The long tentacles of temperance in Canada

You know your country is in trouble when the most sensible part of it is French, but that's the sad position Canada finds itself in. After the Canadian Center on Substance Use proposed the loony tunes drinking guideline of two drinks per week, there was much less mockery than there should have been. 

But this week the Quebec newspaper Le Devoir published an article (English translation here) taking a long overdue look at the people who led the review. Our old friend Tim Stockwell features heavily, as does his neo-temperance colleague Tim Naimi. It's no great surprise to hear that they've been working pro bono for the full on gospel temperance outfit that now goes by the name of Movendi.

 

The CCSA study, titled Canadian Landmarks on Alcohol and Health, was featured on the Movendi International website  less than 48 hours after publication, as are the work of some of its authors regularly. This nongovernmental organization — formerly known as the Independent Order of Good Templars, its website says  — actively promotes a completely alcohol-free life.

Researchers Tim Stockwell, Timothy Naimi and Adam Sherk state in CCSA's conflict of interest statement that they are "members of an independent group of scholars who volunteer their time to prepare research reports on various topics related to alcohol and health”. It is specified, in brackets, that this group is Movendi International.

Stockwell and Naimi even took a trip to northern Europe at Movendi's expense. The organization, based in Sweden, paid for their travel and accommodation costs. The two men also participated in the Movendi podcast, a production resolutely committed to raising awareness of the evils of alcohol consumption.

According to the statutes of the Independent Order of Good Templars, which date from 2006 and which are accessible on the Movendi website , its members must make a promise: "accept the obligation not to consume alcohol and not to non-therapeutic use of other addictive drugs, as well as fostering public acceptance of this principle”.

 

The worrying thing is not so much that people like Stockwell are pals with a nineteenth century prohibitionist organisation but that Movendi are official partners with the World Health Organisation. 

"I consider that there are issues of conflicts of interest," says Jean-Sébastien Fallu, associate professor at the School of Psychoeducation at the University of Montreal.

The addiction specialist is very critical of the CCSA report. According to him, the study makes generalizations about occasional drinkers and ignores the beneficial aspect for overall health that drinking with friends can represent. He believes that such recommendations can confuse the public and harm the work of stakeholders in the field.

“There are areas of research that are more subject to subjectivity, to politicization. The issue of substances, in general, is one. There is a lot of ideology. And the choices that were made [in the CCSA study] are ideological choices in many ways,” he adds.

 

In the McCarthyite world of 'public health' it would certainly be seen as a conflict of interest to have your expenses paid by a booze company. I don't see how having them paid for by a bunch of teetotal lobbyists is any different.

 

The article doesn't mention the Kettil Bruun Society, another organisation that keeps the flag of temperance flying. Tim Stockwell was its president back in 2005-07. Its current president is none other than Petra Meier of the notorious Sheffield Alcohol Research Group which provides supposedly unbiased modelling to governments on such policies as minimum pricing and tax rises, and was at the centre of the UK's drinking guidelines scandal.

 

Birds of a feather flock together, don't they?