[00:00:00]

Allison Pejovic

So our next witness this afternoon is Mr. Scott Crawford.

Good afternoon. Can you please state your name for the record and spell it?

Scott Crawford

Certainly. It’s Scott Marshall Crawford S-C-O-T-T C-R-A-W-F-O-R-D.

Allison Pejovic

Thank you. Today, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Scott Crawford

I do.

Allison Pejovic

And I understand, Mr. Crawford, that you would like to say something in advance of your testimony today?

Scott Crawford

Yes, please. I’d like to preface my testimony with the understanding that the testimony I’m about to give is my personal account, my personal experience and observations, and I’m not representing any other individuals or agencies.

Allison Pejovic

Thank you. I understand that you are a paramedic with 30 years of experience. Can you briefly just go through where you work and a little bit about your background?

Scott Crawford

Certainly. I started in EMS [Emergency Medical Services] in 1990, started working on the ambulance with a small service just south of Calgary, a couple of small services, and went to school. I worked part-time and casual and became an advanced care paramedic in 1994. And so, at the advanced care level, I’ve been a paramedic now for 29 years. Started with the City of Calgary in 1998, and then in 2009 Alberta Health Services took over a number of the EMS services in Alberta and including Calgary.

Allison Pejovic

Thank you, and for the commissioners’ benefit, we have provided Mr. Crawford’s CV [Curriculum Vitae], which is entered as Exhibit RE-9D. So I’d like to take you back to the year 2020, and let’s talk about what you saw in terms of people who were sick with COVID symptoms. Did you notice an increase in emergency calls in 2020 than what you had experienced years prior?

Scott Crawford

At the very beginning of COVID, we actually noticed the call volume seemed to dip. With a lot of the information that was coming out through the media and through health authorities, our call volume curiously diminished. It seemed that folks were perhaps a little hesitant to call.

Allison Pejovic

And in terms of the people who were needing emergency care, what were you seeing and what symptoms did they have?

Scott Crawford

Generally, most folks appeared to have flu-like symptoms: nausea, headaches, general malaise. Most of the folks that we typically encountered were healthy, and aside from feeling unwell, most actually didn’t require transport. We would arrive at the scene, work through a pre-screening matrix, and most folks, we were actually able to assure them, give them some tips on what they could do to best manage their system at home, and so from that regard, it wasn’t unlike any other flu-like symptoms or flu-like season that we might encounter.

Allison Pejovic

And did you encounter people who were very ill?

Scott Crawford

Yes, there was a small subset, typically folks that already had pre-existing medical conditions that, COVID virus seemed to exacerbate those.

Allison Pejovic

And were you, yourself, afraid of COVID when it first arrived in Canada?

Scott Crawford

Yes, we were watching, obviously, the information coming out from the origins of the COVID virus. Watching seemingly healthy people suddenly become very ill and realizing that we were going to be on the front lines dealing with that. So I became quite concerned and also concerned for my family and wanted to make sure that my family was provided for, so I actually made the decision to retire long enough just to commute my pension so that if anything happened to myself, that my family would be provided for. I was sidelined for about two weeks; long enough to satisfy my employer and LAPP [Local Authorities Pension Plan], and I went right back to work on a casual, albeit full-time, basis.

Allison Pejovic

Okay, so let’s move forward to early 2021 which was when the vaccines were first being rolled out in Canada. At that time did you see a difference in the kinds of injuries or symptoms that you had with patients, as opposed to what you had seen during the early COVID days, people that you were transporting?

[00:05:00]

Scott Crawford

Yes, on a growing subset. Now, one thing, I guess, I need to make clear is that when I commuted my pension and retired and went back casually, I moved from the urban environment from the city of Calgary out to some of the local surrounding communities that were south of Calgary, so the population was somewhat different.

