The Battles

Statistician turned author Regina Watteel sheds light on the emergence of what she coins “hate science” during the COVID-19 pandemic in her book titled “Fisman Fraud: The Rise of Canadian Hate Science.” It was referenced in Canadian Parliament last month by Conservative MP Colin Carrie who questioned the government’s justification of the ArriveCAN app to surveil, control and segregate COVID-19 vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians.

Armed with a PhD in statistics and a solid foundation in natural sciences from McMaster University, Watteel’s journey into the pandemic measures revealed alarming trends. She observed a troubling shift away from evidence-based decision-making toward the adoption of simulation models to justify harmful, suppressive public health measures.

By spring 2022, the federal government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, faced challenges in maintaining and justifying COVID-19 measures like the ArriveCAN app. This government surveillance tool infringed upon Canadians’ mobility and medical privacy rights and segregated vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. In the midst of this, figures like infectious disease epidemiologist and physician David Fisman, emerged as influential in shaping pandemic response strategies with flawed modeling predictions.

Fisman’s study on population mixing between vaccinated and unvaccinated subpopulations garnered global attention, despite its numerous conflicts of interest and questionable methodology. His findings were relayed as fact, instead of the fiction that they were, and in direct conflict with what the real world data at the time was showing.

Watteel’s meticulous investigation uncovered a web of deceit and manipulation that made the pretend scenario not only possible, but allowed for its unfettered amplification, which she says was orchestrated to deceive the public and advocate for harmful policies like vaccine passports at the government level.

Her efforts to shed light on what she refers to as scientific fraud and challenge the validity of the “study” that inverted reality faced resistance from institutions like the publicly-funded Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the peer reviewing Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) and the University of Toronto, where Fisman conducted his research.

Watteel works to expose the pervasiveness of “hate science” throughout Canadian institutions and the detrimental impact these misrepresentations have on scientific integrity.

Not only did it work to vilify an identifiable group of people, but there are no protections or mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening again in future. This is especially concerning as Fisman leads the modeling for future pandemic preparedness and response at UofT’s Institute for Pandemics, showing that greater scrutiny of data and statistics is needed to prevent future scientific abuses.

Rebel News has contacted these institutions and intends to publish a follow-up report featuring their responses.

RCMP charged Van Herk, Van Huigenbos, and Janzen with mischief over $5,000, allegedly for being “key participants of the Coutts border blockade”. They could each now spend a decade in prison for something they have a right to in Canada — supporting a peaceful protest.

and  continued to expand. It’s also the day Pastor Artur Pawlowski was in Coutts to provide a sermon to the truckers.

Rebel News has also partnered with the registered civil liberties charity The Democracy Fund, to support the legal defence of these three men, crowdfunded through your generous donations so their families aren’t burdened with the costs of hiring the lawyers needed to fight these charges.

To donate and receive a charitable tax receipt, or to stay updated on their legal proceedings, go to Coutts3.com.

Criminal mischief charges were previously laid against several of the Freedom Convoy organizers in Ottawa, such as Tamara Lich and Chris Barber for their role in organizing protests in Ottawa, with Lich having spent 50 days in pretrial custody — or jail — but Coutts is a different story.

After two years of weekend protests, the Freedom Convoy began, sparking a spontaneous wave of national grassroots demonstrations lasting for days to weeks on end. The blockade began approximately the same time as the Freedom Convoy arrived in Ottawa, both united in peacefully protesting — and seeking an end to — the government’s COVID pandemic response.

So what began as a slow roll trucker convoy near the small border town of Coutts — population roughly 300 — evolved into an unprecedented 18-day protest at Alberta’s largest international border crossing with the United States.

Syd Fizzard @SydFizzard

Demonstrators disbanded to unequivocally express that this was and would only be peaceful movement, while questions arose over RCMP’s midnight raid and charges.

Tens of thousands attended during those 18 days, most at the police barrier in Milk River 18 miles away from Coutts. This was due to an RCMP quarantine zone set up around the already isolated border town, to prevent more vehicles from joining the few dozen holding the line directly at the blockade. Those trapped could not return with their vehicles for any reason if they chose to leave.

Alex, Marco, and George were amongst the few dozen individuals who arrived and remained at the Coutts Blockade before this RCMP barrier was established. Supporters in Coutts persevered through it all, literally camping it out in their vehicles for weeks as a showing of solidarity with the national Freedom Convoy movement.

The blockade was an immovable force which sparked numerous other border blockade-style protests across Canada during the Freedom Convoy movement. This embarrassed politicians like the former Premier Jason Kenney, and the RCMP, who both attempted and failed multiple times to quash the blockade as international attention grew.

Somehow seven months later government prosecutors decided to criminally pursue three of these individuals. Alex Marco and George were branded as the “key participants” and could now face 10 years in prison each. They say these charges are political and unwarranted, meant to set an example for those who aim to peacefully protest their own government.

Now Van Herk, Van Huigenbos, and Janzen are being forced by government prosecutors to fight for their freedoms and innocence in a trial by jury. Expected to begin in April this year, Rebel News will be covering their trial in person from the Lethbridge courthouse. To keep up to date on their story or donate to help cover their legal fees, go to Coutts3.com.

So how did Alex, Marco, and George, three small farmer-town southern Albertans with families and lives of their own, find themselves at the heart of a historic national movement that altered the course of Canadian politics, and the global pandemic response? This is what we answer in today’s extended sit-down interview with the three accused.

Thanks to your donations we’ve been able to report on Alex Marco and George, so you can see for yourselves who these men are, and what actually happened during the Coutts blockade.