[00:00:00]

Marion Randall

For the record, Marion Randall, I’m a local counsel assisting this witness. The witness here is Aurora Bisson-Montpetit, and I would ask you, Ms. Bisson-Montpetit, to state your name and spell it for the record, please.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes, Aurora, first name A-U-R-O-R-A, last name B-I-S-S-O-N-hyphen-M-O-N-T-P-E-T-I-T

Marion Randall

And do you promise in the presentation that you give today, that you’re going to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes, I do.

Marion Randall

All right, if we can first go over a little bit about your qualifications. I’ll just run through them, and you can then correct me if I’m wrong.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yeah. Just before we start, I just want to ask if I can just take a minute to settle myself? This is a lot for me to come here today.

Marion Randall

Okay, well if I do the speaking for the time being, you can settle yourself.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

It’ll just take me a minute. So just aside from coming here as a nurse to share my experience, I’m also a somatic therapist, and I’ve spent years studying the nervous system and what trauma does to the nervous system, and so for me, while I’m certain about coming here to speak up, and I hope this inspires others to speak up as you were just talking about. Public speaking creates a flight impulse in me, so it just takes a couple of minutes to settle so that I can be more present and give the best recollection of my experience that I can and contribute to what we’re doing here today. So thank you, yeah, if you want to continue while I just take a moment.

Marion Randall

Okay, thank you. In your first part of your career, you trained as a registered nurse and you worked as a registered nurse for a number of years. You had extra training in your work as a nurse and worked as a nurse in cardiology. You worked at St. Paul’s in both medical and surgical cardiology. Am I correct in saying you’re quite familiar with heart conditions?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Marion Randall

And then subsequent to that, and I think this will be the biggest part of your presentation, you worked as an 8-1-1 nurse, and you could explain in your testimony what that is, an emergency line.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Marion Randall

And then that led you to some research which ultimately led you to a board meeting with the PHSA [Provincial Health Services Authority] in BC. I’ll let you give your presentation starting with when you began at 8-1-1.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Sure. So for anyone who’s not familiar with 8-1-1, it’s a service we have here in British Columbia where anybody can call in and ask for health advice. The line I worked on was the nurse’s line. This has been a long-standing service for British Columbians, and they expanded it during COVID. So I worked there from about November 2020 until June 2021, and people are able to call in to get health education information. They can also go through essentially an assessment triage process and say, “These are my symptoms or somebody with me having these symptoms. Should I make a follow-up? Should I go to the clinic today? Should I call an ambulance?” So that’s a large part of what I did there.

During this date, what you might notice is I was there during what we’ll call the vaccine rollout. That’s not really what they are, but I’ll use that for ease of wording. So I was there during the rollout. And it’s hard to describe how unsettling it was: the amount and nature of calls we started getting of adverse reactions. It would be just one call after another after another. And I started noticing a lot of patterns: a lot of cardiac issues; a lot of neurological issues; autoimmune underlying conditions that were flaring up. And one of the things that really struck me was that there were a lot of people who described themselves as otherwise healthy, or previously healthy.

Marion Randall

Would you get that information because of the kinds of questions that you ask at 8-1-1? What sort of questions do you ask of people that call in?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yeah, so initially when people call in, I do a very quick assessment to see if there’s anything life-threatening going on. If there is, then we quickly transfer it to 9-1-1. Once I’m beyond that initial assessment, we go a bit further into their health history, ask if they have any other underlying conditions: What are their symptoms? When did they start? Things like that.

Marion Randall

Did you keep a written record of those things, or is there some sort of record kept when you get these calls?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

There is. It’s typed in the computer. Yeah, so it’s an electronic record.

[00:05:00]

Marion Randall

Did you notice a pattern of some kind when you were— Did you review your previous calls? Can you explain?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Not that I had a written record myself. But in my mind, I was noticing certain patterns coming up. I mean, that’s a big part of nursing that I did, was all these little sorts of precursors to bigger issues that come up, where you’re noticing these little things and it’s like, huh, okay, I’m seeing this again and again and again.

Marion Randall

And can you give a specific example of the sort of things you heard? I think you may have some information about a teenager, you said?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yeah, I could give a couple of examples. One of them was a young gentleman in his late teens, and he was having symptoms of a heart attack. He was otherwise previously healthy. And you know, as we’ve all heard, there are a lot of cardiac issues with the injections. So my recommendation was for him to call 9-1-1 and get checked out at the hospital. Unfortunately, I don’t get to hear the follow-up of what happens with people, but I just give my advice over the phone.