But one of the things that I noticed with a handful of patients was them experiencing very unexpected injuries and I’ll give one example. I picked up an elderly lady and transporting her to hospital, and this is based on what she was telling me, that literally a few days after getting the vaccine, she got this terrible severe pain in her elbow, and she was convinced that it was the vaccine that had caused this and was just so full of regret. I remember her saying to me that “You know, I didn’t feel right about this vaccine. I talked to my doctor about it, he said it was going to be fine. I took the vaccine and literally a few days later, I have this, this horrible pain and I’ve been to see my doctor. My doctor doesn’t know what it is. They haven’t been able to give me anything to help with this pain.” The transport time was very short, literally a minute or two to the hospital, and certainly that was one concern that we had.

Allison Pejovic

And so, just in general, you said that you noticed an uptick in calls. Can you just compare the difference? You had said that early on you were seeing people with flu-like symptoms with COVID. Were you still seeing those kinds of symptoms in the same numbers in early 2021, or were the presenting symptoms different, and if so, how?

Scott Crawford

Yeah, a couple interesting, initially, with the first COVID variant, the symptoms seemed to be much more severe. But that said, typically, when folks first got sick, usually, the crux was, in my experience, between day 8-11 of the onset of symptoms and usually if something untoward was going to happen it would happen in that 8-11 day span. Once people got past that day 11, day 12, day 13, typically their symptoms would resolve.

And with the subsequent variants, in and throughout 2011, we noticed that more people seemed to be experiencing symptoms. It was as if the transmissibility, the infectiousness, increased but the symptoms were much more mild. The other thing, there were a number of instances that caught my attention when folks would suddenly have a very rapid and unexpected sequela.

I had occasion to transport one gentleman from a rural area that was previously healthy, had no medical issues, lived on an acreage, on a farm, and had a catastrophic stroke literally the day after he got the vaccine. I believe it was a second vaccine. STARS [Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service]  was not available, so we transported this gentleman to Foothills Hospital. It was about an hour transport time, and when we brought that gentleman in, and we called ahead, they were expecting us, we went right back to the trauma room.

And while I was delivering the report to the physician, I mentioned at the very end, I said “Just so that you’re aware, this patient was vaccinated yesterday.” I was quite taken aback that the physician snapped at me and said, “Just a minute here, do you think this has anything to do with the vaccine?” and he asked me, “What vaccine did the patient get?” I mentioned it was the Moderna and he said “You know, it’s a perfectly fine vaccine. You know what, you can go now.”

And I think anyone within earshot, certainly, if anyone else had had concerns perhaps with another patient, I can understand where they would probably be a little bit reluctant to share that information. So that was another experience that I wanted to share with the commission.

Allison Pejovic

Were there any other instances where you responded to an emergency call, and you learned that the individual had a COVID vaccine within a day or two?

Scott Crawford

I can’t specifically think of any offhand right now. As I say, I moved from the urban to a suburban rural environment, so the dynamic was a little bit different. I can certainly speak to some anecdotal reports, but yeah. That’s-

[00:10:00]

Allison Pejovic

Okay, and so, let’s talk about AHS [Alberta Health Services] having a mandatory vaccine policy. Did AHS have a mandatory vaccination policy for you and your employment?

Scott Crawford

Yes, they did.

Allison Pejovic

And how did that policy affect you at your job?

Scott Crawford

Well, obviously, seeing some of these vaccine injuries, I was quite concerned that I myself might experience an untoward sequela, as a result. So I also, a long-time church attender, my family, we prayed and looked to God for direction. And I distinctly felt led not to get this vaccine, and so yeah, I made the decision not to get vaccinated.

Allison Pejovic

And as a result of that decision, was there ever a time when you were treated poorly by anyone that you worked with or in the community?

Scott Crawford

Yes. There was, a number of weeks before the vaccine, the initial vaccine mandate was rolled out, there was one particular individual, with a handful of others, that started an online campaign of bullying, harassment, and shaming. If any of us took a view that wasn’t in line with the prevailing narrative, we were shamed and bullied online.

