Setting the Record Straight: CHD Canada Stands Behind Lawyer Rocco Galati
Statement of Support…
April 9, 2024
Children’s Health Defense Canada (CHD Canada) is a federally registered not-for-profit organization, run by a board of volunteers. Mr. Rocco Galati, a successful constitutional lawyer and founder of the Constitutional Rights Centre Inc., served as a volunteer on CHD Canada’s board of directors from April 2021 to June 2023. During this time, at our request, Mr. Galati represented many cases pro-bono, to expertly and successfully defeat unconstitutional fines.
In April 2021, Mr. Galati filed a legal case on behalf of CHD Canada challenging the constitutional validity of mask mandates and lockdowns for Ontario school children (Court File: CV-21-00661284-0000). After filing the case, the Attorney General filed a motion to have the case dismissed for disclosing no Charter grounds, but Mr. Galati won the motion:
On May 27, 2021, a judge of the Superior Court ruled that the school application cited “known grounds of Charter challenge” and that it was not “frivolous and vexatious.” The Superior Court ruling stated that it was necessary to have a “complete record and full legal arguments” to determine the case.
CHD Canada worked with Mr. Galati on completing an evidentiary record that included expert scientific and medical evidence, as well as personal affidavits from the parents and teachers.
In September 2021, Ontario schools re-opened and the mask mandates were dropped, resulting in CHD Canada deciding to discontinue proceeding with the legal case. This was decided because Ontario Courts were dismissing all cases challenging the measures as “moot” and ordering costs against the people bringing the challenges. The other reason was that during the time our case was filed, Ontario courts were closed, then re-opened with extreme backlogs, causing delays in hearing cases. The concerning decisions we witnessed in many other cases at that time appeared to utilize the concept of “judicial notice” to accept that the COVID lockdowns and mandates did not breach any Charter rights.
In making the decision to discontinue our case, we considered what was in the best interest of the parents and teachers, most of whom had lost their jobs. Proceeding with the case would have likely resulted in the case being deemed moot by the courts, potentially having costs awarded against them.
It has recently come to our attention that a few individuals, who are not and never have been affiliated with CHD Canada, filed a class-action lawsuit against Mr. Galati and the Constitutional Rights Centre, purporting to act on behalf of our school application case. The class action has not been certified by the courts, and this action was taken without the knowledge or consent of CHD Canada. We neither condone nor support this legal action of independent individuals falsely claiming to act on our behalf.
Indeed, we have no complaints against Mr. Galati.
In fact, it is just the opposite. We are extremely grateful to Mr. Galati for his many generous contributions to CHD Canada and to the public, as he valiantly fought and continues to fight a very biased justice system.
We greatly value Mr. Galati’s numerous pivotal contributions he has made in the pursuit of justice and to protecting and defending the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Canadians. We support the very important work on many legal cases that he has continued to pursue through the courts and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to Canadian and Ontario medical doctors’ cases against the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).
Many of these cases that CHD Canada supported have been successfully settled with CPSO, with doctors retaining their full medical license.
Mr. Galati has CHD Canada’s full support.
Christine Colebeck
President
Children’s Health Defense Canada