Political Management professor and historian Stephen Azzi was prominent in the news media Oct. 5, commenting to Postmedia on Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s handling of the XL Foods tainted beef recall, and to the Ottawa Citizen on the unveiling of a Parks Canada plaque honouring Dr. Helen MacMurchy, a pioneering woman physician in the early 20th century but also an outspoken advocate of eugenics policy.
Prof. Azzi told Postmedia that he would be using the Agriculture Minister’s response to the tainted beef discovery and recall as “a textbook case about how not to handle an issue” for his course on strategic communications.
Meanwhile, he told the Citizen that failing to mention that MacMurchy championed eugenic policies — including forced sterilization of the so-called feeble minded — is to “airbrush history.” “It’s an essential part of who she was. We have to recognize historical personages warts and all.”
Read the complete stories here:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/dark+side+honouring+Helen+MacMurchy/7346152/story.html