Nurses probed over social media posts about COVID launch $1M libel suit against Canadian Nurses Association and B.C. news site

Three Ontario nurses investigated recently by the province’s nursing regulator – which had also looked into a trip to Washington, D.C., taken by two of the nurses during a non-essential travel ban in January – have filed a $1-million libel suit against the Canadian Nurses Association and an online media outlet in B.C. Kristen Nagle of London, Kristal Pitter of Tillsonburg and Sara Choujounian of Toronto, named the CNA, its president Tim Guest, chief executive officer Michael Villeneuve and Together News Inc. as defendants in the claim, which was filed in December in a Toronto court, according to a CBC News report. The suit was filed on their behalf by Canadian Frontline Nurses, an offshoot of a group called Global Frontline Nurses, whose mandate is to “empower healthcare workers who disagree with lockdowns,” according to the CFN’s Facebook page. The three plaintiffs are members of the CFN. Read: 'It's terrifying': Police on hand as pandemic protesters picket hospitals The College of Nurses of Ontario had cautioned Nagle and Pitter–a nurse practitioner who used to be a nursing home inspector for the province’s Ministry of Long-Term Care–about spreading misinformation about the pandemic on social media. Nagel was fired last January from her job as neonatal intensive care nurse at London Health Sciences Centre after she was charged by law enforcement in November 2020 for failing to comply with Ontario’s emergency pandemic restrictions. She was charged a second time the following year. Choujounian, who had worked as a practical nurse with a Toronto home care agency, is scheduled for a disciplinary hearing in June for professional misconduct related to pandemic-focused social media posts, which included claims that surgical masks increase the risk of cancer–such as claims surgical masks increase the risk, COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe and the pandemic is a hoax. She was also investigated by the CNO, along with Nagle, for travelling to Washington in January and for allegedly promoting theories that the pandemic is a hoax hospitals are helping to perpetrate. Read: Canadian neonatal nurse fired after speaking at D.C. rally The lawsuit claims the Canadian Nurses Association made defamatory statements about the three nurses, in an opinion piece posted on the association’s website on September 9, 2021, during a time when demonstrators gathered in front of Ontario hospitals to protect COVID lockdowns. The piece, entitled “Enough is enough: professional nurses stand for science-based health care” makes no mention of the three women. The lawsuit claims, however, that the article–which refers to "the reckless views of a handful of discredited people who identify as nurses," saying they "have aligned in some cases with angry crowds who are putting public health and safety at risk"–was intended and “could be understood” to refer to Pitter, Nagle or Choujounian. The article was "meant and was understood to mean" the plaintiffs "are not nurses," are "anti-science," "put public health and safety at risk" and "formed part of a crowd that was intent on causing trouble or violence" through harassing and threatening health-care workers, according to the claim. Read: Petition asking for COVID hazard pay for nurses gets 175k signatures The claim against Together News is based on a September 11, 2021 piece published anonymously under the title “Quack! Quack! These pro-virus nurses have dangerous ideas.” Pitter, Nagle, Choujounian and Canadian Frontline Nurses are mentioned by name in the article, which allegedly depicted the three nurses as "disgraced," "highly disturbed and unstable," and stated that the trio had all been "terminated because their employers did not trust them." The suits also claims the article suggests Pitter was responsible for COVID deaths in long-term care facilities and that Nagle and Choujounian were participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 protest that culminated in the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building. As a result of these articles, Pitter, Nagle and Choujounian have been subjected to "ridicule, hatred and contempt," and have been "injured in their feelings, their personal and professional character and reputation," according to the claim. Read: Beyond Bill C-3: What else is needed to protect doctors against intimidation?

Nurses probed over social media posts about COVID launch $1M libel suit against Canadian Nurses Association and B.C. news site

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