Allison Pejovic

And did you know that person, personally?

Scott Crawford

I did. The individual worked as a fellow practitioner. Not someone that I knew really well, but just enough to nod at one another when we were passing in the hallways.

Allison Pejovic

And can you loosely describe the online bullying?

Scott Crawford

Yeah, some of it was on Facebook and a couple of different platforms, Twitter. Some of the statements that were made: “If you aren’t willing to get vaccinated, you don’t deserve the privilege of caring for others. We don’t want you. We don’t need you. “If you’re a health care worker that’s joined an anti-vax group, this will stick with you with the rest of your career. It’s worse than crossing a picket line. You’re affecting the safety of patients and hurting the credibility of health care workers that actually care and follow the science. We’re embarrassed to be associated with you.” And see another one here: “It’s very simple, if you work in health care, it’s your duty to protect the vulnerable, If you’re going to embarrass this profession by going to a rally or joining an anti-vax group, I’m going to publicly and personally shame you for the rest of your career.”

At one point, I did appear at the Western Standard to express some concerns. Again, my screenshot was sent out online, my picture, and I was referenced specifically, and the individual said that he was disgusted by me, and that I embarrassed my profession, and this individual hated me for it.

Allison Pejovic

And what effect did this behavior that you experienced online have on you personally and upon your mental health?

Scott Crawford

Well, certainly, you feel very isolated and targeted. My kids, I’ve got two children, and typically when they were out and about and they’d see other paramedics in uniform, they would walk over and say “Hey, do you know my dad?” And it was always great to hear the words of positive exchange that would go on following that.

However, after this and the workplace turning quite toxic and hostile, I was concerned for my family and I had to caution my children that, “Listen, if you see somebody else in uniform, don’t let them know that I’m your dad.” I didn’t want them to get caught with any hateful vitriol. And certainly, God forbid, if they ever needed to call the ambulance, I didn’t want their care biased.

Allison Pejovic

And as a result of this bullying that you experienced within your own professional community, did you take any action?

Scott Crawford

Yes, on September 14th, just hours before AHS announced their vaccine mandate, I sent a 36- or 37-page notice of objection to my immediate supervisor, his supervisor, and all the way up the totem pole, to include AHS CEO [Chief Executive Officer], Dr. Verna Yiu. I also included the premier,

[00:15:00]

health minister, a number of other individuals that I thought should be aware of this. And in that, I described my concerns with the vaccine mandate. I asked them for the information that they were relying upon to make this decision.

I also provided some information that I had looked at, and seemed to counter the prevailing narrative and asked for some clarification on that. I also described the bullying and harassment that was going on, that moving forward with these mandates was causing a tremendously polarizing event within the rank and file. I also touched on natural immunity. I was quite interested to know, it seemed the prevailing narrative was that natural immunity actually seemed to offer much more, better protection against the vaccine.

Allison Pejovic

And are you a member of a union?

Scott Crawford

I am, yes. I’m with the Health Sciences Association of Alberta [HSAA].

Allison Pejovic

And did your union respond or provide support in respect of your notice of objection and bullying complaint?

Scott Crawford

Unfortunately, they did not. I did not get any response back from the union. Not only did I copy the union president and one or two other like labour relation officers, much of that online vitriol that I expressed before, our union president and a number of our union executive endorsed some of this online vitriol with either thumbs up or heart signs.

I mentioned that in my notice of objection and obviously had concerns of, you know our union is supposed to be protecting us and here, it appears that they’re endorsing some of this vitriol. And further to that, Alberta Health Services ignored the concerns that I had, that this bullying and harassment was going on. I find that particularly troublesome, especially as I raised concerns about my safety and my family’s safety. Extremely disappointed that HSAA and AHS didn’t take that more seriously.

Allison Pejovic

So what happened after you submitted that notice of objection, was there an investigation?  What was the end result of it?

