Baby Steps: Back in My Office

It has been 3 years, 4 months, and 23 days (1,243 total days) and I am finally back in my office at the university that employs me. I was banished from my workspaces almost 3.5 years ago following a radio interview in which I expressed concerns about the systemic biodistribution of COVID-19 shots throughout the body. I disclosed scientific data that aligned with the long history of lipid nanoparticle technology, but contrasted with the dominant global narrative that existed at that time. My ‘controversial statements’ are now well-accepted facts in the scientific literature.

In response, some of my colleagues participated in a well-coordinated global defamation campaign against me. I found myself the target of chronic harassment that has not ceased to this day. Rather than tackle my message, they chose to repeatedly attack the messenger.

I sought some kind of restoration of formerly productive working relationships with four of these colleagues. Instead, they formally expressed feelings of fear should I be allowed to be anywhere in their vicinity. This purported fear was initially limited to the university campus boundary, and then shrunk to the building housing my office and laboratory, despite only two of the four complainants being in that building.

I was prohibited from accessing my workspaces due to ‘feelings’ expressed by my colleagues. Their feelings were catered to; mine, which were based on experiencing tangible and chronic harassment were ignored. Campus and municipal police investigated the situation and consultants were hired by the university to conduct further investigations. Every report (or summary thereof) that I have seen has concluded that I never represented a ‘real and present danger’ to my colleagues. They even state that the complainants themselves have admitted that I never presented as a ‘real and present danger’. In fact, documentary evidence that I have seen shows that at least one of them amplified their actions against me with an intent to drive me to the point of such frustration that I would feel compelled to contact the police for help.

You know that a person is feigning fear of the bear when they make it their goal to keep poking the bear until a negative reaction is elicited.

As a consequence of my colleagues making their request to have their feelings appeased I was banished from my laboratory and office for 3.5 years. In recognition of the fact that I never presented as a ‘real and present danger’, my banishment has officially been deemed to be a ‘non-disciplinary’ action. But my research program has now been utterly destroyed and I have suffered irreparable harm to my professional reputation. So, if this was ‘non-disciplinary’, I would hate to see what ‘discipline’ would have looked like.

So, I now have access again to my office. However, and remarkably, I am still not allowed to enter my laboratory. Don’t ask me why because I have yet to be presented with a rationale, especially when everyone that has been consulted has defined me to be a non-threat. Even now, I cannot fully commit to initiating the rebuild of my research program. I had a bad experience after obtaining funding when I was told (for the umpteenth time) one year ago that the return to my lab was imminent. I was accused by my administration of failing to conduct the research that I had proposed to do. This was dropped when I explained that I did not conduct the research that I had promised to do because the administration would not allow me to do the research that I had intended to conduct because they had banished me from my lab. They agreed that it seemed unreasonable to expect me to perform the research when I was not allowed to perform my research. After this utterly ridiculous scenario played out there was agreement that I should not even seek more funding until I find myself physically present in my lab again; so that wait continues.

With respect to the current milestone, I want to thank my faculty association (the union that represents the professors on my campus) for their assistance by filing grievances on my behalf. This return to my office represents the first of multiple steps they are trying to achieve to help me rebuild my career as a research-intensive faculty member. As the world continues to wake up to the growth in tyranny that was nurtured by the responses to COVID-19, I cling to hope that justice will ultimately be fully achieved.

For now, I want to celebrate the small miracles. It felt surreal to return to my office after the experiences of the last 3.5 years. I left my office on July 22, 2021 assuming I would be back the next day. The ‘next day’ turned out to be yesterday, December 16, 2024. My supportive wife, who has endured as much as I have over the past 3.5 years, walked to work with me to be the first to make me feel welcome (she also brought Christmas decorations that she hung in my office)…

We also brought my oldest son’s dog, who provides much companionship and entertainment (as a cross with a chocolate lab, she is partially camouflaged in this picture)…

I really appreciated the welcome sign that my wife and youngest son made for me…

It also meant a lot to see my youngest son’s loving note still on the message board outside my office 3.5 years later. As well, I noted that someone left a supportive note of thanks at some point within the last few years…

Within a couple of minutes of arriving back at my office a coworker that I missed seeing each day ran up and hugged me. I was so grateful for that support.

And I was thrilled to be warmly welcomed by my amazing research team (the precious few that remain by a thread) who met me at my office and gave me a wonderful card filled with thoughtful notes, as well as a beautiful poinsettia…

…to replace what had become a dilapidated collection of cacti that had desiccated over the years I was absent…

It was surreal to walk into my office that had been frozen in a time when the world was gripped in a propaganda-fed fear-driven narrative, and I noted some obvious examples on my walls that I had forgotten about.

I would like to share three drawings that my youngest son made for me in the weeks prior to me being segregated from my university community. They were drawn in 2021. My son has the superpower known as Down Syndrome (he has an extra love chromosome). He was eleven at the time. These drawings remind me of how much information our children take in.

My son drew this one after hearing my wife and I talking about a COVID-19-related court case in New Zealand for which I had been asked to serve as an expert witness…

…he even got the cross from the Union Jack correct when making New Zealand’s flag.

I put this one on my wall 3.5 years ago to remind me of why children needed critically thinking experts to speak up to try to protect them from abuse by public health and government officials…

…we can never forget what was done to our children. My son experienced relatively unique harm from having so many adults hide their faces from him; his speech was further delayed by an inability to see how others were shaping their lips and positioning their tongues when speaking.

And here is one that you would likely find impossible to understand…

…until you realize that he was recapitulating the ‘blue and red people’ from this image that I use to teach people about the concept of herd immunity (which can be achieved by natural immunity and/or real vaccines; and cannot ever be achieved by an injection that fails to confer immunity)…

There is no question that many people in my workplace have been poisoned against me. In the last two days I have passed colleagues in the hallway that acted like I did not exist. I also had people scurrying away from me. My wife says it reminds her of cockroaches running for the dark corners when light enters the room.

A colleague had their office moved further away from mine when they heard I was allowed to come back. A student’s thesis defense was moved at the last minute from the floor where my office is because there was concern that some attendees might feel uncomfortable with my return to their vicinity and have difficulty concentrating on their job. I was told that “many” people were fearful or concerned about my return. Apparently, some will not enter the building if they know I am in it. Others put in requests that I consider using stairwells that they do not frequent, etc.

Nothing about the formal aspects of the return to my office met my university’s policy that states I am supposed to be entitled to “feel welcome and valued in the workplace”. Instead, I’ve been made by many to feel like I am carrying the plague and am an object to be feared.

The good news is that those who claim to fear me have survived my return completely unscathed. Hopefully, their self-induced panic will fade over time. Regardless of the colleagues that are on emotional hair-triggers, I will continue to hold my head up proudly in my workplace because the only thing I ever did ‘wrong’ was disclose the truth to an inquiring and deserving public who expect no less from me.

I am convinced that the university no longer has the pulse of Canada. Our country seems to have largely moved (or wants to move) on from extreme liberal wokism, but my institution is still stuck there. So I might remain a rose among thorns for quite some time (I acknowledge that some of my colleagues might say, ‘a thorn among roses’).

With all the heartache that I have gone through, some have accused me of being naïve when I gave my interview 3.5 years ago, that I should have submitted to the prevailing narrative, and many have asked if I would do it again if given the chance.

Would I speak the truth again?

…yes. And I am willing to be judged on that.