In his cautionary letter to Ann Coulter before her recently scheduled speech at the University of Ottawa, the institution’s provost, Francois Houle, explained that: “Our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or ‘free speech’) in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States.”

Canada’s laws also seem to “delineate” medical quackery and fraud somewhat differently from those in the United States. To wit: this very University of Ottawa, so hyper-sensitive to human rights and so vigilant against ethnic sensibilities that it proscribes Bing Crosby’s lines from Road to Morocco is also a long-time partner with Fidel Castro’s Stalinist regime.

In 1999 this chummy partnership between Canadian academics and Castroite apparatchiks gave fruit to the first vaccination against Meningitis B, or so we’re told by “news” agencies that have earned Havana bureaus, and spokeshumans from the University of Ottowa, who co-owns the patent with Fidel Castro’s henchmen.

“Cuba has developed the world’s first Meningitis B vaccine which is available in Third World countries but not in Europe or in the United States due to U.S. sanctions,” dutifully reported Anthony Boadle from Reuters’ Havana bureau right after Sicko’s first screening (oddly good timing for such a “scoop” by a Castro-sanctioned “news” agency, I’d certainly say!)

Of this 27-word sentence, by a news agency regarded as authoritative worldwide, exactly 14 words are true. Yes, this Castroite/Ottawa Univ. vaccine is not available in the U.S. and Europe — but hardly because of “sanctions.” In fact, in 1999, Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department granted the pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham a license to market the vaccine in a joint venture with Castro’s medical ministry — pending FDA approval.

And why not? Upon its unveiling, Fidel Castro’s very own minister of public health, Carlos Dotres, had hailed the vaccine as “the only effective one in the world!” Highly impressed, Bill Clinton’s FDA chief, Dr. Carl Frasch, said it could annually prevent “1,000-2,000 cases” of the dread disease in the U.S. 110 U.S. Congressmen frantically signed a special letter to Secretary of State Madeline Albright, beseeching her to allow this breach of the diabolical Republican-enforced embargo against Cuba , if only to “protect the lives of America’s children!”

That was eleven years ago. The reason the vaccine is still not available today in the U.S. and Europe is simply that, like so many other Castroite concoctions and proclamations dutifully trumpeted by “news” agencies who earn Havana bureaus, the vaccine is a farce and its sale a swindle. And, at least in this case, most civilized countries refuse to inflict upon their citizens a mortally dangerous fraud concocted by Fidel Castro in cahoots with the University of Ottawa.

That one of Canada’s most prestigious institute’s of higher-learning engages in joint research with the modern-day heirs of the Soviet crackpot Trofim Lysenko (pictured above) might seem amusing, except for all those human victims of (what essentially amounts to) medical testing on humans. Some Third World countries discovered this tragic swindle the hard way. “Brazil has wasted $300 million on a Cuban (in cahoots with Ottawa Univ.) vaccine that is completely ineffective,” wrote Dr. Isaías Raw, director of Sao Paolo’s prestigious Butantan Institute specializing in Biotechnology.

A study by Brazil’s Centro de Vigilancia Epidemiológica (Center for Epidemiological Research) from 1999 seconded Dr Raw:

The studies conducted on the use of the Cuban vaccine in children under 4 years old–the major risk group for hepatitis B–showed no evidence that the vaccine protected them against the disease. This vaccine should not be recommended.

All current medical literature flatly asserts that despite countless attempts, “no effective vaccine against the Meningitis B has yet been developed.” The pharmaceutical giant Novartis is currently testing one and claims to be close to its development.

Sadly for Fidel Castro, the medical establishment abounds with men and women who stubbornly cling to their professional ethics. Enlisting their cooperation presents challenges much more daunting than enlisting the cooperation of cuckolded news agencies, corrupt Canadian universities and a rotund filmmaker obsessed with vilifying his own country.

A few years back, Castro launched his “Doctor Diplomacy” wherein he started sending Cuban “doctors” to heathen lands (though their spouses and children were held hostage in Cuba) to heal the sick and raise the dead. This was coupled with “free” treatment of poor foreigners from the Caribbean and Latin American nations in Cuban hospitals. The scheme has gotten no end of gushy reviews in the MSM.

Some less prominent reviews might add perspective. Especially as these report much closer-range observations of the scheme along with follow-ups. Here’s one from the newspaper, The Jamaican Gleaner titled, “Eye Surgery Hopes Dashed; Patients Suffer Complications,” which notes:

The survey included 200 patients (Jamaicans who traveled to Cuba for eye surgery) and of that group, 49 patients – nearly a quarter – experienced post surgery complications. According to Dr. Albert Lue, Head of Ophthalmology in Jamaica’s Kingston Public Hospital, the complications causing the patients impaired vision was corneal damage and damage to the iris due to poor surgical technique. “Since I come back, from Cuba,” said George Foster, a 70-year-old Jamaican participant in the Cuban “Miracle Operation,” “I can see from the right eye but I can’t see from the left.”

Brazil also got a birds-eye view of Cuba’s vaunted “Doctor Diplomacy.” “Ninety-Six Cuban Doctors Expelled from Brazil,” begins the April, 2005 story from Agence France-Presse. “Federal judge Marcelo Bernal ruled in favor of a demand by the Brazilian state of Tocantins’ Consejo Regional de Medicina (Regional Council on Medicine) that Cuban doctors be prohibited from practicing in their state.” Based on the results they’d achieved with Tocantins’ residents, the judge referred to the Cuban doctors as “Witch Doctors and Shamans.” We cannot accept doctors who have not proven that they are doctors.”

The University of Ottawa, it appears, has no such qualms.