Experts are calling for an overhaul of the regulatory bodies that oversee Canada’s health professionals, as provincial health ministries and Colleges shirk responsibility for doctors accused of spreading unverified medical information about COVID-19 vaccines.
A Global News investigation this week revealed a web of doctors, mostly based in B.C. and Ontario, have been sharing unproven medical information about vaccine side effects in an attempt to persuade the public not to get vaccinated, while others have been accused of issuing false vaccine exemptions or prescribing unverified treatments.
But experts say such comments don’t go far enough in addressing the problem.
“This is meaningless,” Wayne Petrozzi, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics at Ryerson University, says.
“There’s a limit to how much they have to listen to you. So assuring the public you’re going to talk to them, that you’re going to raise your voice with them, is no assurance at all,” Petrozzi says.
40 physicians under investigation
Elliott’s comments came as B.C. and Ontario’s health ministries and Colleges appear to be shifting the blame onto each other to stem the flow of disinformation.
Elliott said on Wednesday she would be sending a letter to the CPSO “urging them to do everything that is possible to put an end to this behaviour.”
“They should consider all options in doing so, including reviewing the licences of physicians found to be spreading misinformation,” Elliott says.
But the CPSO says they are already doing that.
Currently, more than 40 physicians are being investigated in regards to their conduct relating to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, a CPSO spokesperson said. Seven have suspensions or restrictions placed on their medical licences.
Elliott and the Ministry of Health have so far refused to answer all questions from Global News on provincial doctors sharing unverified medical information and issuing vaccine exemptions. Questions around what more the CPSO could be doing to address this have also gone unanswered.
CPSBC refuses to release investigation numbers
In B.C., the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC) continues to refuse to release the number of COVID-related complaints it has received.
None of the B.C. doctors Global News highlighted for sharing unverified medical information or issuing false vaccine exemptions have restrictions or suspensions placed on their licences.
Under BC’s Health Protection Act, the CPSBC has the power to suspend a physician’s licence, or impose limits or conditions on it, before a hearing, if it is necessary to “protect the public.”
The CPSBC did not respond to questions about why it has declined to do so.
In August 2020, an all-party steering committee made its final report on how to overhaul the way B.C.’s health-care workers are regulated — which provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix said would “bring health professional regulation into the 21st Century.”
The changes would reduce the province’s 20 regulatory Colleges to six, changing the governance of college boards to allow for equal public and professional membership and creating a new oversight body tasked with setting standards across Colleges and acting as a disciplinary authority.
When asked about the need for tighter laws in regards to disinformation, the CPSBC said it had “made recommendations to the tri-party steering committee,” including amendments to the Health Professions Act, but “only the government can update legislation.”
2:41 Ontario family physician says more must be done to hold doctors with anti-vaccine views accountable
Ontario family physician says more must be done to hold doctors with anti-vaccine views accountable
The B.C. Ministry of Health declined to answer specific questions.
When asked if it needed outside help to stem the flow of disinformation and to speed the investigation process up, which can take years, the spokesperson simply said “no.”
“Some people think the College isn’t doing enough and an equal number think the College is overstepping,” the spokesperson said.
‘The system may not be working’
In Ontario, the Regulated Health Professions Act was amended in 2017 to allow the Health Minister greater power in regulating College committees and panels and expanding the purposes for which the Minister can require the CPSO to collect information from members.
But experts say these amendments should go further.
Dr. Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, said he was “shocked” at the number of doctors being investigated for COVID-related issues in the province.
“This is evidence that the system may not be working,” Bowman said.
“When we look at the effect in a prolonged public health crisis they’re very severe.”
3:18 Doug Ford satisfied with CPSO process restricting Ontario doctors
Doug Ford satisfied with CPSO process restricting Ontario doctors – Oct 18, 2021
Bowman said the argument in favour of freedom of speech “is not relevant” in this context, as it’s “medical information that moves against the principles of medicine.”
“There’s a difference between freedom of speech as a citizen and freedom of speech as a profession. Physicians have absolutely a highly elevated ethical responsibility to the community, and the very nature of medicine itself is the platform is evidence-based science and research.”
Trudo Lemmens, Scholl chair of health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said Colleges are currently doing more to sanction members for misinformation than they have done in the past, but they “need to be more proactive.”
He says, in the past, a lack of action has sometimes had drastic consequences.
