Vaccine-Injured Tell Inquiry How They Went From Active Lifestyles to Being Wheelchair-Bound

Michael Oesch testifies before the Allison Inquiry in Ottawa on Sept. 9, 2026. Yan Parisien for The Epoch Times

Several Canadians testified at an inquiry into COVID-19 vaccines that they had once led physically active lives, but became wheelchair-bound due to complications related to the inoculations.

“I was walking with my granddaughter, and my leg started to drag. After walking for probably 3 or 4 kilometres … I literally could not lift my leg and my stepson basically shouldered me—like you'd take a football player off the field, all the way back home up the hill—and that was the beginning of the journey,” Michael Oesch testified before the inquiry on Sept. 9.

The witnesses testified during the second day of the Allison Inquiry, which aims to provide a forum for Canadians injured by COVID-19 vaccines to tell their stories. The inquiry is running for four days.

Oesch—who walked from Toronto to Labrador and back in 2002, and then walked from Toronto to Vancouver in 2005—said his leg started to “drag” after receiving his fourth vaccine dose in October 2022. Doctors found a large lesion on his spine, and his health devolved until he was unable to walk, he said.

Oesch said he has attempted take the “dis” out of “disability” and maintain a positive outlook despite his situation. “We have a choice in life to suffer or be happy, and the choice is ours, and I always try to look on the positive side of things,” he said.

Jasmeet Grewal testified that he had led an active lifestyle prior to his injury, which included playing softball and traditional dancing.

Grewal began experiencing “extreme cramping” in his legs following his second vaccine dose in June 2021, which got progressively worse, he said. His family doctor suggested that his symptoms may be psychological in nature, he testified.

“It just kept getting consistently worse, where I would lose balance in my legs. I was always kind of tumbling and fumbling around, which wasn’t very common for me,” Grewal said.

In addition to eventually losing the ability to walk, Grewal said he now suffers from tremors in his hands and burning nerve pain throughout his body. He also relies on two bags and pumps that deliver nutrients to his body for 12 hours each day, he said.

Grewal said that while he has been supported by friends and family, “trying to navigate it in my own head, and seeing where I could have been or what could have been … has been confounding.”

Vienna Demeduk testified that she went from running 20 kilometres every other day to walking with a cane. She said she had a stroke two days after her first COVID-19 shot, and has had around 11 strokes since.

“I went to reach for a glass of water, and I felt this pop in the back of my head,” Demeduk said. “I knew right away that I was having a stroke, and then I lost my sight. … I couldn’t see, so I’m in a condo by myself, and I lost my ability to walk instantly.”

Jannine Duffy testified that while she used to walk 4 kilometres a day to work and back, due to severe and long-lasting foot pain following her vaccine doses, she now cannot walk more than 10 minutes at a time.

“It’s a burning,” she said. “It feels like the bottom of my feet almost get lumpy, or that I’m walking on like broken seashells.”