John Philip Grant
Day 1 · September 8, 2026 · 0:26:21
Key points John Grant, 74, married 51 years with 40 years in construction and active in youth ministry, says he had been seriously ill only twice before vaccination. He explains he chose to get vaccinated to honor government authority and to continue working with young people, receiving the shots with his wife. Within about two weeks he developed a nosebleed, petechiae on his legs, and bleeding gums, and a blood test showed his platelets had dropped to four. He says his platelets fell to zero and he was diagnosed with ITP, bleeding from multiple orifices with blood blisters, spending 12 days in hospital. He describes a second episode months later with shortness of breath and chest pain, diagnosed as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli that scarred his lungs. He says the injuries left him with reduced lung capacity and type 2 diabetes, forcing him to sell his rural acreage and rental properties and move into town. He frames his testimony around his Christian faith, saying he has forgiven decision-makers and urging that hope and accountability come from standing before God.
Shawn Buckley
0:00 And our final witness of the day is John Grant, who has come a long way to be here in a short period of time. 0:07 John, welcome to the inquiry. 0:10 And you're going to affirm to tell the truth. 0:14 So, John Grant, do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? 0:22 Now, just by way of your personal background, you're 74 years old. 0:26 Yes. 0:30 And as of August 30th, you have been married to your wife, Sandra, for 51 years. John Philip Grant
0:37 Absolutely. Shawn Buckley
0:38 So that's pretty cool. 0:40 You've got two boys and two girls and four grandchildren. John Philip Grant
0:44 Two boys and one girl and four grandchildren. Shawn Buckley
0:48 See, and I can be forgiven for being confused. John Philip Grant
0:50 Well, you know, I realize that I'm not the only one to get things mixed up here. Shawn Buckley
0:54 Right. 0:55 And you've done 40 years in construction. 0:58 And at the time of your vaccination, you were basically working full time. 1:02 You were fixing up houses to rent. 1:06 You had a small sawmill. 1:08 You also lived on a rural property. 1:11 And that in itself requires a lot. 1:13 You were very physically active. 1:15 You also were involved in the Awama Club. 1:19 basically managing 25 to 30 volunteers who were responsible for working with around 125 to 30 kids. 1:26 So you had that responsibility. 1:29 And this is interesting. 1:32 So you got married in 1975. 1:35 Yes. 1:36 And since then, before the vaccination, how many times had you been sick? John Philip Grant
1:42 I think it was two times where I really got sick that I was in bed. Shawn Buckley
1:46 Right, like with a cold or flu? John Philip Grant
1:48 A cold or flu, yeah, two times. Shawn Buckley
1:50 Okay, so basically you'd experienced a lot of health. 1:53 Tell us about your vaccine experience and what happened after that. John Philip Grant
2:00 It was a decision I made because I was involved with young people. 2:09 I had spent my whole life from the time I was 17 involved with young people, 2:14 with camps and Sunday school and kids clubs. 2:20 So I had spent a lot of time with young people. 2:24 And at the time, just, well, before I got the vaccine, when COVID broke out, we were told in no uncertain terms, we cannot continue on with the AWANA program 2:44 The Thursday, we had our fun time with racing cars down the track. 2:49 And then the next day, we were told we can't have it, Luana. 2:57 It was a very critical time because that's when the kids finished the books and everything. 3:02 And being a leader, I was thinking about this one day. 3:05 And I said to myself, my heart is really troubled because of what I'm hearing out there. 3:15 As soon as I said that, because I'm a Bible-believing guy and I love the Bible, I was reminded of what Jesus said to his disciples on the night that he was betrayed. 3:26 Let not your heart be troubled. 3:29 You believe in God, believe also in me. 3:31 In my Father's house are many mansions. 3:33 If it were not so, I would have told you. 3:34 I go to prepare a place for you. 3:36 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm going to come back again. 3:40 So those words were kind of my marching orders to keep me going. 