Medical Freedom in British Columbia?

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The public has about a week to indicate whether they want BC physicians to have freedom to practise complementary medicine or not. Based on how many people respond in the next few days, the BC government will either rescind the legislation (Bill M202), or they may decide otherwise. If you think physicians deserve to practise complementary medicine without fear of harrassment from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, then please go to www.bcamendment.org and simply register your name, and it would be a great help if you could pass it along to anyone else. It's summertime, many people are away. We hope that the people that are here will make the difference...

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An Update from the Trenches re: Bill M202 Aug 27/01

Thanks for the continous support. Asking individuals to pass the message on re the gutting of Bill M202 to their e mail address list has been very successful. The snowball effect. I wish I'd thought of it before.

A bit of an update...so many messages were coming into the MLA's, (apparently 23,000 e-mails), Computer Services at the Legislature stated that it crashed their system and they have now blocked our site. When we go to the press with this info, it should heat things up a bit.

We're asking all the supporters to also phone, write and fax their MLA's incase they keep blocking the e-mails.

One can phone free of charge to their MLA, Premier or Health Minister Sindi Hawkins or Colin Hanson by phoning ; 

in Vancouver  604-660-2421
in Victoria   387-6121
All other parts of the province  1-800-663-7867

-just ask to be put through to their office

Fax#     Premier Campbell's # is 250-387-7388
             Minister Hawkins' is 250-356-8269
 


We worked this weekend to reroute the messages via another e mail. I'll keep you posted. We'll also be making some updates to the web site in the next couple of days.

www.bcamendment.org

Thanks again,
Randy

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Letter sent to British Columbia Newspapers August 30, 2001.

Dear Editor,

On April 10, 2001, Bill M202 passed in the BC Legislature. This was a citizens driven initiative that would allow medical doctors in British Columbia to practice complementary medicine without fear of harassment by the College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC.

This amendment was the result of two years of work by Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine before we approached MLA Steve Orcherton to introduce it as a private member's bill. This was not an NDP initiative.

On August 14, 2001, the Liberal government repealed Bill M202 as part of Bill 11, The Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act. There was no consultation with Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine or any other citizens group.

When Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine learned of the proposed repealing of Bill M202, they initiated a campaign to involve citizens in contacting their MLA's to express concerns about the actions the Liberal government was about to take with Bill M202. Citizens began to phone, fax and e mail their MLA's at the BC legislature. We utilized our web site www.bcamendment.org to allow people to e mail all their MLA's.

During the week of August 19th, hundreds of British Columbians sent e mails to their MLA's in Victoria. It was during this time that Computer Services at the Legislature began to block and re - direct the e mails coming from our web site. This situation continues to this day.

Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine is very concerned about the actions of Computer Services. They have suggested that the volume of e mails reaching the Legislature is overwhelming their system.

Does one not have the right to freely express themselves to their elected representatives whether they want to hear the message or not? The idea that we live in a democracy appears to be an illusion.

Judy Kubrak - Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine, Vancouver Island
Randy Gomm - Citizens Supporting Complementary Medicine, Lower Mainland 604-291-0671
Sandy Simpson - The Chelation Association of Greater Vancouver  604-921-6925