Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to voice my strong support for Bill C-239, an act respecting the decade of the brain. I also would like to commend my hon. colleague from London West for her initia-
tive in bringing the issues of mental and neurological health of Canada's citizens to the floor of the House.
I feel the case for the adoption of the bill can best be made by applying a legislative litmus test. The questions for us are: First, can the bill if enacted make a positive difference in the lives of all Canadians? Second, can the bill make a positive contribution to Canada as a whole? In both instances the answer where Bill C-23 is concerned is an unequivocal yes.
Formally declaring the 1990s the decade of the brain can only serve to heighten awareness, as has been said, of neurological and mental health disorders in Canada and throughout the world. Awareness can do much to dispel some of the damaging means surrounding mental and neurological illnesses and their victims.
That awareness can prompt Canadians to monitor their own mental and neurological health more carefully in a preventive way and thereby prevent ill health. Awareness can increase our resolve as a nation to support efforts to develop cures and superior treatments for the variety of elements that afflict the human brain and the human mind.
Some observers of this morning's debate may wonder why we in the House have elected to focus part of our energy and attention on the health of the brain. Certainly it is not as though the afflictions that strike other areas of the human anatomy are any less worthy of our attention. Indeed the Canadian Neurological Coalition has noted: "Far from being a single organ to be centred out, the brain is the focus of an enormous range of frontier medical science as the seed of logic, reason, creativity, intelligence and yes, even compassion and human understanding in the human body. We are understandably taken aback when disease affects the normal, healthy functioning of the brain".
Witness the public reaction when a former U.S. president announced just this past week that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. So much of what makes us human is rooted in our brains. Mental and neurological illness has the power to strip us not only of our good health but also of our identity, our sense of human self.
The statistics from the neurological association placed the number of Canadians affected by disorders of brain at some five million, nearly 20 per cent of Canada's population. This number only serves to underscore the importance of acting to call attention to the various ailments that range from strokes, degenerative disorders, neurogenetic diseases, to speech, language and hearing disorders.
There is hope. Medical scientists in Canada and throughout the world are working diligently to find effective treatments for the various disorders. As they do so, they are also unlocking the mysteries that are intrinsic to the body's most complex organ. As our understanding of the brain and the pathogens and chemicals that attack it has broadened to techniques such as magnetic resonance, imaging and computerized action tomography, sophisticated treatments previously unimaginable have become reality today.
As the neurological coalition points out, neuroscience has a direct impact on almost every area of modern medicine, including cardiovascular and immunologic disorders. The coalition has stated: "Studying the brain has enormous potential for contributing to the health of Canadians and decreasing the severe economic and emotional burden exacted on our society by the diseases and disorders that affect the brain". Disorders of the brain ultimately affect the remainder of the human body.
"Declaring the 1990s the decade of the brain", the coalition adds, "would ultimately increase public support of research, thereby reducing the eventual government burden of hospital and service delivery costs".
For the thousands of Canadians who suffer from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other disorders, this declaration would be proof positive that the government would not turn a blind eye to their needs and, indeed, that the government would continue to give them the attention they deserve.
It is for these individuals as well as for the health and well-being of Canada as a whole that I offer my wholehearted support for Bill C-239, an act respecting the decade of the brain.