Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced the creation of an Ontario Brain Institute which will include autism disorder expert Dr. Peter Szatmari and a focus on finding biomedical treatments and cures for autism disorders. Dr. Szatmari informed the Hamilton Spectator:
“I think it’s pretty exciting,” Szatmari said Tuesday. “It reflects the importance of a knowledge economy and the importance of biomedical research, particularly in science-research in the quality of life for the people of Ontario. To have a government recognize the importance of the brain in people’s everyday lives is fabulous.
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“Currently, we don’t have any biomedical treatments that can treat or even cure the disorder,” Szatmari said. “I’m hoping that with some of these genetic discoveries we can figure out what is going wrong in the brain so we can specifically target those pathways and cure the disorder.”
To even have an autism expert talking in a meaningful context is a huge step forward in the battle to find cures for autism disorders. Just recently the Mysterious "Dr. M" testified as an expert witness before a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in one of Michelle Dawson's proceedings against Canada Post Corporation and informed the tribunal that the "notion" of curing autism is nonsense. To see real steps being taken toward finding treatements and cures for autism disorders, even to speak openly about the possibility of finding cures for autism disorders, is a long overdue but welcome development.
