Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Chris Milburn, a 22-year veteran physician, led emergency medicine for Nova Scotia’s Eastern Zone. After challenging government actions like school closures and mandatory vaccinations, he was ousted from his leadership role.
Dr. Milburn, who continues to work as a physician, has become more involved in networking with other medical professionals urging open discussion on controversial topics such as transgenderism and the idea of a “safe” drug supply.
It’s part of the reason the doctor and his wife, psychiatrist Julie Curwin, instigated an annual conference, Free Speech in Medicine and Science, that brings together health care professionals to discuss salient topics in medicine and society.
This year’s conference will be held Oct. 27–29 in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and will spotlight topics that Dr. Milburn says are often considered too “taboo” to discuss, such as gender ideology, civil rights, drug “harm reduction,” cancel culture, and “the rise of the biomedical security state.”
“These are topics of great importance to medicine and society more broadly. There’s an illusion of consensus in medicine,” Dr. Milburn told The Epoch Times on Aug. 30.
“Although many—perhaps the majority—of physicians and health care workers disagree with policies and approaches to topics like transgenderism or harm reduction drug policies, those with these views are implicitly or overtly threatened into silence,” said Dr. Milburn.
“They have understandable concerns that they will be ostracized, attacked, or even face formal complaints or loss of their license.”
The first annual conference held in 2022 featured Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Stanford epidemiologist and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, as keynote speaker. Other presenters included constitutional lawyer and professor Bruce Pardy, Dr. Matt Strauss, and Dr. Martha Fulford, all of whom spoke out against government pandemic measures and their trickle-down effect on society.
Dr. Milburn said he started the conference with his wife following attempts to silence Dr. Milburn via complaints to his regulatory body. While the complaints were ultimately dismissed, Dr. Milburn was cautioned by regulators to “be more careful in the future.”
This year’s conference will touch on COVID again, but according to a news release issued Aug. 29, will also dive into the “difficult and divisive issues” of transgenderism, drug policy (“safe supply” and “harm reduction"), regulatory colleges and free speech, and the deeper issues of philosophy, politics, and the rise of the biomedical security state. Attendees are told they can access information and register at FreeSpeechInMedicine.com.
Featured speakers at this year’s conference will include Dr. Gad Saad, a professor and author who was recently featured on the Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan podcasts. Psychologist Ken Zucker, who was ousted in 2018 as head of the now-defunct Gender Identity Clinic at Ontario’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, will also speak.
In 2018, allegations surfaced against Dr. Zucker, renowned for his expertise in gender transition, alleging his clinic inappropriately guided young patients to embrace their biological sex. He said at the time that therapeutic care was, in part, to help “reduce a child’s gender dysphoria.”
Many other public speakers are scheduled to speak at the conference, such as Rupa Sybramanya, a columnist frequently featured in the National Post; Dr. Julian Somers, a drug policy expert who has been critical of “safe supply” policies; and Dr. Ian McGilchrist, a psychiatrist-neuroscientist, who will appear by video call.
The conference format will include talks and panel discussions as well as a question-and-answer period with the audience.
“This is designed to be an in-person event—an old-fashioned idea where people get together, hug, laugh, have dinner, ask questions, argue, and look each other in the eye. All the things that we are no longer supposed to do in the name of ’safety,'” said the news release.
Dr. Milburn said attendees can expect to hear discussion on topics that are “the most taboo to discuss in medicine.”
“The fact that these topics are controversial and polarizing by definition makes them the most interesting and important,” he added.A strategy used by a totalitarian regime is “to keep dissidents isolated and feeling alone. It’s a form of gaslighting. It’s easy to think, ‘Everyone has gone crazy and I’m the only person who feels this way,’” said the doctor.
He said people attending the conference will find it “therapeutic to meet kindred spirits.”
