Last updated:
2026-03-15
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My Hearing
Dmitry Gorodnichy vs. Canada Border Services Agency
February 18-20, 2026 (Adjourned to later date)
For all logistical matters related to this hearing, please visit Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) website.
Updates & Data Evidence: ivim.substack.com
Electoral Platform and Actions: dg4vp.substack.com
This work is dedicated to
Sean Hartman and all other young Canadians who tragically died following COVID-19 vaccination.
Abstract: This hearing concerns a challenge to a five-day suspension — one in a series of escalating disciplinary measures imposed between 2022 and 2025 — against a senior Government of Canada data scientist for publicly visualizing and analyzing official Government of Canada COVID-19 vaccine-related data. The employer alleges that this violated the employee’s duty of loyalty and specific instructions not to discuss COVID-19 vaccine-related matters publicly or in the workplace. The Grievor denies these allegations and maintains that his actions were motivated by the core values and ethics of the public service and by a moral obligation to use his unique data scientist expertise to make the best possible use of official government data for the benefit of all Canadians.
Relevance to Grievor's Involvement with the Union (PIPSC)
Relevance to Grievor's Involvement with the Union (PIPSC)
This hearing is about the issues that I stand for — for all Professionals of the Public Service,
and the reason I decided to get involved with the Union (PIPSC): Fear of Reprisal and Political Pressures.
You can show your support and be part of the history, by observing this hearing remotely.
To observe remotely, please fill out the Form provided below.
Significance
Significance
The outcome of this hearing will signal what kind of Public Service, and what kind of Canada, we are moving toward:
a country where evidence is driven by political narratives,
or, a country where political narratives are driven by the evidence;
a country where professionals who speak up against political pressures affecting public safety are persecuted,
or, a country where professionals are protected by law, as the foundation of a fearless professional Public Service that Canadians can trust.
Short Documentary (2022)
Short Documentary (2022)
"A Data Scientist's Quest For Truth" - A short 4-min Documentary made as a submission to an International Film Festival in 2022 describing the Griever's story. Re-opened for public viewing in 2026, following its removal in 2022.
PIPSC National Election Townhall (2024)
PIPSC National Election Townhall (2024)
A 12-min summary of Grievor's presentation on his key priorities when running for the Vice-President position of PIPSC in 2024 - focused on addressing Political Pressures and Fear of Reprisal. See dmitry.gorodnichy.ca for his complete platform and actions to date.
UPDATES
UPDATES
BREAKING: After three days of hearing on 18-20 Feb 2026, the Hearing is Adjourned — Next Date to Be Announced; Continuation Expected in Summer. The Grievor requests everyone who follows the Hearing to remain courteous in their comments on social networks so that the legal process can proceed without disruption and the matter is heard fully and fairly.
Proceedings to Date (18-20 FEB 2026)
Proceedings to Date (18-20 FEB 2026)
1st Day - 9:30 AM:
Opening statements were delivered first by the Employer, then by the Grievor :
Employer stated that this hearing is about Code of Conduct and Duty of Loyalty.
Grievor stated that this hearing is rather about Political Pressures and the Fear of Reprisal among Public Servants, which have become the key pillars of his Union members advocacy when he run for PIPSC Vice-president position in 2024.
The Employer presented its allegations
Exhibits added from Employer's Book of Documents
1st Day - 1 PM:
Employer called his First witness: KA, Director (Data Science Division, 2020-2022)
Grievor’s manager (2020-2022), signed Grievor's LWOP, conducted and signed administrative investigation on the allegations on posting misinformation
..
2nd Day - 9:30 AM:
The Grievor cross-examined KA (First witness for Employer):
..
..
2nd Day - 1:30 PM:
Employer called his Second witness : NV, Director (Data Science Division since 2022)
Grievor’s manager (2022-present), signed the discipline letters after the Grievor came back from LWOP
..
3rd Day - AM:
The Grievor cross-examined NV (Second witness for Employer):
..
..
3rd Day - 2 PM:
The Grievor called his first witness: RF, Professor and Data Engineer from U. of Waterloo with PhD in medical devices evaluations, who contributed to the development of the Open Canada Vital Statistics (Deaths) Tracker – “Vitals Web App”
Witness was asked to testify on the challenges of finding the desired information (such as the percentage of covid deaths among fully vaccinate) from official PHAC reports.