3:46 in spite of the blockages that we had to be able to function with our ministries and just everyday life. 3:54 So that was one thing that really helped me along. 4:01 The process of me making the decision to get the vaccine, and I never had a flu vaccine in my whole life, other than the ones that you get for childhood diseases. 4:13 I've got all those, but I never had a flu vaccine. 4:16 And my wife, being a nurse, she reacted to a flu vaccine one year, so she didn't have to. 4:26 By the way, the senator this morning, I don't remember his name, he said something that really resonated with me. 4:34 He says, top-line caregivers and nurses are very important. 4:47 I'm here today because of those that looked after me, but because my wife was a nurse and she recognized things. 4:57 Well, I made the decision to get the vaccine because I wanted to honor the government because the Bible says we should honor the government, those who are in authority over us. 5:11 So I decided to get it. 5:14 And we did it together. 5:15 My wife and I, we went down, we got the first shot. 5:20 Then a while later, I got the second shot. 5:23 Within two weeks, it was the Monday that I did some sawing with my sawmill with my nephew and really enjoyed it. 5:37 But anybody that's done anything with logs, you know what happens when your bare arms are spot out and 5:43 You're going to scrape your arms and just nothing really spectacular. 5:50 The next day, my wife and I go and visit my daughter and the grandchildren, and I have one nostril bleeding. 5:58 It was off and on all day. 6:04 On our way home, we stopped by to go for lunch, and I needed to tie up my shoes, and my wife took a look at my legs and she says, you've got petechiae on there. 6:14 it's broken vessels on your leg. 6:17 She said, you're going to have to get that checked. 6:20 I came home that night after we went out for supper. 6:25 And in the course of the evening, I says, Sandra, look at my mouth. 6:29 My mouth is bleeding. 6:32 She says, you better get to the hospital. 6:35 So we're only 10 minutes away. 6:37 So away I went. 6:39 I get in there and immediately they give me a blood test. 6:44 The blood tests show that my blood platelets are sitting at four. Shawn Buckley
6:52 What are they supposed to be? John Philip Grant
6:56 My baseline is about 154, but it's anywhere from 150 to 400, depending on the person. 7:03 So I was basically bleeding to death. 7:10 The doctor on call at the Westlock, 7:13 health care center, contacted the top hematologist in the University of Edmonton, Dr. Sawyer. 7:27 And he says, get this guy on steroids. 7:34 The next day, I went and saw my home doctor, Dr. Cuomo, and he says, we got to get you into that clinic. 7:43 And so I ended up going to the clinic at 9 o'clock in the morning. 7:53 He took one look at my blood work and said, we got to get you into the hospital here. 8:03 Well, that was 9 o'clock in the morning, and he tried from his clinic. 8:07 Finally, he says, I can't get you in from the clinic. 8:10 You got to go to the emergency. 8:16 It was until nine o'clock that night that they found me a room. 8:24 The next day, my daughter came in to see me. 8:40 My platelets had gone down to zero. 8:53 I didn't know if I was going to live because I'd done enough research on it to say this is very important to have your blood to be able to clot. 9:10 Something else happened the next couple of days because I was really hanging on to that verse about Jesus coming back again. 9:23 Maybe I was going to be going and seeing him sooner than I want because I love being a husband. 9:31 I love being a dad and a grandpa. 9:37 And I had a good friend came and saw me. 9:44 That's another interesting thing. 9:46 You find out who your real friends are when you're in hospital. 9:50 Ones that come and visit you or ones that give you a call or text you. 9:54 Why, that's important. 9:56 He dropped off a book. 9:58 It's a book from an old theologian. 10:02 Spurgeon. 10:05 And he identified a verse in Hebrews. 10:10 It says, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. 10:16 In prayer. 10:17 So that you may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. 10:23 And the verse before that, it says, we have an advocate. 10:27 We have a Savior who knows what we are going through. 10:37 So I remember speaking to the Lord. 10:42 Lord, I come into your presence. 10:45 I don't have anything here. 10:47 I'm empty-handed. 10:50 You know, there's somebody else in the throne room. 10:53 That's Jesus Christ. 10:56 And Jesus Christ says, hey, dad, John belongs to me. 11:02 He put his faith and trust in me when he was five years old. 11:05 He belongs to me. 11:07 And you know what happens? 11:09 That great God, he gets up and he puts his arms around you. 11:14 And spiritually, I got a spiritual hug from my father in heaven. 11:27 Well, I was on a healing process. 11:32 I was carried through many times. 11:33 Many times I returned to that chapter and that verse. 11:39 It took me until October to get my platelets back up to 150. Shawn Buckley
