[Justin Himmelright]

A National poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid finds that 84% of Canadians want treatment for autism to be funded by the public health care system.

You can find a copy of this poll at http://www.canadaautism.com/Default.aspx?tabid=50

This morning that poll was send out to every federal MP, every BC MLA and every Ontario MPP. It was also sent to every newspaper in Ontario and BC.

[Justin Himmelright]

Just saw the bit on CTV news at 6. Brilliant! Nice job everyone. Well spoken Bev and Robin. Geoff was looking a little desperate. Excellent signs! I have only one question. Who will be next on our naughty list this holiday season? Lumps of coal (and protestors) for everyone of them.

[Justin Himmelright]

New additions to the Autism Petition Website

The Autism Petition website (www.canadaautism.com) has added additional downloadable resources including email distribution lists for all MPs and links to MPs and Senators who are supporting us. We have also added links to volunteers in various ridings who will be able to provide information and answer questions.

We need contributions of lobbying materials and volunteers. If you have something you think might be useful for others to use, email to me and I will post it on the site. If you have an idea or something that you think would help, let me know and we can develop it and add it to the site. If you are willing to volunteer to help in your riding, let me know.

IMPORTANT: WE ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE IN RIDINGS OUTSIDE BC. if you have friend or relative out of province who is willing to collect signatures anywhere in the country, please put them in touch with the site and ask them to contact us.

Please distribute the site to as many people as you think might be interested. We already have commitments from several organizations to distribute and advertise the site through their email lists. The more people we can get to visit the site the better.

[Justin Himmelright]

ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF THE OFFICIAL AUTISM PETITION WEBSITE.

Go to http://www.canadaautism.com to read the ruling, download the petition, read what you can do to help, download sample letters, fact sheets on autism etc. All the resources you need to collect signatures and lobby your MP.

Check it out!

[Justin Himmelright]

Mr. Plant actually responded to my open letter rant in my local rag last week.

My Letter:
http://www.mrtimes.com/issues04/114104/opinion/114104le1.html

His response is unfortunately not available onlione and it is the usual drivel mentioned by Dave. And here is my response back to him. Some useful compairsons perhaps others can use.

Autism funding – the truth is in the numbers

Mr. Plant states that the province "in the years this has been before the courts……the Provinces budget for Autism Spectrum Disorder has increased nearly 15 times……to 30.1 million dollars". Mr. Plant fails to mention that a truely effective treatment program can cost as much as $60,000/year. For the 2600 kids in the province facing a lifetime of devastating disability, the maximum annual budget comes to $156 million dollars. Makes the $30 million they spending seem a little paltry doesn't it? And let's not mention that only a portion of that money is spent on actual treatment.

And yes, $156 million dollars is a lot of money. In fact it is a whopping 1.4% of the 10.8 billion dollars the government plans to spend on Health Services in 2005/06. That's right folks, at the very most it would be a 1.4% increase in the health care budget that could save the future lives of 2600 children in this province. The Attorney Generals office has a budget of $489 million; how much of that was spent on saving the government from the loathsome task providing real health care for autism? I sure am glad the Attorney Generals Office defended the governments rights to spend $259 million on the 2010 Olympics and $127 million on the Sea to Sky Highway. I guess the Supreme Court agrees that these spending priorities are more important than saving the lives of children.

Mr. Plant also states that Lovaas treatment (other wise know as Applied Behavioural Analysis or ABA) is "relatively new, unproven, and very expensive therapy". I suppose someone ought to tell the 46 universities in the United States that offer ABA curriculum that what they are studying is "unproven". And don't forget to put a call in to the Association for Behavioural Analysis. They are about celebrate 28 years of association in research and clinical practice. I guess that's "relatively new" when compared to the last ice age. As for "very expensive", just wait until you are paying for the social care required for untreated autistic adults. Then you will know what "very expensive" is.

[Justin Himmelright]

ONLINE PETITION BREAKS 3300!

[Justin Himmelright]

Does anybody out there know of a good way to get Gov't budgets #'s?

[Justin Himmelright]

OUR KIDS NEED YOU!

We have a specific task and need your help. Information from the petition hardcopies needs to be transcribed to an electronic database of contacts. If you would be willing to accept emails of .pdf files and transcribe the information to an Excel sheet, please email me.

Thanks,
J

[Justin Himmelright]

Who out there is in Chuck Cadman's riding and getting signatures? Let me know

[Justin Himmelright]

Great idea from parent

Local city council meetings are televised — they have open delegations,
and usually there are reporters present at council meetings. Have people organize to go to a council meeting, explain the case, explain the petition, and ask for council's endorsement on the spot. Just an idea, could generate press and more signatures. The same could be done at school board meetings,though they are not usually televised. Help us help our kids is the message — these are the community's children and the school district's children. Make every locally elected official take ownership of this issue.

[Author]

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