It's interesting that you submitted what you were trained in. The Canadian Medical Association was opposed to telling women about consumption of alcohol during pregnancy because they were afraid it was going to create spontaneous abortions or somehow victimize women. That's why in that joint statement they had that inclusion there, that it was not recommended to tell women. So I have to tell you, I've never been a strong fan of the CMA when it comes down to fetal alcohol syndrome.
The fact that you've actually mentioned in your comments here that there has been inconsistent messaging on the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy tells me that there hasn't been anything going on. We haven't even made progress on the public education standpoint. When you have a social problem, public education is always part of the solution. We still haven't got that right in terms of the basic messaging.
Dr. Butler-Jones, I have to tell you, I am still going to go on the basis...it's not personal, but it is with regard to Health Canada. Back in January 2000 an Environics survey done for Health Canada showed a tremendous amount of information about the knowledge, and it showed that the knowledge of Canadians, particularly Canadian women, was very poor on this subject matter.
One of the things they did was develop a comprehensive strategy on the ways in which you would communicate with the public. They listed the ways, for these provinces, these areas--because they got right down to it--and one of them was that the most prevalent area of access to information at a critical time was in the doctors' offices. That's where women go when they're in their birthing years and they're wondering about contraception or all these other things.
What has Health Canada done to get the medical association, the family physician, the obstetricians, and all the others involved in the education, promotion, and preparation for pregnancy to show leadership in terms of providing the public with information that is consistent across the country? What has Health Canada done?