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In less than one week, James Randi will head off on his whirlwind lecture tour of Canada.  In his unique and entertaining way, Randi will explain how even the most rational minds can be fooled by the same tricks used by magicians and conjurers for centuries.

Our friends at CFI Canada are kindly hosting the tour, which will take Randi from Vancouver to Halifax, with stops in Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal along the way.

Find out how you can attend here, and keep an eye on Randi.org and the JREF's Facebook and Twitter pages for updates from the road, including photos, blog posts, and videos.

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Since ABC-TV’s Nightline paranormal mini-series “Beyond Belief” aired an episode on August 17 focusing on psychics and, among other things, the JREF’s Million Dollar Challenge, there’s been a nice burst of media coverage.  The story of the MDC has been picked up by some mainstream media, including multiple stories now in Canada, particularly via CBC News.

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Toronto-based 'psychic' breaks her promise to contact JREF; now says she's "not available" to have her abilities tested

LOS ANGELES—'Psychic Nikki,' the Toronto-based psychic who claimed she'd be willing have her abilities tested for the Million Dollar Challenge offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), now says she's "not available" to be tested.

"It's not surprising that Nikki isn't willing to have her abilities tested under fair conditions," said JREF President D.J. Grothe. “Of the hundreds of so-called psychics and other paranormalists who have accepted our challenge and agreed that our tests were fair, not a single one was able to demonstrate any special ability whatsoever. These professional 'psychics' are either deluding their clients or deluding themselves."

Nikki first said she'd be willing to take the JREF's Million Dollar Challenge in a CBC News story on Aug. 30.1

The JREF called Nikki on Sept. 2, requesting an email address to send her information about the Million Dollar Challenge. After CBC News published a followup story2 on Tuesday, Sept. 6, Nikki returned the JREF's call, leaving a message in which she promised "I will try to contact you in the next couple of days for sure." The JREF called her back within an hour, again offering to send information about the Challenge and answer her questions.

A full week after Nikki promised to call the JREF "in the next couple of days," she still had not responded.

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Currently, in Ontario, Canada, the battle against bad science is being fought against an unlikely foe: the regulatory body that governs the licensing of physicians in that province.  The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is updating its policy on the use of non-conventional therapies by licensed physicians and the draft document that has resulted is a very poor effort by the CPSO to protect the public from harm.  The document not only adopts the derisive term “allopathy” to describe conventional modern medicine, but it twists itself into illogical knots in order to not offend those who practice medicine based upon pseudoscientific physiology or downright magical thinking.

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[Editor’s Note: “Your Skeptic Stories” is an ongoing series written by readers like you, people who have, through one means or another, discovered skepticism and critical thinking. These stories remind us that we all started somewhere and some of us are still finding our way as skeptics If you are interested in contributing your own story, please submit your piece of around 1000 words to maria (at) randi.org along with a short 2-3 line bio.

Today’s story comes from Robert "Ramen" Boucher]

  1. A Message to James Van Praagh
  2. Weekly Media Roundup, September 9, 2011
  3. Recently at Science-Based Medicine
  4. Recipients of the Fifth Annual JREF Academic Scholarships