My Hearing

Relevance to Grievor's Involvement with the Union (PIPSC)

This hearing is about the issues that I stand for — for all Professionals of the Public Service,
and the reason I decided to get involved with the Union (PIPSC): Fear of Reprisal and Political Pressures.

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Timeline:

• Employment: 
  • 2000: Joined Gov't of Canada - NRC following graduation from Univ. of Alberta with PhD. in Computing Science (R&D in face recognition and Intelligent Vision Interfaces technologies, Chair of national and International conferences)
  • 2007: Founded IVIM Inc - company to support Intelligent Vision Interfaces technologies
  • 2008: Joined CBSA Science and Engineering Directorate (A/manager; Projects Lead, Senior Research Data Scientist in Biometrics and Video Surveillance), 
  • 2019: Transferred to Chief Data Office (development of data engineering and advanced data viz tools, biometric technology evaluation in support for OBIM)
  • 2021 May: received 1st dose, 2021 Oct: applied for religious exemption, 2022 Jan: Religious exemption denied, 
  • 2002 Feb: placed on LWOP for not compliancy with vaccination mandate (refused to take the second shot against conscious beliefs), Jun 2022: reinstated at work.. 
  • Jun 2022 - present: Senior Data Scientist, presently working on biometric systems evaluations and developing AI/data science tools for contraband detection.
• Networking: 
  • 2006-2019: Adjunct Prof at Univ of Ottawa, Univ of Dalhousie, Univ. de Quebec,  Chair of ISO SC 37 (Biometrics Evaluation), Chair of IEEE Computational intelligence (Ottawa Chapter)
  • 2019 - 2022  JAN: Founding lead for the GC Data Science Community R4GC on GCCollab (teaching advanced data engineering and data viz tools , weekly Lunch-n-Learn seminars)
  • 2022 JAN - 2022 JUL (While on LWOP): started weekly "Open Canada with Data Science" seminars , launched "Who Can Tell Me The Truth?" substack 
• Members advocacy: 
  • 2017-2018: CBSA Scientific Integrity Policy reviewer, One the first to act on it (published technology evaluation reports that were not published anywhere internally)
  • 2019-2020: CBSA Culture Change contributor - two submissions at VP-level on the ways to improve culture using PSES and Data Science
  • 2021-2022:Advocate for Open Canada Data and Fearless Advice within Public Service - as part of GC Data Science Community R4GC on GCCollab
  • 2024 Apr: Elected to PIPSC NCR Executive, authored multiple motions and resolutions to address fear of reprisal and vaccination mandates reasonableness and harms
  • 2024 Nov: Nominated for PIPSC VP position (voted by over a thousand of members)
• Discipline: 
  • 2022 Feb: Event 1 (Lunch-n-Learn Seminar) on GC network (prior to LWOP), Event 2 (at Freedom Convoy). -->
  • 2022 Mar-Apr: Event 3 (invitation to Seminar on GCCollab), Event 4 (Twitter posts and website). --> Apr: Fact-Finding. --> Jun: Investigation Complete. --> 
  • 2022 Oct : Discipline: (5 days suspension without pay) --> Grievance Filed. --> 
  • 2022-2023 Level 1, 2, 3 Hearings ->  2023 OCT: Submitted to FPSLREB --> 2026 FEB 18-20: FPSLREB Hearing. 
  • In meanwhile:   2024 Apr: Second (follow-up) discipline (8-day suspension without pay) --> Grievance filed,  2025 Jun: Third (follow-up) discipline (10-day suspension without pay) --> Grievance filed --> 2025 Dec: Both follow-up grievances presented at Level 3, pending decision on FPSLREB Hearing related to the first grievance.

Summary by the Grievor

• I used all democratic and professional tools available to me at the time to express concerns arising from these observations. This included an Open Letter to the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, Dr. Mona Nemer; a submission to the Office of the Auditor General; attempts to file a complaint with the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner; inviting other data scientists to validate the data and the concerning observations, and collectively discussing how to address these issues in a climate of fear of reprisal.
• My actions were guided by the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service, by good faith, and by conscience. The urgency arose from rising mortality starting with vaccination, in particular among younger Canadians — trends that were later acknowledged by Health Canada, nine months after the fact. I understood that timely access to factual public information could save lives and reduce the risk of preventable harm associated with new medical products that lacked long-term post-marketing data.

