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Dellene Church
Our next witness is Cindy Stevenson. Cindy, can you state your name for the record and spell your first and last name?

Okay, you need to unmute. Not yet, no. Can you see your mute button? Just make sure that’s off.

Cindy Stevenson
How about now?

Dellene Church
There you go.

Cindy Stevenson
Okay, I just had my headphones on. I’m sorry about that. My name is Cindy Stevenson, C-I-N-D-Y S-T-E-V-E-N-S-O-N.

Dellene Church
Thank you. Cindy Stevenson, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Cindy Stevenson
I do.

Dellene Church
Thank you. Cindy, you refused a COVID vaccination and as a result, you were fired from your job of nine years with CN Rail.
Cindy Stevenson
That is correct.

Dellene Church
Can you tell us about that experience, how that came about for you?

Cindy Stevenson
Well, I could see kind of what was coming with all the talk about vaccinations and all the political push for, certainly, passports and mandates. And I had sent an email request to my union looking for representation, because I did not consent to the trials, the medical trials and the therapeutic of what they were calling a COVID vaccine. I had stated that there was so much risk. I put on there the VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] reporting, which had indicated that there were more than all the vaccines combined in 30 years of adverse events. There was risks that I did not want to take. And also, that I was COVID-recovered: I had just had COVID in August of 2021 and they were demanding that I get a vaccine prior to October 29th or I would not be working after that.

The union responded to that email with a positive message, saying that they understood and that the information in the email would be forwarded to the national and the local chairperson of my union. I never heard anything from the union again until November 10th of 2021. I was held out of service on November 15th, 2021.

Dellene Church
Okay. And through your union, was there contact yourself with your employer, or contact with the employer through the union as well?

Cindy Stevenson
I had contacted the employer multiple times. Stated that I was COVID recovered, that there were higher instances of injury for people who had recovered from COVID, especially such a close proximity to having the virus. And then obviously them demanding that I get a vaccine right away, that it exacerbates and causes extreme inflammatory results. I had done quite a bit of research. I sent a lot of information to the union and my employer in regards to vaccine injuries, risks. Natural immunity was very, very widely acceptable and it was also acknowledged in the National Institutes of Health. There was an article January 26th of 2021 stating that natural immunity was long-lasting with COVID-recovered people.

Everything that I had sent in, all the concerns I had with the risks, with it being stated as a medical trial, it was in trial phases, nobody responded with anything. Except for the union stated to get vaccinated to avoid consequences.

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And also, the employer said that I was privileged to continue working if I was vaccinated. Natural immunity and positive proof of natural immunity being positive is not acceptable.

Dellene Church
Did they offer you any options for testing in order to continue your work?

Cindy Stevenson
No.

Dellene Church
So after you had tried all of these options and avenues, what happened then for you to be let go? How did that proceed?

Cindy Stevenson
My last shift was November 14th, and the next day people who refused to either give out their personal medical information and/or that refused were just held out of service. And there was really nothing that we could do. The union did respond to me November the 10th. A representative asking me four questions, which were quite odd: If I informed the company that I had COVID; did I get a PCR test, which I did not. And just, you know, asking what the company said about my COVID. But nothing to do with any of the concerns that I had forwarded, multiple concerns. I did end up putting in a complaint with the CIRB, the Canada Industrial Relations Board. November 28th, 2021, it was submitted. I prepared it myself, which is not really recommended. They did close the complaint down. It’s a Section 37 complaint in regards to unfair treatment and discriminatory treatment or arbitrary treatment by a union. They had stated that there just wasn’t enough evidence there to go forward.

Since then, I filed a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which was never addressed. I did ask for multiple — I sent emails and I called trying to get an update. They have not responded. I did apply for Service Canada Employment Insurance in November 2021, which was declined. And the reason being was due to my misconduct. So I was left without a whole lot of options. I did retain a lawyer to prepare a reconsideration for a Canada Industrial Relations Board [CIRB] review, which— They’re not really wanting to give any updates, so I can’t update where that is. That was filed on September 29th, 2022, so I’m still waiting on that. I’ve had multiple emails sent to members of Parliament, my Member of Parliament, MLA, in regards to other issues with the natural immunity.

