Canadian government emails reveal PHAC President met with unregistered Moderna 'medical officer' re "the corporation’s future operations in Canada"

Lobbying Act violation

Dec 05, 2023

An Access to Information request was made to Health Canada in late 2022,

Updated March 31, 2023: Seeking all emails to and from Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, including attachments of those emails, relating to the following topics: 1. COVID-19 vaccine safety and/or risks (including emails about COVID-19 vaccine adverse events, serious adverse events, adverse events of special interest, deaths, compensation for injury). 2. COVID-19 vaccine efficacy or inefficacy. 3. COVID-19 vaccine uptake. 4. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. 5. Any of the following drugs/supplements: Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), Quercetin, Zinc, Vitamin D, Nattokinase. Exclude emails from members of the public except those forwarded to the Minister of Health by government personnel. Exclude potential Cabinet confidences. Dates: 26 October 2021 - present. Exclude weekly reports.

With OIC assistance, a 491 page email package has now been provided. The standout appears on page 475.

Was the meeting registered? According to Canada’s Lobbying Act section 5(1)(b):

Requirement to file return
An individual shall file with the Commissioner, in the prescribed form and manner, a return setting out the information referred to in subsection (2), if the individual, for payment, on behalf of any person or organization (in this section referred to as the “client”), undertakes to […] (b) arrange a meeting between a public office holder and any other person.

A meeting falling within the date range for the email shows up in the registry, but no one from Moderna Global in Boston was listed present. Three Moderna Canada employees are noted, none of whom are a “medical officer”.

Discussed at the Government-Moderna March 2022 meeting(s) — source

A medical officer from Moderna in Boston may be found on LinkedIn. Whether they are the individual that PHAC President Harpreet Kochhar was referring to in his 8 March 2022 email to then-Minister of Health Duclos is unknown. As of writing, the federal MOH is Ajax Liberal MP Mark Holland (since the July 2023 cabinet shuffle).

Under section 14 of Canada’s Lobbying Act:

Contravention
(1) Every individual who fails to file a return as required under subsection 5(1) […], whether in electronic or other form, is guilty of an offence and liable
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both; and
(b) on proceedings by way of indictment, to a fine not exceeding $200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.

Portrait of Nancy Bélanger, Commissioner of Lobbying — Canada’s Commissioner of Lobbying, Nancy Bélanger

Under section 10.4(1) of Act,

The Commissioner shall conduct an investigation if he or she has reason to believe, including on the basis of information received from a member of the Senate or the House of Commons, that an investigation is necessary to ensure compliance with the Code or this Act, as applicable.

If you believe Commissioner Bélanger should investigate this matter, please contact your local Member of Parliament or a Senator you may know and bring their attention to this apparent Lobbying Act violation.