There was a recent post relating to an article in the Vermilion Standard and quotes of that areas M.P. regarding the CCSVI treatment  -  see "MP Leon Benoit creating awareness of MS treatment Oct 12/2011.   It was interesting to see another M.P., and this time a Conservative,  showing some support;  so I checked out his web site but found no mention of his having researched the topic or ever having raised the issue.  The quotes attributed to him in the newspaper were also somewhat confusing,  so I have e-mailed him the following:

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To benoil@parl.gc.ca

Re:Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency:

Sir,  there was a very interesting article in a paper from one of the communities in your Constituency relating to a MS sufferer who went to California for CCSVI treatment.   The article (The Vermilion Standard Oct 12/11) quotes you as follows:

-.....to speed up the process for bringing CCSVI treatment to Canada..

-.....I want ... to bring CCSVI treatment to Canada...

Sir,  your Web-Site gives no indication that you have researched this subject or that you do indeed stronly support the treatment (which would appear to be the case based on your keen opinions of bringing the treatment to Canada a.s.a.p.).

I would ask that you include details of your interest in this treatment on your web-site and of course I trust that you have suppported Dr Kirstey Duncan in the House of Commons when she has raised this issue.

I am however somewhat confused by the quotes attributed to you by the newspaper - "...our Government has been really aggressive and has put a very tight timeline for a study and work that has to be done to have it pass through medical professionals, said Benoit."

I have a wife suffering from secondary progressive M.S. and I have found that your Governments Minister of Health is uneducated on the subject of CCSVI,  that she relies on Staff who are similarly unknowledgeable on the subject,  and that the Ministry has appointed (via the CIHR) a so-called panel of experts who in fact have absolutely no expertise in the subject of venous blood flow or the hypothesis of CCSVI.

So my question to you would be,  which government were you in fact talking about in that article in the Vermilion Standard ?

I too would like to see CCSVI treatment being offered in Canadian Hospitals,  however thanks to the current Minister of Health and the lack of knowledge on the subject in the Ministry and indeed in Parliament itself,  the timeline which you feel is "tight",  is causing unnecessary pain and suffering to Canadian people with M.S. when there is a treatment that could be made available within months not years to ease that suffering and improve their quality of life.

As I am not someone from your Constituency,  I will understand that you might prefer to not answer this communication,  but please remember that when you make galant statements to the press which hopefully were not done so for political gain,  that people are reading those statements with the hope that you are being honest.

Yours sincerely,  Malcolm Roberts.

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I'll let you know if he responds.