  | Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of
Religion and Medicineby Dr. Richard P. Sloan, PhD Blockbuster New Book tackling the thorny issues about religion, prayer and medicine. If you've been told that you have an incurable illness, and that prayer will help --- think again. This book will open your eyes. Dr. Sloan is a professor at the Columbia University School of Medicine and he introduces us to the major players in this new area of Christian evangelism. The studies purporting to show any health benefits from going to church or "being religious" are all so flawed as to render them useless. Using his epidemiological knowledge, Sloan carefully shows the reader how one should analyze claims from the media and claims in journals that purport to show a connection between religious behavior and improved health.
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Quackery U. - Canada's pork barrel alternative medical plans at work
Copps Fiddles while HHSC burns
Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, May 6, 2000 Editorial Page
Canadian politicians propose that Hamilton's downtown become the world's leader to provide our ethnic minorities with more alternative medical practitioners. It's a $100 million pork barrel that will fund this project over the next five years.
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National Post backs Quack U.
Complementary medicine school plans for Hamilton? - National Post article by Michael Harris - (Get your crystal balls, and pendulums out folks, it's coming your way. McMaster might offer Iridology 101, paid for with your tax dollars.)
"Allan Rock, the federal Health Minister, is seeking $100-million from the Liberal
government that could eventually bring acupunc-ture, chiropractic and traditional
medicines fully under the umbrella of medicare in Ontario.
Mr. Rock, whose department has just created a new division of the health protection
branch to deal with issues surrounding alternative medicines, says the increase in
Canadians using alternative medicine justifies a federal response.
The ethnic community in this country is very frustrated with not being able to get
access to alternative medicines through the health plan," he said in an interview with
the National Post.
By establishing the school of complementary medicine at McMaster University, Ms.
Copps said practitioners of alternative medicine could shed their image as "quacks"
and become full contributors in the health care system.
"We're going to take the Bosnia of Canada, downtown Hamilton, and with the help
of McMaster University, turn it into a great learning centre. We will do for Hamilton
what CNN did for Atlanta."
| Letters to the National PostMay 5, 2000 - Snake oil Steven Sauve
Dennis Mills is quoted as saying "...the Bosnia of Canada, downtown Hamilton..."
Did MP Mills actually say that?!?
Steven Sauve, Toronto
Joseph Berger
Canadians have to travel to the United States to obtain prompt cancer treatment and cardiac surgery because facilities here are inadequate, but apparently $100-million can be found to start a school of scientifically unproven placebo offerings (Alternative Medicine School Could Get $100M, May 2).
Although many members of the public appear to believe that acupuncture is an
efficacious alternative medical treatment, there is actually no scientific validity to that claim, or to claims that naturopathy or homeopathy or chiropractic are rational treatments for medical illnesses with recognized tissue pathology.
At a time when emergency rooms are overcrowded, when people with serious illness
cannot receive proper prompt treatment, the intended diversion of $100-million to placate "the ethnic community" is more than "off the wall." It is criminal.
Dr. Joseph Berger, Toronto.
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My question to Sheila Copps and Allan Rock is simply this. If it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. Building a quack inspired school in Hamilton will not solve the problems, it will only create more of them.
Toronto Star Stories on Alternative Health
Quack claims, no cures, endless rows of vitamins, herbs, lotions and potions hawked by crooks, doctors, and chain drug stores with no guarantees. Why is Sheila Copps on the side of the naturopaths, the herbal industry, the Brantford Six Nation Reserve, and the ethnic members of our society who she believes really need this stuff to maintain their health? Where is the proof Madame Minister?
ACTION PLAN
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