CALGARY, AB: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has released a new report, “Post-Covid Canada: The rise in unexpected deaths,” which analyzes recent Statistics Canada data on causes of death during and after the era of Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates. The report raises urgent concerns about the accuracy of Covid death reports, the harmful impacts of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, and the ongoing trend of unexplained deaths in Canada.

Canadians died at an alarming rate between 2020 and 2024. While public health officials and politicians claim that Covid was the cause, the data shows that Covid death statistics were inflated and that thousands of Canadians died due to lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and their downstream effects.

The report’s key findings include:

1. “Excess” or “unexpected” deaths were much higher in 2022, after lockdowns and after most Canadians had been injected with a Covid vaccine, than during the first two years of Covid. In Canada, there were 14,950 unexpected deaths in 2020, 13,510 unexpected deaths in 2021, and 31,370 unexpected deaths in 2022.

2. Covid deaths increased after the rollout of Covid vaccines. By the end of 2021, more than 80 percent of Canadians were fully vaccinated for Covid. In 2022, however, Covid deaths increased to an all-time high of 19,906 – a 22 percent increase over 2020 Covid deaths.

3. Up to 10,000 statistically expected deaths among seniors in 2020 and 2021 were misclassified as Covid deaths. Meanwhile, in 2020 and 2021, Statistics Canada reported 690 fewer deaths from respiratory and pulmonary disease; 3,270 fewer deaths from respiratory infections and lung disease; 6,100 fewer deaths from vascular and other dementia diseases; and 1,000 fewer deaths from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system. The data is clear: deaths that would otherwise have been attributed to these illnesses were attributed to Covid.

4. Deaths from causes linked to lockdowns, such as drug overdoses, alcohol-related illnesses, hypertension, and delayed medical procedures and diagnoses, increased significantly during lockdowns.

5. Increasingly, Statistics Canada is attributing deaths to “unknown causes.” For instance, among Canadians under age 45 who died in 2022, more than 15 percent have not been assigned a cause of death.

Benjamin Klassen, Research and Education Coordinator at the Justice Centre and lead author of the report, stated, “This report shows that Canadians were seriously misled about Covid and about the safety and effectiveness of government lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Governments not only failed to protect lives but also contributed to thousands of preventable deaths with their freedom-violating policies.”

“Despite assurances that government policies would save lives,” he added, “the data reveals the opposite: lockdowns, delayed healthcare, and rushed vaccine mandates all appear to have significantly contributed to high numbers of additional and unexpected deaths from causes other than Covid. Higher death rates in Canada have continued to rise – especially evident among young Canadians.”

Three key recommendations flow from the report’s findings:

1. Provide timely and accurate death data. Statistics Canada and governments must address chronic reporting delays at the provincial and federal levels.

2. Investigate harms caused by Covid lockdowns and vaccines. Canadians deserve an independent and transparent inquiry into the short-term and long-term harms caused by government responses to Covid.

3. Protect freedom of expression for professionals. Canadian professionals need legislation that prohibits colleges of physicians and surgeons and other professional regulatory bodies from censoring and punishing professionals who express dissenting views on public health issues.

Read the full report here.

For media inquiries, please contact media@jccf.ca.