McGill’s Office for Science and Society 2026 Quackery Piece: Excellent

here, the kind of article I'm sadly not seeing much of these days:

001. at mcgill.ca's Office for Science and Society, Jonathan Jarry writes in “Quackery in Quebec: The Trojan Horse Bill I Worry About" as dated 2026-06-26:

"A new bill has been proposed at the National Assembly of Quebec, and while it may look like it will benefit our health, there is a lot going on under the surface. It is an excellent example of how the rebranding of pseudoscience gives it legitimacy, and this Trojan horse is now knocking on our legislative door [... ] here is a list of so-called therapies that are often sneaked in under the moniker of integrative health:

• Homeopathy: the practice of taking, for example, a natural substance that makes you vomit and diluting it out of existence to make you stop vomiting
• Reiki: conceived by a Japanese spiritualist who starved himself and hallucinated, it is the idea that a person can hover their hands over a patient and inject a divine healing energy into them
• Iridology: the practice of looking at the colored part of the eye to diagnose any health condition
• Reflexology: the idea that the entire human body can be mapped onto the sole of our feet and that a targeted foot massage can heal any disease
• Naturopathy: an umbrella term for therapies that use so-called natural methods of healing, including homeopathy, herbalism, acupuncture, iridology, and loads of dietary supplements

In 2026, these practices are not serious. They check all the boxes of a pseudoscience: they are based on a primitive, overly simplistic understanding of how the body works; they may rely on the spiritual idea that a mysterious life force exists which can be manipulated; they fail to progress and change; they often lack a plausible mechanism of action; and their promising, preliminary studies are commonly contradicted by rigorous clinical trials [...]”;

Hear, hear.

And actually, since naturopathy in North America is such a 'sCAM cornucopia', all the 'therapies' listed can be found within it. Iridology is likely the rarest in North America while huge in Australia naturopathy. In my 2026 CT ND Final Report dataset, there was very little iridology.  But it was there...while the CT terms naturopathy in legislation "science".

Here's an interesting exercise that a scientific skeptic may appreciate: ranking the bulleted therapeutics in terms of scientific status. I'll exclude naturopathy since the term is too nebulous. Google's Gemini says: iridology is pseudoscience and ineffective for diagnosis, homeopathy is strongly discredited, reiki is biologically implausible and unproven above placebo, and reflexology is labeled as a foot massage.

Within that same Gemini thread I asked: "Do licensed naturopaths in Connecticut offer these therapies?"

The answer: "Yes [...] homeopathy: This is explicitly protected and permitted under Connecticut state law as a primary modality of naturopathic medicine [...] reflexology and reiki: while not explicitly spelled out by name in the foundational licensing statute, these are frequently offered by Connecticut naturopaths [...] iridology: although heavily discredited by mainstream medicine, iridology is still utilized by certain traditional or vitalism-focused naturopaths in Connecticut as a legacy diagnostic tool, though it is less common in modern 'functional medicine' oriented clinics that favor diagnostic lab testing."

One last interrogation for that thread was "Since the naturopathy law labels naturopathy "science", therein, these therapies are posed as such within that legal umbrella?"

The answer: "Yes, that is exactly how it functions legally [...] by embedding unproven or pseudoscientific modalities like homeopathy, reiki, or iridology under this statutory definition, the legislature creates a specific legal fiction. Within this legal umbrella, these therapies are granted the status, protections, and public presentation of a legitimate 'science'."

Watch out Quebec, you deserve much better.