CLEMENT'S POLITICAL ETHIC

Health Minister Tony Clement has outdone himself by lecturing Canada's
doctors about medical ethics while he plays political games. In a
speech this week to the Canadian Medical Association's annual meeting
in Montreal, the federal minister opened another front in the Harper
government's attack on Vancouver's supervised injection site by
questioning the ethics of doctors who support it. Clement called the
"ethical considerations" of supervised injections "profoundly
disturbing." Insite, which opened in 2003 under an exemption to
federal drug laws, "undercuts the ethic of medical practice and sets a
debilitating example for all physicians and nurses."

This public scolding smacks more of politics than ethics.

The Conservative government has long had Insite in its sights. Earlier
this month, Clement denounced the idea of supervised injection sites
at a major international AIDS conference in Mexico City, despite a
body of scientific research supporting such harm reduction programs.
The government is also appealing a B.C. court decision that
effectively threw Insite a lifeline in the spring when it appeared
Ottawa was poised to let its legal exemption lapse.

If the government's ideological tilt wasn't already clear, the
Conservative party recently launched advertisements that paint it as
being tough on illegal drugs as rumblings of a fall election grow louder.

Clement is entitled to his views on supervised injection sites. But he
crosses the line when he casts doubt on the ethical judgment of
doctors who disagree with him, and asserts the primacy of his personal
ideology over the scientific credentials of medical researchers.