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Catherine Christensen: CAF Members Cannot Safely Speak

Day 1 · 5:18:18 · Shawn Buckley · Catherine Christensen · Michael McNair

  • 🪖 Counsel explains QR&O and NDA risks that can court-martial serving members who criticize vaccine policy.
  • 💉 CAF heavily used Moderna in young males despite Nordic myocarditis pauses as the mandate rolled out.
  • 📁 Official tallies undercount; injuries are recoded as mental health and CF-98 vaccine links are blocked.

Valor Law principal frames why she speaks for silenced CAF members and veterans.

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Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 5:18:18

So our next, I'll say witness, but we're going to have 2 witnesses. Witnesses sharing space, and you'll understand why that is very quickly. So we're going to have Katherine Christiansen and Michael McNair, and I'm, I'm going to swear Katherine in and say a little bit, and then swear Mike in, and then go back to Katherine. Um, there's a Canadian Armed Forces member in the audience that we cannot call as a witness, and we cannot call because active members, unless they've been discharged for a period period of time can be court-martialed, to use the civilian terms, for actually sharing about being injured in the forces. And we spoke to other Canadian Armed Forces members who couldn't testify for the same reason. And then we've spoken to discharged Canadian Armed Forces members who could testify without being court-martialed, but they, they couldn't testify because they wouldn't— the experience would be too traumatizing for them.

Shawn Buckley · 5:19:29

Um, yeah, the most fragile group that we've run into in interviewing has been the Canadian Armed Forces members. And I know, uh, Michael, that this is difficult for you to be sitting here, and we're very grateful to have you. So, uh, Catherine, can I get you to grab that Bible in your right hand? Catherine Christensen, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Catherine Christensen · 5:19:58

I do.

Shawn Buckley · 5:20:00

So just to introduce Catherine Christensen, she is a barrister and solicitor and the principal of Valor Law in St. Albert, Alberta. Her practice is devoted almost exclusively exclusively to the representation of Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, before Federal Court for Judicial Reviews, and before the Military Police Complaints Commission. So she is here to testify about the experiences of Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans who have suffered injuries following the COVID-19 vaccine. And systemic issues that have arisen in handling of those cases. And then, Michael, can I get you to take the Bible in your right hand? Michael McNair, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Shawn Buckley · 5:21:02

Absolutely. Um, I will go into more detail after you know, Catherine, Catherine speaks, and then you— I'll have you speak and then have both of you answer questions. But you were in the Canadian Armed Forces for 11 years, and you were medically released in January of 2025, and, and that's the reason you're able to speak today freely?

Michael McNair · 5:21:29

Yes.

Speaker B · 5:21:29

Yeah.

Shawn Buckley · 5:21:29

Okay. So Catherine, um, I'm just going to cut you loose because I know you've already decided what you want to say and even have a few slides if necessary.

Catherine Christensen · 5:21:42

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Buckley. Thank you, uh, Mr. Allison, for holding this inquiry. Um, I saw the first announcement and at that point I signed up because I know that I can be a voice for Canadian Forces members and veterans veterans when they can't be a voice for themselves. The reason that they cannot testify if they are still serving is they are still under the Queen's Regulations and Orders, and they're also under the National Defence Act. Any public statements made by a Canadian Armed Forces member that can be seen as a criticism of the government or military policy, including vaccination requirements and consequences, risk being characterized as conduct prejudicial to good order discipline. That can mean administrative action, career damage, and disciplinary proceedings, including court martial. Add in chain of command pressure and the fear of medical employment limitations, and the result is quite simple.

Catherine Christensen · 5:22:44

Most serving members cannot safely describe what happened to them, and I'm here because they cannot be. As you have said, my practice is mainly devoted to Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans. The cases I will describe are drawn from that work, but I will not be naming any clients. It's important for people to know the Canadian Armed Forces members are treated within a closed federal system, the Canadian Forces Health Services. A complete medical record is opened on enrolment and kept throughout their service. That Canadian Forces Health Information System is centralized and it can detect force-wide trends, injuries, cardiac events, and medical category changes from enrolment to release. And that file is usable across clinics, ships, and deployments.

Catherine Christensen · 5:23:45

Civilians, Medicare cannot do that cleanly. If post-vaccination injury clustered in the Canadian Armed Forces, the record should show it, but only if they were coded and analyzed. This is a young, screened, generally healthy population. The healthy soldier effect is real. Members supported high-risk civilian settings in Operation Laser. You will recall that they went into the nursing homes. There were thousands of confirmed COVID-19 cases, yet the serving force mortality remained low. To date, I am not aware of a single death from COVID-19 within a member of the Canadian Armed Forces during the pandemic. Now hold that baseline in mind when you hear what followed the mass vaccination campaign. Pain and the mandate. MRNA vaccines carry a documented risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, highest in young males after the second dose.

Catherine Christensen · 5:24:53

Nordic data from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway showed a higher excess rate— excess rate risk, sorry, with Moderna than with Pfizer in males aged 16 to 2024. In October of 2021, when General Wayne Eyre brought in a mandate in the Canadian Armed Forces, Denmark had already paused Moderna under 18, Sweden for those under 30, and Finland limited it to younger— limited it for younger males. Those were precautionary decisions based on emerging safety signals, not on theory. The CAF is predominantly young adults. Large numbers of doses were given, but almost exclusively Moderna. This is the same demographic that Nordic regulators were already treating with caution while the CAF mandate was being enforced. Department of National Defence figures released in 2023 state that, uh, state that approximately 241,270 doses were administered.

Catherine Christensen · 5:26:09

346 Adverse events were reported to CAHPS providers and 27 were classified as serious. Most, we are told, were minor and self-resolving. GND has stated it has no record of members releasing specifically because of a vaccine injury. That's not what I see. Clients report serious persistent cardiac injury, clotting, neurological symptoms, reproductive disruption, digestive tract illness, autoimmune presentations, and fatigue syndromes they attribute to vaccination. Many described that clinicians would not record a vaccine association. They had difficulty obtaining a CF-98, which is the form that should be filled out for any type of injury in the calf that attributes that condition to a vaccine. And release processes framed as mental health or a generic mental, medical unfitness rather than a vaccine injury.

Catherine Christensen · 5:27:14

Official counts depend on reporting to a CAF provider and on how that report is later classified. Underreporting is a recognized pattern when symptoms are novel or delayed, or when a member reasonably fears that speaking will end a career.