Marion Randall

So would you specifically ask these individuals that called with symptoms that concerned you whether they had been vaccinated? Did you ask for the information about the batch number, for example?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I did ask if they had been vaccinated. In something like an emergency like that, I wouldn’t ask for the batch number. But for any of the people who did have other symptoms that weren’t needing to be addressed urgently, after a short period of time— What I’ll say is that before we got into asking about the batch number, I started noticing these patterns and I was very concerned. I approached my manager to bring up my concerns and I was like, “What’s going on here? The volume and the nature of the adverse reaction calls we’re getting is not what’s being reported to the public.”

Because I was watching the BCCDC dashboards and it was a vast difference. And this was just 8-1-1; this isn’t the people who were having reactions, say, in the vaccine clinics, with their family doctors, at the hospitals, right? We were just one sector. So I was really concerned, and I brought it up.

Unfortunately, my concerns were dismissed. So I carried on with the calls, noticing these patterns. I asked other nurses that I was working with, “Is anybody else noticing this? I’m recommending a lot more people go to emerge. or call 9-1-1, a lot of neurological issues.” And there were other nurses who acknowledged the same. After that happened, it wasn’t too long after, they had us start tracking. And we would go into a different database.

So this all exists: 8-1-1 is within HealthLink BC, which is under Provincial Health Services Authority. They have this database of information we were collecting, where every time someone called in, we were collecting—there’s no patient identifying information, so it’s not a privacy breach—the manufacturer of the injection, the lot number, the date they received the injection, when the symptoms started, what the symptoms were, and what level of care they needed. So there is a huge database of information that I’m hoping someone will be able to access because it’s at HealthLink BC.

Marion Randall

And can you explain the relationship between you as a nurse or other medical professionals and what the PHSA is for us, please?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Sure. PHSA or Provincial Health Services Authority is one of the main health authorities within British Columbia. They run a number of province-wide services. HealthLink BC is one of them, and 8-1-1 is part of HealthLink BC. BC Women and Children’s Hospital is another part of that. BC Children’s Hospital is where I was working at the time, I was fired due to the injection mandates. They run the cancer agencies, things like that. It’s province-wide services.

Marion Randall

I was going to ask you how long were you with the 8-1-1 line? You said you started in November of 2020?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I was there from November 2020 to about June 2021.

Marion Randall

And why did you leave?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I left for personal reasons, just scheduling with my children.

Marion Randall

Okay, and when you got dismissed by your manager with your concerns, what did you do? Did you do research at that time?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I did. I started looking into— BCCDC has an immunization guide, so I started looking into that, specifically Part 5 is the adverse event following immunization. It’s maybe a 40-page document, something like that.

[00:10:00]

They have outlined previously, from all other vaccines, some of the common side effects, the reporting criteria. And then there’s a specific form for health care practitioners to fill out whenever they suspect that there might be an adverse reaction.

So I think it’s really important to note that it doesn’t have to be diagnosed and that it was definitively caused by the vaccine. The whole point of having this system in place and these forms is to say this person got vaccinated: there’s nothing else to very definitively say this was related to something else, so let’s start collecting this and saying, maybe, this was the vaccine. It goes into the database, and that’s how we’re able to get the early warning signals, noticing these patterns.

Marion Randall

Did you fill out any adverse reports? Or did you have any discussion with your manager about doing so?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

It’s very disturbing, so it’s hard for me to talk about. I asked about it. I asked one of my shift leaders. I asked my nurse educator why we weren’t filling these out, and I asked if I was able to because I know the importance of them. And I was explicitly told that no, I was not allowed to fill these out.

Marion Randall

Now then you were at Children’s Hospital, and you mentioned that because you didn’t reveal your vaccination status, you were fired. But you continued your research, as I understand it, and we will have marked for the Commission as an exhibit this report you’re going to talk about [Exhibit VA-11a]. It’s not going to be something we’re going to refer to; she’s going to give us an outline of it, but you can have a copy of it.

Can you tell us about the research you did and how that ultimately led you to the PHSA regular board meetings and to submitting questions to the PHSA?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Sure. So as I was seeing what was happening in my experience working at 8-1-1, obviously it was very disturbing and unsettling. I started looking into who is making these decisions. Obviously, we saw Bonnie Henry’s face everywhere, but I was like, who’s allowing this? Who’s taking part in this? And what I was able to trace back, by looking at this, is that the Provincial Health Services Authority is also Bonnie Henry’s employer. It is the province that decides who the PHO [Provincial Health Officer] is, but her employment contract is with Provincial Health Services Authority, and there is a copy of her employment contract in what will be submitted as part of my evidence.

