Deeply embedded social justice teachings within Canada’s medical establishment that depart from critical thinking and objective truths threaten to topple our country's healthcare system
The feelings alphabet cult is coming after all stem fields. Because these are the last bastion of reproducible truth and facts. Their actions have led to a noticeable lowering of standards across disciplines and the death of merit.
Absolutely. Being sort of milquetoast intellectual STEM types, most of us are not particularly used to fighting and confrontation. But we either do it, or STEM disappears. It is that simple.
Engineering has mostly managed to hold out, but the feelings crew have been making inroads. Many programs now mark students on the curve, and not on actual marks. All that does is set them up for failure on the licensing exams after college.
I tell students all the time, the physical world doesn’t care about feelings. You can either do something or you can’t. You’re either better than another at it or not. If you want special treatment do better.
Yes. When I received my undergraduate training in first mechanical engineering and then honors physics in Canada and then moved on to graduate school in physics at MIT in the 70s, I found it beyond grueling and challenging. However, as horrible and brutally competitive as that introduction was, it was NOTHING compared to the incredibly harsh realities I would later face as a STEM professional in mathematical physics and then applied mathematics.
The real world is so unfair and cruel that it is hard to imagine. I faced constant insults and deprecation. I had many millions of grant and contract money stolen. I endured physical assaults. I had my signature forged on legal contracts, was lied to repeatedly, was in an 8.5 year lawsuit, and so on. The environment is so rough in actuality that it is beyond belief. Almost nothing could have prepared me for it.
And I am not alone by any means. Many of my colleagues faced the same, or worse. When I read historical accounts of others in my field, I notice that these conditions are not unique or recent. It has always been this way, it would seem. Some are very lucky and escape it. But if you have any talent whatsoever, you have a target painted on your back. Over and over, I am shocked and dismayed to realize what the situation is like, and probably has always been like.
Layering on this woke ideology has just given bullies more tools to abuse the workforce. It does not remotely make things more "fair". It is just irrational nonsense.
All is not lost, however. My daughter, a fairly recent engineering graduate, doesn’t buy into any of the woke stuff, and calls out those leveraging it. Let’s hope more follow that example.
Cancelling academics with "incorrect thoughts" is very popular. University administrators are primarily responsible, with woke professors and students following their lead. There are now large DEI bureaucracies of commissars charged with enforcing "right thinking."
The only way this will change is the way it changed in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.: governors and legislators defunded and outlawed DEI and other offenses against truth and common sense, not to mention civil rights. Are there any courageous Canadian politicians? Don't hold your breath.
Tenured faculty who complain anonymously are cowards. Students I can forgive, administrators, adjuncts... people who really can be gotten rid of at the drop of a hat. But at this point, anyone who enjoys the perks of tenure but exercises none of the responsibilities it was designed for is basically embezzling.
Gen X to early millennial medicine is the end of sane medicine. Social injustice warrior doctors in charge of MedED have forgotten that they have the training and practice foundations and competences that can allow them to incorporate their social justice interests. Changes to curriculum with trainees that lack the same foundation and rigour is disastrous and will only cause harm. Excellent piece that makes me want to reach out to all my Canadian MD peers tasked to train these new experimental cohorts and give them hugs.
It’s like Pol Pot who killed off all the doctors or anyone who wore glasses bc they were too Western. Instead it was the woke peasants acting as people doctors who had the true indigenous healing knowledge.
These people are crazy. It is as usual hard to understand how many people who are on professions we expect to be serious and intelligent are opting for the woke agenda.
I think he is referring to the recent pronouncement of the ACP decrying "gender affirming care". Unfortunately, most other medical and legal professional bodies are still all on board with this pseudoscientific nonsense.
I think the US organization of plastic surgeons just came out against gender affirming care for minors...this is a MAJOR step. So, we will see what happens.
I wish these were the only problems with healthcare in Canada. I have two family members who served in very senior positions in healthcare administration in Canada, one at the provincial level and one at the federal level, just one or two positions "down from the top". I have not asked them, but I wonder what they think of this current slow-moving disaster going on in Canadian healthcare. The one who was helping to run Health Canada even privately told me about the advantages of acquiring a concierge medical plan south of the 49th parallel to augment the Canadian plan, because of the weaknesses of the Canadian system. And this is someone who served for a a few decades at the very top of the Canadian healthcare infrastructure. It has problems, but not the problems that are reported upon gleefully by US media and politicians. Ask the person who helped design and run the system if you want to know the real problems.
