Legislators should be informed about certain risks involved in autism research. For instance, pressure is being applied by lobby groups to bypass peer committees in cases involving false miracles. In Quebec, the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec—the equivalent of our CIHR—was being unduly pressured to have secretin tests conducted under conditions bypassing peer committees. It turned into quite a spectacle. The situation is the same in the case of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and all the other so-called miracles that crop up in autism research every other year. I think it's very important for scientific criteria—even though the apparent result is that many requests do not get approved by CIHR—not to be relaxed only because autism is involved and is being pushed to the fore unduly, in my opinion.
I find the fact that a committee like this one exists very worrisome, although I am taking part in one of its meetings. Will there some day be a committee on Tourette's syndrome? I doubt it. Will there be a committee on intellectual disability? I doubt that as well.
Currently, in Quebec, an autistic child automatically qualifies for about 10 hours of help with schoolwork, on the mere basis of a diagnosis, even if the child has an IQ of 120 and is fairly well adjusted. As the father of a child with Tourette's syndrome, which has worsened, I have come to realize that having another neurodevelopmental condition doesn't make people eligible for any services.
We should also think about equality. The popularity of autism, which we benefit from when we are, like myself, autism researchers, or, like yourself, parents of autistic children, is also something of an injustice. So it should be kept in mind.