IMA leaders joined the 2025 Reclaiming Conference in Canada to address the nation’s healthcare crisis and reflect on the global struggle for honesty, ethics, and medical freedom.
For years, Canadians held up their healthcare system as proof that a country could offer universal care with dignity and access. That story is harder to tell now. Across the country, patients wait months for basic services. Emergency rooms are shutting down. Doctors are leaving the system—or being pushed out. And when patients finally do get an appointment, many find themselves restricted or limited on what questions they can ask their doctors. What was once a point of pride is now a source of frustration, confusion, and quiet crisis.
That’s the reality that brought over 70 speakers to Calgary last month for the 4th Annual Reclaiming Conference organized by WeUnify.
IMA President Dr. Joseph Varon, Senior Advisor Dr. Robert Malone, and Senior Fellows Dr. Jennifer Hibberd, Dr. Ryan Cole, and Dr. Renata Moon joined healthcare professionals, scientists, and educators to address what’s gone wrong and how to build something better.
Honesty, Healing, and Hope: Voices from the Reclaiming Conference
This year’s Reclaiming Conference brought together doctors, scientists, educators, and citizens from across Canada and beyond to speak honestly about what’s gone wrong in healthcare—and what needs to be fixed. Many of the speakers paid a personal price for telling the truth. That was the common thread.
“I had everything to lose and nothing to gain for simply being a witness to what I saw in my own patients. I paid a heavy price to basically stand on moral integrity and say, ‘it is not right to do this to people.’” — Dr. Charles Hoffe, Canadian Physician
“When you restrict someone’s free speech, you’ve actually shut off science. You’ve shut off medicine. And we will not recover from this as a world if we continue down this path.” — Dr. Renata Moon, Senior Fellow, Pediatrics
Alongside these warnings was a clear sense of shared purpose and relief that others see it too.
“These conferences allow people to come together, connect with each other, embrace each other, discuss ideas, and reinforce the sense that they are not alone, that they are part of a community and that their shared community values have merit.” — Dr. Robert Malone, Senior Advisor to IMA
“We’re inspiring people—that’s our purpose. I hope I can share the strength that I have. I want to share it with everybody… Every single person, we need you to contribute to the human race and to keep everyone healthy.” — Dr. Jennifer Hibberd, IMA Senior Fellow
What’s Gone Wrong in Canadian Healthcare
Speaker after speaker described a system that’s not just under strain but falling apart. The failures aren’t hidden. They’re showing up in ER wait times, broken patient access, policy absurdities, and ethical collapse. These are just some of the pressure points now defining healthcare in Canada:
- Emergency rooms are closing across multiple provinces due to staffing breakdowns
- Walk-in clinics have stopped accepting walk-in patients
- Millions of Canadians can’t find a family doctor
- High-volume immigration continues while the system can’t meet current demand
- Some provinces still enforce COVID booster mandates every six months, even for nonclinical staff
- Doctors and nurses who refused the COVID shot have never been rehired, despite a historic staffing shortage
- mRNA vaccines have proven ineffective and harmful, yet mandates remain in place
- More than one million Canadians seek medical care abroad each year
- MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) now accounts for nearly 5% of all deaths in Canada, and a growing share of organ donations
This isn’t just bureaucratic failure. It’s a moral and professional unraveling… one that leaves patients behind while rewarding obedience and silence.
That’s why the voices at this conference matter. The doctors of the Independent Medical Alliance aren’t offering slogans. They’re offering a model for courage, ethics, and accountability in a system that desperately needs all three.
Dr. Joseph Varon: “Let Patients Decide”
IMA President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Varon addressed a global crisis of trust in healthcare systems, shaped by years of top-down mandates, politicized science, and lost transparency.
“It’s all about honesty, transparency, and empowering patients to be their own decision makers.” — Dr. Joseph Varon
He reminded attendees that medicine must return to its foundations—patient choice, informed consent, and a clear understanding that every treatment has consequences. Restoring that clarity, he said, starts with truth-telling.
Dr. Jennifer Hibberd: “Open Their Minds”
Senior Fellow Dr. Jennifer Hibberd spoke from personal and professional experience, sharing how few of her Canadian medical colleagues are willing to acknowledge what’s happened, let alone speak up.
“Very few are aware and awake. And those that are really don’t want to raise their head above a pulpit—they don’t want to go through what some of us have gone through. But more and more are coming to speak to me in the hospitals where I work.” — Dr. Jennifer Hibberd
She now focuses much of her energy on education, especially at the university level.
“These are the change makers of the future. I want to open their minds to think outside the box.”
Conclusion: Silence Isn’t Healing
The conference offered no illusions. It didn’t pretend the system can fix itself, or that the consequences of the last few years are behind us. But it did offer something else: a reminder that there are still people willing to tell the truth—and that those people are no longer isolated.
Dr. Clayton Baker, Senior Fellow at IMA, recently wrote about one of the most disturbing developments in Canadian healthcare:
“Under Canada’s Medical Assistance In Dying (MAiD) program … physician-assisted suicide now accounts for a terrifying 4.7 percent of all deaths in Canada.” — Read Dr. Baker’s full article → The Doctor Will Kill You Now
“MAiD accounts for 6 percent of all deceased organ donors in Canada.”
These are not signs of a compassionate system. They are signs of one that has stopped trying to heal. And Canada is not alone. Across the world, nations that once prided themselves on universal care are seeing the same erosion of ethics, transparency, and patient trust.
In his reflections on the conference, Dr. Robert Malone sends a hopeful message to Canadians:
“Our Canadian brothers and sisters need our support, and I was glad to have the opportunity to participate and speak at this conference.” — Read Dr. Malone’s post → We Unify Canada
The Independent Medical Alliance will continue standing with those who speak out, ask hard questions, and fight for better care. Because healthcare without truth isn’t healthcare at all.
