Chris Selley, a blogger for the rightwing National Post newspaper, commented on the great article “Canada's MS patients are owed an explanation”  by Ujjal Dosanjh and Kirsty Duncan, two Liberal MPs who clearly care about the current plight of persons with MS in Canada. Doshnjh and Duncan focused on the unethical nature of CIHR/MSSC Committee which looked at the need for clinical research into the efficacy of CCSVI treatment for MS. The authors correctly pointed out that those with expertise in the subject matter at hand were purposefully left off the committee for the absurd reason that such expertise would bias the committee’s decisions. The authors also importantly pointed out that many of the committee members had a serious financial conflict of interest when it came to making a decision on a potentially very beneficial, non-drug treatment for MS.

 For some reason I cannot fathom, Mr Selley seems to think such criticisms of the membership of a committee, charged with a very important decision which will affect the health of tens of thousands of Canadians, are not just. I can only assume that Mr Selley thinks committees charged with making important decisions should exclude any person with experience and relevant expertise in the subject at hand and be stacked with individuals with a major conflict of interest.

I am sure Mr Selley would approve of a committee charged with looking at the tax structure applied to the petroleum industry being filled with persons who receive significant compensation from the petroleum industry and being void of any individual with experience in developing a tax structure for the petroleum industry.

Given Mr Selley’s impressive display of a complete lack of common sense and his poor understanding of what constitutes unethical behavior, it is clear that people have to Beware of Rightwing Bloggers Playing Journalist.