Swift Current resident petitions House of Commons to ban advertising to children
Swift Current resident Maria Lewans has started a petition to request the House of Commons to take action to protect children against advertising.
She is currently gathering signatures for the petition and her goal is to have the petition presented in the House of Commons by Green Party MP Elizabeth May, who agreed to do it.
“The purpose of advertising is really to manipulate people into wanting something that they don't need,” Lewans said. “I think with children, their brains aren't really fully developed, they don't really have the life experience to give them those critical thinking abilities and they're quite vulnerable to this messaging.”
The petition is asking the House of Commons to protect children, families and communities by banning advertisements geared towards children in all forms on all platforms, but with an exception for information such as helpline services that will benefit children.
She feels advertisers are undermining parents by creating a strong culture of want and senseless consumerism among youth, which contributes towards behavioural problems, addictive tendencies and parental stress.
“The whole purpose of advertising to children is to have them put pressure on their parents,” she said. “And I think this can be quite stressful to parents, especially a lot of people are struggling financially and they're also dealing with stress from life and work, and it's just one more thing they got to worry about. There's all that keeping up with the Joneses because other people's kids have stuff. There's that added pressure from their kids of being the only kid that doesn't have something.”
It can therefore result in a situation where the role of parents is undermined, which is not conducive to healthy and strong families.
“It's hard enough to parent in this world, especially now with the internet,” she noted. “Some people say well if you don't want kids to see something, don't let them watch TV or whatever, but now with a lot of schooling online, it would be really hard to monitor everything your child does and I think these advertisers are being very sneaky about how to get to our children.”
Lewans is also concerned that advertising is part of the promotion of a consumer culture, which is not conducive to a more sustainable and environmentally responsible lifestyle.
“This is the problem with the economy,” she said. “It's all based on people buying stuff they don't need and waste.”
She decided a petition to the House of Commons will be the most effective approach to raise her concerns about the harmful effects of advertising on children and families.
“I thought I could write letters, but a letter often goes nowhere,” she said. “So with this you're kind of forcing the matter at least for them to talk about it, and it's also engaging with the public and having more conversations and getting people to think about the things we do and why are we doing them and what are the ramifications of how we function as a society.”
She also felt the House of Commons petition process offers a useful format to highlight her concerns about advertising to children.
“The process is you say this is the grievance I have and then these are the reasons I feel this is a problem and this is the remedy I want the government to take,” she said. “And when you do that and you get enough petitions, the MP presents it to the House.”
The petition process offers the option of an electronic petition, which requires at least 500 signatures to be presented in the House of Commons, or the alternative of paper petitions that can be presented for every 25 signatures received in support of the petition.
She decided on the paper petition option and her goal is to gather as many signatures as possible to give it more credibility.
“I'm hoping this is something that other people are concerned about,” she said. “From some parents I talked about, they're very concerned about it. So I think there will be a lot of support, definitely 25 signatures, but I'd like to get quite a bit more than that.”
The House of Commons petition rules require that a Member of Parliament accepts the role of presenting the petition in the House. This does not mean the Member of Parliament is necessarily agreeing with the opinions or request set out in the petition.
“I decided to reach out to Elizabeth May's office and they told me that they believe, regardless whether they agree with something or not, if there's enough signatures it's their duty to present the petition in the House,” Lewans said. “But I really want people to know this is not a partisan petition. It's not about supporting a political party. It's about exercising your democratic right on this single issue. So I hope it doesn't turn into a political thing. I just want this to be solely about whether people feel we should be advertising towards children or not.”
Dr. Samantha Myhr is a family physician in Pincher Creek who was a strong voice in media discussing health issues in the province during a tumultuous 2020.
Myhr, a physician at The Associate Clinic is an integral part of southwest Alberta with her role as a physician and local health advocate. She recently earned the title of president of the Alberta Medical Association’s Rural Medicine executive. So, she will make her mark provincial in a new way. She earned a prestigious speaker role at an upcoming Alberta medical summit the first weekend in March.
From March 5-7, the Alberta College of Family Physicians are hosting the 2021 Virtual Family Medicine Summit which has the theme of “Connect. Learn. Celebrate.” For the first time in its over-65 year history, the ACFP’s signature event will be virtual. While the goal of offering a “…continuing medical education and opportunities for family physicians to network with colleagues and share best practices in primary care,” everyone will get together online. There are numerous seminars on processing the pandemic (Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw), electronic communication with patients, virtual care, dermatology, mental health and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the College of Physicians now have added the expanded and evolving role of medical advocacy.
