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Our compassionate socialistic and liberal governments like to work within an environment of global competition as envisioned by the World Trade Organization and at the same time they like to implement shock absorbers to have a social and economic system where individual initiative and diversity is suffocated on behalf of paternalism and conformism. In Saskatchewan, we have shock absorbers in our provincial budgetary processes, we have shock absorbers in the Workers Compensation Board, we have shock absorbers in the Saskatchewan Government Insurance, we have shock absorbers in the administration of health services, we have shock absorbers in our legal processes, we have shock absorbers everywhere, and we have shock absorbers in the entourage of people working for Premier Roy Romanow.

We have emphasised in our writing that a component for measuring our democracy is the extent to which we can use our individual rights to pursue a remedial legal recourse for a wrong we have been subjected(1). The more shock absorbers we have, the less individual rights we have, and the more bureaucratic and lethargic our social and economic system becomes.

So, yesterday, we have a study by Dr. David Cassidy, a health researcher at the University of Alberta, supporting the shock absorber "no-fault insurance system(2)." In this study, Dr. Cassidy uses the objective tools of statistical analysis to conclude that people recover twice as fast from whiplash and related traffic injuries if they cannot sue for pain and suffering. Dr. Cassidy says a system which allows people to sue forces them to focus on their injuries, instead of on getting better.

I have my reservations about Dr. Cassidy's conclusion, first because many statistical studies sponsored by governmental agencies are flawed(3), and second because his conclusion is rationalized by the supposed psychological motivation that under a no-fault insurance system the injured focus on getting better rather than on his/her injuries. Studies on no-fault insurance have been disgraced by claims that the related data could have been falsified(4), and by the recent resignation of Justice Thomas Wakeling from the committee that was established to review the Saskatchewan's no-fault insurance plan(5). Therefore, I express my reservations about Dr. Cassidy's conclusion and my perception for the validity of this conclusion rests on the answers to these two simple questions:

Was the psychological motivation of Dr. Cassidy to receive funds for his research greater than the psychological motivation for the injured to have a legal remedy?
Which agency provided the funds for carrying Dr. Cassidy's research?

If you, reader, have the answers to the above questions, please let me know and we will be a step closer to understand the state of dementia of our Big Brain(6).

Endnotes

Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News

1. Bad faith and paper legislation to cover the assets of SaskWater, by Mario deSantis, April 17, 2000

2. Sask whiplash victims recover faster under no-fault: study, CBC Saskatchewan http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Apr 19 2000 5:43 PM

3. The misuse of Statistics as a scientific tool, by Mario deSantis, January 18, 2000

4. SGI accused of meddling: Researcher claims she was told to falsify no-fault insurance study, by Kim McNairn, The StarPhoenix, May 14, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

5. WAKELING RESIGNATION ANNOUNCED, Saskatchewan Government, News Release, Crown Investments Corporation - 190 April 12, 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/04/12-190.html

6. Honourable Janice MacKinnon and the NDP Government: Spin-doctoring the Truth, by Mario deSantis, February 21, 2000

Additional References:

Here are some current other Saskatchewan health studies.

Here is an article critisizing Dr. Cassidy and his association with things.

Here you will find some referenses to other work and projects of Dr. Cassidy

Interesting article referring to Dr. Cassidy's research into Whiplash and no-fault.

Dr. Hugh Anton discusses presentations at a conference on Dr. Cassidy's findings

Reader Response: Ensign received this first person explanation of the system being used by SGI and how their "study" and its results are much more then suspect. This response is not very long as the writer who's name is not being published because of possible repercussions from government agencies, was unable to do a longer explanation because of the pain and discomfort he experiences from his injuries.