11:43 Can I slow you down? 11:46 Because my understanding also is you had what you described to me as blood blisters. 11:52 Can you tell us about that? John Philip Grant
11:53 What was that again? Shawn Buckley
11:54 Blood blisters. 11:54 Blood blisters. John Philip Grant
11:57 Oh, blood blisters. Shawn Buckley
12:00 Yeah, the blood blisters. 12:01 Can you share about that? John Philip Grant
12:02 Oh, well, I had it in my mouth. 12:05 Oh, I would tell you about my arms being scraped. 12:10 Show the picture of my arms. 12:12 There. 12:13 That's what broke out onto my arms because any little broken skin was oozing blood and it would dry. 12:23 And I had that over my whole body. 12:25 Show the one on my face. 12:26 Not that everybody wants to see my face. 12:29 It was in my mouth. Shawn Buckley
12:34 So what's happening here? 12:35 We see spots all over. John Philip Grant
12:37 That's blood oozing out of every orifice and every broken piece of my skin. 12:42 I had it all over my body. 12:44 The hematologist, Dr. Sawyer, had three or four interns who were studying to be hematologists. 12:53 And one was Dr. Wong, who was kind of leading it. 12:56 And she said, we have never seen anything like that before. Shawn Buckley
13:00 So let's go back to the first one, David, the legs. 13:03 So you were describing what you call... Patiki. 13:06 Right. 13:06 And this is what you're talking about. 13:09 So your legs don't normally look like this. 13:11 This is all basically blood vessels. 13:13 Yeah. John Philip Grant
13:14 And it was over my whole body. Shawn Buckley
13:17 Okay. 13:17 So then, David, go to the one of his tongue. 13:21 So we don't really see it that well in the picture, but there's actually... 13:26 Big blisters of blood in the back of your throat. John Philip Grant
13:29 Yeah, all my gums were bleeding, my tongue, and basically I was bleeding from in my urine, my blood, my nose. 13:45 The only place I wasn't bleeding out was with my ears, thankfully. 13:49 But it was very uncomfortable laying in bed there because if I moved too hard, these blood 13:58 things would break off. Shawn Buckley
14:00 You also had an experience in the hospital where you had to go to the bathroom. 14:04 Can you share with us what happened? John Philip Grant
14:05 What? Shawn Buckley
14:06 You had to go to the bathroom and something. John Philip Grant
14:09 Well, that was the next chapter. 14:12 Okay. 14:14 Because after I went through all this and I spent just about a year getting back together, it also put me into type 2 diabetes. 14:23 I was on insulin. 14:26 I was wore out with the medications that I was on. 14:30 Oh, by the way, I had to go in for IV meds every week for four weeks after I was let out of the hospital for some more drugs. 14:42 Well, I finally got not too bad and I was doing pretty good and got sawn lumber again and I built a shed and I was doing pretty good. 14:52 Then in February, 14:58 I started losing breath. 15:00 And you know, it was in church. 15:03 I couldn't sing because I kept on running out of breath. 15:09 I phoned my doctor the next day. 15:11 He took me right away. 15:13 And he says, I don't know what's going on. 15:16 He listened to my heart. 15:17 But he says, I'm going to send you in for a blood test and an x-ray. 15:28 And so I didn't make it in on Monday. 15:31 It was late in the day. 15:32 So Tuesday, I'm sitting at home waiting, kind of gathering up my strength to go to the appointment. 15:42 And Sandra had gone in to go visit my grandkids. 15:46 And she gets about 20 minutes old. 15:47 She says, no, I think I better go back and look after John. 15:52 She came back in and she says, as soon as we get the blood test done, I'm taking you to emergency. 15:59 So we got the blood test done and got the x-ray done. 16:02 And she walks over to the emergency. 16:05 I said, my husband is out of breath and he's got chest pains. 