Justice Clément Gascon’s frank admission to mental health challenges leaves a legacy worth celebrating
OTTAWA—Supreme Court Justice Clément Gascon is a brave man and a role model, whether he views himself as one or not (I don’t know the man, but somehow I doubt he does). To reveal publicly, as he did a week ago, that the reason for his recent disappearance was due in part to a panic […]
Taiwan should be able to attend global health meeting
Needless to say, improving human health is important. Going beyond politics, human health is core to good governance. As such, all countries not only should contribute to strengthening global health outcomes, but are in fact morally obliged to do so. As former United States health secretary Tom Price explains, “the world cannot succeed in improving […]
‘Did I miss a subtle cry for help?’: Conservative MP Sweet opens up about daughter’s suicide
Conservative MP David Sweet still struggles to remember the specifics of the most excruciating two hours of his life, how he managed to keep his emotions in check as he sat beside his wife on the plane, alone in bearing the news that his daughter may have died. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I […]
We all need to be pulling in the same direction on mental health care
Mental health is a feature of life that touches every Canadian. We all know someone who has suffered from poor mental health or mental wellness. It may be a young person in our lives living with social anxiety that keeps them from embracing public speaking opportunities, or interviewing for positions they are qualified for. It […]
‘For the people’? Ford’s health cuts show disconnect between rhetoric, reality
OTTAWA—It’s been nearly 20 years since seven people died and 2,300 became ill as a result of water contamination in the town of Walkerton, Ont.—the worst case of its kind in the country’s history. As Justice Dennis O’Connor concluded in a 2002 judicial inquiry report, the incident could in part be traced back directly to […]
Where asbestos kills and the feds won’t help
We should all know this: asbestos fibres in your lungs will make you sick and may kill you. Asbestos inhalation causes life-threatening diseases, such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, and almost always prompts fatal cancer of the lining of the lung. Workplace compensation agencies in Canada received approximately 5,600 death claims for asbestos- related […]
Terry Fox’s legacy inspires federal government to pledge $150-million to create Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network
“I’ve said it to people before that I’m going to do my very best to make it; I’m not going to give up. But I might not make it…if I don’t, the Marathon of Hope better continue.” Terry Fox On April 16, 2016, Dr. Victor Ling, president and scientific director of the Terry Fox Research […]
The building blocks of drug coverage reforms in Canada
Canada’s current system of prescription drug coverage is a patchwork of policies, an inequitable, inefficient, and unsustainable patchwork without coherence or purpose. Some think more patches can solve the problem, but ultimately, the core problem is that it is a patchwork. Canadians pay among the highest cost per capita for prescription drugs, with among the […]
Global Fund calls on feds to increase funding by ‘at least’ 15 per cent, as development observers criticize Liberal foreign assistance
A multinational humanitarian organization is looking for the Canadian government to increase its funding by 15 per cent to fight global epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, at the same as the Liberal government’s foreign assistance funding is being questioned. The Global Fund is seeking $14-billion from its donor countries in October to cover the […]
Ending TB among Canada’s Indigenous peoples: treat the fundamental causes, not just the disease
Last year, the federal government announced it would spend $27.5-million over five years on an ambitious plan to end tuberculosis (TB) across Inuit Nunangat, Inuit regions of Canada, by 2030. The plan’s specific objective was to reduce rates of TB to levels lower than are seen currently in the rest of Canada. This is an […]
