[00:00:00]

Wayne Lenhardt

Can you hear me now, Camille?

Camille Mitchell

Hi, yes. Sorry about that.

Wayne Lenhardt

I can relate. I have the same problems with this equipment every once in a while. Okay, could you give us your full name, spell it for us, and then I’ll do an oath.

Camille Mitchell

Yes, it’s Camille Mitchell, C-A-M-I-L-L-E, Mitchell, M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L.

Wayne Lenhardt

Do you promise that the evidence you give us today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Camille Mitchell

Yes, I do.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. You currently live in Shawnigan Lake, BC. Am I right?

Camille Mitchell

Yes, that’s correct.

Wayne Lenhardt

Let me lead you through a couple of things and then you can tell us your story. You have been a pharmacist for 26 years. Am I right? And the last nine years you had a position in a hospital?

Camille Mitchell

Yes, that’s correct, in Duncan.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. It looks as if you’ve gone through the typical scenario here. The mandates came in, and I guess you said you’re not going to take this jab. Maybe you could just give us a quick run-through of what happened at that point.

Camille Mitchell

Well, I just wanted to briefly touch on my history into why I didn’t want to take the jab. In my experience as a pharmacist in community pharmacy for 15 years, I had observed many things that made me very cautious about new substances: things like, black box warnings, medication recalls, and watching things like Paxil-withdrawal side effects disappear. So I knew right away that I wasn’t going to take it.

I’m not sure what you want to hear about the termination. After I got terminated, I went back into community pharmacy from the hospital. To proceed with that, I had to recertify to administer injections because that’s what most of the pharmacies wanted you to be able to do. I had received that certification before I went into hospital. But because I was in hospital, I didn’t maintain that certification. So I had to start over doing that and in the process, I had to do a course called the Immunization Competency Course. Obviously, I had done it in the past, but I was redoing it.

I noticed one particular module entitled Immunization Communication Principles. It was something that was new to me; I don’t recall doing that the first time around. And I found that the information in there was really pushing people into getting vaccinations. I was just second-guessing myself and, maybe, I just didn’t recall doing it the first time around. But when I actually looked into it, this particular module was done in 2008, was redone in 2014 and then, it was done again in 2021, specifically to address vaccine hesitancy. It was very leading, very nudging. They wanted you to use presumptive statements to assume vaccination. It just really stood out to me that that’s what their goal was, to just push, push, push the vaccines.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. Let me just pick up the trail of timeline here. You’re fired from your hospital pharmacist position you’d had for nine years because you didn’t want to take the injection. You tried to get an exemption with a declaration of faith and that didn’t work. They didn’t even reply to you. Am I right?

Camille Mitchell

Yeah, that’s right. I had submitted it up a chain of command. In registered mail, I sent a declaration of faith

[00:05:00]

in addition to a notice of liability [NOL] to the President of Island Health and to the President of the Health Sciences Association [HSA]. I did actually get a response from a legal representative of HSA saying that they wouldn’t acknowledge the NOL. They didn’t say anything whatsoever about the declaration of faith; so it was just completely ignored.

Wayne Lenhardt

So you were unemployed for a little while I’m assuming. Were you?

Camille Mitchell

Yeah. I think I was out of work completely for maybe a few months because it took me some time to get that recertification. I did a little bit of casual work in Victoria.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. My notes say you have a job in community pharmacy at the moment, but you’re under repeated threat of job loss under BC’s new Bill 36. Could you explain that to us?

Camille Mitchell

Well, part of Bill 36, from my understanding, is that they want to amalgamate all of the health colleges in BC. I think it’s around 25 and includes everything from Chinese medicine, massage therapy, pharmacy, physicians, everybody with any relation to health. They want to amalgamate these approximately 25 colleges into six. And instead of being self-regulated colleges, they want to government-appoint people to regulate these colleges. So you are having people who know nothing about your profession telling you what to do.

Another part of this stipulation is that they have the ability to tell you if and whatever kind of immunizations they decide you should get. As someone who has taken an active role in my personal health and as a pharmacist, I feel that I have the ability to make those kinds of decisions on my own. I don’t need some government-appointed official to tell me what I should and should not do with my health.

Wayne Lenhardt

Are you able to prescribe by yourself for patients?

Camille Mitchell

Coming up in June of this year, in BC, they are granting us the ability to prescribe for minor ailments. To a certain degree, I think I already do: someone who comes in with a sore throat or something. There’s a certain amount. But they’re kind of expanding that scope. So that’s up and coming.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. I’m going to just skip over now. You had suffered some other detriments because of this. You had family in Alberta and Saskatchewan that you couldn’t fly to visit, that type of thing. Is all of that pretty much behind you now?

Camille Mitchell

Well, for the time being, yes. I’ve been able to go and visit family on the airplane.

Wayne Lenhardt

Okay. Did you suffer any major loss of income?

Camille Mitchell

No, not really. I got a huge payout because I had a whole pile of holiday pay. So I had a huge payout. So between that time, where I was able to start working again, I wouldn’t say I suffered a huge loss. And personally, I’m in a reasonable place. I don’t have any debt other than helping my youngest daughter through her post-secondary education.

Wayne Lenhardt

You never did take any of the shots. Am I right?

Camille Mitchell

Absolutely not. I told my current employer before they hired me, I said, “I’m not jabbed, I’m not getting the jab, and I’m not giving the jab.” They were fine with that, and I’m gracious for that.

Wayne Lenhardt

I’m going to ask the commissioners at this point if they have any anything they would like to explore with you.

[00:10:00]

Okay. Related to your file, the Commission has a document relating to vaccine hesitancy. Now, I’m not sure if that came from you. I’m assuming it did.

Camille Mitchell

Yeah, that was from the Immunization Communication Principles module from the BCCDC [British Columbia Centre for Disease Control] Immunization Competency Course that I had to do. So that came from that course and that was part of it.

Wayne Lenhardt

That was part of the course you took, okay. It’s headed up Immunization Communication Tool 2021.

Camille Mitchell

That was the one that they specifically modified.

Wayne Lenhardt

Yeah, it basically talks about vaccine hesitancy and how to deal with it. But it looks like a psychological recipe as to how to get people to agree to take the shot.

Camille Mitchell

Exactly, exactly. That’s how I saw it.

Wayne Lenhardt

Time is running short, so I’m going to ask the Commissioners one last time, are there any questions on this? Okay, thank you very much on behalf of the National Citizens Inquiry for giving your testimony, and I hope all the things go well for you. Thank you.

Camille Mitchell

Thank you.

[00:11:48]

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

A pharmacist for 26 years, the last nine in a hospital pharmacy, Camille Mitchell has become wary of vaccines as she has seen many things that have made her cautious of new substances. Refusing to take the vaccines to keep her job in the hospital, Camille was terminated and subsequently took a job in a community pharmacy. She needed to recertify to give injections and was required to take the Immunization Competency Course. Camille said one module in this course was really pushing people to get vaccinated, “this particular module was done in 2008, was redone in 2014 and then, it was done again in 2021, specifically to address vaccine hesitancy.”

Now working in a community pharmacy, Camille’s job is under threat again due to Bill 36 that is to amalgamate 25 health colleges in B.C. into six. She explained, “instead of being self-regulated colleges, they want to government-appoint people to regulate these colleges. So you are having people who know nothing about your profession telling you what to do.”