I noticed that the Canadian federal government is in some pitched battle with Canadian physicians over their attempts to broaden the MAiD program (i.e. assisted suicide). And many Canadian medical schools have had the federal government dictate that they have to restrict the size of their graduating classes, in spite of huge looming shortages. My friend Lawrence Krauss has written with some concern about the state of healthcare in PEI, that he has become aware of after he moved there.
And then you add on top of that the types of 'professional college' attacks on various physicians, which are similar to the ongoing attacks on Jordan Peterson. Canadian healthcare seems to be in serious trouble, from my vantage point.
I was considering moving back home to Canada. But the situation looks pretty bad from where I sit down here in the "Evil Empire". I am watching with some concern.
Canadians, even recent immigrants, are leaving Canada. An overwhelming percentage of Canadians agree that "Canada is broken." The country is grinding to a halt, universities in the lead. You are considering returning?
I was. I was even going to potentially bring a substantial commercial enterprise with me.
However, Canada, the place of my birth, appears to be becoming increasingly unwelcoming. I have never seen anything quite like it. Canada was never fantastic in R and D. However, things have gone from bad to worse, or at least that is my impression.
And the government and citizens do not seem particularly concerned, from what I can tell. They might even be gleeful at the prospects of losing their hard-won status as a first world country that many admired and respected. They are getting poorer and more backwards. Their reputation is suffering from all the shenanigans that are going on. They always had a terrible brain drain, but the current situation definitely is not helping.
It is sort of shameful, really.
And so, until things turn around, I will NOT be coming back to Canada to live or invest.
My parents, who have now passed away, would have been horrified. How did things get so bad, so quickly? It does not HAVE to be the way it is currently. Wow.
Many Canadians do seem to care. The majority is appalled by the performance of PM Trudeau and his government. A lot of Canadians are really angry. Whether and to what extent this will lead to changes that will turn things around, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, it is wise for you to stay put.
When I ask my friends back in Canada, they seem to suggest that Canadians are too complacent and too lazy to do anything at all. They think that Canadians will just let the authorities run roughshod over them and make their lives a living hell.
I know Canadians are not particularly combative, and are conflict avoidant. I was that way when I moved to the US, and I have become far more obnoxious and offensive just to survive in this much rougher environment down here. It was a conscious decision on my part, actually.
The one thing I am confident of is that the Yanks, as rude and crude as they often are, are prepared to fight if they are pushed far enough. In surveys for years, more than half of all Americans expect another civil war to break out at some point. And I think the tensions are pretty high at the moment. I am not sure the Aussies are willing to fight to defend their way of life, and I am even less sure that the Canucks are willing to do so.
Even though the Yanks are prepared to fight against this woke ideology, I am not completely convinced that they will rise to the occasion in enough time to save themselves, their country and the rest of Western Civilization. That remains to be seen, unfortunately.
> In a nutshell it amounts to an ethnic cleansing of the lower socioeconomic classes, especially Indigenous Canadians, who are more at risk of succumbing to the perils of drug and alcohol abuse.
This hyperbolic aside sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise sober essay.
Canada has about 10,000 annual deaths linked to drugs and alcohol according to this hand-wringing CBC story:
The indigenous population of Canada is about 5% (1.8 million) and growing rapidly, at about 2% (36,000) annually, faster than any other group. That’s net any of those drug and alcohol deaths.
This is a strange kind of “ethnic cleansing” that results in higher population growth than any other group!
Two seemingly opposite and unrelated things can both be true.
Trump may well be mentally ill and people supposedly suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” may, in fact, have made a highly accurate assessment of that raging buffoon.
Similarly the administrators of many of the medical universities in North America may be causing irreparable damage to health care in the US and Canada through their near insane woke nonsense while those (like the author of this excellent article) are derided and stripped of authority.
I happen to be among a probably small minority who believe that both postulates are true.
Trump, "that raging buffoon," governed for four years with moderate and sound policies that made people, especially minorities, prosperous, safe, and in a world with enemies in retreat. Compare with Biden-Harris impoverishment, danger, and unconstitutional violations of civil right. Try judging people by what they do rather than by your subjective impression.
Yes. Trump says many cringe-worthy things. He always has. This is part of his persona, his "schtick". Many times I hear him say something egregiously, gratuitously stupid, and I just wince. However, as you say, he is fairly effective, when compared to most of the alternatives.
