A quick note about something that popped up on my radar…



This website (and just in case – a freezepage ) reveals that the Canadian Society of Homeopaths are planning a response to a forthcoming CBC show, Marketplace, which is running a documentary on Homeopathy. Without seeing the show (it aires on Friday, Jan 14, 2011), it seems that the Canuck homeopaths are assuming that it puts homeopathy in a negative light (I wonder why?) and they want to get the message out so any interested parties can watch it. Fair enough.

However, their list of actions (sent out via e-mail to their members) reveals that they are also planning to bombard the Marketplace show’s blog with pro-homeopathy comments:

4. Be prepared to leave a comment on the CBC and Marketplace website immediately after the programme airs. Go to and check out the comment function right now. Sign up now to create a user’s account so that there will be no delay when you are ready to send your comments. Once the programme has aired, you can leave a comment by clicking on the title, which will take you to a summary page concluding with a link “Share your comment”. This leads to a comment box, which requires that you sign in. CBC monitors and reviews all messages so you may want to read the Submission Guidelines page before planning to send your comments. 5. Know what you are going to say so that you can post a response without delay. Choose to focus on a single point per comment, elaborate on it, and conclude with a strong, affirming statement. Often the most effective messages are short, concise, and to the point. Send as many of these as you can

They want to get their points in quickly (“leave a comment on the CBC and Marketplace website immediately after the programme airs”) but have perhaps failed to spot that unlike the Grauniad in the UK, the comments on the Marketplace blog are listed most recent first – so the early comments will soon be pushed off the bottom. They also request that their followers post as many short, concise comments as they can – essentially spamming up the comments board.

In point 7, the CSoH also warn members about falling into the same trap that UK homeopaths have fallen into regarding homeopathic for malaria vaccines.

In the second point 7, they go into full-bore, “la-la-la-I can’t hear you” mode.

How we all react to this criticism will determine how much traction this story maintains in the coming weeks and months. We urge you to be calm, be polite, be underwhelmed. Take the moral high ground. Convey that this Marketplace programme is no more than a mild irritant for homeopaths who are providing an important service in your community. It is disappointing that the CBC journalists chose to ignore the reality that is the basis of homeopathy, but that doesn’t affect what we know to be true. The strength in homeopathy is that it works. We practitioners know it works because we see it every day in our patients and they obviously know it works because they refer their family and friends to homeopathy and they keep coming back when they get ill. Nay-sayers can say “it aint so” until they are blue in the face, but that doesn’t change the fact that homeopathy does work, even if we still don’t know how it works. Full stop. End of discussion. Let’s say what needs to be said to set the record straight and then get back to doing the important work that we do with homeopathy.

Any Canadian sceptics out there may want to keep an eye on how this astroturfing campaign proceeds 😉

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