MP’s language insults health-care workers

By Letter to the Editor on January 25, 2019.

Re: “Consumption site not enough: MP,” Jan. 23.

Health-care professionals who work in addictions, mental health care and social work are not “poverty pimps.” It was shocking to see Conservative MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner Glen Motz repeat this language in a story on safe-injections sites. These trusted health-care experts work hard on the front lines of health care. They save lives. They save families. Are those who work in cancer care cancer pimps? Are those who work in palliative care death pimps? Of course, not.

This kind of talk not only insults health-care workers, it makes it harder for them to treat people suffering from the legitimate illness of addiction. As the president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), the union representing many of these health-care professionals, I suggest Motz get better informed or stop talking about things he doesn’t understand.

Mike Parker

Edmonton

(The writer is president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.)

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