Scott Crawford

Eventually, I never did hear back from AHS. Eventually, I did get through putting in repeated complaints, and whatnot, in to my LRO [Labour Relations Officer] that was handling my case. On November 22nd, HSAA finally did acknowledge and accept my complaint. HSAA hired two investigators. Actually, one investigator to investigate the president and the other investigator, to interview or look at the actions of some of the union executive.

And not entirely surprising, the verdict came back that they both recommended that my complaint be dismissed. Some of the rationale for that included that these individuals were making the endorsements with some of this hateful vitriol, that they were doing it to just support or encourage folks to get the vaccine and not necessarily, the hateful aspects of it; and also that they were making these endorsements personally and not as with the union position.

Allison Pejovic

I wish to advise the commissioners that Mr. Crawford’s notice of objection and its dismissal are entered as exhibit numbers 9, 9A, 9C and 9E [RE-9-Crawford-Decision Final Ð Ltr fr VP-IC; RE-9a-Crawford-HSAA Investigation Report Jan 12 2022-Jamie Dunn Final-IC; RE-9b-Crawford-Final Decision Ltr-Complain-4 Mbrs-Ltr fr VP-Jan 2022-IC-IC; RE-9c-Crawford-R Farmer Report to HSAA Ð Final Report Ð January 19 2022-IC; RE-9d-Crawford-CV-IC RE-9e-Crawford-AHS HSAA Ltr of Objection (Mandatory Vaccine) and Harassments Bullying Complaint[100]-IC].

And Mr. Crawford, at any time, did you ask AHS whether you could be tested for natural immunity?

Scott Crawford

What I did in the course of being in the hospitals and while this was going on, I had occasion to speak to a physician. With the vaccine mandate approaching, I was quite curious to know if I had natural immunity. And so, I asked this physician, I said “Hey, what would be involved with me, just getting a requisition so I could be tested?” And he advised me that they were not permitted to put that requisition in to be tested for COVID antibodies. And he also stated, furthermore, lab services are not permitted to test for that.

Allison Pejovic

Did he give you a reason why?

Scott Crawford

No, he didn’t. I thought it was rather curious, but I learned more information down the road that I think will tie into this.

[00:20:00]

Allison Pejovic

At any time did you ask for a religious exemption to the vaccine requirement?

Scott Crawford

Yes, I did. We were advised, when this vaccine mandate was rolling out, that AHS would entertain medical and religious exemptions. I applied for a religious exemption, and subsequently, that was denied.

Allison Pejovic

And did they tell you the exact basis of that rejection?

Scott Crawford

They did. When they reviewed my application, they advised that they felt that these were personal reasons, and that precluded me. It’s the one thing that I would state to that, you know, attending church for 40 years, family attend, or my wife and youngest daughter, attend Glenmore Christian Academy. We are very religiously ardent, and I was directed, divine direction, to not get vaccined [sic]. And as God as my personal Savior, I align, naturally, I would align my personal beliefs in that that manner as well. So it just seemed to be a very convenient catch-22 that, because my personal beliefs align with the divine direction that I was getting, that my religious exemption would be precluded.

Allison Pejovic

And I understand, Mr. Crawford, that during COVID, a family member of yours had a serious medical emergency.

Scott Crawford

Yes, mid-October, I was working on the ambulance and transporting somebody to Children’s Hospital, and I got a cell phone call from Life Alert. I learned that my mom was having a medical emergency of her own, and it turns out that she had had an aortic aneurysm and required immediate surgery. So Mom went in and had the surgery, and although she survived the cardiac surgery, she’d had a catastrophic stroke while she was on the operating table.

A day later, once they were weaning her off the sedatives, we discovered that Mom had had this stroke. The doctors, their care, was exemplary. Very thankful to have the team working with Mom. And after a week’s time, it became apparent that Mom was not going to recover. She was in a comatose, in a vegetative state, so we made the very difficult decision, my brother and I and extended family, as well as the health care team, to remove mom off life support. And in preparing for that, one of the things that the cardiac care unit asked is, they asked me if I’d had any close contacts.