“Canadian physicians have been involved in misrepresentation of findings and in contributing to the overprescription of drugs, including, for example, in the opioid context, which is… the contributing factor to the opioid crisis that we currently have.”
However, Lemmens says the Colleges must ensure they “walk a fine line” so they are not “stifling a normal debate.”
“You want to be careful not to impose on the Colleges an excessive level of policing that would lead them to interfere with normal debate within the medical community about the safety and efficacy of medications or vaccines,” he says.
‘We shouldn’t be comfortable being the chickens’
Petrozzi said Elliott’s comments were “meaningless” and more concrete action needs to be taken.
“[We need] the government of Ontario to put in place an accountability framework that’s meaningful, substantial and that’s transparent for the various self-regulating professions in this province,” he says.
Self-regulated professions, such as in health care, need “much more in the way of transparency than we currently get” as self-regulatory bodies grapple with protecting both the public interest and its own, Petrozzi says.
He added an overhaul was necessary to allow government representatives to investigate the professions, increase openness and transparency in its activities and decision making and put stricter rules in place for the timeliness of investigations.
“What we have in place now across …self-regulating professions is a system in which the good foxes are put in charge to keep an eye on all the other foxes — and to act if they come across a bad fox that wants to hurt the chickens. [It is] absent of a robust system of transparency and robust processes of outside evaluation.
CALGARY – There’s a darkness in the work of venerated Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell, who has spent three decades travelling the world as a self-described silent witness.
MacDonnell’s paintings document the impact of conflict from Bosnia to Afghanistan as well as revisiting atrocities of the past.
He has inspired other artists to follow in his footsteps, and an exhibit of his work is on display at the Military Museums in Calgary through Remembrance Day and into 2025.
“Bill’s very much into the idea of watching, very quietly. You don’t see many people in his works,” said curator Dick Averns, who has met and written about MacDonnell, and was inspired to travel to the Middle East as part of the Canadian Forces War Artists Program.
“A lot of Bill MacDonnell’s work is around the theme of cultural amnesia. They draw attention to histories that are in danger of being forgotten.”
Averns said it was MacDonnell’s example that encouraged him to apply.
“My drive was to have that first-hand experience. My theory in making the art and having a critical eye similar to Bill’s is ‘What are the unseen areas?’ I was interested in relationships between oil, the war in Iraq and 9/11.”
Lt.-Col. Bill Bewick, now retired from Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, had taken over as commander of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment when he took MacDonnell to Croatia with the United Nations Protective Force in 1994.
“He’d been over to Europe and various places before, but I think that was his first combat experience,” said Bewick, who took art lessons from MacDonnell years later at what was then called the Alberta College of Art and Design.
“We found a stone building that collapsed with old people and some others incapacitated in it.
“It was a low priority to dig the people out because they were all deceased and we saw that, and the odours associated with that. Those kind of experiences for an artist are pretty intense.”
MacDonnell went back on his own a few months later and visited Sarajevo.
MacDonnell could not be reached for an interview and was unable to attend the opening of his exhibit.
Of the two dozen paintings on display, many depict the aftermath of war with destroyed buildings.
His 1995 painting “Mined Churchyard” show a bombed Serbian church in Bosnia.
“They’re all rather depressing. They’re not happy paintings. There’s no happy paintings,” said Bewick.
“There’s a couple with colour. There’s a nice green grass over there but there’s some other stuff that’s not so happy.”
Averns said the two patches of colour are both of mass graves from eastern Europe and Kyiv when it was part of the former Soviet Union.
In Babi Yar, almost 34,000 Jews were murdered and dumped in a ravine by the Nazis in 1941 as they made their way through Europe.
“They were either shot at the edge of the ravine or they were marched in to lie one on top of the other and shot in the back of the neck,” said Averns.
The mass grave is now a memorial site.
“There was no marker at this site for decades. You can see (on the canvas) here one of the monuments — a ramp with tumbling figures meeting their demise as they went down into the ravine.”
Averns said the second painting shows the mass graves commemorating the German siege of Leningrad, which lasted 900 days and saw 800,000 deaths.
