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OTTAWA, Canada, March 11, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s national statistical agency stated in a report released yesterday that there are “excess deaths” in the country when compared to previous years, but those deaths are not due only to COVID-19, but are due increasingly to what it calls “indirect consequences of the pandemic,” citing as examples “delayed medical procedures” due to lockdowns and “increased substance use.”
“In the early months of the pandemic, the weekly number of excess deaths and deaths caused by COVID-19 were closely aligned and mostly affected older populations, suggesting that COVID-19 itself was driving excess mortality in Canada,” stated Stats Canada in its March 10 report titled “Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January to December 2020.”
“However, more recently, the number of excess deaths has been higher than the number of deaths due to COVID-19, and these deaths are affecting younger populations, suggesting that other factors, including possible indirect impacts of the pandemic, are now at play,” the report added.
Stats Canada reported that in 2020, there were an estimated 296,373 deaths in Canada, representing an excess of 13,798 deaths above and beyond what would have been expected had there been no pandemic.
“This is about 5% more deaths than expected in that period,” the report stated.
But the statistics agency went on to point out how last year saw across the country a significant spike in, for example, overdose deaths, as lockdowns forced drug users to withdraw to themselves and away from “substance use treatment programs” that could help them.
PETITION UPDATE (3/22/2021)
Pastor James Coates has been freed!
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, the legal counsel which has been representing Pastor Coates, just issued a statement saying that Alberta's Crown Prosecutors have decided to drop all but one charge against Pastor Coates, paving the way for him to be released soon.
This is a great victory, God be praised!
Please READ LifeSiteNews' latest article on this latest and unexpected turn of events for Pastor Coates.
While Pastor Coates will still have to stand trial for the one remaining charge in May, he will at least be free to prepare for the hearings, and to celebrate Easter with his family and congregation.
Thank you for taking part in this campaign advocating for Pastor Coates' release!
Of course, with a trial still pending, he's not out of the woods, yet. But, this is a gigantic step in the right direction.
During his trial, we will keep you updated as to his status and we will continue to support Pastor Coates.
We will also keep fighting to ensure that Canadian people of faith like him are never persecuted for exercising their right to worship freely.
Until the trial finishes, please continue to SIGN and SHARE this petition in solidarity with Pastor Coates. Thank you!
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PETITION UPDATE (2/24/2021) -
There have been two important, recent updates to the ongoing imprisonment of Pastor James Coates in Alberta, Canada.
First, Alberta's Premier, Jason Kenney has spoken out about Pastor Coates' incarceration.
Please READ LifeSiteNews' article about Premier Kenney's intervention, here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/alberta-premier-who-jailed-christian-pastor-claims-he-is-protecting-fundamental-freedoms-of-religion
And second, Pastor Coates' wife addressed a crowd of supporters at the jail in which her husband is being held, saying in part:
"People keep asking us what can you do for us? Open your churches. Open your churches! Take a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and take a stand for the people! Love them, open the doors, that’s what we need to do right now."
To read about Mrs. Coates visit to see her husband at the Edmonton Remand Center and her full remarks, please CLICK on the following news article from LifeSiteNews: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/wife-of-jailed-candadian-pastor-tells-supporters-the-best-way-to-protest-is-to-open-your-churches
Then, please SIGN and SHARE this important petition. Thank you!
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Pastor James Coates of Grace Life Church in Alberta, Canada has been ARRESTED for refusing to comply with extreme and likely unconstitutional government Covid regulations that ban people from gathering to worship in their church of choice.
You read that right: Even churches aren’t exempt from Trudeau Liberals’ all-out attack on peoples' freedoms in the wake of this pandemic.
But, Pastor Coates needs to be released immediately, and MPs must take steps to rein-in the extreme Covid regulations which provincial governments are using as an excuse to trample on essential freedoms.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition and STAND WITH PASTOR COATES.
Send a strong message to Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and Justice Minister Lametti, as well as to all Members of Parliament and to Canadian Provincial Premiers, that this CANNOT stand.
Some government officials are hoping to make examples out of faith leaders like Pastor Coates, who refuse to comply with unreasonable government demands to close-off places of worship to their own congregations.
That's why he remains in custody to this day.
But, no Canadian should ever face jail time for exercising their God-given, Charter-guaranteed rights, and action MUST be taken.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition.
NB: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE FROM CANADA TO SIGN THIS PETITION.
Pastor Coates, who leads Grace Life Church in Edmonton, Alberta, originally suspended in-person services and church gatherings in good faith and out of concern for his congregants after Trudeau’s government first introduced Covid restrictions last spring.
However, the church reopened over the summer when it became clear that Trudeau’s shutdowns were here to stay, and that congregants would be indefinitely limited in their worship size or again banned from in-person worship altogether under their guidelines.
After Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, enacted new restrictions in November that cap all faith-based gatherings at 15% of building capacity (a major blow to churches that wish to resume worship for their members), Pastor Coates kept Grace Life’s doors open to anyone and everyone who wished to proceed with normal practice of their faith.
However, this simple exercising of congregants’ Charter rights was met not only with governmental resistance, but an unreasonably disproportionate legal response.
Pastor Coates was arrested and then quickly released on February 7th for practicing his faith alongside congregants, and arrested AGAIN on February 16th for the same reason.