It was then planned that the witness would also testify on his role in gathering and validating the PHAC data for “Vitals Web App” that he helped to develop. However, this never happed for reasons described below.
After first 30 mins of the Professor's testimony, the Chair took the word to state that, at this point, he has no doubt in validity of Grievor’s data [referring to the visualization tools developed by the Grievor and the insights that were gained from those visualizations]. It is what Grievor did with this data that he needs to examine ("Your data is not in doubt, it is what you did with your data"), and hence he does not see any value in further examination of this witness or any other witness Dmitry was planning to call.
Grievor asked to take the break to decide on whether he still wants to proceed with his first witness testimony.
3rd Day - 3 PM(after break)
Based of the Chair's statement quoted above, Grievor announced his decision to cancel the testimony of his first witness.
For the same reason, the Grievor also withdrew the planned testimony of a second witness (Professor and Senior Data Scientist from U. of Ottawa who contributed to the analysis and publications of the visualizations obtained using Vitals Web App).
Another break was requested at this point to address the concerns related to the comments posted on social media
3rd Day - 4 PM(after another break)
Chair announced that the Hearing will have to adjourned. The date will be announced later (most likely sometime in summer)
Other developments - Prior to the hearing:
Grievor advised the Board that he has the third witness (Professor and Director from Institute for Big Data Analytics in Halifax who was the other contributor to the analysis and publications of the visualizations obtained using Vitals Web App), but taht could not testify because of international travel
Grievor has also advised the Board that heapproached four his public service colleagues who contributed to the development of the Vitals Web App and the related discussions, which happened during the weekly Lunch-n-Learns seminars led by the Grievor from 2020 to 2022, and all of them declined to testify because of fear of reprisal. Two of this colleagues however agreed to testify under the condition that their identities would not disclosed to the Employer, which is impossible under the format of the FPSLREB hearings.
When the hearing resumes (expected early summer):
The Grievor will testify.
Employer counsel will cross-examine the Grievor.
Both parties will present final submissions.
Timeline
Timeline
- Employment:
- 2000: Joined Gov't of Canada - NRC following graduation from Univ. of Alberta with PhD. in Computing Science (R&D in face recognition and Intelligent Vision Interfaces technologies, Chair of national and International conferences)
- 2007: Founded IVIM Inc - company to support Intelligent Vision Interfaces technologies
- 2008: Joined CBSA Science and Engineering Directorate (A/manager; Projects Lead, Senior Research Data Scientist in Biometrics and Video Surveillance),
- 2019: Transferred to Chief Data Office (development of data engineering and advanced data viz tools, biometric technology evaluation in support for OBIM)
- 2021 May: received 1st dose, 2021 Oct: applied for religious exemption, 2022 Jan: Religious exemption denied,
- 2002 Feb: placed on LWOP for not compliancy with vaccination mandate (refused to take the second shot against conscious beliefs), Jun 2022: reinstated at work..
- Jun 2022 - present: Senior Data Scientist, presently working on biometric systems evaluations and developing AI/data science tools for contraband detection.
- Networking:
- 2006-2019: Adjunct Prof at Univ of Ottawa, Univ of Dalhousie, Univ. de Quebec, Chair of ISO SC 37 (Biometrics Evaluation), Chair of IEEE Computational intelligence (Ottawa Chapter)
- 2019 - 2022 JAN: Founding lead for the GC Data Science Community R4GC on GCCollab (teaching advanced data engineering and data viz tools , weekly Lunch-n-Learn seminars)
- 2022 JAN - 2022 JUL (While on LWOP): started weekly "Open Canada with Data Science" seminars , launched "Who Can Tell Me The Truth?" substack
- Members advocacy:
- 2017-2018: CBSA Scientific Integrity Policy reviewer, One the first to act on it (published technology evaluation reports that were not published anywhere internally)
- 2019-2020: CBSA Culture Change contributor - two submissions at VP-level on the ways to improve culture using PSES and Data Science
- 2021-2022:Advocate for Open Canada Data and Fearless Advice within Public Service - as part of GC Data Science Community R4GC on GCCollab
- 2024 Apr: Elected to PIPSC NCR Executive, authored multiple motions and resolutions to address fear of reprisal and vaccination mandates reasonableness and harms
- 2024 Nov: Nominated for PIPSC VP position (voted by over a thousand of members)
- Discipline:
- 2022 Feb: Event 1 (Lunch-n-Learn Seminar) on GC network (prior to LWOP), Event 2 (at Freedom Convoy). --> 2022 Mar-Apr: Event 3 (invitation to Seminar on GCCollab), Event 4 (Twitter posts and website). --> Apr: Fact-Finding. --> Jun: Investigation Complete. --> 2022 Oct : Discipline: (5 days suspension without pay) --> Grievance Filed. --> 2022-2023 Level 1, 2, 3 Hearings -> 2023 OCT: Submitted to FPSLREB --> 2026 FEB 18-20: FPSLREB Hearing.
