Elon Musk pledges support for Indian-origin Canadian doctor in Rs 2 crore lawsuit over Covid vaccination comments

Elon Musk pledges support for Indian-origin Canadian doctor in Rs 2 crore lawsuit over Covid vaccination comments

Billionaire Elon Musk has said that his platform X will pay the legal bills for Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, an Indian-origin Canadian doctor who is involved in a lawsuit over her tweets during the coronavirus pandemic, including those claiming that vaccination for Covid-19 was unnecessary.

In a statement issued on March 24, X (formerly known as Twitter) said it will pay over half of the Rs 2 crore bill (CAD 300,000) required to pay for a court judgment and legal bills. Musk himself shared the statement, adding, “In support of your right to speak.”

“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 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,” the social media platform said in the statement.

“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.

Gill had publicly reached out to Musk on March 17, tagging him in a post saying she owed costs that were due soon. Following X’s statement, she said that the company had personally reached out to her to confirm the financial commitment. She added that the team said Musk will also assist in her appeal process.

The Brampton-based pediatric specialist had come under criticism from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), which cautioned her over her tweets, including one saying vaccination for Covid-19 was unnecessary, reported Canadian media house CBC News.

In the statement, X framed the case against Gill as an issue of freedom of speech. “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,” it said.

However, experts have questioned the billionaire’s stance. Musk is “pretty selective about what kind of freedom of speech he will fight for,” University of Toronto bioethicist Kerry Bowman told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning. Bowman said that Gill’s professional status as a physician meant that her comments on Covid vaccination had the potential to cause “a lot of social harm in a crisis.”

“When you have a physician, emphasis on physician, saying this, credibility erodes very, very quickly,” Bowman said during the show, adding, “people will say this is controversial because a physician says vaccines don’t work.”

Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022, has Canadian heritage as his mother hailed from the Saskatchewan province in the country. He has been previously criticised for sharing alleged Covid-19 misinformation to his 179 million followers via his personal Twitter handle.

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