His uncle was a physics professor at MIT of some renown. Trump might appear to be a clown, and he does tell a lot of jokes. But he is shockingly shrewd more often than not, in spite of a famously long list of failed businesses. He somehow manages to recover and continue after, however. He is sort of a showman, and a bit of a schlocky salesman. He rubs many the wrong way, however...
Why does anyone in Canada have to concern themselves with Trump and TDS?
Canadians and other foreigners do not really quite understand the US political system and current events in the US. I know it took me several years after I arrived in the US before I started to understand. Even my most conservative Canadian friends still living in Canada seem to have completely bizarre opinions about what is going on right now in the US.
Whatever Trump does, or tries to do, Canada should look after its own affairs. I think Canada is in real trouble, even worse than the trouble the US finds itself in. And the US is in existential trouble, make no mistake about it.
And what does Trump have to do with Canadian healthcare?
I fully admit Trump is coarse and often his own worst enemy. And he did not deal with the pandemic optimally. However, very few did, to be honest. At the time, we were not aware of some of the most important information that existed, and we had a lot of censorship going on, globally. I am not sure that is due to Trump, particularly.
I would like to see a global inquiry into the pandemic, like the Nuremberg Trials. But that is unlikely under Trump, I will admit. However, the situation the US finds itself in is so precarious that even something as necessary and vital as an inquiry might have to wait for a bit.
Ah yes, I was just reminded that Dave blocked me. I have no idea why, since I have never interacted with him before, as far as I know. But, whatever. There are all manner of strange characters here on the internet.
Well, perhaps. But I did not think it was going to happen because of the current atmosphere in the US. We need someone who is willing to be brutally aggressive, or else the US might be finished. We need a bulldozer, and Trump is the closest thing we have to a bulldozer.
I could make plenty of comments about the international disgrace Canada has become, but what is the point?
The feelings alphabet cult is coming after all stem fields. Because these are the last bastion of reproducible truth and facts. Their actions have led to a noticeable lowering of standards across disciplines and the death of merit.
The only solution is to fight
Absolutely. Being sort of milquetoast intellectual STEM types, most of us are not particularly used to fighting and confrontation. But we either do it, or STEM disappears. It is that simple.
Engineering has mostly managed to hold out, but the feelings crew have been making inroads. Many programs now mark students on the curve, and not on actual marks. All that does is set them up for failure on the licensing exams after college.
I tell students all the time, the physical world doesn’t care about feelings. You can either do something or you can’t. You’re either better than another at it or not. If you want special treatment do better.
Yes. When I received my undergraduate training in first mechanical engineering and then honors physics in Canada and then moved on to graduate school in physics at MIT in the 70s, I found it beyond grueling and challenging. However, as horrible and brutally competitive as that introduction was, it was NOTHING compared to the incredibly harsh realities I would later face as a STEM professional in mathematical physics and then applied mathematics.
The real world is so unfair and cruel that it is hard to imagine. I faced constant insults and deprecation. I had many millions of grant and contract money stolen. I endured physical assaults. I had my signature forged on legal contracts, was lied to repeatedly, was in an 8.5 year lawsuit, and so on. The environment is so rough in actuality that it is beyond belief. Almost nothing could have prepared me for it.
And I am not alone by any means. Many of my colleagues faced the same, or worse. When I read historical accounts of others in my field, I notice that these conditions are not unique or recent. It has always been this way, it would seem. Some are very lucky and escape it. But if you have any talent whatsoever, you have a target painted on your back. Over and over, I am shocked and dismayed to realize what the situation is like, and probably has always been like.
Layering on this woke ideology has just given bullies more tools to abuse the workforce. It does not remotely make things more "fair". It is just irrational nonsense.
Feel for you
All is not lost, however. My daughter, a fairly recent engineering graduate, doesn’t buy into any of the woke stuff, and calls out those leveraging it. Let’s hope more follow that example.
Scary. And clearly dangerous.
"All three asked to remain anonymous for fear of the retributive repercussions routinely inflicted by their universities’ personnel departments"
That has to change.
Cancelling academics with "incorrect thoughts" is very popular. University administrators are primarily responsible, with woke professors and students following their lead. There are now large DEI bureaucracies of commissars charged with enforcing "right thinking."
The only way this will change is the way it changed in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.: governors and legislators defunded and outlawed DEI and other offenses against truth and common sense, not to mention civil rights. Are there any courageous Canadian politicians? Don't hold your breath.
