Public Order Commission deletes footage of lawyer collapsing at November 9 hearing
Commission lawyer Gabriel Poliquin a few moments before he collapsed on November 9. Image: POEC
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I am astonished to see this morning that Canada’s Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) website has deleted video footage of lawyer Gabriel Poliquin collapsing at the November 9th hearing.
I hope Mr. Poliquin makes a speedy recovery; that there is a simple, easily remedied and non-life-threatening reason for his collapse; and that he did not injure himself when he fell.
Proceedings were paused at the Commission on Wednesday when he leaned to the side and then dropped to the floor while he was questioning a witness. His condition is as yet unclear; the POEC has not posted any media release providing viewers with an update on his condition.
Those watching the live video saw Poliquin fall, and then the Commission’s “recess” screen appeared for a period of about three hours before proceedings resumed.
Perhaps Mr. Poliquin’s collapse had nothing to do with any COVID shot he ever received. Maybe it did. Whatever the circumstance, the Commission has an obligation to Canadians to deliver the truth, the whole truth, as soon as the truth becomes available.
Canada is investing millions of dollars and thousands of hours of time into this “Public Order Emergency Commission.” Editing the website video footage without informing viewers the footage has been edited risks having this expensive Commission be perceived as manipulative and disingenuous.
Alarmingly, Poliquin’s collapse was eerily reminiscent of the video compilations we’ve recently viewed, showing athletes collapsing on sports fields, performers keeling over onstage, and news presenters collapsing live on air. There have been hundreds of them, always of a perfectly healthy human being busy doing something they do every day, collapsing to the ground and in too many unfortunate cases, dying.
In many of the cases for which information is available, the collapsing person recently received a COVID vaccine. Comedian Heather McDonald’s infamous collapse came after she spent time bragging about the number of vaccines she had received.
Mr. Poliquin’s unfortunate collapse may in fact provide an ironic example of the precise reason some Truckers were protesting. Editing out the very moment in time that vividly illustrates the Truckers worst fears lays waste to any confidence that the Commission is actually searching for the truth.
What if Mr. Poliquin had been driving a truck when the blackout occurred? Or, as one Trucker asked, “What if he had been flying a plane?”
Today, citizens who were sceptical of the Canada’s hysterical response to COVID-19 two years ago are surely even more suspicious now: Commission footage has been edited to remove Mr. Poliquin’s collapse. Now that we know the footage can be edited, we have to ask: what else might have been removed? Or will be removed in the future?
Why hasn’t the Commission posted any sort of notice to viewers that the footage they are looking at has been edited?
I have written the POEC media team to ask what their guidelines are for deleting footage; whether any other footage has been deleted; and whether and how they will notify viewers they are watching footage which has been edited. I have not received a response as this is being posted, however, when I do receive a response, I will update this column.
Update 10:30 am November 10th: RWN has received the following message from Michael Tansey, Senior Communications Advisor to the Public Order Emergency Commission:
“Out of respect for Mr. Poliquin, the archived video from yesterday’s hearing does not include the moment when he collapsed. No evidence was deleted. The Commissioner provided an update on Mr. Poliquin this morning.”
My response: “No evidence was deleted” only as long as you don’t consider an apparently healthy adult collapsing live on-camera “evidence.” That looked a lot like evidence to some people.
