Article content
OTTAWA — Patricia Leidl arrived in Ottawa this week eager to tell a painful story about her reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine that even some of her own friends have questioned.
Sign In or Create an Account
or View more offersArticle content
After an uneventful first shot against the COVID virus, Leidl received a second dose of vaccine on June 10, 2021, just days before she was planning to head off to Vienna for a new job she couldn’t wait to start.
Article contentWe apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.Article content
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
But seven days after that second vaccine, the Salt Spring Island, B.C. resident woke up in pain. Leidl got up and then collapsed. In the ensuing five years, Leidl told the Allison Inquiry into the effects of the COVID vaccines on Thursday, she hasn’t stopped suffering. Her list of conditions and symptoms is lengthy, many of which she says suggest neurological damage and chronic inflammation.
Article contentArticle content
“My life is effectively destroyed,” she told National Post during an interview.
Article content
Despite her experience with the COVID vaccine, the former World Health Organization communications employee says she isn’t anti-vax.
Article content
Before offering her testimony to the MPs and senators, however, Leidl and dozens of others keen to share their stories of suffering and lost loved ones had to make their way past a lively protest assembled outside Ottawa’s Wellington Building.
Article content
The old downtown edifice, normally a site for parliamentary committee meetings and other staid events, became a second home this week for a few dozen protesters. Many believe that the COVID vaccines were part of a government plan to limit individual rights and gain further control and, in contrast to most of those providing testimonials inside, represent a different side of the dissent against the shots and the government’s pandemic policies.
Article content
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Sporting a red ball cap that reads “Save Canada” with a giant, homemade hypodermic needle strapped across his shoulder, Howard Kwan says Canadians have bought into a massive coverup.
Article content
As he protested this week, Kwan said that the federal government worked with the pharmaceutical industry and others to convince Canadians that everybody needed to get the shot.
Article content
And since the pandemic faded, the Ottawa resident says, they’ve been trying to justify that effort and to hide the negative effects ever since.
Article content
The bigger picture government goal, Kwan says, is to rebuild society “in their own way.”
Article content
Kwan and a cohort of about 25 protesters who braved the rain Wednesday are among the thousands of Canadians who believe that the vaccination effort during the pandemic went too far, that the vaccine wasn’t safe, or that it was part of a full-blown government conspiracy.
Article content
While some have been galvanized by heated online chat, the Freedom Convoy trucker protests of 2022, and their shared concern about government overreach, these protesters are part of the very visible face of the fight against the government’s pandemic policies.