16:09 Those are two things that will trigger the emergency people right away. 16:14 My doctor had already seen that blood work. 16:20 And he saw that there was an enzyme given off from my heart because I got problems with my heart or my lungs. 16:27 And they ordered a scan of my lungs. 16:30 And it turns out that I got blood clots in my lungs. 16:36 So I had the complete opposite. 16:43 Now, I think the reference shown to that, 16:48 peeing. 16:49 It was actually from the other one. 16:50 I was thinking it was this one here. 16:52 When I was in the hospital the first time, by the way, I spent 12 days in the hospital that time. 16:58 I had blood in my urine. 17:01 One time I couldn't pee. 17:04 I said, oh no. 17:07 That's the worst feeling you can have when your bladder is full and you can't pee. 17:12 It let off. 17:14 It had been blood clots and I spread pee and urine all over the bathroom. 17:18 It was a gross sight, but it just told me just how devastating my whole system was. Shawn Buckley
17:26 And you actually meant blood and urine because you're bloody. John Philip Grant
17:29 What's that? Shawn Buckley
17:30 It was bloody. John Philip Grant
17:31 Oh, it's life. 17:31 It was red. 17:32 Very red. Shawn Buckley
17:32 Yeah. 17:33 So this, um, you were diagnosed the first time with the low blood clot. 17:40 I don't want to say the medical term because I will miss my name. John Philip Grant
17:42 Yeah. 17:43 ITP. Shawn Buckley
17:44 Yeah. 17:44 So, um, 17:46 And then it's quite common for people that have that to then rebound the other way and get deep pain from both. John Philip Grant
17:53 That's what Dr. Wong, my special... Now, Dr. Wong took me on as a patient after I got out of hospital because she had completed her internship. 18:01 And she asked, do you want me to keep you as a patient? 18:03 I said, yeah, I'd like that. 18:05 And she was very good at making sure she was following me up. 18:08 And so we went through that healing process. 18:13 And so she... 18:15 When I came down with this, well, it was two things, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embola. 18:22 I had a leg that was bothering me, and it swelled up, and I had blood clots in my leg that moved up to my lungs. Shawn Buckley
18:30 And I'm just going to move us along because we're getting short on time. 18:34 But basically, the blood clots in your lungs cause scarring and permanent damage. John Philip Grant
18:40 As far as we know, there's a certain amount of scar tissue there so that I don't have the same capacity that I had before. 18:47 I sometimes run out of breath. Shawn Buckley
18:50 And that's basically limited your lifestyle, including requiring you to sell your 18:56 rural property in the town. John Philip Grant
18:58 Well, we had been talking about it because of our age, but when I got sick the second time and I got behind on my maintenance of my rental properties and I got rid of one of them and I says to Sandra, I think we've got to sell this last one, but we've got to get ready to sell the acreage. 19:15 That acreage had a shop that was 32 by 30, two stories high. 19:24 We had garden spots. 19:26 I had sheep running just about every summer, keeping the grass down. 19:33 I had a beautiful three-story playhouse for the kids that I built. 19:39 I remember them telling them that we're gonna sell the place and they came out and they spent their time playing on that playhouse. 19:49 So we ended up selling the place and buying a house in town, but it took us the whole winter for me to move all my junk 19:57 When you're 40 years in construction and 27 years in the same garage, some of you guys know what I'm talking about. Shawn Buckley
20:04 So I moved it over to a little acreage that we had still attached to our property with different title. John Philip Grant
20:10 And in the spring, we moved in the fall. 20:14 And in the spring, we sold the acreage. 20:18 And so now I've been dealing with. 20:22 First of all, I could work for an hour. 20:26 Then I'd have to lie down. 20:29 And then I could do an hour and a half. 20:32 And it's been a long, slow process getting up so I could. 20:36 I used to work 10, 12 hours a day. 20:39 And as I got older, I said, well, I don't need to really do that. 20:42 I can limit it to eight hours a day. 20:48 Well, I haven't been able to work eight hours for a long time. 20:51 I love working. 20:52 I love building. 20:54 I love hunting and fishing and canoeing and things like that. 21:01 There's one area of the Athabasca River that I haven't canoed. 21:06 I've gone from the Athabasca Falls into Athabasca or into Jasper, but I haven't gone from Jasper to Hinton. 21:13 I've done Hinton all the way up to Vega Ferry on different canoe trips that I've had. 21:19 I don't know how to do it. 21:21 So... 21:23 certain things have changed. Shawn Buckley
