A controversial author and "anti-woke" blogger whose opinions range from climate change denial to support for conversion therapy has been tapped by Mayor Jan Liggett to speak at an upcoming "summit" for families seeking better mental health and addictions support.
Michael Shellenberger, a former journalist, will appear virtually as the keynote speaker at the See Me, Hear Me summit, a seminar being held at the Islamic Centre of Cambridge on April 25 and 26.
The paid event is touted by the mayor's office as providing "a platform by giving voice to and for the families and individuals, through legal, health, and grief professionals to discuss the shortcomings of Ontario’s mental health and addictions treatment system."
The invitation says topics will include "navigating treatment when lacking capacity, stories from families and people with firsthand experience, grief counselling, and grandparents caring for grandchildren while parents navigate mental health and/or addictions issues."
Shellenberger is the author of San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities, a book the mayor gave to fellow councillors the night of her inauguration in 2022.
In it, he blames San Francisco's persistent and rampant homelessness, mental illness and addiction on a "woke agenda."
Discussions by panelists will also take place, reads the invitation sent out a week ago.
The city says more details will be shared in the future and all interested persons are welcome to register in order to purchase tickets for the event.
It's unclear if the city is footing the bill for the sessions. The mayor was unavailable for comment.
Cambridge Coun. Scott Hamilton said he was taken by surprise when the invitation arrived in his inbox, as were other members of council. They had no involvement with organizing the event, he said.
Creating a community dialogue around mental health and addictions is important, he added, but he'd rather hear from local health experts, doctors, academics, practitioners, and non-profit organizations.
He's also concerned by some of Shellenberger's views and proposed solutions to the crisis, which involve involuntary treatment.
Liggett has called for increased support for involuntary addictions treatment in the past.
A poll commissioned by the city last year found 67 per cent of respondents believe "Ontario’s laws needed to change to allow families and physicians to provide mental health and addiction treatment to involuntary patients."
In response to hearing about the summit, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Waterloo Wellington said problems around homelessness and the opioid crisis are "complex and difficult," often leading families of those afflicted to look for "new solutions from a place of compassion, love, and sometimes desperation."
But in light of the public debate about the best options to manage these issues, the organization says it will continue to emphasize "evidence-based best practices that demonstrate how involuntary treatment fails to provide positive outcomes for those with substance use disorders."
Research shows involuntary treatment is associated with increased risk of fatal and non-fatal overdose compared to those receiving voluntary care, CMHA stated in an email response.
The mayor's views on the topic appear to align with the views of the keynote speaker, but it's unclear if they're aligned with some of his more controversial opinions.
Shellenberger ran for governor of California in 2018 and 2022 and became the first endowed professor at the University of Austin where he is acting as the school's chair of Politics, Censorship, and Free Speech.
According to the upstart Texas university's website, the chair "is intended to advance the study of censorship and the technological, political, economic, and cultural conditions that lead to the suppression of speech."
His blog, Public News, regularly delves into his ideas about climate science, limits to free speech, trans-identity and trans-gender ideology.
Given what recently transpired with Coun. Adam Cooper over a widely condemned anti-trans post to social media, it's those views that may be of greatest concern to many in Cambridge.
In 2023, Shellenberger was a keynote speaker at a conference hosted by Genspect, an international organization that opposes laws that prohibit conversion therapy in addition to opposing support for transgender people and efforts to medically transition.
He reportedly stated he wants to end access to all gender-affirming surgeries.
Shellenberger is also a regular on Fox News, appearing recently on Sean Hannity's show to condemn the Los Angeles fire response, calling it a direct consequence of "woke ideology."
He said voters in the city chose to elect L.A. Mayor Karen Bass over a white male candidate because diversity, equity and inclusion policies informed the vote. Bass, who is Black, chose to cut the fire department's budget, he said, while the white candidate campaigned on increasing the budget to tackle the fire threat.
Shellenberger said the failure to predict and prioritize funding to control the fires is an example of "the radical left's culture war against civilization" and a "radical anti-human, anti-civilization ideology."
In a recent blog post, Shellenberger championed the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, calling it one of the "rogue, deep state agencies" U.S. President Donald Trump was elected to overhaul.
USAID, is responsible for sending billions to countries around the world to support humanitarian, development and security programs.