[00:00:00]

Shawn Buckley

Our next witness is going to be attending virtually, Captain Scott Routly. Scott, can you hear us?

Scott Routly

I sure can. Can you hear me okay?

Shawn Buckley

We can hear you, but we can’t see you.

Scott Routly

Oh. Let me see what I can do here. Okay. Can you see me now?

Shawn Buckley

We can see you now. So, Scott, I’d like to start by asking you to state your full name for the record, spelling your first and last name.

Scott Routly

Okay. My name is Scott Routly, S-C-O-T-T  R-O-U-T-L-Y.

Shawn Buckley

And, Captain Routley, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Scott Routly

So help me God. All glory to God.

Shawn Buckley

So my understanding is that leaving aside your other military service, you served fifteen years as a military pilot, and then you served an additional fifteen years in civil aviation [Exhibit OT-10].

Scott Routly

Yeah, that’s correct, sir, yes.

Shawn Buckley

And you ended your career prematurely because of COVID, but at the time you were a chief pilot for an airline.

Scott Routly

That’s correct.

Shawn Buckley

I appreciate we don’t want to name the airline, but most people listening to your testimony are not going to understand what a chief pilot is. Can you briefly explain what a chief pilot is?

Scott Routly

Yeah, the chief pilot, he’s a middle manager; he’s in charge of the whole pilot group. In my case, I had roughly about 100 pilots in my charge. He’s appointed, not only hired by the airline, but also appointed by Transport Canada because of the regulatory requirements.

Each airline in Canada, in the industry, basically has a few accountable executives that Transport Canada considers their go-to people: that would be the chief executive officer of an airline; that would be the operations officer or director of flight operations; that would be the director of maintenance; and that would be the chief pilot. The reason for that is because of the Canadian aviation regulations, the requirements and regulations and rules that need to be adhered to. So they then screen individuals for this role. The airline cannot just hire a chief pilot, they also have to be screened and approved by Transport Canada. So of course, I had to go to meetings and do knowledge tests. I had to have a certain amount of expertise—

Shawn Buckley

Okay, and I’m just going to shorten this because what I want people to appreciate is that in that role that you had, not only are you responsible to the airline for taking care of the flight crews, but you’re also responsible to Transport Canada for taking care of the flight crews.

Scott Routly

Absolutely, yes.

Shawn Buckley

So you have a responsibility to two different parties and, literally, what would be described as the fiduciary duty to the pilots to take care of them.

Scott Routly

That’s right. So of course, all the training standards are part of the Canadian aviation regulations as mandated by Transport Canada [Exhibits OT-10f, OT-10g, OT-10h]. So it’s my duty and my role to ensure that all the training and all the standards, proficiency checks, evaluations, standard operating procedures, operation manuals—

Shawn Buckley

I’m just going to truncate because I’m watching a timer go down and we’re at eleven minutes and twenty-eight seconds. I think people understand that it’s a highly—there’s a lot of responsibility. But I just wanted to get—because of what follows in your testimony—that people understand you’re also responsible to Transport Canada.

So COVID hits, you’re a chief pilot. Can you share with us your experience and, kind of, the steps that you ended up taking to try and protect the pilots under your charge?

Scott Routly

Yeah, so we all know what happened, of course, in 2020. We were subject to all the same measures, the lockdowns that were happening throughout the country. Now because we were considered as essential workers, we continued to operate. We were operating up in the north country and around Ontario for the most part. And so throughout that time period, it really didn’t affect us very much. We just continued on with our operations.

Now for the passengers and what-not, protocols started coming out. You know, the social distancing, the masks, testing, and all these different requirements. So the airline, they tried to follow the best they could for Health Canada—as everybody was trying to do in all aspects of the industries.

[00:05:00]

In our particular case, this continued on until pretty much as the vaccine rollouts started to happen in late 2020, early 2021. I could see the writing— I’d been doing a lot of research and critical thinking, my background, and already starting to look outside the mainstream media into other avenues to see all about these so-called vaccines that were being rolled out, for obvious reasons.

