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The Canadian government today launched an inquiry into COVID-19 vaccines, with a focus on listening to the accounts of Canadians harmed by the shots.
The Allison Inquiry, which runs Sept. 8 to 11, will hear from roughly 50 Canadians injured by the vaccines. They will testify under oath about their experiences so their accounts become part of the public record.
The inquiry is named after Canadian Member of Parliament Dean Allison, who is chairing the event.
THE ALLISON INQUIRY STARTS TODAY
From Tuesday, September 8, through Friday, September 11, the Allison Inquiry will hear testimony from more than 50 Canadians injured by COVID-19 vaccines, representing communities across the country.
These stories deserve to be heard. These… pic.twitter.com/fP5JXxcmjm
— Allison Inquiry (@AllisonInquiry) September 8, 2026
Over 1,400 Canadians injured by the COVID-19 shots applied to speak at the inquiry. Although the inquiry won’t have time to hear all the testimonies, the stories will be submitted to the public record, according to a press release.
Canadians who want to submit their written testimony can do so here.
The hearing kicked off with over three hours of testimony from U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who provided context on COVID-19 injuries.
Johnson, who chairs the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, shared findings with Canadian lawmakers from his ongoing investigations of how COVID-19 vaccine makers and Biden-era public health officials ignored and minimized the shots’ risks.
In April, Johnson released a report tracing how U.S. Food and Drug Administration leaders rejected a state-of-the-art statistical tool for detecting COVID-19 vaccine safety signals — and instead deliberately continued using a broken method because they didn’t want to “feed in to [sic] anti-vaccination rhetoric.”
On Sept. 17, Johnson will be honored at a Children’s Health Defense one-day conference in Washington, D.C., for his work on exposing COVID-19-era corruption and demanding public accountability.
Throughout Johnson’s testimony, several Canadian lawmakers asked for his input on how to move forward in bringing transparency and accountability for COVID-19-era harms, including vaccine injury.
Johnson, who said he ran for a third term to be a voice for the COVID-19 vaccine-injured, said the world needs a “COVID-19 reckoning” that begins with exposing the widespread reality of COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
Suicide rates among COVID vaccine-injured rising
At today’s hearing, Johnson told the story of a Canadian mother injured by the COVID-19 vaccine who was “so despondent” that she ended her life via Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program.
The mother’s suicide is far from an isolated case, Johnson said.
In summer 2021, suicide rates among members of React19 — a nonprofit formed to support those injured by COVID-19 vaccine — increased after Facebook shut down their online support groups.
“These people who were being gaslit, whose doctors are saying it’s all in your head, weren’t getting treatment anywhere,” Johnson said. “The only solace they had were their support groups on Facebook and on social media.”
And now suicide rates among the COVID-19 vaccine-injured are again on the rise because people are so despondent due to the ongoing lack of recognition and treatment, Johnson added.
Julie Woods, a Canadian woman who was injured after doses two and three of the Pfizer COVID-19 shot and who will testify on Sept. 10 at the inquiry, told The Defender that many Canadians injured by the COVID-19 shots are tired after years of fighting for recognition and access to treatment.
Woods is a React19 support group coordinator and co-founder of the sister organization CANrise19. She wrote in an email, “Their conditions are continuing to progress and they have NO medical support within Canada, leaving a high number thinking that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)/suicide is their only option.”
Woods said she was recently physically and financially able to travel to Utah, where she was given immunotherapy, but many in Canada aren’t so lucky. Many of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine-injured don’t have access to the appropriate diagnostics or care for their conditions, she added.
Dr. Joel Wallskog, co-chair of React19 and a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who became medically disabled after one dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, applauded the Allison Inquiry for making the accounts of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine-injured part of the public record.
He told The Defender:
“Once these injuries and the experiences of those living with them are formally recorded, we hope Canadian political leaders and healthcare systems will acknowledge this population and begin addressing their urgent needs for appropriate medical care, research and meaningful compensation.”
‘They don’t know how to treat me’
The hearing’s first COVID-19 vaccine-injury witness was Carrie Sakamoto, a Canadian mother of three who suffered facial paralysis and other injuries after she received a dose of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in April 2021 and a dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in June 2021.
After receiving the Pfizer shot, she was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy. “It completely changed me — not just the way I look,” she said.
Sakamoto developed facial paralysis, hearing loss, fatigue and a burning sensation in her brain. Her face is still disfigured and pulls painfully in different directions, she said.
She is on medication to prevent her brain pain, but the medication causes short-term memory loss. She also has two types of vertigo.
Sakamoto said her doctors have acknowledged that her injuries were vaccine-induced, but they haven’t succeeded in treating her symptoms. “They don’t know how to treat me because it’s new and it’s hard to talk about.”
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Canada has ‘no care’ for COVID vaccine-injured
Although people in the U.S. injured by the COVID-19 vaccine have had it rough, Canadians have largely had it even worse, according to Bri Dressen, co-chair of React19. Dressen was injured when she participated in a clinical trial for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
“There is no care for them. There is no recognition,” Dressen told The Defender. “At least here [in the U.S.] we’ve got a handful of doctors that help. There they’ve got nobody.”
That’s why Canada has medical refugees, like Woods, who leave the country to access care, Dressen added.
Canada’s compensation program for those injured by the COVID-19 vaccine is also “riddled with problems,” Dressen said.
In his opening remarks, Allison cited how Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program has compensated only a fraction of the claims it has received.
My investigative reporting on Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program was acknowledged by MP @DeanAllisonMP during his @AllisonInquiry opening remarks
They received thousands of claims, but approved only a fraction.
And where’d the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars go? To… pic.twitter.com/FWELj44sQO
— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) September 8, 2026
Johnson said vaccine injury compensation programs in countries like Canada and the U.S. would likely need to pay out “hundreds of billions of dollars” if the programs were “administered honestly.”
Dressen praised Johnson for continuing to speak out on behalf of the COVID-19 vaccine-injured. “Johnson has not given up when the vast majority of the world and the movement have moved on, and he just has kept the heat on,” she said.
“We could not be more grateful to this man for doing this because without him, we would have basically nothing as far as awareness and pressure on the authorities to still do the right thing,” she added.
Watch the first day of the Allison Inquiry here:
Related articles in The Defender
- ‘People Will Be Heard’: Canada Launches Inquiry Into COVID Vaccine Injuries
- Sen. Ron Johnson: There Used to Be ‘Serious Journalism’ on Vaccine Injuries — But COVID Vaccine Cancer Risks Still Being Suppressed
- Children’s Health Defense Scientist: CDC, FDA COVID Vaccine Safety Monitoring ‘Insulting, and Many People Are Injured’
- Breaking: FDA Knew of Better Method to Detect Sudden Deaths After COVID Vaccines — But Refused to Use it.
- CDC Jeopardized Health of ‘Millions of Americans’ by Failing to Warn of Stroke Risk After Pfizer Vaccine
- ‘This Is Going to Be a Slog’: Senate Hearing on Cover-Up of COVID Vaccine Risks Just the ‘Tip of the Iceberg,’ Johnson Tells Committee
