3 Ontario nurses disciplined for social media posts related to pandemic launch $1M libel suit

Three Ontario nurses who have faced discipline for their stances on the pandemic are suing the Canadian Nurses Association and a media outlet in British Columbia, with the libel suit seeking $1 million.

Kristen Nagle of London, Kristal Pitter of Tillsonburg and Sara Choujounian of Toronto have been investigated by the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) for sharing their controversial views about the pandemic on social media.

All three nurses are entitled to practise in Ontario without restrictions.

Pitter, a nurse practitioner and former nursing home inspector for the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, has been cautioned by the CNO, along with Nagle, about spreading misinformation on social media about the pandemic.

Nagle, a former neonatal intensive-care nurse at London Health Sciences Centre, was fired last January after she was charged by law enforcement for failing to comply with Ontario's emergency pandemic health restrictions in November 2020. She was charged again in April 2021. 

Choujounian, a former practical nurse with a Toronto home-care agency, will face a CNO disciplinary hearing this June for professional misconduct in connection with a dozen social media posts related to the pandemic, including claims surgical masks increase the risk cancer, the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax and COVID-19 vaccines are "unsafe."  

Nagle and Choujounian were also investigated by the Ontario nursing regulator for making a trip to Washington with a group of peers, during last January's non-essential travel ban, for allegedly promoting theories that the pandemic is a hoax and hospitals had a role to play in misrepresenting it.

All three nurses are part of Canadian Frontline Nurses (CFN), an offshoot of Global Frontline Nurses, that was created to "empower health-care workers who disagree with lockdowns," according to the CFN's Facebook page. 

The statement of claim was filed in a Toronto court on Dec. 13, 2021, by the CFN on behalf of Pitter, Nagle and Choujounian, and names four defendants:

The lawsuit claims the defamatory statements against the plaintiffs were made by each organization separately in September 2021, against a backdrop of anti-lockdown demonstrations at hospitals across Canada.

In its allegations against the CNA, the lawsuit claims the organization made defamatory statements about Pitter, Nagle and Choujounian on its website on Sept. 9, 2021, in an anonymous opinion piece titled "Enough is enough: professional nurses stand for science-based health care."

The article does not name Pitter, Nagle or Choujounian. Instead, it makes reference 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."

The CNA post also refers to the demonstrators at the September hospital protests as "surly mobs" who "harass, threaten, and even assault health-care workers coming and going in the business of saving lives."

The lawsuit says that while the CNA article did not explicitly refer to the plaintiffs by name, it "was intended" and "could be understood to refer to them," claiming the CNA "knew or ought to have known" the statements were libel.