The medical requirements for pilots, it’s a fifty-fifty split in our licencing [Exhibit OT-10a]. We hold a licence for our type rating on the aircraft itself that we fly; we have to do training every six months to maintain our type rating. But more importantly, or just as important, on the other side is our medical requirements [Exhibits OT-10c, OT-10l], which without the two, in our aviation booklet, you can pass a check ride for your aircraft type rating but if you fail your medical, you do not fly, and vice versa. So in some cases, the pilots consider—depending on age and healthiness—that passing the medical is the highest priority because it’s obvious they’re really knowledgeable, highly skilled individuals. We’re probably the most regulated industry out there, for obvious reasons. We fly in the air. We can’t pull over when anything happens. You know, critical thinking, decision-making, and emergency procedures.

So all of a sudden, the vaccine started to get rolled out. I had my suspicions. I started seeing it happening—

Shawn Buckley

So can I just ask you beforehand— because you were responsible, actually, for a large number of flight crew people. And you guys would have had to have been doing the testing before the vaccine rolls out. Were you finding that pilots were off work because they were actually sick?

Scott Routly

No, as a matter of fact, it was just like any other year and, you know, we’re getting into the low vitamin D season, better known as the flu season. And so there was the odd sickness but nothing abnormal from previous years. But what was happening was through family members and through all the COVID testing, we started getting into these issues where pilots are calling in and they’re saying, well, they phoned Health Canada and “my wife, you know, has tested positive, although she’s not sick.” And everybody was— They just started making things up, really, off the top of their head, in this region: so basically, “Well then, you better ground those people for, you know, forty-eight hours,” and then it was seven days and then fourteen days.

So the pilots themselves were not getting sick. But they were being grounded because of Health Canada protocols that they were in the same household as apparently somebody who tested positive, although not sick.

Shawn Buckley

Right, okay. I just wanted to pull that out. So you weren’t having pilots going down with COVID, but they were getting grounded because of the testing protocols.

Scott Routly

That’s right.

Shawn Buckley

Okay, sorry to have interrupted. Now there was one other thing. My understanding is that you guys had to go for your six-month SIM training [simulation training], and you had related to me something that you observed in the hotel. I want you to describe that just because it’s come up in some other testimony at the Ottawa hearings. So can you share with us please, what you observed when you were staying in Toronto for the SIM trainings?

Scott Routly

Yeah. So finally, there was a lot of exemptions, unfortunately, with medicals and training, so there was a little bit of a lapse. We finally were able, just after the second lockdown, to start going to Toronto and continue with our simulator training, which we do every six months. We rolled into Toronto and, of course, the country’s been locked down for the last three months at that period of time, and we had a hard time finding hotel rooms.

So how could this be? Long story short, we get to the hotel, and we’re being told that six of the seven floors are quarantined from international travellers coming into Canada through the COVID protocol. We’re going to stay on the seventh floor. Now you walk into the lobby, and half of it has a glass, of course, opened at the top, as we’ve seen in stores and whatnot. And so we had use of one side of the elevators, and the other side was for all these so-called passengers coming in. So I didn’t really think a whole lot of it the first day, where it was late, got in.

The next day before I had to do SIM training, I just thought, you know, I’m going to go down to the lobby and see what’s going on here. This seems a little crazy for my kind of thinking. So I just sat in the lobby to see who was coming in and out on the other side.

[00:10:00]

Anyway, I was starting to see busloads of people come in, and nobody could speak English. They were coming in not with a suitcase that you would pack for a week vacation or two-week vacation. They were coming in with carts full of baggage that you would bring if you were staying for a lifetime. And food was being provided to them. It was all kept separate. We couldn’t communicate with them on the other side. I did ask the person at the front desk, and the cone of silence came down and I was pushed back, and they didn’t have any answers for me. So I watched this the one day, went out, and did my SIM training.

