Witness Testimony

Josephine Fillier testified that she is a stay-at-home mother of three from St. John’s, Newfoundland, and received one dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on June 18, 2021 in order to travel to visit her partner. She stated she was apprehensive prior to vaccination and reported that risks were not discussed beyond common short-term effects. Shortly after returning home, she developed severe burning pain in her right leg that persisted long-term and progressed to swelling, lumps, internal vibrations, tremors, numbness, and chronic nerve pain. She identified the vaccine lot number as FA9093.
Fillier testified that her family physician dismissed her concerns for months despite ongoing physical symptoms. She stated that blood work and D-dimer testing returned normal results, but a neurologist later suggested a possible dysautonomia or autoimmune response and recommended MRI and further testing. She reported escalating mental health symptoms following vaccination, including severe panic attacks, chest pain, chronic fatigue, anger, and worsening anxiety beyond her pre-existing depression and PTSD history. She submitted a report to the Canadian adverse event reporting system herself after alleging her doctor declined to do so.
She further testified that after attending the Freedom Convoy in early 2022 and removing her children from school during that period, child protection authorities removed her two sons from her custody on February 8, 2022. She stated that one child has since returned home and the other is in the process of transitioning back. She described loss of trust in pharmaceutical products and healthcare providers following her experience.