• Firstly, by that time, with 20+ years in public service, I was one of the most renown and referenced data scientists within the Government of Canada, exactly in the field of vendor product evaluation and data analysis. I was also well known within my Agency and Government networks for my contributions to the community:  leading weekly Lunch-n-Learn seminars, workshops in the field of data analysis, contributing to many social events.
• Secondly, I have already done that before -  just before the pandemic - I helped many colleagues (in my Agency and later in other agencies) to vocalize many of their concerns related to culture in their units - similarly using Open Canada data. In that case it was  Public Service Employee Survey data , which I helped analyze using advanced interactive  data visualization tools.
• Finally, I was also guided by personal experience. During the Chernobyl disaster, I was a child in grade 8 in Kyiv, and I remember how my parents saved me—and many other children —by defying official narratives that claimed everything was safe, facing threats of punishment for non-compliance. My father, a physicist, had access to a Geiger counter and used it to measure radiation levels in school playgrounds, just as I now use my data-analysis tools and professional position to measure and communicate risks affecting the safety of my own children’s generation. 

List of Authorities In Defense of Grievor's Actions

Discipline — Alleged Insubordination / Off-Duty Expression / Public Expression

1. Expression: Duty of loyalty does not bar all public expression (public servants are "not silent members of society");
   must show real operational harm. (Fraser; Haydon; King)

2. Insubordination: Must be clear, pre-existing instruction. (KVP; Panton)

3. Off-Duty Conduct: Requires demonstrated nexus to employer’s interests. (Millhaven)

4. Reasonableness: Employer rules must be proportionate and reasonable. (Irving Pulp; Doré)

5. Values: Public data analysis done responsibly is consistent with Values and Ethics Code.

2: Address at Freedom Convoy (4 FEB 2022)

Background and transcript

3: White paper on ‘Elephant in the Room’ (10 February 2022)  

• This paper co-authored with other data scientists identifies "red flags" with how "cases following vaccinations" are reported by PHAC , and provides recommendations on how to address these "red flags":  “Additional observations related to the ‘Elephant in the Room’ – from the Government of Canada COVID-19 daily epidemiology updates”, White paper, Published on GitHub (10 February 2022)  

  • Shared on GCCollab for comments and discussion.

  • Originally posted at https://open-canada.github.io/vitals/comment2.pdf (removed following the complaint from "informer")

  • Also posted at https://ivi-m.github.io/vitals/comment2.pdf 

4: Weekly Seminars Led by Grievor while on LWOP (FEB 2022 - JUL 2022)

Concerns ("Red Flags") raised by the Grievor

The following concerns were raised by the Grievor and his colleagues after examining official sources.
The Grievor brought these concerns forward for discussion with his management (on 25 Jan, follow-up on Feb 1, 2022, then in April 2022 during the Fact Checking meeting).
The management declined to discuss them and "suggested" not discuss vaccines at workplace or anywhere.

These concerns were based on insights (new evidence) that was gained from the observations obtained by using the Open Canada Vital Statistics (Deaths) Tracker,  aka Vitals Web App (in the Hearing referred to as Interactive Multi-Dimensional Visualizations) which was developed by the Grievor and his colleagues during Lunch-n-Learns seminars led by the Grievor.
Additional evidence was obtained later through the discussions and  literature review.

Vitals Web App URL: https://open-canada.github.io/Apps/vitals (mirror: https://o-canada.shinyapps.io/vitals)
Summary of observations: https://sites.google.com/view/open-canada (shortcut: ivim.ca/o) 

Weekly Percentages: Reported vs. Actually Observed

#2. Use of data skewing technique in reporting "Cases following vaccination" statistics

PHAC used algorithmic bias technique that skewed the displayed statistics considerably (by over two orders of magnitude) in favour of people who have received more vaccine doses by reporting the number of cases  starting from the date when COVID-19 vaccines were approved in Canada for high-risk population  (14 DEC 2020) and not from the time when vaccine doses were actually administered to different populations

The actual weekly statistics never showed that COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced the risk of being infected and/or having complications from COVID-19. Furthermore, the weekly statistics showed that starting from Omicron  COVID-19 was affecting vaccinated people increasingly more than unvaccinated and  partially unvaccinated people.

Average age of people who died from covid is over 80 y/a - close to average life expectancy. Young people have a tiny chance of dying from covid (Source:  'COVID-19 Daily Epidemiology Update', Public Health Agency of Canada  - Figure 4 )

#5. Anecdotal evidence of harms and risks of COVID-19 Vaccines - Personal Batch analysis

PS. My Anthem: Who Can Tell Me The Truth ?