- Wednesday, May 01, 2024
When Elon Musk came across Dr. Gill’s crowdfunding campaign, he offered to cover her legal bills.
By: Twinkle Roy
X, LED by Elon Musk, has come to the rescue of an Indian-origin doctor in Canada who was facing a challenging legal battle over her tweets related to Covid-19 pandemic. The social media giant recently said that it was proud to help Dr Kulvinder Kaur Gill pay her legal fees of $300,000 and defend herself against ‘government-supported efforts to cancel her speech’.
Gill is an Indian-origin paediatrician in the North American nation who faced massive backlash over her posts that criticised the Canadian government’s policies on the pandemic. It snowballed into a huge legal bill for her and she started crowdfunding and also made an appeal to X. It was then when Musk decided to step in to help her.
It all resulted in $300,000 in legal bills for the Indo-Canadian doctor. She started a crowdfunding campaign and appealed to X.
Gill, a frontline physician in Ontario, is in favour of fully informed voluntary consent barring coercion or restriction in all forms of medical decision-making, according to the crowdfunding website, which helped her to raise funds.
X is proud to help defend Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill against the government-supported efforts to cancel her speech.@dockaurG is a practicing physician in Canada, specializing in immunology and pediatrics. Because she spoke out publicly on Twitter (now X) in opposition to the… https://t.co/IujDSeBGBN
— News (@XNews) March 24, 2024
The specialist physician trained in paediatrics, allergy and immunology who has been practising in the Greater Toronto Area for more than a decade, spoke out against the harm caused by lockdowns on social media in 2020 and faced a backlash soon. An online smear campaign against her also urged people to contact her regulatory college to lodge complaints.
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In an interview earlier this month, Gill said she practises in communities that are largely marginalised and poor immigrants.
In its March 24 post, X News also said, “@dockaurG is a practicing physician in Canada, specializing in immunology and pediatrics. Because she spoke out publicly on Twitter (now X) in opposition to the Canadian and Ontario governments’ COVID lockdown efforts and vaccination mandates, she was harassed by the legacy media, censored by prior Twitter management, and subjected to investigations and disciplinary proceedings by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario that resulted in “cautions” being placed on her permanent public record.
To get her name cleared, Gill began legal proceedings but a pre-trial ruling led to a hefty cost order of over $1 million by October 2022.
Unfortunately, a pre-trial ruling resulted in a hefty cost order of up to $1.2 million by October 2022.
By late last month, Gill faced nearly a $300,000 cost order and she did not have much time to pay the amount. Her life savings had also drained.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by outpouring of kindness & generosity of Cdns & people globally. I’m reading all of your msgs/prayers. My sincerest thank you. We’re at 50% of fundraising goal of $300K with only 4 days left until the deadline. Pls donate what you can,” she wrote on X.
I've been overwhelmed by outpouring of kindness & generosity of Cdns & people globally. I'm reading all of your msgs/prayers. My sincerest thank you💛
We're at ~50% of fundraising goal of $300K with only 4 days left until deadline
Pls donate what you canhttps://t.co/b0cc5pZIBk https://t.co/AnV2vkG7G3
— Kulvinder Kaur MD (@dockaurG) March 22, 2024
She also reached out to Musk tweeting, “Hi @elonmusk @X —as one of the first MDs to oppose lockdowns on twitter in 2020, in a socialized healthcare system where govt is sole-payer, I’ve been persecuted for 4yrs solely d/t my tweets. Pls help a fellow Cdn! ~$300K in court-ordered costs due in 4d.”
Hi @elonmusk @X—as one of the first🇨🇦MDs to oppose lockdowns on twitter in 2020, in a socialized healthcare system where govt is sole-payer, I've been persecuted for 4yrs solely d/t my tweets. Pls help a fellow Cdn! ~$300K in court-ordered costs due in 4d:https://t.co/b0cc5pZIBk https://t.co/kpD3FzgnNK pic.twitter.com/nNSKGda1D0
— Kulvinder Kaur MD (@dockaurG) March 21, 2024
“When Elon Musk learned earlier this week about her crowdfunding campaign to pay the judgement, he pledged to help,” X News said in a post on Sunday (March 24).
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“The legal battles that ensued cost Dr. Gill her life savings, and she now owes $300,000 in a court judgment due Monday. When Elon Musk learned earlier this week about her crowdfunding campaign to pay the judgment (https://givesendgo.com/kulvinder), he pledged to help. X will now fund the rest of Dr. Gill’s campaign so that she can pay her $300,000 judgment and her legal bills,” it said.
In August 2020, Gill slammed the need for vaccines, saying on X, “If you have not yet figured out that we don’t need a vaccine, you are not paying attention. #FactsNotFear.”
Her views faced a backlash from the medical community and mainstream media outlets.
Gill subsequently filed a lawsuit against more than 20 individuals and entities that included journalists, doctors and news outlets, alleging defamation. But her lawsuit was dismissed under anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) Law by a judge who said that her lawsuit was an effort to silence her critics’ speech on a public platform. She was also instructed to cover the defendants’ legal expenses.
She then looked out for help and the X chief appeared as the saviour.
Gill acknowledged Musk’s response, tweeting the same day,”.@elonmusk’s @X contacted me directly confirming Elon’s commitment to pay remainder of campaign to reach $300K AND Elon has committed to assisting my appeal of 3 CPSO cautions, for my 2020 tweets opposing lockdowns, to the very end (ONCA & SCC if needed) May Waheguru bless you.”
.@elonmusk’s @X contacted me directly confirming Elon’s commitment to pay remainder of campaign to reach $300K AND Elon has committed to assisting my appeal of 3 CPSO cautions, for my 2020 tweets opposing lockdowns, to the very end (ONCA & SCC if needed)
May Waheguru bless you🙏🏽 https://t.co/1fsIWmoVcS
— Kulvinder Kaur MD (@dockaurG) March 24, 2024
“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and a critical defense against totalitarianism in all forms. We must do whatever we can to protect it, and at X we will always fight to protect your right to speak freely,” X News further said in its post.
In August last year, Musk promised to fund the legal bills of anyone who allegedly faced unfair treatment by employers “due to posting or liking something on this platform”.
