The Secret of CMA Credibility & How to Win It Back

From the outside, The Canadian Medical Association looks like a monarchy. It presides over the major ceremonies at provincial and territorial associations. But the CMA has grown tired and a bit embarrassed by old formalities.

After 152 years, the CMA has almost transformed into a New Thing.

Reform started some time ago with reorganization and throwing out robes and royal parades.

Committees followed.

Then motions. And board members.

The CMA almost succeeded in throwing out general council.

By every indication, the CMA wants to throw out the medical profession too.

Crisis at OMA Council

On May 5th at OMA spring council in Ottawa, Dr. Gigi Osler, CMA President, gave her annual address.

At first, no one came up to ask questions. Almost three hundred people sat in silence: a rare event in medical politics. Continue reading “The Secret of CMA Credibility & How to Win It Back”

Forced Referral and Freedom of Religion Vs Freedom of Conscience

“Canadians support freedom of religion because we live in a free democracy. But the reason we support freedom of conscience is because without it, our free democracy would not exist.”

This quote comes from an article I wrote for The Epoch Times. Please click on the link to read the full article. Most of it is posted below.

Thanks so much!

Forced Referral and Freedom of Religion Vs Freedom of Conscience

A recent court decision in Ontario missed the mark when it ignored the impact forced referral has on freedom of conscience.

On May 15, the Ontario appeals court ruled that doctors must give patients a referral for euthanasia, abortion, and other contentious issues, regardless of what an individual doctor thinks about them.

The court battle started after the medical regulator in Ontario, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), created a policy that forced doctors to refer for procedures, regardless of doctors’ deeply held convictions of religion or conscience. Doctors who refuse would risk being fined and/or losing their license to practice medicine.

A coalition of doctors, led by the Christian Medical and Dental Society, the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Societies, the Canadian Physicians for Life, and five individual physicians, challenged the policy in divisional court. The challenge ended with the court reducing the issue to religious beliefs versus medical needs. The court said religious doctors could change specialty to avoid contentious issues, and refusal to refer would harm access to medical care.

Therefore, the court ruled that doctors’ religious convictions should not trump patients’ needs. Continue reading “Forced Referral and Freedom of Religion Vs Freedom of Conscience”

Doctors Forced to Refer for MAiD/Euthanasia

It does not matter what doctors are forced to do. It matters that doctors are forced.

This week, the courts upheld the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s policy of forcing doctors to refer for Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD/euthanasia).

What will it be next week?

Forcing doctors to refer goes against everything that underpins medicine, science, medical ethics, and Western political philosophy.

It will take a number of blogs to sort it out. I can only introduce the nonsense in this post.

Forced to Refer

The court ruled that patients’ rights of access to healthcare trumped doctors’ rights to freedom of religion and conscience, when it comes to Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD/euthanasia) and “other contentious issues.”

Social media offered its own verdict: Doctors must do what patients want, full stop. Doctors are technicians who practice according to guidelines and accepted standards of care.

Mainstream media and activist groups cheered. The issue is settled. Religious doctors must keep religion out of the clinic. They must shut up, refer, or quit medicine.

Forced to Refer Nonsense

Like all mobs, social justice mobs thrive on nonsense. They lather up with moral sanctimony and screech definitive solutions to complex issues based on straw men and ignorance.

Religious Nonsense

Most nurses are no longer nuns, and doctors are not priests or pastors. Most doctors and nurses — even religious ones — never bring religion into clinical care. Continue reading “Doctors Forced to Refer for MAiD/Euthanasia”