Below is a letter that was sent to Cochrane’s Mayor and Council on June 24, wherein I described that were it up to the unelected Administration, I might not have been able to appear before my elected Council members on June 14 to make my presentation, “Getting Down to the Facts on COVID-19”:
https://dogwithabone.org/getting-down-to-the-facts-on-covid-19/

Dear Mayor and Council,

While many of you may not have agreed with me or, rather, with what my medical expert witness, Dr. Roger Hodkinson, had to say on the matter, I appreciated the opportunity to make a presentation to you as a delegation on June 14 to provide a perspective on the response to Covid-19, a perspective that has by-and-large been censored and suppressed, by the mainstream media (not only the likes of Trudeau’s propaganda machine, the CBC, but also the media here in Cochrane), by the government, by various professional bodies (medical and nursing associations and colleges), and especially, by Big Tech (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). You have to wonder why a position that supposedly is supported by sound science and common sense needs to be protected from any opposing views. As a scientist, I like this quote from Galileo, you know that ‘kook’ who believed that the earth revolved around the sun and stood up against the authorities of his day:

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”

With respect to my fifth slide, I said the following, “I would heartily agree that its’s important to ‘Know the facts’. I am a great believer in an open debate. The allowance for dissenting opinions, is the best way to come to the best solution for a given problem. However, in the current environment where we are fed confusing, often contradictory messaging by the authorities and, as well, where opinions contrary to the official government or WHO narrative are suppressed or censored, it becomes very difficult to know the facts and make good well-informed decisions (emphasis added).” Not surprisingly and proving my point, such silencing of an alternative point of view has taken place with respect to the local media here in Cochrane as none of them to date have chosen to report on my presentation to you. Noteworthy, however, that the Editor of the Cochrane Eagle, Chelsea Kemp, penned an Editorial, “Patience, kindness and respect needed as Alberta opens”, with a supporting role by Mayor Genung, which I see as a back-handed swipe at me and my presentation. My drawing attention to the flaws in the lockdowns, presumably in Kemp’s view, shows a lack of patience, kindness and respect on my part and feeds “into the divisiveness that has been growing over the past 14 months”. In that light, my presentation to Council addressing the Town Administration’s directive to “Know the facts” is characterized as sowing division! Such a response by the Cochrane Eagle and Mayor Genung brings to mind a quote attributed to Winston Churchill:

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

While several thanked me for coming and I am grateful for that, I wish to share that, disappointingly, were it up to the unelected Administration, I might not have been able to appear before my elected Council members that evening. 

Last November I met Mayor Genung for coffee to talk about Town affairs and learned that one avenue to engage with Council was to appear as a ‘delegation’, even a delegation of one. As you are aware, in January of this year, I utilized this pathway offered to residents as a way to engage with Council, when I made a presentation to Council expressing concerns about the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Board (CMRB). I appreciated that opportunity to share that perspective with Council as I understand that  my point of view was not necessarily shared by the Mayor, the Administration and the majority of Council.

At the beginning of May of this year, on May 3, I once more made a request to appear as a delegation. On May 10, I received an email from Ms. Jaylene Knight, the Town’s Manager of Administrative Services, advising me that she was “working to determine where space might be available for (me) to attend a Committee of the Whole” and that she would be in further contact once she was able to confirm a time. With that encouraging email, I continued to work on my planned PowerPoint presentation which up to that point in time had taken many days to prepare.

Nine days later on May 19, I was surprised or, I should say, shocked to receive an email from Ms. Knight not with a confirmed time, but, rather, an about-face, radically different from that which I had previously received from her, advising me, “After further reviewing your request to appear before Council, including the Action you have outlined, please be advised that we will not be scheduling you to appear at this time”. One argument given was that my topic was not of “broad interest within the jurisdiction of the Town”.

I understood the “we” in this case to correspond to Ms. Knight’s conversations with the higher levels of the Administration, presumably the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), so I took this prohibition to appear before Council as nothing less than a prohibition by the Town Administration.

The briefing note provided by Administration to Council for my agenda item, as far as Background information, declared, “Administration has been following Alberta Health Services guidance throughout the pandemic and as such will not be recommending changes to the current approach be undertaken based on Mr. Voss’s presentation”. That is, before even hearing my talk and what I had to say, the unelected Administration had already predetermined that it would dutifully follow AHS guidance (and presumably means not follow guidance from the Town’s elected representatives). No wonder they didn’t want me to appear before Council and advised Council to accept my presentation as information.

I note with interest that at the conclusion of the May 10 Council Meeting, Councillor Patrick Wilson expressed concern about the impact of the lockdowns and suggested that it might be a useful thing to talk about at Council’s Committee of the Whole. Mayor Genung noted in response that despite the topic being a possible “hot potato”, “we should be open and accessible to talk about anything we want in our community”. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, but, disappointingly, Administration apparently had a different view.  

I was flabbergasted by the reason given for declining my request to appear before Council, namely, that it was not a matter of “broad interest” given that our lives have been consumed by Covid-19 and the effects of the government restrictions over the past 14 months or so. Surprising that somebody, for example, complaining about his water bill is considered to be an item of ‘broad interest’ and allowed to be a delegation, whereas, the current lockdowns that we are experiencing and being affected by, are not considered an item of public interest and concern!