- In meanwhile: 2024 Apr: Second (follow-up) discipline (8-day suspension without pay) --> Grievance filed, 2025 Jun: Third (follow-up) discipline (10-day suspension without pay) --> Grievance filed --> 2025 Dec: Both follow-up grievances presented at Level 3, pending decision on FPSLREB Hearing related to the first grievance.
Summary by the Grievor
In October 2022, my employer suspended me for five days without pay for discussing in public official Government of Canada data related to COVID-19 vaccines: including in public-service data science forums, social media and at the Freedom Convoy. I am accused of having "willingly posted information that is contrary to the message that the Government of Canada is promoting which is that COVID-19 vaccines were safe and effective". My position has been that the data showed what it showed. I used my professional data science skills (science.gorodnichy,ca), to make official public data easier to understand, for the benefit of public servants and Canadians. Given the observed trends, there was urgency and a moral duty to share this information. Summary by the Grievor
- I used all democratic and professional tools available to me at the time to express concerns arising from these observations. This included an Open Letter to the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, Dr. Mona Nemer; a submission to the Office of the Auditor General; attempts to file a complaint with the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner; inviting other data scientists to validate the data and the concerning observations, and collectively discussing how to address these issues in a climate of fear of reprisal.
- My actions were guided by the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service, by good faith, and by conscience. The urgency arose from rising mortality starting with vaccination, in particular among younger Canadians — trends that were later acknowledged by Health Canada, nine months after the fact. I understood that timely access to factual public information could save lives and reduce the risk of preventable harm associated with new medical products that lacked long-term post-marketing data.
- Firstly, by that time, with 20+ years in public service, I was one of the most renown and referenced data scientists within the Government of Canada, exactly in the field of vendor product evaluation and data analysis. I was also well known within my Agency and Government networks for my contributions to the community: leading weekly Lunch-n-Learn seminars, workshops in the field of data analysis, contributing to many social events.
- Secondly, I have already done that before - just before the pandemic - I helped many colleagues (in my Agency and later in other agencies) to vocalize many of their concerns related to culture in their units - similarly using Open Canada data. In that case it was Public Service Employee Survey data , which I helped analyze using advanced interactive data visualization tools.
- Finally, I was also guided by personal experience. During the Chernobyl disaster, I was a child in grade 8 in Kyiv, and I remember how my parents saved me—and many other children —by defying official narratives that claimed everything was safe, facing threats of punishment for non-compliance. My father, a physicist, had access to a Geiger counter and used it to measure radiation levels in school playgrounds, just as I now use my data-analysis tools and professional position to measure and communicate risks affecting the safety of my own children’s generation.
List of Authorities In Defense of Grievor's Actions
List of Authorities In Defense of Grievor's Actions
Discipline — Alleged Insubordination / Off-Duty Expression / Public Expression
Expression: Duty of loyalty does not bar all public expression (public servants are "not silent members of society");
must show real operational harm. (Fraser; Haydon; King)Insubordination: Must be clear, pre-existing instruction. (KVP; Panton)
Off-Duty Conduct: Requires demonstrated nexus to employer’s interests. (Millhaven)
Reasonableness: Employer rules must be proportionate and reasonable. (Irving Pulp; Doré)
Values: Public data analysis done responsibly is consistent with Values and Ethics Code.
