Autism in Canada - Straight Talk In A Letter to the Editor

With all the heated disputes over vaccines and autism one finds on the internet, and all the neurodiversity neurononsense, it is refreshing to find a letter to the editor of an online paper which gets straight to the point and tells the truth about autism in Canada. Treatment helps autistic children and their families. And our governments have been heartless and cruel in denying access to treatment. Thank you for speaking up and offering some straight talk Penny Berns.

Autism treatment helps

Letter
Published: Sunday, June 17, 2007

In Quebec, parents of autistic children are left out in the cold. The government adamantly refuses to pay for treatment that it claims has not been proven 100 per cent to work.

How heartless and cruel to deny these parents, who already have so much on their plate. Child autism is on the rise, and they and their parents need help.

Some parents and grandparents say they have had to sell their homes and go into debt to give their autistic children/grandchildren early-intervention treatments, since Quebec refuses to pay. The earlier it's treated the better the results - often big, positive changes in children.

It's ironic that some in the U.S. envy Canada's medicare system. Now the shoe is on the other foot. A friend's grandson in New Jersey was diagnosed with autism at 20 months of age and she told me that the state, by law, has to provide - free - every available therapy to autistic children; everything from water exercises to speech therapy to ortho-therapy. The parents are already seeing big strides.

Penny Berns

Dollard des Ormeaux