As an employee, she is subject to all their policies as far as employee conduct goes. So that was one part. I saw that they are her employer, as well as that the BCCDC operates under the Provincial Health Services Authority. So all of the guidance they are giving, all of the information they are giving out, all the signs that are posted everywhere, all of that is the BCCDC, so again, it goes back to Provincial Health Services Authority.

So after I was fired, I started doing a lot of research. Obviously, I had a lot more time on my hands. I spent months at the library doing hours of research, collecting resources, scientific papers, many from the expert witnesses you guys have already heard and will hear from. And I began to put together what I labelled an investigation summary of how the Provincial Health Services Authority has handled COVID management in this province. It took me many months to write. I think it’s about a 15-page document; there is a little over 50 resources that back up everything that I’m saying in this document [Exhibit VA-11b].

Marion Randall

You managed to find out who the members of the PHSA Board were. Did you provide them with copies of this investigation summary?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I did. Going back to a little before the investigation summary, November 2021, I submitted my first question. They regularly have open board meetings, I think about four or five times a year, and this is back well before COVID. They’re supposed to be open, but they said, you know, due to COVID, nobody’s allowed to come in, email in your questions. So in November 2021, I submitted my first questions. They have a live web recording, so it is broadcast, anybody can view it, and they publish it on their website. From this one, they answered some of my questions, but not really and not fully for sure. I continued pursuing that. I did have a bunch of back-and-forth conversations through email with the board office.

[00:15:00]

And then one of their directors of patient and quality care, I had about a half an hour conversation with her, provided her with a bunch of information and resources. I was meant to have a meeting with, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say people’s names, but the President and CEO, and he cancelled that and sent a non-answer answer to my questions.

Marion Randall

So I think that ultimately your frustration with the non-answers that you’ve been getting led you to go to a board meeting in November of 2022?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Marion Randall

And this is something where you’ve created a video that we also can provide to the Commission [Exhibit VA-11]. We’re not going to play it here because it’s quite lengthy. Can you explain what happened?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Sure. Going to November 2022, I emailed every member of the executive and the Board of Directors of PHSA with the investigation summary, and about a week later was their next board meeting. I chose to go in person. Allegedly they are still open board meetings, but nobody’s been able to go during COVID. I entered the meeting room where some of the Board and executives were, some were there via Zoom. I sat down and—

Marion Randall

At the table, did you not, at the table with the board members?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes. I sat down at the table with the board members. The video that you guys will see is just under 10 minutes. What you don’t see before this is me off-screen and I believe it was maybe an administrative assistant attempting to get me to leave.

Marion Randall

And when you were in that meeting, Ms. Bisson-Montpetit, I believe that you asked the question of all the board members sitting all at a table whether they had received your document. They indicated by their silence—because you said, “Is there anyone who has not received the document?”—that they had. You said, did you not—and I don’t want to cross-examine you—but you did say, “I take it then that all of you received my investigation summary?”

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Marion Randall

And then, did you touch on any points from your investigation summary—this is kind of a yes or no because we are getting close to our time—about the concerns you had about the vaccines?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes, I did touch on a number of points that were in my investigation summary. Some of the statistics that we’ve just heard about, like the all-cause mortality and the decreased live birth rate, things like that. One of the things I started with was just asking a very simple logical question: “You guys asked sick nurses who were COVID-positive to continue working in the healthcare system while you banned healthy non-vaccinated nurses. Where’s the logic in that?”

Marion Randall

At the time I think you were unemployed because of having had to leave your job. And I believe you made a comment, if you perhaps want to repeat it for the commissioners, as to what you were doing in order to survive at that time. You were a registered nurse.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yeah, not something I would ever think I would have to say as a registered nurse, but I’ve had to go on welfare, go to the food bank.

Marion Randall

And then at the end of the day, was there any response to your questions “Have any of you looked at this? Do you have concerns about it, about the vaccine?” What was the response of anyone or everyone on the Board?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

The only person who responded to my question was the President and CEO, as he was sitting next to me. And I asked him, “Has this information been looked into, to 100 per cent certainty that you can say I’m making stuff up?” And he said “Yes, we are absolutely confident in what the Province is doing.”