21:25 Just going to ask you one last question. 21:26 Why is it important to share your story? John Philip Grant
21:30 Why is it important for what? Shawn Buckley
21:31 To share your story here. John Philip Grant
21:35 Two things. 21:37 I hope I've communicated to you what I've gone through. 21:40 But also I wanted to make sure you understand of how I've dealt with this onslaught of my body. 21:49 I have found that 21:51 great strength and great power in relying upon those two verses i shared with you and i've heard fellow people who suffered they don't have any hope and i believe the greatest hope that we can have is when we can go into the very presence of god as he says come and boldly into the throne of grace in prayer 22:18 so that you can obtain mercy and grace in a time of need. 22:21 What's mercy? 22:22 It's not getting what you deserve, and grace is a great big gift. 22:27 And I've had to adjust something in my thinking. 22:30 All the people who made the decisions to force us to have those vaccines, I had to come to a point where I have to say, I forgive them. 22:45 Because when I stand in God's presence, 22:48 I'm before God who is righteous, and he knows right from wrong. 22:54 And this is the warning of any of you people who listen to this. 23:02 You're going to stand before God someday. 23:06 Every single last one of us are going to stand before God. 23:10 And if you don't have a lawyer, I mean, lawyer as in Jesus Christ, 23:19 all the bank accounts, your other cronies, your government protection, the bodies that you have around you, you're going to stand there as an individual. 23:33 And dear friends, if you were from the government or from the pharmaceutical companies and you've made those decisions knowing that you're lying, if you don't have Jesus Christ as an advocate, 23:46 You've got a hammer down there. 23:49 What do you call it? 23:50 Lift it up. 23:53 When God takes the paddle and he brings that down, if you don't have Jesus Christ on your side, it's going to be guilty. 24:06 The only hope that we have ultimately to see this COVID charade finished 24:16 is that we start believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to be our advocate, who is going to give us the ability to carry on. 24:27 And that's what I have to share. 24:28 That's what I wanted to share. MP Dean Allison
24:32 John, we want to thank you very much for sharing your story today. 24:36 Thank you for coming. 24:37 And we want to thank all the witnesses that came today to share their various stories. 24:42 experiences, and so thank you once again. John Philip Grant
24:45 Thank you, Mr. Elson, for putting this on because it came as the last minute for me to get down here, and I was glad I was able to do it. MP Dean Allison
24:51 Thank you for making the effort to come all that way. 24:53 Thanks. Shawn Buckley
25:06 So we're going to commence tomorrow at 8.30. 25:10 We're not done yet. 25:12 The chairperson will say some parting words, but this last witness really was last minute because we had some people drop out because for medical reasons, they just simply could not travel. 25:25 And in the coming days, we're going to be pretty heavy on vaccine injured people, and many of them are suffering to get here. 25:34 We had one that had to leave today. 25:36 So we just ask, I guess I'm just, 25:40 stating that because it's the fact and to say that we really feel honoured just the efforts they're taking and to hear their stories. 25:47 So come back tomorrow. 25:50 You'll be changed again. MP Dean Allison
25:50 Yeah, and I'll just end with I want to thank my colleagues that showed up today to hear the stories and to all those that testified or were in the gallery to participate or show support. 26:03 We appreciate everyone being here and then of course to all our media friends that are here as well. 26:09 So thank you for 26:10 talking about people's stories that should be heard and should be told. 26:14 So with that, we're going to end the meeting and we'll see you tomorrow morning at 8.30.