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.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
