Former Nova Scotia eastern zone emergency medicine department head Dr. Chris Milburn and his wife Dr. Julie Curwin have been setting up the Free Speech in Medicine and Science Conference. .“I wanted to have a venue where we could get together to have physicians talk about actual science and actual risks and benefits of policy,” said Milburn in an interview. .“This is sort of my reaction in the attempts to censor me.” .Milburn was punished by local public authorities in 2021 for questioning their directives during COVID-19. .He was fired from his position as an emergency medicine department head after he went on a radio show and criticized school closures and the “de-facto rule” of public health leaders. .“The decision to cancel in the first place was unjustified in my estimation,” he said. .Milburn said he wants this conference to be “a buglight for heretics in the medical field, in Canada and hopefully beyond.” .The conference will be held at the Inverary Inn in Baddeck, NS, from October 28 to 30. It will include speeches and panel discussions focusing on Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there will be conversations about censorship, informed consent, and identity politics. .Some of the speakers at the conference are Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, former University of Saskatchewan surgery professor Dr. Francis Christian, and pediatriac infectious disease specialist Dr. Martha Fulford..There will also be speakers without medical experience, such as Queen’s University law professor Bruce Pardy and Trish Wood Is Critical podcast host Trish Wood. .Milburn said one moment that showed him the importance of the conference was he invited the registrar of the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons to talk about what doctors should be barred from saying. The registrar declined to come, saying he did not want to associate with the event. .Milburn called this moment “frightening.” He said this response mirrors authoritarian regimes, as people do not know what could land them in trouble. .He went on to say he will be happy if 100 people show up in person. There will be a livestream of the event, which will include people from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. .According to Milburn, there is growing censorship in medicine because the industry attracts empathetic people. The way doctors are told to help people now is by shutting up and never questioning them. .Milburn said the suppression of freedom of expression has prohibited what doctors can say and research being stopped. .“We feel free speech closing in,” he said. .“We want to push it back out again.”