The next day I thought I’d better go down and watch it again for a few hours before my next day of training and, sure enough, the same thing happened. Now what was happening too though, was the next morning, they were actually getting loaded up in buses, disappearing. And then more buses would show up, and they were being offloaded into the entryway, given rooms, given food. Then they would disappear into the hotel in the so-called quarantined areas of the hotel. So I thought that very suspicious from my background and of course, with my critical thinking, that what I was watching happened for the last, you know, year and a half at that point.

Shawn Buckley

Okay. Yeah, thank you. It had come up about the number of immigrants coming in, almost like the population was being replaced.

Scott Routly

My thoughts were too, Shawn, absolutely.

Shawn Buckley

Okay, so back to the airline. Can you tell us the story of what happened? You were kind of telling us that things were getting phased in and then the mandates came in. I’m wanting you to share with us what you thought, what you did, and what happened. I’ll tell you, we’ve got about eight minutes left.

Scott Routly

So the red flags started coming up, obviously, when there was rumors with these vaccine rollouts that it could possibly affect everybody. Right away, I had done a lot of research, started listening [to], you know, off-media sites where Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Theresa Long from the United States Army, flight surgeon, Paul Alexander. All these experts you’ve already had; you’ve had them as witnesses. All these people were already speaking out now.

It’s been a year and a half in, and we already know at this point that these experimental jabs are dangerous, a lot of adverse effects happening with them. They’re also not stopping COVID, not stopping transmission. So what are they there for?

Well, from an aviation point of view, and certainly for the health and welfare of my pilots, I raised the flag. And so I got a meeting together, and I said, “Look, if these things are going to start to happen, we need to have a close look at this. This is against all rules, protocol. You know, we have thirty years from my experience anyway in aviation, where safety has just been the paramount ideal that we strive for all the time. With all the training and everything else we do in the safety management system—for actual flying airplanes and what-not; our medical categories and fitness of the pilots, including fatigue—we have to stress this point to find out what is going on here [Exhibit OT-10e]. There’s no way that we can give this to pilots that are flying, an experimental drug, until we get further information. Here’s information I have.”

Now at one of the meetings, the first thing I got, you know, I stressed to the Air Line Pilots Association [ALPA] union members—because we did belong to ALPA—and they said, “Oh, yeah, no, we know about these incapacitations, and they’re all false narrative.” And I said, “Well, I don’t think so. It’s been reported by actual pilots on the flight line in the United States and elsewhere.” And anyway, they said, “Well, Health Canada has said that no, they’re safe and effective [Exhibit OT-10d]. Therefore, the union’s all in.”

I went to management. I said, “Look, you know, regardless of what’s going to hopefully not come down the pipe, but there are rumors that we need to be careful of this because we are responsible for this. These are our people. We cannot, you know, put these unknown drugs—”you can’t even give blood as a pilot and fly for forty-eight hours. You can’t go scuba diving. You can’t take prescription drugs unless a civil aviation medical examiner approves it, right? That’s how serious and regulated our medicals are.

Anyway, that was at that point. Shortly afterwards, then the rumor came down that Transport Canada was, in fact, going to enforce mandates for all the federally regulated airlines, trains, or anything in transportation. That’s when I really raised the flags and put together data packages, which we already had at this point. And I once again had another meeting. Once again, I was pushed back.

[00:15:00]

I went to the senior management. I explained to them that absolutely we cannot do this. I explained Nuremberg Code; I explained all the laws of Canada, Charter of Rights, just the medical safety side of it: “We cannot do this, not only for our own people, but for the travelling public, the safety for them.” And it was pushed back.

I eventually ended up writing a letter. They had a mandate come out that if we were not all double-vaxxed by 15 November of 2021, that we would be fired or suspended. Now I’m the chief pilot; I’m the man that’s in charge of all the pilots for their health and welfare for Transport Canada. I reached out to Transport Canada, I said, “What’s going on here? You know, we cannot allow this to happen, this is insanity.” And I don’t blame any of the lower-level people, you know, they’re just following direction from above—unfortunately, blindly. And they said, “Well, this is going to go through.” So anyway, I put up my fight against it. I said, “What about exemptions for people?” [Exhibit OT-10k]

