Parliament Hill – Information Breakfast – May 8

The Awareness Day breakfast information session on Parliament Hill took place at 7:30-8:30 am on May 8.   The following Parliamentarians attended:

Senators:  

Celine Hervieux-Payette (Que) and  Dr Kelvin Ogilvie (NS) 

Members of Parliament: 

• Dr Caroline Bennett (Ont)
• Ron Cannon (BC)
• Dr. Marc Garneau (Que)
• Andrew Saxton (BC)
• Bruce Stanton (Ont)
• Hon. Peter Van Loan (Ont)
The Minister of Health, Leona Aglukkaq (Nunavut), sent a member of her staff to attend, as did Dr. Hedy Fry (BC). 

Elizabeth May (BC) and Tony Clement (Ont) stopped by and expressed support but had other meetings to attend.

I started with a presentation on ME/FM fundamentals, talking about the national association, the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS and FM, the experience of patients and the state of research. 

Please download the PDF here MEFM-MargaretParlor.pdf

Lisa Schneiderman followed, using the theme of Real people, Real illnesses, Real solutions. She related her personal experiences and asked for support in the areas of research, knowledge transfer, service delivery and surveillance.  

Please download the PDF here MEFM-LisaSchneiderman.pdf

Dr. Gordon Broderick followed with a presentation on ME/CFS research, using the themes of identifiable, treatable and fundable. There were scientists in the room - Dr Ogilvie is an expert on biotechnology, Dr Garneau studied engineering, and Dr Bennett studied medicine. Dr Broderick did an amazing job of reaching the scientists while making his talk understandable for the non-scientists.

Please download the PDF here MEFM-GordonBroderick.pdf

Thank you to Dr. Bennett and Dr. Fry who sponsored the event and to Lisa who made it happen. Thanks to Dr Broderick for his presentation. Thanks also to Christiane Garcia, Maureen MacQuarrie and Anne Marie MacIsaac who helped in a variety of ways.

As Senator Ogilvie was leaving, he told us that this was one of the most informative sessions he had ever attended. This is real praise coming from someone who has heard many presentations. We want credibility on Parliament Hill, and we gained some through this event.