Free Speech in Medicine: upholding scientific integrity amid political subversion
Nova Scotia-based emergency room physician Doctor Chris Milburn strives to uphold scientific integrity as the theme as the second annual Free Speech in Medicine conference draws nearer.
Dr. Milburn is no stranger to controversy. He has been investigated by his regulatory body in previous years, and was once the department head of emergency medicine for Nova Scotia Health Authorities' eastern zone until he was accused of ‘wrong speak’ for questioning COVID-related policies coming down from Provincial Health Officer Dr. Robert Stang.
Dr. Milburn and his wife, psychiatrist and writer Julie Curwin, are now hosting and organizing the second annual “Free Speech in Medicine” conference at the end of October.
The three-day summit will run from October 27 to October 29 in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and will feature an array of speakers who will dive into topics around medicine and science. This will challenge the “illusion of consensus,” as Dr. Milburn puts it, because “science is about debate and refutation.”
The suppression of that debate and the ability to refute ‘settled science’ is what transpired heavily throughout the COVID era.
“Now we’re seeing it happen with transgenderism, with drug policy, with approaches to obesity. These things where there’s one politically correct view that you’re allowed to say and if you say anything on the other side you’re going to get your knuckles rapped or worse, you’ll lose your license. All this does is produce an illusion of consensus around all of these issues which are actually very controversial and difficult. Unless we can speak about both sides of these issues, we’re not going to come to the right — the true — conclusion on them.”
The overarching themes of the conference will be the rise of the biomedical security state seen throughout COVID-related public health policies and the legal role of regulatory colleges in governing free speech. There will also be other explorations on hot topics like transgenderism and safe supply.
The conference's goal is to serve as a site of unification for medically-minded individuals who prioritize scientific integrity and discourse against political subversion of science.