Medicare's Orphans: Dr. Melvin DeLevie On Canada's Archaic Approach To Autism Treatment

Medicare for Autism Now! is featuring a series of interviews in connection with the Medicare's Orphans series.  Interview 3 features Dr.  Melvin DeLevie a practicing British Columbia physician with extensive experience with autistic children.  As summarized on the Medicare for Autism Now! web site:

"Dr. Melvin DeLevie, long-time Vancouver paediatrician with extensive experience dealing with children with autism. This 20 minute interview is a powerful indictment of Canada’s archaic approach to the treatment of autism which is in stark contrast to the treatment of children with any other disease or disorder. He gives examples of why social services personnel are ill-equipped to deal with what is in-fact a medical condition. He eloquently expresses frustration with the “people in charge” who are both “blind and deaf” toward what he terms the “lost children”."

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Canadian Autism Shame: Canada Bars Autistic Teen From Permanent Resident Status

Canada has, to its shame and dishonor,  refused to include evidence based effective treatment for autism in the universal Medicare, our public national health care scheme,  that it offers to all Canadians thereby excluding  1 in 110 autistic Canadian children from receiving a fundamental benefit of our society.   Now it has extended that shameful treatment to autistic citizens of other nations, and even some of his family members, who would like to visit and reside in Canada.  

As Hugh Adami reports in the Ottawa Citizen:

"What Canadian immigration has done to an English teenager and his parents is cruel, embarrassing and hypocritical. The federal government has barred 17-year-old Lewis Crowe, who lives with his mother in England, from living in Canada because he has autism. Furthermore, he cannot visit the country without the permission of the immigration department. Stranger still is his father and stepmother, Robert and Pauline Crowe, are "inadmissible" as permanent residents because of Lewis's disability."

As a Canadian I am proud of my country which I believe is the best country on earth in which to live.  As the father of a teen aged son with severe Autistic Disorder though I believe that Canada has behaved shamefully in treating autistic Canadians as second class citizens by excluding Autism treatment from inclusion in Medicare. Now Canada has extended that shameful treatment to autistic persons and their families from other countries who would like to visit and reside in our otherwise wonderful country.  

Shame Canada, shame on us. 

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The Two Autism Faces of Greg Thompson

When it comes to federal financing of autism treatment for Canadians with autism Conservative MP Greg Thompson, Southwest, New Brunswick has presented two decidedly different faces.

FACE # 1 - Opposition MP Greg Thompson

House of Commons, Hansard, Wed. Sept. 28, 2005.

Statement by Members

Autism

Mr. Greg Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC):

Mr.Speaker, today along with other members of the House and parents of autistic children, I attended a rally on Parliament Hill urging the federal government to provide financial support to cover the cost of treatment for every child diagnosed with autism.

Autism rates are on the rise in Canada. This neurological disorder affects 1 in every 195 of our children.

Therapy which has been credited in helping children overcome the effects of autism can cost a family up to $60,000 a year. These families and children need our support and I urge the federal government to take the steps necessary to address this important issue.


FACE # 2 - Government MP & Cabinet Minister Greg Thompson

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA 39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION No. 115 (Unrevised) Wednesday, February 21, 2007 1:00 p.m.

Private Members' Business

Pursuant to Standing Order 93(1), the House proceeded to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion of Mr. Murphy (Charlottetown), seconded by Mr. Szabo (Mississauga South), — That Bill C-304, An Act to provide for the development of a national strategy for the treatment of autism and to amend the Canada Health Act, be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Health.

YEAS: 113, NAYS: 155


NAYS -- CONTRE

Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest)

There it is. On September 28 2005 Greg Thompson, wearing Autism Face # 1, sitting as an opposition MP, rose in the House of Commons, not at a local backyard Bar-B-Q or in a beer drenched tavern, but in the House of Commons, to urge the federal government to address the important issue of financing treatment for autistic children in Canada. Then 15 months later, on February 21, 2007, wearing Autism Face # 2, now sitting as a MP and Cabinet Minister of the governing Conservative Party he voted NAY , he voted against, the Private Members' bill of MP Shawn Murphy which, if passed, would have required the federal government to do exactly what Mr. Thompson had previously urged a different federal government to do?

How to explain the Two Autism Faces of Conservative MP Southwest, New Brunswick, Greg Thompson? Was he being shallow and insincere when he wore Autism Face # 1, using the plight of autistic children and their families for political purposes? Or did he simply lack the courage of his convictions; was he afraid to stand up to Conservative Prime Minister Harper when he donned Autism Face #2 and voted against Bill C-304 which would have provided for federal government funding of autism treatment?

Only Greg Thompson knows for sure.

autism

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