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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, July 2, 2010 · 6 OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 --Open 9-5 weekdays, 5-7 for calls only Wed. to Friday, Closed weekends Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Canadian Circulation Audit Board Member THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America Canadian Community Newspapers Association ATHENA Award NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of Media Group Ltd. DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager Listen to the jury It has been nearly two years since Neil and Rhonda Carlin first courageously spoke to the Oakville Beaver about the suicide of their 18-year-old daughter Sara in May 2007. Shortly afterwards they began a quest for a public inquest to determine what role, if any, the anti-depressant drug Paxil, served in Sara's death. They also wanted an inquest to bring forth useful recommendations to prevent similar deaths in the future. They hit a roadblock when a regional supervising coroner turned down their initial request. The Carlins persisted, however, and thanks to the support of Liberal Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn and Conservative Oakville MP Terence Young, they were granted their request by Ontario's newly-appointed Chief Coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum in December 2008. On Monday, the Carlins' quest concluded with the Coroner's jury releasing 16 recommendations geared towards preventing similar deaths in the future. Although the jury stopped short of directly blaming Paxil for Sara's death, the Carlins were pleased with the recommendations. "If these recommendations had been in place at the time Sara was prescribed Paxil she would be alive today," said Neil. Among the recommendations were calls for greater precautions to be taken when doctors place patients on Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Paxil. Another called for patients to be made more aware of the serious side effects of Paxil, including thoughts of suicide, and a more stringent post-prescription monitoring system. The jury also called for the creation of a provincewide drug information system, a provincial and national suicide prevention program and a national independent drug safety board, which would report to Parliament. However, all this will be for nothing, if the government fails to follow through on the jury's recommendations. We've been down this road before. Some of these recommendations were also made by the jury at the inquest into the death of Vanessa Young (Terence's daughter) in 2001 and never acted upon. This should not happen again. We urge authorities to follow through on these recommendations to ensure that another family does not have to suffer the same tragic loss as the Carlins. We owe this to Sara Carlin and her family. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Letter to the editor Canadians need better warnings Re: `This Jury Listened', Oakville Beaver, June 30 We appreciate the Beaver's coverage of our Sara's inquest with the hope that others will learn important life-saving lessons from our tragic loss. However, we must set the record straight on at least one important point. As reported by the Beaver, Coroner's expert Dr. David Juurlink (who is not trained, qualified or licenced to practice psychiatry) said most suicides and side effects from Paxil occur within the first few weeks and months after a person starts taking it. Sara had been taking the drug for more than a year before her death. Presumably, this lack of temporality being the primary reason for his opinion that Sara's suicide was not Paxil-related. We believe Dr. Juurlink's evidence on this point to be extremely disingenuous. The US FDA Paxil product monographs clearly state: "clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behaviour, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases." This warning with regard to times of highest risk of suicide including: "at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases," does not appear anywhere in the Canadian Paxil product monographs and one must wonder why. Oakville MP Terence Young testified to this when he told the Carlin inquest jury: "American warnings are superior to Canadian and (in) some cases, we would be better off if Health Canada just copied the American warnings." We understand that this may See Proper page 12 Letters to the editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Toronto summit was waste of $1 billion Although I deplore the vandalism some thugs used over last weekend, I heartily support the legitimate protesters opposing the outrageous amounts of our money spent by the Federal Government to entertain and show off to their global colleagues. I understand that Toronto didn't even have a say whether it would allow this farce to be hosted in the city. If it was Canada's turn to host, why could it not have taken place within one of our expensive, well-secured Forces bases such as Borden or Petawawa? It has also been asked, that in this day of high-tech communication capability (of which Canada is a leader), would video conferencing not have sufficed? Then the leaders of the world could have demonstrated how advanced they are in reducing carbon footprints. Expert observers estimated that in See Money page 12 BY STEVE NEASE neasecartoons@gmail.com Pud