Canada’s Bird Flu Crisis: Is the Science Being Fully Questioned?

The warnings we sounded in World Watch: Canada Rejects Immunity, Risks Its Food Security were troubling enough. But even we did not expect what we have since learned.

The destruction of Edgewood’s healthy ostrich flock. The culling of over eleven million birds since 2021. The rising pressure on small, independent farms under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stamping-out orders. All of it justified by fears of the “H5N1 avian influenza virus.”

Now new evidence and expert analyses raise uncomfortable but necessary questions. Are these responses based on the strongest possible scientific proof? Are independent farmers paying the ultimate price for a regulatory approach that may not fully reflect the biological realities of H5N1?

The urgent themes discussed in this article are expanded upon in our number one international best-selling book, It Starts With Gold™, co-authored by Peter J. Merrick and Adrian C. Spitters. In the book, we explore how food supply chains and financial systems can be influenced by large global actors and policy frameworks. We analyze how regulatory and economic mechanisms may be used to consolidate resources and impact national food security. This has serious implications when organizations and governments set rules around who grows food, how it is produced, and who controls access. Visit www.ItStartsWithGold.com.

Independent biostatistician Christine Massey has spent years compiling hundreds of Freedom of Information (FOI) responses from health agencies in Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.

Her research, documented in “Don’t Fall for the ‘Avian Influenza Virus’ Hoax!”, poses an essential scientific challenge. Massey requested that health authorities provide official documentation showing direct isolation and purification of an “H5N1 virus” from naturally infected diseased bird tissue.

According to her work:

• • • Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Public Health Agency of Canada, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the United Kingdom Animal and Plant Health Agency, and numerous municipal and provincial agencies responded that they could not supply such documentation.
    • The responses consistently indicated an absence of records documenting the complete isolation of intact H5N1 particles under the classical virological definition.

These FOI responses raise legitimate questions about whether current policy frameworks are being guided by direct empirical proof or by longstanding assumptions and indirect evidence.

We believe this distinction deserves far greater discussion.

As we document in It Starts With Gold™, Canada’s poultry and egg producers have paid a steep price.

Since 2021, Canada has applied the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly Office International des Epizooties) disease eradication guidelines with rigour. These protocols focus on immediate depopulation of affected and at-risk flocks to prevent export trade disruptions.

The result has been:

• • • Over 400 farms across Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia were depopulated under Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) mandates.
    • Heavy financial and emotional burdens are placed on independent producers, many of whom lack the scale, legal support, or financial liquidity to survive these losses.

Critics of the current response point out:

• • • The absence of consideration for possible natural immunity in flocks
    • The rejection of measured risk-mitigation or monitored co-existence models practised in certain European countries
    • The lack of transparency in providing the exact scientific data driving decisions

Massey’s findings suggest that the most rigorous verification standards have not yet been publicly met in Canada’s regulatory process.

The Edgewood ostrich case in British Columbia brought this debate into the spotlight.

Edgewood’s flock was reportedly healthy and raised under organic, pasture-based conditions. No clinical illness was detected on the farm. Nonetheless, the entire flock was ordered to be culled as a precautionary measure after a possible exposure risk was identified within a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Primary Control Zone.

This case illustrates a larger problem. The rigid application of stamping-out policies assumes a zero-risk framework. But such an approach may create unintended vulnerabilities:

• • • Canada’s supply chains were already exposed during the pandemic when border slowdowns, labour shortages, and transport delays disrupted food distribution.
    • With every large-scale depopulation, Canada’s domestic resilience shrinks, increasing reliance on global suppliers.
    • The potential for cascading shortages becomes a tangible threat if global or regional supply chains fail again under geopolitical or health emergencies.

This scenario is explored in greater depth in It Starts With Gold™.

The system is not broken. It may be working exactly as intended by those who designed it.

The World Organization for Animal Health trade requirements dictate disease-free certification for poultry exports. That means regulators must eliminate any potential deviation from the definition of disease-free status, even in the absence of clinical illness.

This explains why governments and major agricultural corporations prefer zero-tolerance eradication over complex risk-based models. It provides legal simplicity for international export trade.

Control over food remains one of the most fundamental mechanisms of influence globally.

We fully respect that public health authorities must act prudently to avoid contagion and protect consumers. However, as Massey’s work demonstrates, full public disclosure of the evidence underpinning policy decisions would benefit Canadians and build trust.

We call for regulatory transparency and more dialogue between farmers, scientists, policy makers, and citizens.

We remain hopeful.

We believe Canadians, farmers, and civil society organizations can work together to push for reform of animal health protocols and policies.

In It Starts With Gold™, we, Peter J. Merrick and Adrian C. Spitters, outline practical steps individuals can take to build personal and family resilience:

• • • Diversify wealth into tangible assets like gold, land, and income-producing real assets
    • Explore local food security strategies and community-based agriculture
    • Advocate for better policy frameworks that balance public health with farmer livelihoods and food security

There is a path forward.

To find out more, order your copy of It Starts With Gold™ today and discover what may lie behind today’s unfolding global trends.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

• World Watch: Canada Rejects Immunity, Risks Its Food Security
• Don’t Fall for the ‘Avian Influenza Virus’ Hoax! – Christine Massey
• It Starts With Gold™ – Amazon