I did get my job back June 20th, 2022. There was a motion brought forward by a couple of gentlemen in Toronto. A lawyer had brought forward a challenge to the ministerial order. That was June 14th, I believe. The government suspended the mandates and we were called back to work. Three days later I got a call from CN stating that we were good to come back to work. And I had 72 hours’ notice to give them my return-to-work plans, which I did. At that point, I had contacted my union and asked what the protocol was going to be, if we were going to be held out again, or what was going to happen. And there was no positive response, just non-answers.

I did give them my return-to-work plan. I did go back to work on June 20th. Only later, the 28th— I got a letter from CN dated the 28th of June stating that they could reinstate the vaccine mandate if the government said that health and if the science said so, which— There was no response from the union.

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I did go back to work. I managed to kind of pick myself up and return to work. No response for any of the questions that I had forwarded by email to the union. They basically just told me to leave it alone. That my CIRB filing was frivolous, the one that I put in in November. There was no support from the union whatsoever. And it became quite difficult to continue working because of the stories of coworkers who were vaccine-injured. It started to kind of get quite resentful, and being in a safety critical position that I worked, I just— I was really not doing very well in that situation simply because— With the natural immunity, it finally being recognized and it’s on the mainstream news, nobody acknowledged anything that they had done.

I couldn’t continue working and I did resign March 3rd of this year, unfortunately. I just couldn’t keep working with the situation that happened, and in a company where I thought that if you bring safety concerns forward with mounds of evidence, they ignored. I just couldn’t risk and keep working there. And just knowing that at any time they could just say, “Well, we’re going to do this again,” it just got to be too much.

Dellene Church
And so, what were the economic losses you suffered over this time?

Cindy Stevenson
I was out of work for seven months. I’ve spent quite a bit of money on my lawyer, which is worth every penny. I didn’t ask for any renumeration. I would have liked my seven months of pay back because I feel that I was wrongly disciplined. The union, in our little handbook, states that: “Employees have the right to be informed of known or foreseeable hazards in the workplace, and be provided with information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to protect their health and safety.” It also states that I have the right to participate: “Employees have the right and the responsibility to participate in identifying and correcting job-related health and safety concerns.” And also, that I have the right to refuse to perform in an activity that “constitutes a danger to the employee or to other employees.” They did not live up to that expectation. I really had no recourse there, but I would have liked my seven months back.

With all the information that came out— Obviously, we were held out of service or terminated, some of us. People need to have the ability to be able to make an informed decision and not be forced into any sort of dangerous or hazardous work. I would ask for that as well, and to have my disciplinary record removed for obviously being held out of service for being non-compliant to a vaccine policy.

Yeah, it’s monetarily — I think more so, it was just emotionally damaging. Because every avenue that is available to people to keep them safe at work, to be able to participate in safety discussions, that needs to be addressed. Every avenue—political leaders or members of Parliament or the Premier’s office; I tried to reach out to institutions, Service Canada, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board—they all just ignored everything that happened.

Dellene Church
You also mentioned in your questionnaire the effect not only on yourself, but on your family and especially your children, for having trust in our country and government and health system. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Cindy Stevenson
Well, all young adults,

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my children, four of them. And this lack of trust, there is no trust and there is no recovery for my entire family, just seeing what happened to me. They all worked through everything. We’ve remained kind of not affected by the pandemic, thankfully; we’re a very close family. But every institution, everything that we believed in—the healthcare system, the political system, all of the systems set in place for Canadians—never in a million years would you ever dream that you would be discriminated against because you didn’t want to participate in a medical trial, and/or possibly being put in harm’s way.

