The site is particularly devoid of usable information so that even a keyword search for "refus de porter assistance" (loose translation: refusal to assist) did not turn out anything but on site such as lexum ( www.lexum.umontreal.ca ), it would likely turn up a gazillions results...

Alain

Edited by author 09-08-2007 12:36 AM
I think I found it (that's a pretty cool site, by the way--wish I knew about it before!) http://www.educaloi.qc.ca/en/loi/health_ca..._professionals/393/

It's under "When must a child’s situation be reported to the Director of Youth Protection (D.Y.P.)?":

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The law states that any person who knows that a child is the victim of physical or sexual abuse must report the case to the D.Y.P.

People who come into direct contact with children through their work – including police, doctors, other healthcare workers (nurses, psychologists, dentists, optometrists, social workers, etc.), daycare workers and teachers – have even more obligations. These individuals must inform the D.Y.P. as soon as they believe that a child is in a situation that is placing his security or development at risk. To find out more about these situations, read the Infosheet entitled When can the Director of Youth Protection get involved.

Any other person can of course alert the D.Y.P. to the case of a child who, for example, is being neglected or whose parents are abusing drugs or alcohol, but they are not obliged to do so. However, every adult has a legal obligation to help a child who wants to report a case to the D.Y.P. –whether it’s his own situation, that of his siblings, or even that of another child he knows.

If a person has an obligation to report a case or help a child to do so and he doesn’t do it, then he is committing a criminal offence. He can face prosecution and a fine of up to $2500.

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So it's "People who come into direct contact with children through their work" who have the greater obligation, while other adults have somewhat more limited obligations (reporting physical or sexual abuse, and helping children report a case to the DYP). Anyway, that's in Quebec.

There's some related information here http://www.educaloi.qc.ca/en/loi/parents/394/ E.g., the DYP is required to get involved if a child's "physical health is threatened" but the description of this is limited to depriving a child of medical treatment rather than imposing useless, harmful and dangerous treatments.

I have just borrowed 'Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism' by Roy Richard Grinker from my local public library. I requested it through interlibrary loans. There's a waiting list for the book so I've got three weeks to read it.

"...the DYP is required to get involved if a child's "physical health is threatened" but the description of this is limited to depriving a child of medical treatment..."

Well, as the parent of an autistic who received neither ABA nor chelation, I guess I'd better be concerned.... I've already been labeled a "child abuser" for my refusal to chelate and, I've heard (too many times to count) that ABA is "medically necessary".

Yeah (re /m6636 ), I did ask whether I was being naive (again). The authorities might not think much of the chelationists. But Canada's political leaders have written off all autistics who don't get ABA/IBI. An Ontario cabinet minister reported that before ABA/IBI became widely available, autism was a sure "death sentence." The Liberal Party of Canada is sure that autism is a terminal disease for which ABA/IBI is the only "effective" "medically necessary" treatment. And so on. The autism-is-a-fatal-disease thing is enshrined in our jurisprudence and public policy.

From my Auton factum http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_fac.html , where the "Respondents" were the parents using Canada's highest law to demand Lovaas-type ABA as the only "effective" and "medically necessary" life-saving autism treatment:

"Upholding the Respondents’ position carries the risk that for any autistic child, the deprivation of “medically necessary” treatment will be seen as the mistreatment or neglect of that child. The Respondents’ contention that this treatment will remain optional is at least unrealistic, if not irresponsible. This would somehow make autism different from other catastrophic illnesses, to which autism has been compared in the judgments below, where depriving a child of treatment may result in the apprehension of that child."

Interesting Globe and Mail article about Kristen Worley, a Canadian female athlete who used to be male http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto.../?pageRequested=all Here's a few pieces:

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It has been 55 years since an ex-GI named George Jorgenson realized his dreams and shocked the world by travelling to Denmark for surgery and returning to the Bronx as Christine Jorgensen. Hard numbers are still difficult to find, but a research paper presented this week at a conference in Chicago suggests that as many as one person in 500 feels estranged from his or her body. These people are so distanced from their assigned sex that they are desperate to change it.

As a result, parents are more accepting of children who feel this way, and so are schools. Last year, a boy was admitted to a South Florida kindergarten class as a girl. A year earlier, the boy who had been elected to head a Toronto high school's student council came back after the summer holidays as a girl, and officials made sure students and teachers alike were sensitive to the situation.

[...]

Ms. Worley wishes she'd had surgery as a teen – and that more doctors were like Herbert Schreier of the Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, Calif. “We don't use the term ‘gender identity disorder,'” Dr. Schreier said in an interview. “We call it ‘gender variance.' The disorder comes in the minds of others.”

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Via my boss Ralph, "Autistic Pride Dancers" http://tricapd.blogspot.com/2007/09/autistic-pride-dancers.html This blog post has links to two videos featuring dance solos by Faith and Nathaniel Andrew.

I'm going to watch those videos (they are here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDPgIWFayQU and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIcr3Jhk9E ) even if it takes all day (or several days) to download them.

You can find out more about Faith and Nathaniel (also, great photos) by looking at the rest of the blog http://tricapd.blogspot.com/

re 6629 and abuse... In BC ... From the MCFD website (http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/child_protection/reportabuse.htm ) :

"Anyone who has reason to believe that a child has been or is likely to be abused or neglected has a legal duty under the Child, Family and Community Service Act to report the matter."

The CFCSA can be found here: http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/C/96046_01.htm

When to report: P3/D1/13 Section P3/D1/13/f and g are interesting in the context of the conversation...

Those who work in the field with children are under more of an obligation to report then the average citizen (who is still obliged to report). "Reporting" is not the same as investigating... leave that to the experts.


D.

Thanks Dave C.

