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Clinton News Record, 2014-10-08, Page 44 News Record • Wednesday, October 8, 2014 www.clintonnewsrecord.com NewsCl Record PUBLISHED WEEKLY — EST. 1860 53 Albert St. P.O. Box 39 Clinton ON NOM 11_0 (519) 482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com SUN MEDIA A Quebecor Media Company MARIE DAVID Sun Media Group Publisher Grey Bruce Huron Division 519-364-2001 or 519-372-4301 NEIL CLIFFORD Publisher neil.clifford@sunmedia.ca MAX BICKFORD Advertising Manager max.bickford@sunmedia.ca TARA OSTNER Reporter clinton.reportersunmedia.ca DAWN JOHNSTON Sales Representative clinton.ads@sunmedia.ca SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 YEAR $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 2 YEAR $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) SENIORS 60 WEEKS $50.00 (47.62+2.38 GST) 120 WEEKS $95.00 (90.48+4.52 GST) Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous Rem together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged but that balance of advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographic error advertising goods or services ata wrong price, goods or services may not be sold.Ad- vertising is merely an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at anytime. The Clinton News -Record is not responsible forme loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. Publications Mail Agreement No.40064683 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 53 Albert St., Clinton ON NOM 1L0 (519)482-3443 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canada AOcna Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association and the Ontario Community Newspapers Association editorial Conference Board: Wynne can't add QMI Agency The Conference Board of Canada is the latest independent body to look at Ontario's books and declare it doesn't understand how Premier Kathleen Wynne's mathworks. Without further tax hikes and spending cuts, the Conference Board said recently, Ontario's Liberal governmentwill come up $2.4 billion short on its promise to balance the provincial budget by 2017-2018. No word on when the Liberals will start paying down the province's total debt, now closing in on $300 billion, dou- ble what the Liberals inherited when they came to power in 2003. "Ontario will struggle to meet its goal of bal- ancing the budget with- out additional spending cuts or tax increases," said Conference Board spokesman Matthew Stewart. "Despite new tax measures, our forecast for revenues is weaker than the government's projections, due to slower economic growth later in the decade. "Even if revenues come in higher than expected, the proposed plan in the July, 2014 Budget calls for program spending to be held essentially flat over the course of the next four fiscal years. This kind of restraint on program spending has proven to be very difficult over the last 15 years and govem- ments will need to make bolder policy choices in the future:' In other words, since the best indication of future performance is past practice, the Liber- als will continue to run deficits as they have since 2008-2009, at the start of the global recession. Meanwhile, Ontario's unemployment rate has been above the national average for 92 consecu- tive months, ever since January, 2007 — well before the recession. The Liberals respond their 2013 deficit came in at $10.5 billion — $800 million below their forecast of $11.3 billion — marking the fifth year in a row the government has come inbelow its predicted deficit Except that this year, the Liberals had to spend $1 billion in reserve funds to reduce the deficit And in any event, beating deficit projec- tions is a shell game. All the Liberals do at the start of everybudget cycle is over-estimate expenditures and under -estimate reve- nues, so the real num- bers won't be quite as bad as their predictions. All that means is that the Liberals are lousy budgeters. Which, of course, we alreadyknow. column A reckless choice Tara Ostner The Clinton News Record A First Nations mother recently removed her child from chemotherapy treatment that she was receiving at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton because it con- flicts with her beliefs. Instead, the daughter will receive treatment at the Hippocrates Health Insti- tute in Florida, a centre that focuses on nutrition and naturopathic therapy. As the mother says, "I will not have my daughter treated with poison.... She has to become a healthy mother and a grand- mother. I have chosen treatment that will not compromise her well- being and quality of life." More specifically, the mother states, "I decided to treat her cancer with our traditional medicines from our ancient indige- nous knowledge coupled with the practices of nutrition as medicine, plant -based supplements along with other thera- pies," her mother wrote. Following the removal of the child from the chemotherapy treatment, a group of lawyers from the McMaster Children's Hospital have gone to court in an attempt to force the Brant Children's Aid Society to intervene and return the child to the hospital for the chemo- therapy treatment. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that everyone has freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression and, of course, I would never question this. The mother may very well have strong beliefs in traditional medicines and indigenous knowledge and, as a Canadian citi- zen, she has every right to. I also can't help but notice that the mother's beliefs in traditional med- icines and indigenous knowledge are, I think, in some ways similar to reli- gious beliefs (which are, of course, also protected within the Charter). They're similar to reli- gious beliefs, for example, in the sense that they can- not be scientifically proven. Having said that, how- ever, I think that the mother's beliefs are also dissimilar to religious beliefs because, unlike religious beliefs which, of course, can't technically be scientifically dis- proven, beliefs in tradi- tional medicines and indigenous knowledge can and in fact have been scientifically disproven; modern medicine tells us this more and more affirmatively all of the time. I am then faced with the following question: is this mother actually willing to put her child's life on the line in the name of beliefs that either (a) at best, can't be scientifically proven or (b) at worst, have been scientifically disproven? By removing her daugh- ter from chemotherapy treatment at McMaster Children's Hospital it appears as though the answer to this question is yes and, as a mother myself, this turns my stomach. Even some of the most faithful among us wouldn't think of using religion alone (or any unproven belief) to cure an aggressive form of can- cer. For instance, I imag- ine that most religious people would understand that, provided they want to survive, their religious beliefs, no matter how earnestly they might hold them, ought to take a back seat to medicine. And, of course, when I say medi- cine, I mean real medi- cine grounded in science and the scientific method, not pseudoscience. The mother's actions prove that she fails to understand this. Not only does she think that her beliefs in traditional med- icines and indigenous knowledge are somehow relevant with respect to treating her daughter's aggressive form of cancer but, what is more, is that she thinks that her beliefs are more relevant than the entire global scientific community's. This mother's choice was a reckless one and my heart goes out to every child who is, similarly, at the mercy of their parents' ill-advised choices, choices which are, ulti- mately, I think, grounded in both arrogance and ignorance. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The News Record welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include a daytime phone number for verification purposes. Letters can be sent care of the Internet at clinton.news@sunmedia.ca, sent via fax at 519-482-7341 or through Canada Post care of The Editor, P.O. Box 39, Clinton, ON NOL 1LO. 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