Patrick Provost is a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Infectiology and Immunology at Laval University. He has been directing a research laboratory on RNA biology for twenty years.

According to Google Scholar, Provost’s research has been cited 14,465 times. 

On Friday, June 24, Provost published an article in Canada’s largest francophone news outlet owned by Quebecor, a large media and telecommunications company with ties to the Legault government. 

Provost’s piece was thorough and based on the Quebec government’s own data. 

His analysis found that there was “no excess all-cause mortality since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, except for those aged 70 years and older during the first wave (April-June 2020) and shortly after the imposition of the holiday lockdown/curfew or the rollout of the 3rd vaccine dose (January 2022)”. 

Provost also found that “more than 90% of the 70-year-olds who died with or from Covid-19 had two or more preexisting medical conditions”, and “69.2% of the decedents were over 80 years of age, bringing the average age of decedents with or from Covid-19 beyond their life expectancy at birth”. 

He also found that “between 0 and 5 people under 40 years of age (with less than one pre-existing medical condition) have died in Quebec since the start of the pandemic”. 

Provost then enumerated the numerous drastic and authoritarian measures put in place by the Legault government throughout the pandemic, and asked in light of his findings whether those measures were justified. 

He also asked whether the vaccine mandates and vaccine passports were justified in light of the findings. 

Hours after being published, the article was taken down by Quebecor. 

Users found the timing suspicious, as only two days prior to the censorship, the owner of the media company Quebecor was awarded the province’s highest honour, the Ordre national medal, by the premier, Francois Legault. 

Legault enacted most of Quebec’s drastic provincial measures, such as the vaccine mandate and curfews. 

Throughout the pandemic, news outlets including Quebecor received generous financial assistance and subsidies from the government. They also aligned very strongly with the government’s measures and strategy. 

Shortly after the article was taken off of Quebecor’s news outlets, independent news platform Libre Media republished it. 

Provost’s university suspended him on June 14th for allegedly “criticizing” the “safety” of vaccines “despite a scientific consensus”.  

He was suspended for eight weeks without pay.