2022-08-03
Pre-discipline hearing presentation

#Hearing2026

Pre-disciplinary Hearing

Dr. Dmitry Gorodnichy

- and -

Canada Border Services Agency

Presented on August 3, 2022

By Dmitry Gorodnichy

Related hearings and documents:

• Level 1 Grievance

• Discrimination complaint (submitted on Aug 4 and addressed to my satisfaction, thank you)

Allegations

General Allegations

“the cumulative  nature of Dmitry’s action highlight an increasingly deliberate, persistent, growing patterns of  questioning the vaccine safety and efficacy, which goes against the messaging of the  government of Canada covid-19 vaccine policy and messaging, which is that vaccines are  safe and efficient. 

This I entirely wrong as explained in this document (using example of questioning PIK Biometrics efficacy) 

“Although the employee says that he disputes the above assessment, that he is not posting  information that goes against the GoC messaging, the evidence as outlined above (e.g.,  removal of his message on GC collab, complaints from staff) suggests otherwise:

The very fact that TBS or  GC Tools folks complained and remove my content, cannot be used as the reason to accuse me of going against any messaging.  It only shows exactly that they did not look into language/problem of technology performance from data science perspective, like I did. 

In conclusion, I always  follow any manager’s instruction right away when they are  specific and clear, even though I do not understand sometimes what was wrong there and will seek for the answers (why) later.

Similarly, in the future to  I will do the same, provided also that these instructions will not conflict with my fundamental rights for security, which includes finding true unbiased information about the effect and safety of vaccine on the health of myself , my chidren and other members of my family

See more details from page 3. below.

Specific Allegations:

On February 4, 2022 – big part of is missing:
(JP , DG’s go a head, no established process ever provided)

The major part of the story that it was done with Engagement Team (see email to JP and Slido Poll  image sent to you on 3 Aug 2022) and under the go ahead from S (DG) – to create safe space is entirely missing.

February 11, 2022  - paper was removed 

🡨 I went right away (even though I did not what was wrong – See “questioning as way of improving”, but it was already removed by someone else. I still do not know whats wrong with article  - you can view it ON THIS website: https://github.com/IVI-M/vitals/blob/main/docs/comment2.pdf . it described the Alg.Bias that we have just observed together. And offered the ways to improve reporting . Those who removed it went against the Code of Ethics in preventing timely dissemination and responsible use of resources (data)

March 18,  2022 

This is the great learning opportunity on R and Shiny - with Data Scientist from UK who developed this Shiny App: https://vaccines.shinyapps.io/cave/  What was wrong with that?. 

April 1, 2022 – 

Another great learning opportunity on combining R and Googlesheets – which my colleagues asked -  so that to help colleaguse to better understand and visualize any official GC data themselves.  What was wrong with that?

For details see Comments directly embedded INVESTIGATION REPORT

Points related to General allegations

Point #1: Data scientist treatment of “system efficiency” problem is different than that of layman or non-technical person

When a layman (general public) hears “Solution X is Safe and Efficient”, a professional like me hears “Solution X has such and such acceptable range of True Positive Rate (TPR - equivalent for Efficacy) and such and such acceptable range of True Negative Rate (TNR - equivalent for Safety), which will very - naturally - over time, over different populations and conditions. And this is how by examining this variation - seeing where the performance is the best and worst - we improve the performance of Solution X, as we go forward.”

Historical note: For over 15 past years of my professional life, my main responsibility, as research data scientist, was exactly evaluation of “safety and efficacy” performance of third party systems - various AI classifiers and predictors, multiple Biometric (Face / Iris / Voice recognition) systems and many Video analytics (object and activity recognition in surveillance video) systems - using the empirical data that were collected from the operation of those systems.

