Alberta's chief medical officer has now confirmed that statistics released a couple of weeks ago indicate there really is a cancer cluster in Fort Chipewyan, a predominantly native community about 280 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
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Nevertheless, the Edmonton Journal reported earlier this week, the government has no plans to try to identify the possible causes of the cluster of serious diseases, which includes unusually high rates of bile duct cancer, plus some others.
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First of all, it suggests Dr. John O'Connor, the physician who famously practiced medicine in native communities in the region, was onto something when he reported back in the mid-2000s that … wait for it … there was a cluster of unusual cancers among residents of Fort Chipewyan.
For saying this -- regardless of why he reached his conclusions -- O'Connor has been attacked in the vilest and most damaging terms imaginable, and very nearly lost his ability to practice his profession as a result.
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Not only did the provincial government dispute O'Connor’s conclusions, in 2007 Health Canada physicians laid four complaints of professional misconduct against him with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons. These included accusations he blocked access to his patients’ medical files, claims of billing irregularities, and the charge, redolent of totalitarian states, that he caused mistrust of government in Fort Chipewyan and "undue alarm" among residents of the community.
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This, however, has never stopped Sun News Network TV commentator and "Ethical Oil" propagandist Ezra Levant from using what we might call his national on-air bullying pulpit to launch a stream of vilification at O'Connor, calling him "a liar," accusing him of "breaching professional ethics," and saying "he just made it up."
Now, Levant doesn't have much credibility, in part because he attacks so many people in the same way -- pretty much anyone who disagrees with him, in fact. Nevertheless, he has a devoted following and many of his acolytes no doubt believe his claims about O'Connor. His accusations are influential enough, it is said here, to make others with similar observations afraid to speak their minds.
Indeed, Dr. Margaret Sears, an Ontario expert in toxicology and health, told the Edmonton Journal doctors in the region were afraid of the negative consequences to their careers if they spoke out, or even were asked to treat patients who thought their might be a connection between their symptoms and nearby bitumen production.
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