Marion Randall

And one other thing, we still have time for you to repeat what you did say, I believe, to the Board regarding either you were crazy or they were crazy.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Well, I said, “You know, if I’m just making all this up, then I’m just one crazy person, right?” But if they’re continuing to ignore all these safety signals that I’ve sent them, they’re continuing to contribute to the harm and the murder of people in this province. And I truly believe that’s what’s happening because they have the power to make the changes that will stop what’s happening. And they’re not.

Marion Randall

Is there anything further you want to say before the commissioners are invited to ask you questions? Or would you just like to take some questions?

[00:20:00]

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I just want to say thank you for conducting this Inquiry and allowing me the opportunity to come and share my experience. It means a lot to have people standing up and speaking the truth.

Marion Randall

So if there are any questions from the Commissioners? Please.

Commissioner Massie

Thank you very much. I’m very sorry for all of the hurt you’ve been through. I hope your life is going a little better now.

So you were there sitting with these people and you were really confronting them on the situation. Lots of silence. What was your read on their non-verbal communication? Were they completely mystified by what you were trying to say, or were they somewhat aware that maybe there was something wrong going on?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

The sense I got from the people in the room was complete disconnect. There was no recognition, no horror on their faces. Some of the statistics I shared would horrify most people. So to see just like a non-expression, like someone dusting a muffin off their shirt, it was just—

I wasn’t surprised given how much I had tried to raise my concerns over the previous year. I wasn’t shocked that I didn’t really get a response, but it’s very disheartening when you have this group of people who is in charge of so much, not being like, “Well what are you talking about?” There wasn’t a single question from anybody: “What are you talking about? What do you mean? Can you tell me more about that? I don’t understand.” There was none of that.

Commissioner Massie

So there was no attempt to really explain to you that you’re being misled in your analysis?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

No. None. Nothing.

Commissioner Massie

I’m a little curious about what happened before you sat down to this table. It seems that you were tolerated, not welcome? So how did you end it up at this table? It’s very curious.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I knew when their board meetings were; they published the dates of their board meetings. I felt very called to go there. As I said, it’s not comfortable for me to do public speaking, but I felt in my heart and in my soul that it was something that I had to do. So I did what I could to overcome my challenges. And if I wasn’t able to get in, then I wasn’t. But I was like, I have to at least try. And I was able to sit down, and everyone was looking at me. They’re like, “Who is this? What is she doing here?” I could see the puzzled look on their faces. And yeah, it was interesting to notice them try to get me to leave a few times.

Commissioner Massie

My last question would be, what gives you that strength to do that? Do you have support from friends or family to help you going through that?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes, I do. I have immense support, which I’m so grateful for. One of my dear friends, who brought me here today, has helped me to stay calm and grounded, and I have a lot of support in my life that’s helping me through this.

Commissioner Massie

Thank you very much.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Thank you.

Commissioner DiGregorio

Thank you so much for coming down today and sharing your testimony. We’ve heard from nurses in other provinces who lost their jobs due to the injection mandates in those provinces. But we’ve also heard that those mandates have been rescinded or dropped, and I’m just wondering if there is still a mandate for injections for nurses in the Province of British Columbia?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes, there is.

Commissioner DiGregorio

And is it just for two, or is it also requiring a booster?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

To be honest, I haven’t even looked back into seeing if it’s required for a booster. I don’t believe it is. But, yeah, it’s still for the two. I submitted another question and attempted to go to their last open board meeting in February, and they had security guards waiting for me. And a note that said for security purposes only these people are allowed in, on the receptionist desk. So again, the censoring and the silence when people are trying to speak up and get answers.

Commissioner DiGregorio

Thank you.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Thank you.

Commissioner Drysdale

Good afternoon. With regard to the PHSA Board, and I’m not asking for names, but do you know anything about the specific qualifications

[00:25:00]

of those people that sit on the Board? Were they practising doctors? Were they bureaucrats? Any idea?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Some of them were practising; some of them were retired. They weren’t all doctors. Some of them are lawyers, accountants, things like that, so dealing with various aspects of a large corporation obviously. But yeah, some of them are retired and some of them were active. The President and CEO was a registered nurse.

Commissioner Drysdale

We’ve heard testimony from some of the other locations we’ve been at, from nurses like yourself, who raised questions and perhaps, at least in my opinion, raised questions in a more mild way than you did. And they were disciplined by their nursing associations. Have you had any retribution from the nursing association?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I actually chose to not renew my nursing licence last March, so as of right now I’m not even a registered nurse anymore. It doesn’t align with me to be in this healthcare system, even if they took back the injection mandate. I suppose technically they could, but I haven’t received any communication from the nursing college.

