In the Globe and Mail today, I learned that the government's board overseeing Assisted Human Reproduction Canada has no field experts in it.
Coming from a government with known, close ties to the TheoCon set, it appears that Harper has already descended into the land of selecting people for their political affiliations, not their expertise.
There's a couple of things of interest here - the agency website doesn't list who the appointees are (yet), as well as this announcement comes out when Parliament is not sitting. Once again, Harper has torn a page from the Ralph Klein Book of Tactics(tm), and tried to operate under the radar when it cannot readily be held to account for its actions.
According to the Globe and Mail article:
The new body will be co-chaired by John Hamm, a family doctor and the former Conservative premier of Nova Scotia, and Elinor Wilson, a former CEO of the Canadian Public Health Association.
The government also appointed, among others, a professor of Jewish studies who has written of his opposition to abortion unless the life of the mother is being threatened, a social anthropologist who is the director of research for the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, and a Montreal oncologist who has spoken against euthanasia at an anti-abortion conference.
John Hamm - Lessee, former politico, although he is an MD. {Whether he has the background for some of the more subtle issues involved in reproductive issues, is open to discussion}
Elinor Wilson - Reads like her bio is that of a long term bureaucrat.
As for the other characters, I don't have names to go hunting for some of their past, but I am somewhat amazed that a Professor of Jewish Studies, or a Social Anthropologist, would have adequate knowledge of medicine and medical ethics to be considered 'qualified' to dictate regulatory policy around reproductive technology.
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