From medical politics to monuments: A reporter’s journey through history and tragedy

The annual meeting of the then-named Newfoundland Medical Association took place at the local community centre in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., former hometown of actor Gordon Pinsent and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, the first weekend of June 1989.I'd been on the Medical Post for two months. This was my first assignment. Two months. First assignment. I was a green reporter in a place where I didn't know a soul. Greener than green.Just my luck, the big issue during the meeting happened to be fee disparities between family physicians and specialists and among specialists (sound familiar?). It was decided that the NMA would hire an outside agency to study disparities and use the results to allocate a new provincial fee structure the following year.Fee relativity was a rather complicated introduction to Canadian medical politics. The issue has been hotly contested in nearly every province.All of a sudden from behind, I hear someone calling "Mr. Borsellino. Mr. Borsellino." Who the heck could that be? As it turns out, it was Lucian Blair, then-assistant director of communications and government relations for the Canadian Medical Association.After the first day of sessions, Blair and I had a quick briefing over supper. Then, we went back to my hotel room for a nightcap. We were talking for a while, when he got up, walked to the washroom and came out with a small glass of water.He thrust the glass into my face and asked: “Do you know what those black flecks are floating around in the water?”“I think so,” I replied, wondering what the heck was happening. Ever since, during my entire career of visiting both large and small centres across the country, I would occasionally perform what I call “the Lucian test.”Blair left the CMA in 1996. After that, he was communications director at the Medical Research Council, the Indian Claims Commission, the City of Ottawa and, before retiring, director of communications policy and strategy for the federal finance department under two different ministers.Yep. A real slouch. For me, though, just an omen. Blair represented the kind of superlative people I would meet throughout my career.(In the interest of full disclosure, Blair and I still talk regularly at four o'clock almost every Wednesday afternoon. I guess you never really know where and when you'll meet a lifelong friend.)After the meeting we had a long drive back to St. John’s through Gander. We noted that the trees in a forested area across the Trans-Canada Highway from the Gander airport still bore the scars, where a plane carrying 256 U.S. soldiers and flight crew members from Fort Campbell, Kentucky crashed four years earlier. It's been said the scars were still visible from the ground and by satellite as of 2018.It was a somber scene on a foggy and rainy day. On the way into the NMA meeting, I had been speaking to Dr. David Elcombe, later to become medical director of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, who made me aware of the site of the crash and some of its history.Ice accumulation was said to be the cause, but the Canadian Aviation Safety Board was disbanded and replaced by the TSBC after its investigative conclusions proved to be controversial.Witnesses recalled seeing fire from the plane before it crashed. Investigators noted the plane was carrying unexploded ordinance.While writing this piece, I recalled a recent visit to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, site of the crash of one of the 9/11 planes. The memorial at Shanksville includes a half mile long, 10-foot-wide flight path walkway where the plane crashed upside down and traveling at 563 miles per hour.Matt Borsellino was national editor of the Medical Post for many years.

From medical politics to monuments: A reporter’s journey through history and tragedy

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