I’ve got the first third of the pilot group—like everybody else in Canada—just ran right out in fear. About the middle third, they heard, “Well, I’m not going to be able to travel, so I’m going to go take it—what the heck, it’s just another flu shot.” I warned everybody it’s not. And of course, there was the other third of the pilots that were extremely nervous and said, ‘Look, we don’t want to take these shots. What can we do? It’s going to affect us possibly for the rest of our life; if we lose our medical because of these shots, then we’ve lost our career.” And I totally agreed. So I went to Transport Canada who said, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Now they did roll out exemptions. But of course, it was all a big farce. It was all pre-planned that nobody would get one and, in fact, the people that did apply got refused. I didn’t even bother as a man of God, as Jesus, my Lord Saviour Christian; I’m not going to allow somebody in Ottawa decide my faith, so I didn’t even apply. So at the end, I did not get jabbed; in the end, I was the only one [Exhibits OT-10i, OT-10j]. They all, through fear and coercion, scared of losing their careers and their jobs, their paychecks, unfortunately, the rest of them submitted. And it’s extremely unfortunate because I know they’re all flying around right now, wondering—you know, with all the reports of myocarditis. It’s insanity; it’s criminal that these people should be out there.

Shawn Buckley

I just want to slow you down. My understanding is that you were terminated because you wouldn’t get vaccinated or you were—

Scott Routly

I was put on the infamous “suspended without pay” for eight months or whatever. Until through the pressure of the—thank God—Trucker Convoy, the only reason, you see, that the mandates were suspended. Everybody needs to understand, the mandates are still in place. They were just suspended. I know everybody’s having the summer of love, but they were merely suspended. And the reason they’re only suspended is because I’m sure that they’re going to bring them back in again. So after that, then I was terminated.

Shawn Buckley

Now, do you know, following vaccination were there any changes to the medical requirements for pilots?

Scott Routly

Well, during the whole time there—at least, the first year through 2020 and into 2021—they basically had exemptions for medical. So they suspended the medical requirements.

Shawn Buckley

Just wait, so 2020 into 2021. So once they roll out the vaccines in 2021, there’s, basically, an exemption from having to get the medicals.

Scott Routly

That’s correct, yeah.

Shawn Buckley

Now, the medicals were mandatory every six months, were they not?

Scott Routly

That’s correct. Six months to a year, depending on your age, or if you have any underlying issues. That’s always been the case with CAT-1 medicals. As I say, that’s fifty per cent of our licence, right? And of course, we have to go to civil aviation medical examiners [Exhibit OT-10b]. We don’t just go to normal doctors. We have to be approved by civil aviation inspectors who actually give us physicals. And the older you get, you have to get ECGs, urine tests, eye tests, all these different things, right? X-rays, if required, depending. Now they stopped all this because of COVID. But then, even after the vaccine rollouts,

[00:20:00]

which I found quite insane, is that knowing everything that’s going on, they’ve now increased these medical requirements, the exemptions, basically to telecoms. So you can phone into the civil aviation inspector and tell him, “Yeah, I’m feeling good, doc. It’s all good.” “Okay, good to go.”

Shawn Buckley

Let me just be clear. So you used to have to go in and actually see a doctor and get tested.

Scott Routly

Of course.

Shawn Buckley

And you would normally have to get an ECG. I mean, these were really strict and complete tests, am I right? But they included ECGs.

Shawn Buckley

Yeah. Now it’s for initial testing. For the younger pilots, you’re not required to get ECGs until you’re a little bit older. Once you’re at the age of forty years old, then you have to get an annual ECG.

Shawn Buckley

Okay, but that’s been exempted, hasn’t it?

Scott Routly

Sorry?

Shawn Buckley

That’s been changed, hasn’t it? Isn’t there an exemption now from needing to get ECGs for a couple of years?

Scott Routly

That’s correct, yes. Yeah, so even with all the knowledge, even more so now than we had prior to the rollout, they’ve now extended it even again for another couple of years to 2025. Now, within that, there’s about a three-year period. But every two years, you will have to go in to do a physical. But the point is, a lot can happen in two years when you used to go every six months to a year.

