Petition to the Ontario Legislature

A petition has been prepared according to the rules required for presentation to the Ontario Legislature, the text of which appears below. If you would like a pdf copy, please request by email. We are looking for signatures of Ontarians, and the petition needs to be signed in person. Completed petitions can be mailed to our mailing address at the bottom of the form. Please help us spread the word -- ask permission to place copies in places of business, doctors offices and your local veterinarian.

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PETITION TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

WHEREAS the tick-borne illness known as Chronic Lyme Disease, which mimics many catastrophic illnesses, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s, Alzheimer’s, arthritic diseases, depression, Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia is increasingly endemic in Canada, but the scientifically validated diagnostic tests and treatment choices are currently not available in Ontario, forcing patients to seek these in the USA and Europe and

WHEREAS the Canadian Medical Association informed the public, governments, and the medical profession in the May 30, 2000, edition of their professional Journal (CMAJ) that Lyme Disease is endemic throughout Canada, particularly in Southern Ontario; and

WHEREAS the Ontario Public Health system and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan currently do not fund those specific tests that accurately serve the process of establishing a clinical diagnosis, but only recognize testing procedures known in the medical literature to provide false negatives at 45 to 95%; and

WHEREAS physicians practising in Ontario do not receive current and updated information on the incidence of Lyme Disease, being unaware that annually some 25,000 new cases are reported in North America, nor do physicians receive training in the diagnosis and treatment of Acute or Chronic Lyme Disease and, therefore, remain unfamiliar with the highly effective protocols developed by the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS); and

WHEREAS the Regulated Health Professions Act of Ontario states: “It is the duty of the Minister [of Health] to ensure that the health professions are regulated and coordinated in the public interest”

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to request the Minister of Health to direct that the Ontario Public Health system and OHIP include all currently available and scientifically verified TESTS for Acute and Chronic Lyme diagnosis, to do everything necessary to create PUBLIC AWARENESS of Lyme Disease in Ontario, and to have internationally developed diagnostic and successful TREATMENT PROTOCOLS available to patients and physicians.