Tenured faculty who complain anonymously are cowards. Students I can forgive, administrators, adjuncts... people who really can be gotten rid of at the drop of a hat. But at this point, anyone who enjoys the perks of tenure but exercises none of the responsibilities it was designed for is basically embezzling.
Gen X to early millennial medicine is the end of sane medicine. Social injustice warrior doctors in charge of MedED have forgotten that they have the training and practice foundations and competences that can allow them to incorporate their social justice interests. Changes to curriculum with trainees that lack the same foundation and rigour is disastrous and will only cause harm. Excellent piece that makes me want to reach out to all my Canadian MD peers tasked to train these new experimental cohorts and give them hugs.
It’s like Pol Pot who killed off all the doctors or anyone who wore glasses bc they were too Western. Instead it was the woke peasants acting as people doctors who had the true indigenous healing knowledge.
Terrifying.
These people are crazy. It is as usual hard to understand how many people who are on professions we expect to be serious and intelligent are opting for the woke agenda.
“This second potentially fatal chink in the tower has been swiftly and robustly plugged in recent days by the American College of Pediatricians.”
To what are you referring here? Link?
I think he is referring to the recent pronouncement of the ACP decrying "gender affirming care". Unfortunately, most other medical and legal professional bodies are still all on board with this pseudoscientific nonsense.
Yeah, unfortunately it’s the American Academy of Pediatrics that’s more influential— and they seem to have drunk deep from the Kool-Aid.
I think the US organization of plastic surgeons just came out against gender affirming care for minors...this is a MAJOR step. So, we will see what happens.
I wish these were the only problems with healthcare in Canada. I have two family members who served in very senior positions in healthcare administration in Canada, one at the provincial level and one at the federal level, just one or two positions "down from the top". I have not asked them, but I wonder what they think of this current slow-moving disaster going on in Canadian healthcare. The one who was helping to run Health Canada even privately told me about the advantages of acquiring a concierge medical plan south of the 49th parallel to augment the Canadian plan, because of the weaknesses of the Canadian system. And this is someone who served for a a few decades at the very top of the Canadian healthcare infrastructure. It has problems, but not the problems that are reported upon gleefully by US media and politicians. Ask the person who helped design and run the system if you want to know the real problems.
I noticed that the Canadian federal government is in some pitched battle with Canadian physicians over their attempts to broaden the MAiD program (i.e. assisted suicide). And many Canadian medical schools have had the federal government dictate that they have to restrict the size of their graduating classes, in spite of huge looming shortages. My friend Lawrence Krauss has written with some concern about the state of healthcare in PEI, that he has become aware of after he moved there.
And then you add on top of that the types of 'professional college' attacks on various physicians, which are similar to the ongoing attacks on Jordan Peterson. Canadian healthcare seems to be in serious trouble, from my vantage point.
I was considering moving back home to Canada. But the situation looks pretty bad from where I sit down here in the "Evil Empire". I am watching with some concern.
Canadians, even recent immigrants, are leaving Canada. An overwhelming percentage of Canadians agree that "Canada is broken." The country is grinding to a halt, universities in the lead. You are considering returning?
I was. I was even going to potentially bring a substantial commercial enterprise with me.
However, Canada, the place of my birth, appears to be becoming increasingly unwelcoming. I have never seen anything quite like it. Canada was never fantastic in R and D. However, things have gone from bad to worse, or at least that is my impression.
And the government and citizens do not seem particularly concerned, from what I can tell. They might even be gleeful at the prospects of losing their hard-won status as a first world country that many admired and respected. They are getting poorer and more backwards. Their reputation is suffering from all the shenanigans that are going on. They always had a terrible brain drain, but the current situation definitely is not helping.
It is sort of shameful, really.
And so, until things turn around, I will NOT be coming back to Canada to live or invest.
My parents, who have now passed away, would have been horrified. How did things get so bad, so quickly? It does not HAVE to be the way it is currently. Wow.
Many Canadians do seem to care. The majority is appalled by the performance of PM Trudeau and his government. A lot of Canadians are really angry. Whether and to what extent this will lead to changes that will turn things around, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, it is wise for you to stay put.
When I ask my friends back in Canada, they seem to suggest that Canadians are too complacent and too lazy to do anything at all. They think that Canadians will just let the authorities run roughshod over them and make their lives a living hell.