We’re all changed. Every single one of us and there is— At this point, for myself, I don’t even know if having justice for all the wrongs that have been committed will— It won’t change me, anyway. My kids, definitely. They’re younger, they’re more affected because of their young age. But yeah, the lack of trust is— It’s not healthy.

Dellene Church
Is there anything else you’d like to add today?

Cindy Stevenson
Well, I did want to add in that I did ask for — I had my natural antibody test done at a Saskatchewan private business. When I went back to work, the media was hyping up all of the boosters, and you got to get your shots, and they were thinking about mandating shots. I ended up contacting the place where I got my natural immunity test the first time in August 2021, and looking to get another test just to see if it still registered the natural immunity. I did email. And I got a response back that they were no longer able to perform those tests. The Saskatchewan Health Authority had told them they weren’t allowed.

So I did contact an MLA, Nadine Wilson. She seems to be the only person in Saskatchewan that is speaking out against the narrative. And I did let her know what is going on. Because when I asked, even just to get my natural immunity test back in August 2021, I called my healthcare provider and was told that, if the test was ordered by that healthcare provider, that they would be called immediately and reprimanded. And then I called another, just a random health clinic, just to see if I could get this test done, because I could see that they were going to start mandating these vaccines. And really, I did not want to be having to put myself in any harm’s way. And they told me the same thing: they could not order that test.

So, there is something very nefarious going on. The letter that I received back from the Saskatchewan Health was just to get vaccinated and they need the resources and they can’t be offering these tests. But why I paid for that test, and the only way that I was led to the facility that offered it, was through the first healthcare provider that I had contacted. They said the only place that will do it is this location. And I have all that in writing as well.

I did actually send information as well to the Premier’s office in regards to why naturally immune people have to be subject to this vaccine. When you have measles or you have the flu, you don’t go get a shot afterward. But nobody listened. I emailed the Saskatchewan Health Authority. They never responded. My MLA— Even when there were questions of when they were trying to mask the kids and have vaccine clinics in the schools, there were documents that were on the SHA website. There was an article actually from March, 2021, which alluded to all the trials for the kids. They weren’t going to be doing anything at this point just because they were trials and they didn’t know.

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And that article, I sent it to my MLA and he did not respond. I sent it to my MP. But that article went missing off the SHA website. Now I did copy it and I did give that to Nadine Wilson, MLA in Saskatchewan, as well. Because whatever is going on, they are trying to just lure people or lead people into— The only thing to do is just get a vaccine and that’s it.

Dellene Church
Okay, I think we’ll turn it over to the commissioners if they have any questions for you.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
Thank you. I just wanted to ask: Do you know if CN is still receiving funding from government?

Cindy Stevenson
I don’t know if they’re receiving anything from the government in regards to incentives. I do know that our union, it was part of the— They’re actually on a website, it’s called Faster Together and it is a program, a website where there’s participants, a lot of unions, where they promote vaccines. I did ask my union representative if they were receiving any monetary incentive. The answer I got back was not that he was aware of.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
Okay, so my second question, if they did receive or if they are receiving from the public purse, is simply: Do you believe that CN was neutral in their decision-making regarding the government mandates at any point?

Cindy Stevenson
No.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
Thank you.

Dellene Church
Okay, thank you very much for your testimony today.

Cindy Stevenson
Thank you.

[00:21:57]

Final Review and Approval: Jodi Bruhn, August 21, 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

Cindy had been an employee of CN Rail for 9 years when her employer mandated covid vaccines. She requested an exemption from her union/employer to remain at work and not be vaccinated as she had recently recovered from COVID and felt she had natural immunity. Cindy’s employer did not recognize natural immunity, and she was held out of service for refusing to be vaccinated.

Cindy was denied employment insurance and filed a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Her complaint was closed down due to a lack of evidence. She has an ongoing complaint filed with the Human Rights Commission. Cindy was allowed to return to work when the mandates were lifted. Earlier this year she left her job as she felt she couldn’t work in a company that ignored safety concerns brought forward, and couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t bring back mandates.