A viral message falsely claims that Canada's Alberta province lifted lockdown measures after a COVID denialist Patrick King won a case against the government as they could not prove that COVID-19 exists as they have not isolated the virus, yet.
While Alberta did raise its restrictions in August, it was due to cases decreasing in the province and the province reaching its vaccination target. The province has reinstated COVID-19 restrictions from December 2021 as COVID-19 cases have increased in the area. Furthermore, Patrick King claims that he won the case against the government, but BOOM found that the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta had quashed his plea.
King made these claims on a show with Steve Peters. Peters is another COVID denialist and anti-vaxxer who has been interviewing other COVID-19 denialists and has spread many conspiracy theories around COVID-19.
The video uploaded in August has been revived with Hindi text in India. The video has been uploaded on Peters' Bitchute link and is titled "YUGE!!! CANADIAN COURT VICTORY PROVES COVID-19 IS A HOAX & ALL RESTRICTIONS HAVE NOW BEEN DROPPED"
BOOM received the link and the message associated with it in Hindi on its WhatsApp helpline requesting verification.
The message claims that Alberta is calling the pandemic a mere flu and has done away with lockdowns, masks, and vaccination. They have attributed this to Patrick King who knows and understands that the pandemic is a hoax and he claims that the virus does not exist. Both Peters and King say that the virus has not even been isolated.
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Fact Check
The viral message is riddled with fake news. Firstly, Alberta province revoked lockdown measures in August 2021 as the province had met its vaccination targets and was reporting fewer COVID-19 courses. However, the province reintroduced lockdown mandates in December 2021 as cases started to increase in the province.
Secondly, Patrick King did not win the court case that he had filed against the province. In December 2020, King was fined $1200 for bringing people together to protest the health laws imbibed by the Alberta government. In retaliation, Patrick challenged the rules in July 2021 and asked the province's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, to present material proof that the virus exists.
While the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta quashed his plea and stated that neither King nor the chief medical officer of health had any material evidence, King and his followers chose to only highlight that the Court pulled the medical officer for no proof. This can be seen at 05:31 minutes in Peters' video.
In the video, King chooses to highlight that the Court mentions that the Chief Medical officer of health has no evidence, but in reality, the order makes an additional point. The order reads, "Mr. King has no evidence showing that the evidence sought from the CMOH is material to the Provincial Court.". King did not win the case as he claims in the video.
Finally, King claims that the virus has not yet been isolated. The virus was first reported in December 2019 and by January 2020, Chinese scientists had already isolated the virus and shared the genome sequence of the virus on various online databases. Even India and Canada have isolated the virus. India's Covaxin vaccine produced by Bharat Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research uses an inactivated isolated virus to act against the SARS-CoV-2.