09 December 2011 by Michael Kruse
On November 29th, 2011, the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons voted to accept their new revision of the policy on Complementary/Alternative Medicine, a policy that has undergone revision with community consultation over the past two years. Skeptics at the Centre For Inquiry’s Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism, after celebrating a win described here, [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health Policy, Medicine, Ontario, Skepticism0 Comments
08 December 2011 by Richelle McCullough
Over the course of my graduate degree, I slowly became more and more aware of the bad information in the media about science, ultimately leading to my interest in the skeptical movement. When I decided to a talk at Skepticamp Winnipeg 2011, I realized that I needed to address the way science exists in the [...]
07 December 2011 by Richelle McCullough
Image credit: B Tal Near my house in Winnipeg, there’s a summertime Farmer’s Market that I used to go to every weekend to buy fresh local fruits, vegetables and honey. I grew up in rural farming communities and come from a long line of farmers, so I like supporting the little guys who still run family [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Diet and Nutrition, Prairies15 Comments
02 December 2011 by Kim Hebert
Hello? Anyone? Skeptics are often accused of being dogmatic, closed-minded, and/or shills when they criticise particular industries or companies for dishonest, irresponsible, or ethically questionable practices. The natural health industry, with its general lack of oversight and use of science as shiny wrapping paper instead of an inherent foundation, is a veritable cornucopia of claims [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Medicinal Advertising7 Comments
23 November 2011 by Michael Kruse
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario are poised to vote on the new revision to the Complementary/Alternative Medicine policy that has been under review for the past several years. The new revision sports a name change and other clarifications that are generally good, however, the restrictions put on doctors to offer their opinion on [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Medicine, Ontario3 Comments
17 November 2011 by John Underhay
Dr. Ivan P. Fellegi, was the speaker at the 2011 Symons Lecture in Charlottetown, PEI on November 8. Dr. Fellegi is an internationally renowned statistician and was Canada’s Chief Statistician from 1985 until 2008. He spoke on how statistics are intrinsically linked to democracy, and in particular how the decision of the Canadian Government to [...]
Posted in Canada9 Comments
04 November 2011 by Erik Davis
By now you’ve probably seen the above image of the so-called “Screaming Man” captured on a testicle scan by two Canadian researchers, and published in Urology this month. The article was meant to be humorous, and I suspect an homage to “The Case of the Haunted Scrotum”, a similar article that ran in the JRSM [...]
Posted in Canada, Media, Skepticism4 Comments
25 October 2011 by Michael Kruse
I am on my way down to CSIcon in New Orleans, and currently in the town of Branson, Missouri, the Niagara Falls of The Heartland here in the United States. It was great to hear from my co-chair Iain Martel at the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) at the Centre for Inquiry [...]
Posted in Health Policy, Ontario, Skepticism1 Comment
19 October 2011 by Michael Kruse
This past year the Centre for Inquiry Canada, through its Committee for the advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) submitted a complaint the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) through the Hon. Deb Matthews M.P.P Minister of Health and Long Term Care regarding a collection of homeopaths who had been using the restricted title [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health Policy, Ontario, Skepticism6 Comments
06 October 2011 by Ethan Clow
About five months ago I wrote about the situation of Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site where drug addicts could receive clean needles, medical supervision during drug use, and access to drug treatment. I was very concerned as a skeptic that a new form of science based drug policy known as harm reduction was going to [...]
Posted in British Columbia, Canada, Health, Health Policy26 Comments
