PUrE AND POWErfUL 2009 IN MEXICO A group of 85 chiropractors, spouses, chiropractic kids and office staff took to the beaches at the Grand Sirenas Mayan Beach Resort in Mexico from February 7 - 14, 2009 to celebrate Chiropractic Pure and Powerful's first Seminar in the Sun. The week was spent relaxing, renewing old friendships, and igniting new ones, as the group spent their time soaking up the sun, as well as the inspiring thoughts of eight speakers through the week. Speakers included Mrs. Charmaine Hicks and Drs. Tom Preston, Don Vig- giani, Steve Lafay, Sean Murphy, Ryan French, Mark Foullong and Peter Am- linger. The theme of the week was the chiropractic principle, and serving others by mastering chiropractic. Rave reviews all requested event coor- dinator Tracey Cooper to start planning next year’s experience! It will be held during the same week in 2010 at another tropical paradise! Dr. Peter Amlinger speaks to Seminar in the Sun attendees in Mexico. BrAZIL – fEDErAL JUDGE SAyS, ‘CHIrOPrACTIC IS A PrOfESSION, NOT A TECHNIqUE’ In the latest step by the Brazilian Chiro- practors’ Association, (ABQ), to defend the chiropractic profession against ef- forts by the physiotherapy profession to have chiropractic declared a specialty of physiotherapy (PT), Federal Judge Diana Brunstein has ruled strongly in favour of the ABQ “Chiropractic is a profession, not a tech- nique,” says Judge Brunstein, “and PT authorities should not seek to declare it a specialty of physiotherapy.” An appeal by CREFITO, the regulatory body for PT in the State of Sao Paulo, ask- ing to remove an earlier court injunction against CREFITO, was denied. The background to this dispute is that the ABQ, representing under 400 chiro- practors in Brazil, is promoting legislation to regulate the practice of chiropractic. The response of the national regulatory body CREFITO, representing over 90,000 PTs, has been to claim chiropractic is a specialty of PT. In August 2008, PT agents in Sao Paulo began harassing chiropractors, most of whom are new graduates of Brazil’s two university-based chiropractic programs. Holding violation orders from their own CREFITO, and often accompanied the federal police,they tried to pressure DCs to sign declarations acknowledging the illegal practice of chiropractic and to cease practice. 26 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | APRIL 2009 The ABQ and its lawyers were success- ful in getting an interim injunction to stop such harassment. CREFITO has sought to have the interim injunction removed but, after hearing argument and evidence from the ABQ, Judge Brunstein confirmed the injunction on March 3. “We still have a long fight ahead”, says ABQ President Dr. Juliana Piva, “but this judgement gives us powerful new mo- mentum as we work with legislators in Brasilia for chiropractic legislation.” “We could not have achieved this suc- cess without vital financial and other sup- port from the World Federation of Chiro- practic and its member associations”, says Dr. Sira Borges, ABQ Past-President and leader of the legislative campaign. “There have been such generous donations from many associations and individuals – but particularly the American, Australian, Brit- ish, Canadian, Danish and Norwegian associations.” “It has been a privilege for the WFC to assist the ABQ in the outstanding work it is doing to protect the indepen- dence of the chiropractic profession in Brazil”, notes WFC President Dr. Stathis Papadopoulos of Cyprus. “This battle has obvious impact for the profession everywhere – I strongly encourage all associations and individual chiroprac- tors to continue their financial support for the ABQ.” CHIrOPrACTOr APPOINTED B.C. rESEArCH PrOfESSOr Chiropractor Dr. Paul Bishop has been ap- pointed, by the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), to act as the new research professor in Non-Operative Spine Care at Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia. Bishop plans to focus his research on advancing the use of evidence-based non- surgical spine treatments in centres across Canada. Bishop is currently the only Canadian to hold the three doctorates DC, MD and PhD. “Multi-centre clinical trials and basic sci- ence research studies that evaluate the effectiveness of all current non-operative treatments for spinal pain are underway,” says Bishop, “I believe this will quickly lead to the development of a Canada-wide net- work of non-operative spine clinicians who will provide the highest standard of care to their patients.” Bishop’s five-year appointment was made possible through a research award by the Ontario Chiropractic Association (OCA). The majority of sites for Bishop’s multidisci- plinary research will be in Ontario. “The Ontario Chiropractic Association is dedicated to supporting research that demonstrates the value of chiropractic health care to patients,” notes OCA vice- president, Dr. David Brunarski. “By sup- porting the work of Dr. Bishop at ICORD, we are helping to define and advance the future role of chiropractors in health care in our country.” www.canadianchiropractor.ca news
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