Shawn Buckley

So, I want to make sure that no one’s misunderstanding you. So, you know, in this most regulated industry—because, obviously, we don’t want pilots having heart attacks or strokes or anything while they’re up in the air flying us places—

Scott Routly

That’s right.

Shawn Buckley

there were strict requirements for them to go “in person” for medicals. But here we hit a global pandemic where, in theory, the pilots are at more risk of being sick, and they actually relax the medical requirements, including mandatory ECGs.

Scott Routly

That’s right.

Shawn Buckley

And that’s after they roll out experimental vaccines. So pilots are now being tested less than they were before.

Scott Routly

That’s correct, yeah, yeah. Of course, logical common sense would be, you know, you’d be tested more now just to confirm if there’s any issues.

Shawn Buckley

Okay, now we’ve run out of time so I’m going to ask you one last question, and then I’m going to turn you over to the commissioners for questions. My last question is, are you concerned about airline safety?

Scott Routly

Yes, I am. There’s already been reports. I think you’ve already talked to Greg Hill with Free to Fly. There’s also Josh Yoder down in the States, Freedom Flyers, two great organizations; I belong to one of them. And these jets are getting calls all the time from the flight line. Now pilots by nature, they do not want to lose their medical because that means you lose your licence, which means you just lost your career. They put a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of expense to this highly dedicated profession. But they were forced and coerced into this, and so now they’re out there, they’re phoning in. They don’t know what to do.

The reason you’re seeing a lot of—you’ll hear from Transport Canada rep here and in the airline—issues that we had at the airports, these were airlines that couldn’t find crews to fly. They were calling in sick for whatever reason, and they were just short of crews—that’s why flights were getting cancelled. They were trying to, you know, they had their own narrative they were trying to use at the time. But the real reality is they were short of crews on the line due to sickness. And let’s face it, they also fired forty per cent of their pilots throughout the country, like nurses, like firemen, like police, right? So you’re wondering why you have a shortage? Well, that’s because you fired forty per cent of them. And we’re talking highly experienced individuals, right? You cannot replace these individuals.

Shawn Buckley

But we’re short on time, and I was asking you if you were concerned about airline safety. And you are. So I’ll turn you over to the commissioners to see if they have any questions for you. The commissioners do not have questions for you. So Scott, on behalf of the National Citizens Inquiry, I sincerely thank you for attending and sharing this information with us. Your testimony is appreciated.

Scott Routly

Well, my pleasure. I would just like to say thank you for you and your team for all the good work you’re doing for this very noble cause for the future of this country. It’s extremely important where we go from here. And I just remember—in the face of evil—not to do anything is to be a part of the evil. So I hope Canadians can grow some courage here and stand up for this country. And you know what? Put our faith in God, the living God of the Bible. Thank you so much and God bless.

Shawn Buckley

Thank you.

[00:25:36]

Final Review and Approval: Margaret Phillips, September 6, 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:

About these Transcripts

Summary

Captain Scott Routly served as a military pilot for 15 years followed by 15 years in civil aviation. He was the chief pilot and in charge of about one hundred pilots. Scott was responsible to the airline and to Transport Canada for all their training and standards. Due to strict aviation regulations in Canada, a chief pilot cannot just be hired by an airline but has to be screened and approved by Transport Canada.

The medical requirements and aircraft type rating are the two components of their license and both have to be passed in order to fly. SIM training is required every six months and after the second lockdown this started again. Staying at a hotel he observed busloads of passengers coming in who couldn’t speak English and with huge amounts of luggage. The front desk staff could not answer his questions, but he observed that the next day they were loaded on busses and disappeared and new busloads would come in.

Scott raised his concerns about the vaccine mandates for pilots with senior management, the union and Transport Canada. By the 15 November 2021 they were required or the pilot would be fired or suspended.

After being suspended without pay for eight months, Scott was terminated.

The civil aviation inspectors do the comprehensive physical exams and those over the age of 40 require annual ECG’s, but these requirements were suspended after the vaccine rollout and will last until 2025.

Captain Routly is concerned about airline safety.