Chiropractic and the Royal Commission

In 1979, the Government of New Zealand held a Royal Commission inquiry into Chiropractic. In British-based societies, whenever a government doesn’t know what to do with a problem, they hold a “Royal Commission”. These august bodies are convened, chaired and staffed by so-called leaders of thought in those counties. In Canada we last held a Royal Commission after one of our athletes won a Gold medal in the 100-yard Olympic run and was subsequently found to have been loading up on anabolic steroids. The Government of the day, not wanting to venture into the murky world of athletics and drug abuse with legislation, appointed a Royal Commission to look into the problem. Thereby showing the world that we Canadians were not afraid to air our dirty laundry in public and hoping that the rest of the Olympic countries would follow our lead. What a joke! The rest is history.

In the 70’s chiropractic was gaining credibility in Australia and New Zealand and its adherents and patients were beginning to demand things like public funding for chiropractic services, university affiliation, government-sponsored research and the like. Hence a Royal Commission. In the US, I’m sure there is an equivalent, but I don’t know what it is called. They must have this legislative equivalent of dodge-ball there as well.

This “Royal Commission of Inquiry into Chiropractic” was charged with the task of studying all aspects of the chiropractic profession then available in the English-speaking world, i.e. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US and the British Isles. It was an extensive, exhausting and emotional examination that seemed to go on for years as we in the profession lived on tenterhooks as exhibits were offered and testimony given. In this long process, all our warts, our foibles, our embarrassing moments in history were paraded out for all to see. We had no idea how it was all to come out. These Commissions are painfully slow in nature. When all the evidence is heard, the Chair of the Commission, who by now has become a household name, seeks counsel and holes up somewhere writing a tome of recommendations and observations.

When the New Zealand report finally came out, we were hugely relieved and quite pleased with most of its conclusions and results. Need I say here that once the flurry of media attention dies down, the very Government that struck and funded the Commission thanks the Chair and members who served so valiantly and patiently and then quietly slides the report into some dark and forgotten place in its mysterious chambers?

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