Now, I work as a paramedic, so the reality is, is I do. In the regular commission of my duties, I have a number of close contacts on a very regular basis. It also just so happened that my youngest daughter had just tested positive for COVID, mildly symptomatic, and had isolated in her room. When I let, just in the interest of openness and transparency, when I let them know that, the response was very immediate and they said, “Well you can’t be up here for 14 days now.”

And suffice to say, this was the anvil that broke the camel’s back. You know, we’ve had a very difficult two years here. You know, some of the hateful situations, the very difficult work environment that we’re working, and you know I myself, it looks like I’m not going to be able to spend my mom’s last day, you know, be with Mom as she transitions and joins my father who predeceased her five years ago.

In the exchange, they asked me if I was vaccinated, and I said “No, I’m not.”  And when I reviewed, I had gone and got a negative COVID test, I was asymptomatic, I got a negative COVID test. And I was looking at their compassionate exemption testation and there was no mention of any requirement to be vaxxed. And here’s the real kicker: AHS, didn’t matter if I had a close contact or not, as long as I was asymptomatic, I was still expected to report to work. Conceivably, I could have transferred another patient in and out of that unit, I could have transferred my mom in and out of that unit, but because I wasn’t vaxxed, I was not going to be permitted to be with my mom when she transitioned.

Allison Pejovic

So just to confirm, you were not allowed to be with your mother the day that she passed away?

[00:25:00]

Scott Crawford

Well, I was, and I ended up sending a letter. They were not going to permit me to join my mom when she passed away, so I ended up writing a letter to the patient concerns folks and then I also cc’d [carbon copied] AHS CEO, Dr. Verna Yiu, the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, and the Health Minister and expressed my concern and angst and, I’m going to be quite honest, contempt for this decision. To AHS’s credit, and I thank you very much for this, they came back and, “Oh, there’s been a misunderstanding,” and they allowed me to be with my mom. So I am thankful for that, but I don’t think, had I not pushed back, yeah, I wouldn’t have been with her when she passed away.

Allison Pejovic

Okay, I’d like to move into one last area here. I’m going to call it, “EMS in Crisis.” During the time of the COVID vaccine mandates, how well was the EMS system functioning?

Scott Crawford

EMS was already in a state of crisis. Days leading up to the vaccine mandate eventually being rolled out, I think it was December 12th, was the last day for us that were unvaxxed.

Then December 10th or 11th, Calgary, the HSAA were posting some of the stats and red alerts that EMS was in, and on the one, literally days before the vaccine was to take place, Calgary and Edmonton were both posting that Edmonton and Calgary were in a red alert There were no ambulances available.

Sometime during the pandemic, it was made known that Alberta Health Services had 47 per cent of their staff on medical leave so we just didn’t have the manpower. And then, in so far as myself, I was supposed to work a shift in Priddis on December 13th and 14th, but I was placed on unpaid leave, suspended, and the ambulance had to be shut down both on the 13th and the 14th.

Allison Pejovic

Sorry to interrupt, is this 2021?

Scott Crawford

This is 2021. Yup, December 13th and 14th, 2021. And there were a number of other dates that I was supposed to, I would have, otherwise, been working in the ambulance in High River, and the ambulance had to be shut down on a number of dates there, as well. One of them, they did manage to find another primary care paramedic that was able to operate at a basic life support level. But there can be no doubt that the introduction of this vaccine mandate diminished the amount of emergency care available to Albertans. And I find that very curious.

Allison Pejovic

And at that time, were the paramedics able to respond to all emergency calls or what would you say was the ability of EMS to respond; was it 50 per cent of the time, most of the time?

