Oilsands debate: Ezra Levant vs. Andrew Nikiforuk

(Why do so many anti-oilsands types believe in conspiracy theories? If it's not that the CIA is controlling the oilsands (seriously, that was said yesterday) it's that a practical, affordable electric car was invented, but the oil companies destroyed it (I heard that from a high school teacher in Victoria).)

Anyways, here's the video:

The last question in the public Q&A was from Dr. John O'Connor, the physician in Fort Chipewyan who told the media that he had diagnosed six cases of rare bile duct cancer in Fort Chip, and that he suspected the oilsands. He created a national news story -- and outright panic in Fort Chip itself, a town of just 1,200 souls. A whole "documentary" was made about his allegations.

Except that they weren't true. Not only weren't they true, but the College of Physicians and Surgeons -- Dr. O'Connors fellow doctors, not government politicians or bureaucrats -- condemned him for unethical conduct. There weren't six cases of bile duct cancer; there were two. When the authorities came to investigate Dr. O'Connor's wild accusations, they found that he himself was stonewalling their inquiries.

At yesterday's event, Dr. O'Connor said he didn't accept the College's ethics report. But when I asked him if he appealed it (to a real court) he acknowledged that he had not.

Funny. If the central story of my public life had been falsely called a lie, I'd appeal to a real court. I'd want to set the record straight. That's what you do if your professional association gets it wrong.

But O'Connor didn't appeal.

It was the last question of the day and it turned into a bit of a shouting match. But instead of taking my word for it, dear reader, why don't you just read the College's report yourself? It's 13 pages, and you can see it right here.

Before the debate, O'Connor came up to me and gave me a hug and asked me to sign a copy of my book that he had bought. I found it quite odd, given that I tore a strip off him in the book; but I wrote the kindest thing I could think of: that he loved his community. 

But his love for the people of Fort Chip, combined with his paranoia about the oilsands, combined to overwhelm his reasonable judgment, and led him to give a false alarm -- a false alarm that is still being cited by oilsands critics as the truth. It wasn't the oilsands, or the government that condemned his lack of judgment. It was his fellow doctors. Read their report and see for yourself.