Alberta businesses launch class action for millions in losses due to pandemic public health orders
Attorneys have filed a brief on behalf of Alberta businesses detailing a class action lawsuit launched against the provincial government's "unlawful pandemic-era health orders."
The proposed class action brief, as found on the Rath & Company website, seeks compensation for the harms caused by the province. “The shared damage inflicted by the province’s unlawful health orders makes the class action an essential mechanism for justice and systemic issue resolution,” wrote Alberta lawyer Eva Chipiuk on social media.
Chipiuk said she and her colleagues “uncovered information revealing a stark disparity in how COVID-19 support funds were allocated between the public and private sectors.”
Over three years, the province allocated $13 billion to the public sector, but a mere $700 million to private small businesses — as Chipiuk points out, only 5% of the total funds were allocated to the private sector.
‼️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ‼️
We are pleased to announce the filing of the Brief on behalf of the Plaintiffs in the Alberta Business Class Action.
In the Brief, we outline our reasons for seeking class action certification for the harms caused by Province’s unlawful health orders. In… pic.twitter.com/HqQ5ET7snI
— Eva Chipiuk, BSc, LLB, LLM (@echipiuk) August 15, 2024
“That will tell you where their priorities were, making sure the bureaucrats are okay, not making sure Albertans are okay,” lawyer Jeffrey Rath told the Western Standard.
The brief, filed with the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, includes lead plaintiffs Rebecca Marie Ingram and Christopher Scott, of the Whistlestop Cafe. Rath said thousands of plaintiffs have signed on to the class action suit, and noted with class actions in Alberta, people don’t have to sign up. Hundreds of Albertans were impacted, he said, including a physiotherapist out $130,000 and a dentist who lost $1.5 million. One restaurant has lost over $12 million dollars, and even one restauranter in Edmonton committed suicide over these public health orders.
Rath and Chipiuk in the lawsuit point to the Public Health Act, which says the government, including Public Health Officer Deena Hinshaw, can’t be sued for orders issued under the act. However, then-Premier Jason Kenny issued the orders outside the act, Rath explained.
“That’s what ultra vires means — it means not under the Public Health Act," he said.
“Because the orders were not under the Public Health Act, the government has huge liability.” Had they issued them under the act, “that would have been perfectly legal,” added Rath.
“They weren’t medical decisions. They were political decisions that they were dressing up as medical decisions," he said, adding the whole scenario "shows contempt for Alberta businesspeople."
“That’s what made it violate the Public Health Act — not Hinshaw, but Kenny. On what basis is a divinity school drop-out qualified to make those decisions?”
“Even if the orders had been for a bonafide purpose, on what planet should a society harm people for the ‘benefit of society as a whole’ without society as a whole compensating those people for that harm?”
New report denounces Havana and claims ‘campaign of subversion’ has infiltrated highest levels of US government
"...There is overwhelming evidence that the machinery of the Cuban Government has been progressively organized around… a fundamental hatred of the United States,” the report stated. “Many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history —from the George Floyd riots to the rise of Antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses— can be linked, in some way, shape, or form to Cuban influence.”
The report doesn’t just hand-wave. It names names. It details how the Venceremos Brigade and other “revolutionary tourism” programs have funneled thousands of American activists to Havana for ideological (and sometimes literal) weapons training.
The Venceremos Brigade has brought 10,000 American activists to Cuba since 1969. This is because nothing says “I am fighting for the oppressed working class” quite ...
Now there is a plan! Of course dumb Canadians will not have the courage to vote with their brains, instead of their propagandized feelings of fear.
Canada’s economy is stalling badly.
We just endured the worst decade for real GDP growth per person since the Great Depression.
Over the past ten years, real GDP per capita limped along at an average of just 0.6% annually.
And Bloomberg’s consensus forecast for 2026? A paltry 0.7%.
Why does GDP matter?
Because family disposable income follows GDP like a shadow. Anemic economic growth resulting from lower investment means stagnant wages. Period.
The Liberals and fake Conservatives won't fix this.
The People's Party has a comprehensive plan to unleash private investment, supercharge productivity, and put more money back into your pocket:
Make the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (ACCA) permanent – Let businesses write off capital investments rapidly and skyrocket cash flow.
End Corporate Welfare – Zero subsidies. Zero bailouts. Zero regional ...