Scott Crawford

That is a very good question. I wouldn’t be able, they would, technically, be able to respond to all of the calls; it would just be a delay until the next available ambulance. But just to give you an idea after the vaccine mandate, I think was December 27th, the union, HSAA, put on another graphic or a notice on Facebook that on December 27th, Calgary was in a deep red alert and for 20 of the surrounding communities, had no ambulances available. They call it, like, revolving red alert. So a very large swath where there were no ambulances available to respond.

Allison Pejovic

So just to be clear, were you suspended from your job because of your refusal to receive the COVID vaccines?

Scott Crawford

Yes.

Allison Pejovic

And for how long?

Scott Crawford

For three and a half months. My last shift was on December 12th, and I think I was back on beginning, first week of April, I believe. So three and a half months, roughly.

Allison Pejovic

And can you comment on how you feel your suspension affected emergency service delivery to Albertans?

Scott Crawford

Well, just with me not being available, they had to shut my truck down in a number of instances. So Priddis had to be shut down on two occasions, and my truck in High River had to be shut down on at least half a dozen times, because I was not there.

Allison Pejovic

And while you were suspended, did you apply for EI [Employment Insurance] benefits?

Scott Crawford

I did. I applied for EI. However, my suspension was coded as misconduct, and not going to lie, that was a, you know after two years in the trenches,

[00:30:00]

that was quite a hit. And consequently, I was not entitled to any EI despite having paid into that for well over 30 years. I did get it, and subsequent appeals were also unsuccessful.

Allison Pejovic

Thank you, and my last question to you today will be just to explain for the Inquiry the overall impact of everything that you’ve been through. Whether it’s what happened with your mom, the online bullying, and everything you’ve seen in terms of what you think might be going on with some of the vaccine’s potential injury to people. How has that affected you and impacted your life and you mentally?

Scott Crawford

Oh yeah, certainly. I mean, obviously, as you can appreciate, those were incredibly difficult times to have the dissension among the ranks, the bullying and harassment and seeing our union endorsing that behavior. You know, the expectation is that the union is going to be there to protect our rights and to support those. And with AHS ignoring, I sent a number of complaints into AHS and never received a response back.

I think it’s inconceivable that in the midst of a pandemic that you would treat your staff like that, and that you would place your staff on unpaid leave when it reduces the capability of the healthcare system responding to that. I guess I’m also concerned, too, that in the face of information that was contrary to the prevailing narrative, that those concerns were not addressed or even acknowledged, for that matter. So that’s also of concern.

And the way that it affected my family was with the situation with my mother, with my children. It was very unfair and yeah, I’m very disappointed. It’s left me with a large measure of contempt with the way that things were handled.

Allison Pejovic

Thank you, Mr. Crawford. I’m going to turn it over to the commissioners for any questions.

Commissioner Massie

Thank you very much for your testimony. We’ve heard from a previous expert that during the pandemic, it seems that the aims shift from protecting people and society to protecting the medical system. Do you think that the vax mandate for people, in working as a paramedic, did actually contribute to protect the medical system?

Scott Crawford

I would say that there’s an argument that pushing forward with this mandate actually diminished the capability of Alberta Health Services to provide care. That’s my personal opinion.

Commissioner Massie

Thank you.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

Prior to COVID, did you have anybody, on your performance reviews, say that you negatively affected the safety of patients?

Scott Crawford

No, never.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

And when it comes to your, you were given guidance to ask for a religious exemption, but you were denied. After they reviewed the application, they thought it was for personal reasons, and yet in your testimony you refer to your personal Saviour. It’s obvious to everybody listening that you had deeply held convictions and beliefs, and that you were acting according to your conscience. So I’m just wondering, at any point did the employer or the union provide any assistance of how the religious exemption could be worded differently so that your religious exemption could be accepted?

Scott Crawford

No.

Commissioner Kaikkonen

Thank you.