Probably the same kinds of laws exist in a lot of Canadian and US jurisdictions. But I still don't know who, if anyone, has the responsibility to report something in a case where an expert puts on the public record, in a court proceeding and apart from other statements that indicate a child has been and possibly continues to harmed, that he

"will testify that chelation therapy administered to (A[...]) pose(s) danger to this child for additional harm or death."

On the other hand, the 1996 BC Child, Family and Community Services Act (at P3/D1/13/f and g) and many similar laws would, according to "autism advocates," make it mandatory to report that any autistic child (of any age and regardless of the specific characteristics of that child) is not either receiving or scheduled to receive (i.e., on a waiting list) ABA-based autism interventions. Many "autism advocates" would insist that this must be Lovaas-type ABA. It would also be mandatory to report that a child's parents have refused to consent to putting their child in an ABA program.

These and similar consequences of "autism advocacy" views of autism were mentioned in my application to intervene in Auton as well as in my factum.

Hi Michelle,

According to the lonely planet guide to Montreal and Quebec City (2007), one of the first things visitors to Montreal notice is "how well people are dressed - and it's not just the women that stop traffic. [...] It's not that the locals are all gorgeous - but they do know how to dress. Whether artists, students or entrepeneurs, it seems like everyone knows the look they're going for and pulls it off flawlessly." Montrealers "have fun with clothes and are happy to flaunt it."

The guide states that the Bibliotheque et Archives National du Quebec "has been a success beyond planners' wildest dreams." Originally intended to receive 5,000 to 6,000 people a day, the actual number is 10,000 to 12,000 visitors.

NDG is dwescribed as "a bit of a sleepy district. However avenue Monkland's cafes and restaurants liven up the area [...]. Over the past decade or so avenue Monkland (or Monkland Ave) has been transformed, with coffee bars, restaurants and condominiums springing up like mushrooms after a warm rain. Called Monkland Village by anglo real-estate agents, it certainly has a village character as many people walk to the shops from their homes."

As expected there is stuff about how trendy and fashionable the Plateau de Mont-Royal is, "most Montrealers would kill for a Plateau address."

There is half a page about Emile Nelligan (1879-1941), a Quebecois poet who lived in Montreal. In 1899 he was committed by his father to a mental hospital. Except for a very brief interlude in 1925, he remained in care for the rest of his life. "Historians who've examined his hospital records believe he may have suffered from schizophrenia."

Hi Philip,

Hmmm, in Montreal, nothing, at least no human being, stops traffic...

I haven't been to the Bibliotheque Nationale yet. I wonder if they have days or times when less people show up, or whether it's always teeming.

There's a West Island provincial riding named after Emile Nelligan (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelligan_(pro..._electoral_district) ). I've delivered a lot of mail in that riding (here's a map http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/fr/pdf/cartesElectorales/414.pdf ).

Irene Pepperberg's famous parrot, Alex, has died unexpectedly at the age of 31. That's about middle age for a parrot. Alex spent 30 of his 31 years with Dr Pepperberg. For the relevance of Dr Pepperberg and Alex the parrot to autism, see this discussion http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?id=52

The NYT has an article about Alex http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11parrot.html?ref=us which includes his last words, but I prefer this blog post http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007...arrot_colleague.php , where Alex is described as a colleague of Dr Pepperberg's. Here's a story in the comments, from an interview with Dr Pepperberg:

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We were training Alex to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.

Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."

Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."

Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us.

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"When science and journalism collide" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6988088.stm Very interesting BBC story about a scientist encountering the lousy standards now bestowed on autistics in every possible realm.

The scientist is Prof. Peter Hammond. He has not previously been involved in autism research (see his page http://www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/staff/academic/hammondp/index.html and CV http://www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/staff/academic/hammondp/phammond.pdf ). It looks like he was totally unprepared for what would happen to his work (which involves many populations) when the word "autism" was mentioned in its vicinity. All standards in reporting immediately went down the toilet, and Prof Hammond was, rightly, furious.

Prof Hammond's reaction is described in the BBC article as unusual and unfortunate: apparently, scientists aren't supposed to mind so much when their work is grossly misrepresented.

I'm quite grateful that Prof Hammond minded so much, and refused to grant the media another opportunity to twist and misrepresent his work. If, as is likely, the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference is anything like the AAAS conference (where we presented our Raven data in 2006), the many reporters who mangled Prof Hammond's work had full access, in documents provided by Prof Hammond and colleagues, to accurate information. The media simply chose to ignore it. So they can equally choose, at any moment they wish, to apologize for their egregious errors and to publish accurate information.

Regarding the bibliothèque nationale, I used to go there quite often when I was in montreal and I think (it's hard to think because i'm either having a strong headache or a migraine at the moment) it was less busy during the weekday and personally, I used to go at least on the 3rd floor because it was less noisy than the bottom ones.

Sleepless

Autism, deadly enemy of the brain. See "The Deadly Five" from Not Mercury http://notmercury.blogspot.com/2007/09/deadly-five.html , about the latest issue of Popular Science, in which autism is listed as a fatal disease.

What a triumph for Autism Speaks. They must be proud of themselves.

And of course, if autism is routinely regarded as fatal, many people will be able to justify doing pretty much anything to autistics to save our lives from deadly autism. If we're harmed or killed by autism treatments, well, we were as good as dead anyway, right?

"If you can do X, why can't you do Y?" http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=448 Video from Ballastexistenz which, amazingly took not much time to download (not much more than an hour, for a longish video). That's because it's almost entirely text. I can't think of a better way to answer the question in the title (an answer to a related question is also provided).

I don't have absolute pitch. I did identify (more or less automatically) one of the notes in the video. No idea why.