During the hearing, I showed many internal images from my latest biometrics performance evaluation work, which looked very similar to the ones I publish on performance of Vaccines from Official Canada data on ivim.ca. (I cannot show them here, but I show a few similar others from public domain in Appendix)

To say that 'questioning the vaccine safety and efficacy' is against the message that ‘vaccines are safe and efficient’ is the same as to say that by ‘questioning the performance of various Biometric systems’ goes against the message that ‘Biometric technology is safe and efficient’. It is exactly and only by “questioning” the system - whether it is Biometric or Vaccine or any other - over a large range of conditions, different populations, over time, that such system can be further improve it.
Therefore , my work only further contributes to the development of better vaccines and their better use over large range of populations and conditions. 

Point #2: Everything I do is in support of my employer’s Codes of Conduct - not to the contrary of it. People who prevent responsible use of GC resources (data) , who prevent impartial advice (based on these data) and dissemination of objective and factual  information, advice and support in a timely manner, and who’s actions do not take into account health, safety and security of colleagues (such as those resulting from delayed dissemination of data related to their health) - are the ones who violate GC rules of Conduct, not me.

Quotes from Code of Conducts

• by providing providing impartial (free from political and industry interference), objective and factual  information, advice and support in a timely manner.
  Preventing me to share such impartial information in a timely manner is going violating the code

• use and care for  public resources responsibly, for both the short term and long term. Employ public  resources wisely and properly - by using the GC data, which is worth lot of money and time - to the best value possible

• taking into consideration our own health, safety and security and that of our  colleagues. 

Here, I showed a screenshot of three top Slido Questions asked during our directorate’s townhall in January 2022 , one of which (that received 40 votes) was “If the organization will provide support for employees who have adverse reactions from vaccination?” hall [[ and then the email that I sent to our Branch Engagement Team (the fabulous folks there always willing to help anyone in the branch) with agenda item for their next meeting - to address this top-voted Question by setting a safe space where people would able to seek for help/support in relation to adverse effects, the idea for which - very importantly - was welcomed by my senior management ]]

I also reminded that, in fact, the “Reporting COVID-19 vaccines side effects” portal which I uploaded to https://open-canada.github.io/vitals/report-side-effect was built using the information that was provided to me by other Agency’s employees. 

Also, I was, in fact, encouraged by my superior to create a safe place where employees could discuss their concerns and help each other, using existing support group, which I did.

Point 3: I asked multiple times for “updated and complete information about vaccine” (specifically the one based on post-marketing data, which has become available after October 2022). I also asked multiple times for “established process to voice his concerns about COVID vaccines” and was never provided the answer to either of this requests. This is why I had to do find this information myself, using the democratic and technical means that were available to me:

• With help from colleagues, I developed - on my own time - automated interactive Web Apps, which tracks and visualizes StatCan and PHAC data over time, thus facilitating significantly the analysis Vaccine data for everyone.

• I approached my colleagues from uOttawa and uDal (prominent reseachers in the field of Data Scientist - Prof. Matwin and Prof. Kulik) , with whom we jointly - on our own time - conducted analysis of StatCan and PHAC data and produced two research articles, that have been made publicly available at ivim.ca portal (here and here) and shared were we thought is appropriate - including on GCcollab - the platform where 

• I wrote Open Letter to Chief Science Adviser - Dr. Mona Nemer, which can be found here.

• With recommendation from another GC colleague, I also submitted “Concern” to Office of Auditor General on the use of biases that skew the reported data

Point #4 : witnessing and proving the ongoing Assault on Democracy,  on Canadians and GC employees happening today (since the launch of Mandatory Vaccination policies)

Many Canadian lawyers, politicians, epidemiologists, journalists are engaged to stop the ongoing Assault on Democracy, on Canadians (in legal definition “Assault”) , and specifically on GC workers, like myself.

All GC workers – including everyone in this meeting – presently live and work under Assault – threatened* to be tortured ((in legal definition f all these words) , if we do or say anything which can be seen as a critic of vaccines.

*Torture is to be stripped from your all means of income, for the rest of your life. – There’s nothing more horrifying  for a human than this, except the horrors of war, such as the one happening right now in my homeland Ukraine.   - I could even make parallels with between the Horrors and the Feeling of Helplessness of people in War-torn Ukraine (in the face of the much larger Russian military and propaganda machine), and what we are experiencing here in Canada.