Evidence used against the Grievor
Evidence used against the Grievor
1: Presentation at GC "Lunch and Learn" Seminar (4 FEB 2022 )
1: Presentation at GC "Lunch and Learn" Seminar (4 FEB 2022 )
“One Year since Vaccination. What we have learnt - using Open Canada Data and Data Science”, Special Edition presentation for the R4GC Community ‘Lunch and Learn’ Meetup by the R4GC Data Science community lead, Senior Data Scientist, Dr. Dmitry Gorodnichy (4 February 2022).
For all Documents and Evidence provided by the Employer see Employer's Documents.
Click on the image below to view the PowerPoint presented by Grievor. (Published at https://open-canada.github.io/vitals/)
2: Address at Freedom Convoy (4 FEB 2022)
2: Address at Freedom Convoy (4 FEB 2022)
"...my objective here is really trying to better understand the numbers just as a data scientist. I'm here looking for the truth. i have to be very honest. i'm not supporting any group. I'm just supporting the evidence and the true data. and i might be mistaken. I'm saying it all the time.
As a scientist we have to always we put our own conclusions in doubt all the time, and we invite in other scientists, peers to challenge us, to ask questions so that we could actually find where the truth is. Truth is coming through the dialogue and discussion and questions..."
"...Now the challenge is that all government of canada people are bound by the code of ethics, you know we have a rule of conduct. and the rule of conduct actually is [such that is] very hard to say anything which could be seen as going against your government. Otherwise, you would be essentially facing suspension or you will be fired.
So for a government employee, even when he sees something is happening there, it's very hard to say anything, because you will face potentially a challenge. And this is what i'm trying to do here i'm trying to walk this very thin borderline, like balancing and trying to support the government through their own data, through their own sources..."
"...i support my employer. i am a proud employee, and i thank government of Canada again to make this data publicly available, so thank you. and also i applaud the efforts of liberal government to make open government policy which were introduced in 2018, which essentially made all government canada data open by default.
3: White paper on "red flags" in PHAC "cases following vaccinations" reports (10 February 2022)
3: White paper on "red flags" in PHAC "cases following vaccinations" reports (10 February 2022)
“Additional observations related to the ‘Elephant in the Room’ – from the Government of Canada COVID-19 daily epidemiology updates”, White paper, https://open-canada.github.io/vitals/comment2.pdf (removed by third party following the complaint from "informer"), mirror: https://ivi-m.github.io/vitals/comment2.pdf
This paper co-authored with other data scientists identified "red flags" with how "cases following vaccinations" statistics are reported by PHAC , and provided recommendations on how to address these "red flags":
It was Shared on GCCollab for comments and discussion.
4: Weekly Seminars Led by Grievor while on LWOP (FEB 2022 - JUL 2022)
4: Weekly Seminars Led by Grievor while on LWOP (FEB 2022 - JUL 2022)
Introduction to the New Channel "Seeing Through Data."
Watch on YouTube (Restored)
Episode 2022-04-08: Analyzing Pfizer papers, with an invited guest - a senior data scientist from UK.
Concerns ("Red Flags") raised by the Grievor
Concerns ("Red Flags") raised by the Grievor
Many concerns ("red flags") were noted by the Grievor after examining the official sources.
The Grievor brought these concerns forward for discussion with his management
(on 25 Jan, follow-up on Feb 1, 2022, then in April 2022 during the Fact Checking meeting).
The management declined to discuss them and "suggested" not discuss vaccines at workplace or anywhere.
For the details on these concerns ("red flags"), see:
Employer's Book of Document (Investigation Report) and Grievor's Book of Documents and Raised Concerns page
Interactive Data Visualizations (Web Apps):
Interactive Data Visualizations (Web Apps):
Many of the concerns noted by the Grievor and his colleagues were based on the insights gained using the Open Canada Vital Statistics (Deaths) Tracker, aka Vitals Web App (in the Hearing referred to as Interactive Multi-Dimensional Visualizations)
which was developed by the Grievor and his colleagues during Lunch-n-Learns seminars led by the Grievor.
Additional concerns were obtained through the discussions and literature review.
URL: https://open-canada.github.io/Apps/vitals (mirror: https://o-canada.shinyapps.io/vitals)
Summary of observations: https://sites.google.com/view/open-canada (shortcut: ivim.ca/o)
PS. My Anthem: Who Can Tell Me The Truth ?
PS. My Anthem: Who Can Tell Me The Truth ?
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