm”, it’s odd that Kuntz is so willing to get involved in other litigation. It’s also implied that Kuntz and VCC arranged (and financed) Kulvinder Gill’s abusive SLAPPs. These were filed in order to silence critics on social media. Perhaps this is the real reason that there was great reluctance to reveal any litigation strategy.

Looking at Exhibit “A”, it also appears that Kuntz contacted the LSO on June 28, 2022 regarding the Toews complaint. It looks like an attempt to undermine it, and consequently, stop the LSO from investigating donations or financing.

Champerty and maintenance aren’t allowed, and for good reason.

Some final thoughts

It should be mentioned that this isn’t to blindly go after everyone associated with these organizations. Surely, there are many good people who just wanted their livelihoods back. And who can blame them?

And there is a natural urge to want to fight back, which is what drives people to go into Court in the first place. This is perfectly understandable.

Nonetheless, the reality cannot be ignored.

Take away all of the smoke and mirrors. What’s left?

The Ontario First Responders case is just another in the long list of frivolous “anti-lockdown” cases designed to go nowhere. This isn’t just sloppiness, as no lawyer could possibly be this bad, especially after being smacked down repeatedly in Court. If there ever is a Motion to Strike here, expect another “bad beyond argument” ruling. Objectively speaking, none of these will ever get to Trial.

There isn’t even a follow-up date booked for the First Responders/Take Action Canada case to return. Again, injection mandates were in 2021.

How much money has been raised, and through whom?

Was donor money used to finance the CSASPP/Canuck defamation suits?

Instead of getting angry at sites like this one, it should be directed at those who funnel other people’s time, money and energy into such dead end ventures.

(1) https://takeactioncanada.ca/
(2) https://twitter.com/Takeactioncan
(3) Ontario EMS Statement Of Claim
(4) Ontario EMS Amended Statement Of Claim
(5) Ontario EMS Requisition To Amend
(6) Ontario EMS Notice Of Intent To Defend
(7) Ontario EMS Demand For More Money