Enter Myhr who will be co-hosting a seminar March 6 “The Good Fight: Doing right while making right”.
The College of Physicians reached out to her near the end of last summer shortly after she had helped organize an informational public rally in Pincher Creek to explain and show appreciation for those in the medical field and explain the devastation which would be caused by the Alberta government’s health care plan at the end of June.
At first, the idea for Myhr was going to be a panel discussion but with pandemic restrictions being what the are, the conference has gone virtual. She was honoured to be asked.
“It was a surprise. It was something I didn’t see myself as speaking at as much as I would be attending as I have for many years,” explains the affable and humble Pincher Creek physician. “It is definitely an honour. I think it speaks to where we are at in our current environment for sure.”
There hasn’t been a lot discussed as far physicians’ advocacy and public relations which is usually held She believes that the rally in Pincher Creek was deemed as successful, not to mention her articulate and straightforward on-line advocacy in regards to standing up for physicians has landed her the opportunity for her to help her peers province-wide.
For her, it was surprising with the planning committee coming from Calgary and Edmonton, it is definitely a sign that the rural area is not forgotten and that advocacy is something can come from anywhere. She said there’s an appreciation of what was being done in places like Pincher Creek.
“I guess they saw who I am and then there’s a trust there when you have a team, you know your patients, we were able to organize things the rallies in Pincher Creek that was partially community-driven and urban doctors see that and think ‘ok, how do we capture a bit of that?” Myhr explains.
Myhr and Taber’s Dr. Andrea Hargrove will be doing their advocacy discussion for physicians March 6. At first they were wanting to do more of a question and answer type of format, Myhr said the Summit organizers wanted more of a formal presentation.
Myhr says the organizers’ objectives is for them to discuss how they are able to combine their role as “traditional” physicians and as advocates for both themselves and for their patients. More advocacy is needed from physicians in general.
“We have to speak up in a different environment and in a different way of speaking,” explains Myhr. “Things have really moved to social media and more media (traditional) on a broader scale. Rather than advocating from within the system, so that’s new. As professionals, we tend to stay quiet on social media so part of what they’re asking is, how you do that in a respectful way? Also in accordance with our College and what they have to say about social media and things like that. How do you do it respectfully, how do you do it effectively given the tools we have in this day and age and in Covid and examples of what has worked. In my vision I also want to hear from people and where they are at (mentally). It has been a long road and it has certainly felt like a marathon and people get tired and burnt out. So we’re re-igniting that fire a bit because things have changed. In the beginning it was just ‘we need an agreement for stability purposes, that was always messaging. Now things have really broken down and Covid has impacted that. Even if an agreement were to come tomorrow, there’s a lot of problems that are going to need fixing. It’s going to be an on-going advocacy. I really want to get that point across to people.
“(The theme of the discussion will be) reminding people that advocacy doesn’t mean to be against something… we are all fired up and very angry about what government was doing to us: a lack of agreement, unilateral decision making. Even if those things changed tomorrow, a lot of advocacy needs to happen and can happen in a collaborative fashion for the betterment of Alberta. It needs to be a partnership…it is getting people to talk again and to trust.”
Myhr is amazed at how far physician advocacy has come and how much those in the medical field have done to battle government.
“Even preparing for it, it is crazy how far we have come. It was a nice reminder there has been change. There have been things government have seen that ‘yeah this was a bad idea” and then go back back and modify it in some respect. It feels like they are not listening or very small but in the case of rural, very large win. The trick is is making sure we are not at places and we’re not just comfortable what we just got back because they are a lot more issues to tackle.”
It was a tiring year for Myhr in 2020 with at first battling with government on social media, organizing the rally, her taking a new leadership role, not only within Pincher Creek but with the Alberta Medical Association. Undoubtedly, it has been been a big adjustment for her, adding 90 meetings a year and a lot to learn about the system.
“The more I learn, the more I appreciate what the AMA does and various organizations that link with the AMA and their role in shaping what happens in the health care and what is happening with Covid and all those various pieces of the foundation that has been built for ten years or more on very important advancements for primary care,” explains Myhr. “All of those things are crumbling under these decisions from government and I see now just how much work and how important AMA and all the various programs are, more of an inside look… it made me recognize it is a lot more than I thought in the beginning. We have a long ways to go to make sure we can continue to be a leader in primary care and take care of Albertans even right after the pandemic there is going to be a lot of rebuilding to do.”