After investing more than $700,000 in a lawsuit to have the health measures put in place by Quebec declared unconstitutional, the Foundation for the Defense of People’s Rights and Freedoms (FDDLP), which denies the very existence of the pandemic, is trying to convince the Superior Court that its steps before the court are still relevant.
The organization, funded by donations from the public, filed an action in April 2021 largely based on reports by European dissident experts, including infectious disease specialist Christian Perronne and anti-vaccine public health specialist Astrid Stuckelberger.
The lawyer who initially piloted the action, Mr.e Dominic Desjarlais, suddenly announced that he was ceasing to represent the FDDLP, in October 2021, when two of its leaders suffered from COVID-19 and one of them had to go to hospital for tests .
The president of the FDDLP, Stéphane Blais, admitted before the Court to have had to sell his house to inject “a lot of personal money” into the adventure and to complete the lawsuit, which suffered numerous discounts. According to an interim financial report released by the FDDLP, the organization had a deficit of more than $225,000 as of June 2022.
On Wednesday, the Attorney General of Quebec asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that the end of the health emergency, announced by the Legault government in June 2022, “rendered the litigation moot”.
“There is no longer a health emergency; [les plaignants] got what they wanted, ”argued the lawyer for the Attorney General, Ms.e Lizanne Demers.
The lawsuit is, moreover, at an “embryonic stage”, and this, in particular because the FDDLP is no longer officially a party to the dispute since it no longer has a lawyer. “Declaring the decrees unconstitutional would not have retroactive effect,” added the Attorney General’s lawyer.
“Not a frivolous procedure”
Failing to be pleaded by a lawyer, the action is currently defended by five active citizens within the FDDLP describing themselves as “whistleblowers”, who reject the very existence of the pandemic. They want to have the decrees declared “null and inoperative” and ask the Court to order the Attorney General to “take all reasonable steps to ensure that citizens who have received a ticket [pour violation des décrets] be reimbursed”.
“Ninety-seven percent of PCR tests are false positives,” Mr. Blais argued before Judge Michel Pinsonnault, citing a report by British pathologist Clare Craig, who is part of the panel of experts that the FDDLP intends to testify. “The survival rate for COVID-19 is 99.88%. It’s the same as influenza,” he added.
Mr. Blais, a former accountant, recalled that he himself was struck off the CPA Order for life and sentenced to a $20,000 fine for remarks derogatory to the honor and dignity of the profession in connection with COVID-19, following an investigation started by the syndic of the order a few days after his foundation had launched legal proceedings to bring down the health measures. “It is an indicator that there are political eyes watching us,” he argued before the magistrate.
If the Superior Court agrees to hear the five plaintiffs, the latter intend to demonstrate that the sanitary measures, such as wearing a mask and compulsory vaccination, were “extremely crazy and inconsistent”.
“Getting vaccinated is not just and sufficient cause for the loss of a job,” said Lily Monier, who is one of the five plaintiffs.
“We still spent $705,000 [dans l’action]. I don’t call this a frivolous procedure. We have several reports from world-renowned experts. The procedure is quite well done and of good quality,” she insisted.
According to her, more than 17,000 people support the action and the steps of the FDDLP, but more opponents of the health measures would do so if they were not “dragged in the mud by being called conspirators, covidiots or of toothless “when they appear publicly, pleaded Mme monier.
The judge took the motion to dismiss under advisement. He promised to issue a written decision as soon as possible.