Fighting diseases without facts

Americans have been known to make a few jokes at Canada’s expense, mostly about Canadians’ funny accent. A decision recently made by the student government association at Carleton University in Ottawa might cause people to start making a few jokes about their judgment.

What did they do to prompt Macleans, a Canadian newsmagazine that profiles education, to call them “the least-intelligent student union in the country”?
They withdrew from a national fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis.

The fundraiser involved freshmen at 65 universities and colleges in Canada. Participants have raised millions for research of the disease during the past 50 years in a traditional event held during student orientation week. The reason Carleton’s student association gave for withdrawing from the program is just as important as what it did.

The association claimed that Cystic Fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people and primarily men. Its motion specifically mentioned looking for a more “broad reaching” charity to support.

The reasoning behind the motion doesn’t make much sense. Cystic Fibrosis does primarily affect Caucasian populations, but that is inclusive of peoples from South Asia, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and Israel. Cystic Fibrosis also affects just as many girls as boys. It is the most common fatal genetic disease among young people in Canada.

So does Carleton University’s student association rank as the worst in North America?

That would be a tough call. Student governments have often been infamously inept (the IU Student Association has fortunately been much better this year).

Certainly Carleton’s union might qualify as having the worst skills when it comes to press relations. Student government types, after all, are stereotyped as a smarmy, resume-padding crew that knows how to softly phrase their pig-headed decisions.

But their decision highlights that when it comes to charitable work, diseases and causes can become appealing for the wrong reasons. Would we see more charities relating to testicular cancer if people didn’t think it was so awkward to discuss?

Some diseases might touch our hearts more than others. Some might just make us uncomfortable. Yet when it comes time to pony up money for one of these causes, resources should be allocated to help the most people possible – and that requires doing some homework.

Ironically, signs made in support of the Carleton University student association sported the phrase, “do your research.” That is advice the student union should have heeded.