Witness Testimony

Scarlett Martyn testified that she worked 24 years as a paramedic, including as an advanced care paramedic and heavy urban search and rescue member. She volunteered for critical care transfers during the pandemic and participated in a seroprevalence study that confirmed she had natural immunity to COVID-19. Despite offering alternatives such as testing, she was suspended and later terminated for “willful misconduct” and jeopardizing workplace safety for refusing vaccination. She described the termination process as humiliating and disproportionate, particularly given her prior service and documented immunity.
Martyn testified that early in the pandemic hospitals were unusually quiet, with reduced call volumes and patients delaying emergency care out of fear. She described a dramatic cultural shift after vaccine rollout, stating that skepticism became socially unacceptable within healthcare settings and that hostility toward unvaccinated patients became normalized. She recounted ICU staff making derogatory remarks about unvaccinated individuals and described rougher interpersonal treatment that, while not reflected in charts, was evident in tone and handling. She also testified that patients presenting with possible vaccine adverse reactions were often dismissed and that references to recent vaccination were not consistently recorded in hospital documentation.
She further testified that early COVID case classification relied on broad screening checklists without clinical discretion, leading to widespread designation of suspected COVID cases. She described delays in emergency care due to screening protocols, including a case involving a brain hemorrhage patient whose transfer was delayed approximately 30–40 minutes after failing a secondary screening while sedated. She also questioned certain COVID death classifications, citing a suicide case later reported as COVID positive. Following her termination, she helped establish the United Healthcare Workers of Ontario, representing over 3,000 members, and participated in a letter to federal health officials raising concerns about informed consent, risk–benefit communication, and vaccine safety disclosures, for which no response was received.