The outcome of this tragic situation is the following: 

On one side, We (Canadians, GC emploees n particular) have supreme laws and fundamental rights: 

• Civil liberties, Criminal code, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and above all  the  Law of God / Karma

Additionally, as GC employees, We  also have also responsibility for Canadian Public (Code of Value and Ethics, Scientific integrity): 

• Insert Quotes here.

And yet, on the other side, we cannot exercise now our free will and judgement to do what is right (according to above listed laws and responsibilities), even simply to talk  in public the facts that we observe with our own eyes ,  because of the fear of  torture* (as described above) 

You can proof it yourself right now in 3 minutes. Please  go to https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/#a9, and look at Figure 5) and answer this question.: 

Do you see that the statistics of  Cases following Vaccination are published by PHAC in such a way as to significantly minimize the percentage of Cases after additional 2+ doses (the tiny dark green bars on the right of the Charts) - compared to the percentage of other Cases?   

(In answering this question, remind yourself that 4-dose cases have started only two months ago as seen in https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccination-coverage/, while the total number of cases that is used in the denominator started in December 14, 2020 )

If you feel uncomfortable verbalizing in public the observation you  just made (which is the observation of algorithmic bias that is used to skew the results in favour of 4-doses)  - you just proved it yourself that you are also afraid of torture that can be inflicted on you by your employer for simply saying the fact, the truth.

 In other words, you are no longer free to do or to say what is right – about Vaccines, me, this investigation. If that’s the case, everything else I say here does not matter… 

PS.

Is that for the first time you realized that? 

I also did not know until December 2021 – when one of my GC colleagues showed it to me and asked for my thoughts (very privately and under fear that this is could cause him troubles at his job) 

So, why  no one talk about that in GC – still even now, since December, Why? – Because of fear of torture described above

Additional notes from Grievor

From: Gorodnichy, Dmitry
Sent: August 5, 2022 8:33 AM
To: xxxxx
Subject: My defence and additional points for pre-discipline hearing

Below:

1. Email from Unon ERO with additional points

2. Images from my professional performance evaluating work  with underlined question for you – used in the presentation

3. Images from PHAC with underlined question for you – used in the presentation

The following was sent to you in advance:

• Email to Engagement team (Jxxx  Pxxxx) with Snapshot of Slido Poll (that showed very large number of voted – 40 - on question about concerns related to vaccine ) – the precursor the presentation I made on Feb 4, 2022

• Email to senior TBS executive who made the same statements (observations) that I did – that vaccine presently don’t work with current covid variants

To conclude:

• I’m here (in life and work) not to fight with my colleagues,  my government, or my country, but to help us all, and work together

• I’m ready to discuss any informal or formal opportunity to resolve this matter and my individual grievance presented to you two weeks ago in the most friendly collegial manner, so it does not need to go out in negative light – but rather in positive light – to the public and history.

• I’m ready for any compromises and discussions and efforts to achieve that.

• I’m ready to follow any your instructions, as long as they don’t lead to worsening of security (health) of me or my family, including  removing or modifying any content I’ve published.  – as I’ve just done recently by closing my LinkedIn account.

Thank you

Dmitry

1) Note from PIPSC ERO:

On Wed, Aug 3, 2022, 2:25 PM

  I didn't have time to add anything at the end of the meeting. Given the chance, I would have mentioned that your record is clean (you didn't receive any discipline in the last two years) and I would have tried to summarize your arguments a little because I'm afraid they got lost in all the information you presented. I believe what is important for your employer to remember is that you found yourself in a very difficult position when you were placed on leave without pay for non-compliance to the policy. You wanted to continue using your skills and help the public understand the data so you started sharing information based on the data published by the government. You strongly believe that what you did was to help members of the public. You are trying your best to navigate through the various rules, you are not knowingly  [potentially] violating them.

 3)  Below is a ( recreated ) screenshot and question from presentation.

Do you see that results are shown in such a way as to make them look better for cases with vaccination status 4 doses (right bars) than they are in reality?

(If you see it , why cannot you say  it?  Do you feel afraid saying what you see?)