I know Canadians are not particularly combative, and are conflict avoidant. I was that way when I moved to the US, and I have become far more obnoxious and offensive just to survive in this much rougher environment down here. It was a conscious decision on my part, actually.
The one thing I am confident of is that the Yanks, as rude and crude as they often are, are prepared to fight if they are pushed far enough. In surveys for years, more than half of all Americans expect another civil war to break out at some point. And I think the tensions are pretty high at the moment. I am not sure the Aussies are willing to fight to defend their way of life, and I am even less sure that the Canucks are willing to do so.
Even though the Yanks are prepared to fight against this woke ideology, I am not completely convinced that they will rise to the occasion in enough time to save themselves, their country and the rest of Western Civilization. That remains to be seen, unfortunately.
> In a nutshell it amounts to an ethnic cleansing of the lower socioeconomic classes, especially Indigenous Canadians, who are more at risk of succumbing to the perils of drug and alcohol abuse.
This hyperbolic aside sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise sober essay.
Canada has about 10,000 annual deaths linked to drugs and alcohol according to this hand-wringing CBC story:
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6712273
The indigenous population of Canada is about 5% (1.8 million) and growing rapidly, at about 2% (36,000) annually, faster than any other group. That’s net any of those drug and alcohol deaths.
This is a strange kind of “ethnic cleansing” that results in higher population growth than any other group!
Two seemingly opposite and unrelated things can both be true.
Trump may well be mentally ill and people supposedly suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” may, in fact, have made a highly accurate assessment of that raging buffoon.
Similarly the administrators of many of the medical universities in North America may be causing irreparable damage to health care in the US and Canada through their near insane woke nonsense while those (like the author of this excellent article) are derided and stripped of authority.
I happen to be among a probably small minority who believe that both postulates are true.
Trump, "that raging buffoon," governed for four years with moderate and sound policies that made people, especially minorities, prosperous, safe, and in a world with enemies in retreat. Compare with Biden-Harris impoverishment, danger, and unconstitutional violations of civil right. Try judging people by what they do rather than by your subjective impression.
Did you watch his press conference last week?
Watch what he does.
Yes. Trump says many cringe-worthy things. He always has. This is part of his persona, his "schtick". Many times I hear him say something egregiously, gratuitously stupid, and I just wince. However, as you say, he is fairly effective, when compared to most of the alternatives.
His uncle was a physics professor at MIT of some renown. Trump might appear to be a clown, and he does tell a lot of jokes. But he is shockingly shrewd more often than not, in spite of a famously long list of failed businesses. He somehow manages to recover and continue after, however. He is sort of a showman, and a bit of a schlocky salesman. He rubs many the wrong way, however...
Why does anyone in Canada have to concern themselves with Trump and TDS?
Canadians and other foreigners do not really quite understand the US political system and current events in the US. I know it took me several years after I arrived in the US before I started to understand. Even my most conservative Canadian friends still living in Canada seem to have completely bizarre opinions about what is going on right now in the US.
Whatever Trump does, or tries to do, Canada should look after its own affairs. I think Canada is in real trouble, even worse than the trouble the US finds itself in. And the US is in existential trouble, make no mistake about it.
And what does Trump have to do with Canadian healthcare?
I fully admit Trump is coarse and often his own worst enemy. And he did not deal with the pandemic optimally. However, very few did, to be honest. At the time, we were not aware of some of the most important information that existed, and we had a lot of censorship going on, globally. I am not sure that is due to Trump, particularly.
I would like to see a global inquiry into the pandemic, like the Nuremberg Trials. But that is unlikely under Trump, I will admit. However, the situation the US finds itself in is so precarious that even something as necessary and vital as an inquiry might have to wait for a bit.
Ah yes, I was just reminded that Dave blocked me. I have no idea why, since I have never interacted with him before, as far as I know. But, whatever. There are all manner of strange characters here on the internet.
Canadians often follow US politics. I don’t know why but my parents always did.
I followed them too before I moved to the US. However, being in Canada (or Europe or Australia) you do not quite understand the nuances.
It took me years of living in the US before it started to make sense to me.
It’s unfortunate that the Republicans didn’t nominate someone else (of course I’m not an American).
Well, perhaps. But I did not think it was going to happen because of the current atmosphere in the US. We need someone who is willing to be brutally aggressive, or else the US might be finished. We need a bulldozer, and Trump is the closest thing we have to a bulldozer.
I could make plenty of comments about the international disgrace Canada has become, but what is the point?