Today, Clive Rayman, OCBC's Toronto co-ordinator, and I conducted a telephone conference call with Liberal MPP John Milloy. Clive had set it up earlier this week. We did not have very high expectations, as we had read Mr. Milloy's speech in the Ontario Legislature on November 4th. We intended to ensure he was aware there was another side to this argument based on sound science and to challenge him on a number of points in that speech, including:

[editorial comments in brackets]

"... In short, this bill will fight that unfortunate human weakness that makes us act irresponsibly."

"... In Ontario, for example, there are about 1,500 bicycle accidents a year, and about 20% of them result in head injuries."

[only 1500?]

"... Studies show that 85% of head injuries can be prevented by wearing a helmet."

[this study has been roundly criticized; the authors later reduced their estimate to 69% using the same data; it's strange how helmet proponents still quote the higher figure]

"... Canadian Institute for Health Information. It showed that in Ontario, since the helmet safety legislation had come into effect, head injuries among children, those whom it pertains to, have dropped by 26%."

[the selective use of data has also been criticized in an examination of how lobbyists exaggerate the number of cyclist head injuuries]

"... Patti Lehman, whom I introduced a few moments ago, spoke about her task of trying to find an individual who had survived an accident not wearing a helmet and who could speak out in favour of this bill. She looked and looked and unfortunately could not find one, because the fact is that they usually died."

[Is any comment required? It exemplifies the absurdity of Mr Milloy's views on the risks cyclists face.]

"... Stuart is an avid biker who has been in five accidents. In one of the most serious, he was thrown off his bike right on to his head. He broke his back, suffered severe damage, but the fact that he was wearing a helmet means that he is alive and well and participating fully in our province."

[5 accidents? Stewart needs to acquire some cycling skills.]

We made a number of key points to Mr. Milloy the key one being that we didn't think his proposal had much to do with cycle safety as he and his backers had failed to consult with the user groups that are affected. He was told that although the health and safety groups were the same that lobbied for adult helmet use in 1991, they had failed over the intervening years to consult with any representatives of the cycling community on how to improve the safety of this community's members.

I won't go into the details of our conversation since essentially he repeated the same anecdotes and exaggerations that he used in the Legislature. It is clear that Mr. Milloy has been very poorly briefed on this issue and lacks an understanding of the problems cyclists face on the road. The only new piece of information he shared with us was that he thought it was almost certain that the Social Policy Committee will send his amendment to public hearings.

Avery Burdett