The exhibit is MacDonnell’s first in Western Canada since 2006.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed…
Donald Trump declares victory and secures political comeback
Former president Donald Trump is poised to return to White House after a polarizing U.S. election that deeply divided the country. The U.S. election on Tuesday saw Trump post early wins in critical states by taking Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Vice-President Kamala Harris did not appear at her election night party at her alma mater Howard University in Washington. Top aides told the audience that Democrats would continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. However, U.S. TV networks projected Trump would be the winner early Wednesday morning.
Final day for nominations in Nova Scotia election
Today is the final day for candidate nominations in Nova Scotia’s provincial election campaign. Under the province’s Elections Act, nominations must close 20 days before election day on Nov. 26. The Progressive Conservatives confirmed in a news release last week that they will have a full slate of 55 candidates. The NDP and Liberals confirmed Tuesday that they will have a full slate of candidates, though there was no immediate word from the Green Party. At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature, the Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.
Here’s what else we’re watching…
Nunavut premier to face confidence vote Wednesday
Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok is expected to face a confidence vote today in the territorial legislature. In a surprise move on Monday, Aivilik MLA Solomon Malliki gave notice that he’d present a motion calling for Akeeagok to be stripped of his premiership and removed from cabinet. In Nunavut’s consensus style of government — in which there are no political parties — the MLAs elect a premier from amongst themselves. If the motion passes, Akeeagok would be the second premier in Nunavut’s history to be ousted by the Legislative Assembly.
Greater Toronto home sales surge in October: board
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in October surged as buyers continued moving off the sidelines amid lower interest rates. The board says 6,658 homes changed hands last month in the Greater Toronto Area, up 44.4 per cent compared with 4,611 in the same month last year. Sales were up 14 per cent from September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Board president Jennifer Pearce says that while it is still early in the Bank of Canada’s key interest rate cutting cycle, homebuyers appear motivated by lower borrowing costs which contributed to a “positive affordability picture” last month alongside relatively flat home prices.
Work of Canadian war artist on display in Calgary
More than two dozen paintings from respected Canadian war artist Bill MacDonnell are on display at the Military Museums in Calgary. MacDonnell spent three decades recording conflicts in Europe, Bosnia and Afghanistan but also looked back at atrocities from the past. Two of his paintings depict mass graves from the Second World War in Kyiv and Russia. Curator Dick Averns says MacDonnell considered himself to be a silent witness to some of the atrocities of war and usually involved destroyed buildings and the aftermath of war. The exhibit at the Military Museums in Calgary is the first for the artist since 2006.
Paula Hawkins talks isolation and new thriller
In Paula Hawkins’ latest thriller, people are emerging from pandemic isolation, engaging with culture once again, when a gallerygoer notices something a bit off about a sculpture displayed at the Tate Modern: it contains a deer bone that looks like it might actually be human. Set in the U.K. art scene, the end of COVID-19 lockdowns is a catalyst for the plot in the was-there-a-murder mystery. The thriller, centred on a mysterious museum collection hiding deadly secrets, is told from three perspectives: that of an artist who died shortly before the onset of the pandemic, her friend-turned-caretaker-turned-executor, and the museum curator tasked with retrieving the remaining artworks left to his employer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has extended congratulations to Donald Trump on his re-election as president of the United States.
Trump staged a major political comeback, securing the necessary 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
This concludes a turbulent campaign for Trump, which included being convicted of 34 felonies in a hush-money case and two assassination attempts.
“On behalf of the government of Canada, I congratulate Donald Trump on being elected as President of the United States of America for a second term, and Senator JD Vance for his election as Vice-President of the United States,” Trudeau said in a statement.
“Canada and the U.S. have the world’s most successful partnership. We are neighbours and friends, united by a shared history, common values, and steadfast ties between our peoples. We are also each other’s largest trade partners and our economies are deeply intertwined.”
Trudeau added that in Trump’s first term, the two nations along with Mexico successfully negotiated the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement. Trudeau stressed the multi-billion dollar value of cross-border trade.
That trade deal is up for review in 2026, and Trump has promised to introduce a universal 10-per-cent tariff on all American imports.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly also shared her congratulations on the social media platform X.
“Canada and the U.S. are friends, neighbours and allies — deeply connected through our economies and our people,” she wrote.
“Together, we’ll focus on investment, growth and global peace and security.” Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman also extended congratulations to Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
“We have the great fortune of being neighbours, and the U.S. has no closer partner and ally than Canada. Looking forward to working together toward a more prosperous and secure future,” she said in a statement.