Pastor Coates remains in custody today for refusing to allow Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his health officer Deena Hinshaw to infringe upon his congregants’ civil liberties any further.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which calls for the release of Pastor Coates, and asks Canada's MPs to take action to ensure that Canadian people of faith, like him, are NEVER persecuted for exercising their right to worship freely.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Alberta govt jails pastor for holding COVID-non-compliant worship services' -
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/alberta-govt-jails-pastor-for-holding-covid-non-compliant-worship-services
“For example, in British Columbia, the Chief Coroner’s Office has reported increases in deaths due to overdoses since the start of the pandemic. Similarly, Alberta Health Services reported decreases in both the provision and use of substance use treatment programs as well as increases in opioid-related emergency responses and deaths since the onset of the pandemic,” the report stated.
An additional Stats Canada report released today on the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 in the country doubled down on the claim from the previous report, stating that “non-COVID-19-related deaths account for some of the excess mortality.”
The report listed delayed cancer screenings, a plummet in Canadians’ overall mental health, and damage caused to low-income Canadians as consequences of the “lockdowns” and “restrictions” put in place by government authorities to keep people safe from the virus.
“For colorectal cancers, a six-month suspension of primary screening could increase cancer incidence by 2,200 cases, with 960 more cancer deaths over the lifetime,” the report stated.
The report noted that when it comes to breast cancer screenings, “a three-month interruption could increase cases diagnosed at advanced stages (310 more) and cancer deaths (110 more) from 2020 to 2029,” adding that a “six-month interruption could lead to 670 extra advanced cancers and 250 additional cancer deaths.”
Canada has a population of about 37 million. The government of Canada reports today that there have been about 22,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, meaning that a mere .05 percent (five one-hundredths of one percent) of the population has succumbed to the virus. Of the estimated 896,739 cases, there have been 843,962 recoveries, meaning that about 95 percent of those infected have already recovered.
The majority (88.5 percent) of COVID-19 deaths in Canada have been among the elderly (70 years and older), many of them residents of long-term care homes. Statistical research shows that children, teens, and young adults “do not have a high-risk for significant negative medical outcomes, including fatality” from COVID-19 infection. A July 2020 U.S. study by Ealy, McEvoy, Gupta, and others, found that children have a probability of recovery of 99.9577% from COVID-19 infections.
Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey, commenting on the Stats Canada reports, said that politicians who claimed that lockdowns would cause no harm need to be held to account.
“As the months pass by, there will be more and more such reports and stories about the harms of lockdowns. The evidence suggesting that the cure was worse than the illness will mount. This will be maddening for those who have been ringing the alarm bell on this for quite some time, to see their predictions sadly materialize,” he said.
“All of those politicians, public health officials and talking head medical experts on TV who acted like there could be no negative repercussions from lockdowns will stealthily pivot in the coming months and attempt to rewrite history. They’ll try to say that they were never all that hardline and that they were actually among those voices calling for a more balanced approach. So here’s a question: Are Canadians going to let them get away with it,” he added.
Stats Canada’s reporting confirms the warning of numerous anti-lockdown advocates who have made the case that the so-called “cure” of shutting down the country and keeping people at home will be far worse than the effects of the coronavirus “disease.”
Three Canadian doctors, heart surgeon Dr. Dennis L. Modry, Ontario’s former chief medical officer of health Dr. Richard Schabas, and pathology and virology specialist Dr. Roger Hodkinson, have publicly urged Canadian policymakers against using lockdowns because of the devastation they cause.
In February, a group of both federal and provincial politicians banded together to form the non-partisan “End the Lockdowns National Caucus” with the sole goal of ending lockdowns. “After careful examination and scrutiny of mitigation measures undertaken by all levels of government, it is now evident that the lockdowns cause more harm than the virus and must be brought to an end,” a position statement of the group reads.
The lockdowns have negatively affected all segments of society, including the youngest.
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) reported in January how it’s seeing a “disturbing trend” of babies coming to the hospital with “fractures and head trauma” in the wake of COVID-related lockdowns across Ontario and Quebec. “In my 16 years at CHEO, I have never seen this many infants with serious maltreatment injuries,” said Dr. Michelle Ward, pediatrician and Medical Director for Child and Youth Protection at CHEO, in a Jan. 29 press release.
Academics have also weighed in, pointing out that the lockdowns could result in more deaths than the virus in the long term.
Academics from Harvard, Duke, and Johns Hopkins universities recently released a paper projecting that COVID lockdowns will result in a “staggering” one million excess deaths in the U.S. over the next decade-and-a-half due to a spike of health-related issues caused by unemployment.
“For the overall population, the increase in the death rate following the COVID-19 pandemic implies a staggering 0.89 and 1.37 million excess deaths over the next 15 and 20 years, respectively,” stated the authors of the December 2020 working paper titled The Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Unemployment Shock on Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates.
Other doctors and health professionals from all over the world have also banded together in opposition to lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID.
The Great Barrington Declaration, signed by almost 55,000 medical practitioners and medical and public health scientists, raises “grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies.”
The signers call upon policymakers to allow those who are less vulnerable to COVID-19 to be “allowed to resume life as normal.”
“Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short- and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice,” the declaration states.