Not satisfied with this outcome of my request to appear as delegation before Council, I decided to contact Mayor Genung. After some difficulty in reaching him, we finally connected by phone on Friday, May 28.  I was encouraged by that conversation with the Mayor, particularly his agreement that what was done to me by Administration was not “right”. The telephone call concluded with an expectation that Mayor Genung would intervene on my behalf and stop this infringement of a concerned citizen’s ability to appear before Town Council. 

On Wednesday, June 2, Mayor Genung sent me an email suggesting that I have a conversation with the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. Michael Derricott, who, Mayor Genung explained, “is best equipped to articulate the policy direction” that I was “experiencing”.

I spoke with Mr. Derricott the next morning, Thursday, June 3, and, as I had anticipated, I was not at all satisfied with the outcome of that conversation, basically hearing from Mr. Derricott what was not that dissimilar from what I had heard previously from Ms. Knight in her May 19th email to me, advising that I would not be allowed to appear before Council as a delegation and that, instead, my only option to express my position was to contact the Council members directly. 

As far as an explanation of the “policy direction” that I was “experiencing”, from my conversation with the CAO, I came to realize that this is a far bigger issue than whether or not Ron Voss would be allowed to appear before Council as a delegation, but whether or not any citizens will have access to this venue, particularly if they represent a perspective that the Administration doesn’t share. The CAO took pains to emphasize that there was a distinction between a citizen engaging in a formal way by appearing before Council as a delegation or through direct contact with the Council, such as via email. With respect to the former, he has the authority, at his discretion, to determine whether or not a citizen can appear before Council in that way, pure and simple, no questions asked. That’s the distinction. With respect to engaging with our Town Council, appearing as a delegation, he has the authority as a gatekeeper; not a facilitator.

The distinction is that direct access to our Town Councillors via email etc. is a “basic right”, whereas, engaging with our Town Council via a delegation, is a “privilege” granted at the discretion of the CAO. So much for Cochrane’s residents having the right and opportunity to share their concerns and perspectives with their elected representatives.

I was pleasantly surprized to receive a telephone call from Mayor Genung the morning of Monday, June 7 advising me that my request had been reconsidered, and that it would now be allowed. 

Despite this change of course, which I am grateful for, this struggle to appear before my elected Council representatives has only served to confirm my growing perspective that the Town is primarily being run by the unelected Administration and not by our elected representatives.

Sincerely,

Ron Voss, Ph.D.
Cochrane

 

ADDENDUM

Finally, my presentation to the Town council received some attention from the local media. However, Noel Edey with Cochrane Now chose to focus his account, “Town Councillor Patrick Wilson joins End the Lockdowns Caucus”, on Councillor Wilson’s response to my talk and less so on the substance of my talk. 
https://cochranenow.com/articles/town-councillor-patrick-wilson-joins-end-the-lockdowns-caucus

Too bad that he didn’t give attention to how some of the other councillors had responded to my talk, especially Councillor Flowers who opined that the government with its lockdown restrictions had done “a great job”, offering as evidence that “we are not burying bodies like they are in India”.

Disappointed by the cheap-shot dismissive comment about Dr. Roger Hodkinson made at the conclusion of Edey’s article, namely, that “His views have been condemned by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada”. The only ‘condemnation’ of Dr. Hodkinson by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada that I am aware of was the College with its clarification about Dr. Hodkinson’s association with the College, saying, “Although Dr. Hodkinson has never made the claim, in some online references, Dr. Hodkinson is being incorrectly identified as a chair/past-chair of the Royal College. We would like to clarify that Dr. Hodkinson is not nor has ever held the position of chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada”.

With that back-handed attack on Dr. Hodkinson, the College failed to add, however, that he was the former chairman of a committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada that set the annual exam for pathology residents, quite a prestigious responsibility.

Their clarification included a declaration that they strongly supported all public health advice given by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada (Dr. Tam), including recommendations to practise physical distancing and to wear masks to help prevent COVID-19 transmission. That was the substance of the College’s “condemnation” of Dr. Hodkinson.

In my talk, I had pointed out, “Even to debate these questions is now stigmatized by government, the media, and professional colleges as irresponsible, and to be resolutely suppressed.” This ‘condemnation’ by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada provides another example of how the professional medical bodies are one of the avenues used to silence and stigmatize any doctors who may have a contrary opinion with respect to the official narrative on lockdown measures.

In a recent example, Dr. Francis Christian, Clinical Professor of General Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and a practising surgeon in Saskatoon, was fired for simply voicing safety concerns about Covid shots for children.
https://www.jccf.ca/surgeon-fired-by-college-of-medicine-for-voicing-safety-concerns-about-covid-shots-for-children/

This post by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) also mentioned other situations where doctors are being censored, including Dr. Byram Bridle, a prominent immunologist at the University of Guelph with a sub-speciality in vaccinology who recently participated in a Press Conference on Parliament Hill on CPAC organized by MP Derek Sloan, where Sloan discussed the censorship of scientists and physicians. Dr. Bridle expressed his safety concerns with vaccinating children with experimental MRNA vaccines, the basis for Dr. Christian’s dismissal.

Noteworthy that while Sloan’s Press conference, raising concerns over censorship of doctors and scientists, has received about 592,000 views to date on the CPAC channel, the press conference has been ignored by the mainstream media.