John Luik
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John C. Luik was a senior fellow of the Democracy Institute. A
Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...
attached to
Hertford College Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...
at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, he was a Senior Associate of the Niagara Institute (an affiliate of the
Conference Board of Canada The Conference Board of Canada is an independent, non-profit applied-research organization based in Canada. It aims to help Canada's leaders make informed, evidence-based decisions using non-partisan and non-ideological analysis. The organiza ...
) with responsibility for its work in public policy and its Values and Organizational Development programmes." From 1977 to 1990 he taught philosophy and ethics at two Canadian universities, but was dismissed from each (in 1985 and 1990) for misrepresenting his academic credentials. He acted on behalf of the tobacco industry amongst others and was prominent in criticising the evidence related to the claimed links between
passive smoking Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active Tobacco smoking, smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the ...
and cancer.


Career


1977–1990

Luik taught philosophy at Canadian Nazarene College in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
,
Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...
, Canada from 1977 to 1985. He was dismissed in 1985 because, at the time of his appointment, he had not been awarded the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
Ph.D. that he had claimed. A former
Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...
(1971), he returned to Oxford and was awarded his PhD in 1986. He was subsequently hired by
Brock University Brock University is a public university, public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The ...
in St. Catharine's, Ontario where he taught applied and professional
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
. Brock University was fully aware of Luik's earlier misrepresentation. Brock dismissed Luik in 1990 when it transpired that he had gained his position "on the basis of a further padded CV claiming teaching experience and publications that he did not have. What caused concern and led to Luik's dismissal from Brock was 'not any single misrepresentation ... so much as the apparently uniform pattern of representations engaged in since 1977' (Marsden 2001: A12)."Philip Carl Salzman, "On Reflexivity", ''American Anthropologist'', New Series, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 805-813, citing Marsden, William. 2001. "Luik Lied to Universities about His Qualifications." ''The Gazette (Montreal)'', June 21: A12. The then Dean of Humanities at Brock, Cecil Abrahams, later told
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...
"I certainly would not trust anything John Luik says because he must be the worst case of fraud that I have come across and I've been an administrator at universities for a long period of time, both in North America and in Africa, and I think he's by far the worst case of fraudulent behaviour".


1990 onwards

In 1993 Luik wrote ''Pandora's box: the dangers of politically corrupted science for democratic public policy'', in response to the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
report which classified
environmental tobacco smoke Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the surrounding atmo ...
as a human carcinogen. Documents later made public as a result of the
Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) was entered on November 23, 1998, originally between the four largest United States Tobacco industry, tobacco companies (Altria, Philip Morris Inc., R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds, Brow ...
showed that "Luik had corresponded regularly with John Lepere, chairman of the Confederation of European Community Cigarette Manufacturers (CECCM) on the content of the paper and where it should be published." In January 1994 Luik published "Do Tobacco Advertising Bans Really Work? A Review of the Evidence. He is credited as a scholar with the Niagara Institute, with assistance from the International Advertising Association. In mid 1996 Luik was hired by the Australian tobacco industry to 'criss-cross the country' promoting his book ''Smokescreen: Passive Smoking and Public Policy'' which attacked the US Environmental Protection Agency's risk assessment which had determined that second-hand tobacco smoke (Environmental Tobacco Smoke, or ETS) as a "Known carcinogen". His book was published and promoted by the
Institute of Public Affairs The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank, Political links and networking The IPA Victoria was founded during World War II by businessmen in response to the feared growing power of ...
(IPA) which was funded by the Australian cigarette companies. This was set up to counter a public tour of Australia by the anti-smoking activist Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco. Luik became a Senior Fellow at the Democracy Institute, where amongst other subjects he continued to work on tobacco. A 2006 paper titled "Why Graphic Warnings Don't Work" was acknowledged as being "made possible by funding provided by
Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (originally the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland, and subsequently Imperial Tobacco Group plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is ...
Group PLC".John Luik (2006),
A Picture of Health? Why Graphic Warnings Don't Work
", Democracy Institute


Books

* ''Unintended Consequences of Health Fascism'',
Institute of Economic Affairs The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a British right-wing free market think tank, which is registered as a charity. Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to ...
, 2011 * ''Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade'', by John Luik, Patrick Basham, and Gio Gori.
Social Affairs Unit The Social Affairs Unit was a right-leaning think tank in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1980 as an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs, it published books on a variety of social issues. Its website notes that "many SAU supporters are in ...
, December 2006. *
Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy
', by John Luik and Gio Gori.
Fraser Institute The Fraser Institute is a Canadian Conservatism in Canada, conservative public policy think tank registered as a Charitable organization, charity. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. It has ...
, January 1999. * ''Advertising and Markets: A Collection of Seminal Papers'', by M.J. Waterson and John C. Luik (eds), NTC Publications, 1996 *
Smokescreen: 'passive smoking' and public policy
',
Institute of Public Affairs The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank, Political links and networking The IPA Victoria was founded during World War II by businessmen in response to the feared growing power of ...
, 1996 * ''The Question of Humanism: Challenges and Possibilities'' by David Goicoechea, John Luik, and Tim Madigan (eds).
Prometheus Books Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). The publ ...
, 1991


Selected papers

* Luik, J.C. and Basham, P., (2008), "Is the obesity epidemic exaggerated? Yes", ''
British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...
'' * Luik, J.C. (1996),
I can't help myself: Addiction as Ideology
, ''Human Psychopharmacology'' * Luik, J.C. (1993), "Tobacco advertising bans and the dark face of government paternalism", ''International journal of advertising'', 12, pp303 – 324. * Luik, J.C. (1991), "Government Paternalism and Citizen Rationality. The Justifiability of Banning Tobacco Advertising"


References


External links

* Patrick Basham and John Luik, ''
Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...
'', 26 November 2006
Four big, fat myths
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luik, John American Rhodes Scholars Living people American philosophers Year of birth missing (living people)