Citation

Stanbrook MB. CMAJ 2019; 191(16): E434-E435.

Affiliation

Deputy editor, CMAJ; Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Ont.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Canadian Medical Association)

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.190401

PMID

31015347

Abstract

A Canadian gun lobby group recently launched an aggressive, coordinated attack on Dr. Najma Ahmed, a Toronto trauma surgeon and founder of Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns. The group had its supporters file nearly 70 complaints with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, alleging that Dr. Ahmed’s advocacy for gun control constitutes immoral and unprofessional behaviour. If the intent was to discourage her and other physicians from such advocacy, these efforts appear to have failed spectacularly: the college appropriately dismissed these complaints within a week, and physicians across Canada subsequently rallied in support of gun control. However, this novel attempt at political intimidation constitutes an alarming threat against public health advocacy, to which physicians must respond with resolve and determination.

Canadians may think that gun control — and the gun lobby’s toxic brand of political bullying — has relevance only south of our border. Yet the indiscriminate mass shooting in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood in 2018, in the context of rising rates of gun violence nationally, has provided impetus for new federal legislation on gun control — Bill C-71 — now making its way through Parliament. These developments have simultaneously prompted unprecedented organization and advocacy by Canadian physicians for stricter firearm controls. Unprecedented, but not new: Canadian physicians have advocated for gun control for decades ...

Language: en