Commissioner Drysdale

How long, including your study time, did it take you to become a nurse?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Years, several years. I initially went to nursing school in New York for about four years and then upgraded here. I’m from here and I moved back and did more nursing. And I’ve done a lot of other studies. As I mentioned, I’m now a somatic therapist, so I spent about three years learning about the nervous system.

So when we see what’s happened to the collective and how everyone’s nervous system has essentially been hijacked— From my perspective, I can see what has happened a lot in terms of how people are responding from their go-to fight, flight, or freeze, rather than responding to what’s actually happening. And I feel that it’s been intentional to put people into such a state of fear that they would react this way.

Commissioner Drysdale

Certainly, with dedication to becoming a nurse and practising for a long time, that must have been an extremely difficult decision for you to quit nursing. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to that?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yeah, that was a really, really difficult decision. I remember even as a child, I wanted to be a nurse. I’ve always loved helping people and supporting people and taking care of them. It’s something that comes really naturally to me, and I find it fulfilling. I really enjoyed the challenge of how much I got to learn as a nurse and always learning something new and getting to connect with people. So it was a huge blow when I was fired. I was in disbelief for quite a while that it was actually happening, especially knowing that our healthcare system is already short-staffed. I was like, how are they even going to function with less nurses and other health care practitioners? So yeah, I went through quite a process mentally over the last couple of years and had to sort of surrender to what is true for me. And what that is, working in the system as it is, as a nurse, no longer aligns with me.

Commissioner Drysdale

I may have missed that point in your testimony, but I recall that you quit your job at 8-1-1 for personal reasons, but I didn’t pick up on where you started working, and where and why you were terminated from the next nursing job.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Right. I quit working at 8-1-1 in June of 2021 and then July 2021, I started at BC Children’s Hospital in adolescent inpatient mental health. We heard from the earlier testimony the impact that we’ve seen on our kids. Maybe one thing I will share— And that is where I was fired from for not giving my personal private medical information, which my manager violated and accessed my personal health records without my consent. But before I was fired, there was a site-wide town hall at Children’s and some of the leadership were talking about how even up to that date, so it was maybe October, the rate of self-harm visits to the emergency room was already triple that of the previous years.

[00:30:00]

Commissioner Drysdale

So you were terminated from that job for not revealing your vaccine status under their mandate policy?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Commissioner Drysdale

And did you also say earlier that they were letting go or suspending nurses who were not vaccinated, and then at the same time asking nurses who were ill with COVID to keep working?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes. I was fired in November. After that—I don’t know if it was December or January—they had less nurses in the workplace and they were asking nurses with active COVID infections to continue in the workplace. I confirmed this with old colleagues, and they were like, “Yes, so-and-so has COVID and they’re at work.”

Commissioner Drysdale

Are you familiar with the infection prevention protocols as a nurse?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Commissioner Drysdale

With regard to the disposal of bio-contaminated PPE, were they following appropriate disposal and handling methodologies where you were?

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

I don’t think I would like to comment on that very much.

Commissioner Drysdale

That is a comment.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Yes.

Commissioner Drysdale

Thank you very much.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Thank you.

Marion Randall

Are those all the questions? No further questions. Thank you so much for your presentation to this inquiry.

Aurora Bisson-Montpetit

Thank you.

[00:31:35]

Final Review and Approval: Margaret Phillips, August 25, 2023.    

The evidence offered in this transcript is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) hearings. The transcript was prepared by members of a team of volunteers using an “intelligent verbatim” transcription method.   

For further information on the transcription process, method, and team, see the NCI website: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/about-these-transcripts/

Summary

Ms. Bisson-Montpetit, a registered nurse, worked for the 811 health advice service in BC from November of 2020 to June of 2021. This period of time was during the vaccine rollout and Aurora noticed that call after call was reporting similar adverse events after people had received the shots. She asked her fellow workers if they noted the same patterns and they agreed. In the effort to follow up on reporting, Aurora asked her nurse educator if she could fill out adverse reports and she said: “I was explicitly told no, I was not allowed to fill these out”.

Aurora was fired from her nursing job for not revealing her health information but her manager acquired it without her consent by accessing her personal health records. Noting the tremendous wrongs that were taking place, she wrote a 15 page document and submitted it to the Provincial Health Services Authority board and also attended one of their meetings in an attempt to have her questions answered. The board essentially dismissed her concerns and barred her from attending future meetings for security purposes.