Commissioner Drysdale

Good afternoon. Were you provided with any specialized training, when the COVID pandemic was announced, with regard to how to deal with the COVID patients, that kind of thing?

Scott Crawford

Yes, we did receive some training with regard to wearing PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] masks, how best to manage these patients with a pre-screening tool that if patients met certain criteria, we could leave them at home and give them some tips on how to manage their situation.

Commissioner Drysdale

Was there regular planning meetings or strategy meetings as the pandemic progressed, updating you on procedures and methods?

[00:35:00]

Scott Crawford

There was. With the emails that we were getting. Most of the other extraneous emails stopped, and most of the information that we were getting had to do with COVID. So we were getting information from the higher-ups via email, and then occasionally, there’d be the odd discussion if you bumped into your supervisor as well.

Commissioner Drysdale

We’ve heard testimony in other places in Canada, from paramedics like yourself who were suspended or released or terminated, whatever the terminology is these days. Are you aware of the number of people in the paramedic service where you worked that were affected by this?

Scott Crawford

I know there was a number of us. I couldn’t accurately state in terms of EMS. Yeah, I can’t give an accurate number with that. I do know that when AHS was in the newspaper, that when staff were coming back, there was only 750 folks that were coming back but I believe there was much more that went off on leave with the vaccine mandate.

Commissioner Drysdale

Did you say that there were 750 coming back?

Scott Crawford

That was one of the newspaper’s articles that I was reading. Yeah, there was 750 staff, I believe, returning, that were expected back here in early April of 2022.

Commissioner Drysdale

Have you got any idea how many people are in the service to begin with?

Scott Crawford

Well, I believe there’s over, and I guess I just need to be careful here because I’m not entirely familiar with the stats, I know that there’s some staff that were casual staff. There could be different subsets that were included and not included here. But AHS as a whole has over 100,000 staff.

Commissioner Drysdale

How many, sir?

Scott Crawford

Over 100,000.

Commissioner Drysdale

Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner DiGregorio

Just the last couple of questions for me. Do paramedics receive training in recognizing adverse effects from vaccines?

Scott Crawford

No, we did not.

Commissioner DiGregorio

And would paramedics participate in the reporting of adverse events?

Scott Crawford

We typically didn’t. We weren’t aware of the tools or the reporting platforms. And I suspect if other paramedics had similar encounters at the hospital as I did, that they may be reluctant to report those. And if they did, I’d be skeptical if they did get reported.

Commissioner DiGregorio

Thank you.

Allison Pejovic

Looks like that’s it. Thanks very much for your participation today, Mr. Crawford.

Scott Crawford

Great. Thank you.

[00:38:17]

Final Review and Approval:  Anna Cairns, August 30, 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

Mr. Scott Crawford is a paramedic who has served hospitals in the Calgary area for 29 years. He was one among a number of medical professionals who were suspended by Alberta Health Services (AHS) for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. He was consequently subjected to an online campaign of bullying, harassment and shaming by people including coworkers and union executives.

At the beginning of COVID, Scott and other paramedics noticed that most patients appeared to have flu-like symptoms. However, at the time when the vaccines were first being ruled out in Canada, Scott noticed some patients experiencing very unexpected injuries, such as a catastrophic stroke the day after getting the vaccine.

Scott was also witness to the worsening EMS crisis that was precipitated by the vaccine mandates. In December 2021, Calgary and surrounding communities were in a deep red alert – i.e., a very large swath where there were no ambulances available to respond. This happened right after firing a large number of paramedics who refused the vaccine. Scott was suspended from December 2021 to April 2022. As his suspension was coded as misconduct, he was not able to collect employment insurance; his appeals were unsuccessful.

During the pandemic, Scott’s mother had an aortic aneurysm and a stroke. As she was comatose, family decided to remove her from life support. However, Scott was banned from being in his mother’s presence for the next 14 days due to his potential for being a “close contact”; he fought against the banishment and won.