Dr. Manuel Carballo spoke on Displaced / Migrating Persons & Health Issues.

Prof. Frederick Burkle gave a keynote on Public Health Emergencies: The Common Thread.

Omar Ha-Redeye presented at the 2009 World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine on A New Ethical Model for Examining Emergency Medicine.

A discussion followed between Dr. Peleg of Israel, who advocated a strictly utilitarian approach to emergency medicine, and Omar Ha-Redeye, who pointed out numerous exceptions where this approach had shortcomings.

Omar Ha-Redeye with Dr. Pyrros (L), incoming President of WADEM, and Dr. Kobi Peleg (R), director of the Israeli National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research

Dr Andrew Robertson spoke on the Consequences of Economic Crises.

Dr Debarati Guha-Sapir spoke on the Myths and Realities of Disaster Epidemiology. Dr. Gupta was presented with the Safar Award.

Roche hosted a special session on H1N1 virus, and generously made the slides available to the public:

The 2009 World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WCDEM) started off with a speech by the Hon. Stephen Point, the first Aboriginal Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Mr. Point emphasized the wisdom of the elders, and noted that he was repeatedly being warned that we are entering a time of increasing disasters.

A 1st Nations song and dance was also performed for the attendees.

Dr. Jonathan Patz gave a plenary talk on Health and Climate Change, pointing out that America and Canada were consumers of the largest amount of resources in the world, and therefore also had a responsibility to tackle the upcoming challenges of climate change.

What happens when a quote or position is attributed to you, either incorrectly or out of context, due to social media?

Toronto Mayor, David Miller, is finding out with this ReTweet that he never even said.  Not only that, but they were considerably different than his public statements on record.

Instead, this was a comment made directed to Mayor Miller by Tina Wong, a Toronto resident.

via Martin Waxman and Keith McDonald

See these episodes of Jason Lamarche’s Liberal Minute on how Liberal MPs Mark Holland and John McKay are using social media.

Bloggers were out in full at the 2009 Liberal Convention.  And Omar Ha-Redeye was on site to lend a hand.

Woman at Mile 0 wrote about her run-ins with others from online,

I think what I liked most about this convention was the opportunity to meet so many of the bloggers I have been reading for years.   I met blogger’s from Far and Wide, Dawg’s Blog, Runesmith’s Canadian Content, Morton’s Musings, Liberal Arts and Minds, Confessions of a Liberal Mind, What Do I Know Grit, Adam M on The Front Page,  Koby from The Maple Three, ex blogger Jason Cherniak, Liberal Minute, a BCer in Toronto, Impolitical, and had a chat with Scott DiaTribes by skype.

The bloggers lounge space worked really well, once we located it, as the registration volunteers kept directing me to the main media area to set up.  Fortunately we ran into Law is Cool who showed us where it was located on the second floor.  It was so nice to have a place to leave our equipment and not have to drag around two laptops and video equipment to every meeting. Regardless my shoulders are sore from the lifting and I think I need to invest in some kind of mobile cart set up if we do this again.

Omar Ha-Redeye was interviewed by CPAC on the issue of Arctic sovereignty at the Policy Plenary of the 2009 Biennial Liberal Convention.