Back-to-workplace plans still in flux say public service union leaders, as PSAC files mandatory vaccination policy grievances
With yet another wave of COVID-19 coming down on Canadians, return-to-workplace plans for thousands of federal public service workers continue to stall, as the Treasury Board reviews policies around telework, as well as the government’s mandatory vaccination order for federal employees. Union leaders say the majority of employees are continuing to work from home. And […]
Low-income seniors complain of poor communication, hidden deadlines in GIS repayment rollout
Advocates and legal clinics say they are hearing from “panicked” seniors who have spent hours on the phone with Service Canada trying to register for early access to the government’s one-time payment to make up for clawbacks to federal income supports, only to find out they should have gone to their local MP first, or […]
Liberal-NDP deal promises nothing more than a pharmacare pantomime
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stepped over broken promises about pharmacare walking down the aisle to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a confidence and supply agreement. The “marriage” vows included a new promise—not to implement pharmacare, but about “continuing progress” toward a national program by passing legislation next year and making a plan to bulk […]
Reform needed now for a health system on life support
What would happen if half of Canadian physicians suddenly cut back their clinical hours? What would that mean for Canadians trying to access health care? Or for patients who are waiting for surgeries and screenings delayed by the pandemic? Or to the remaining physicians and other health workers who are already struggling to provide timely […]
Former cabinet minister Bradshaw remembered for ‘generosity and selflessness’
Claudette Bradshaw, a former Liberal cabinet minister who served in the cabinets of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, was memorialized as a trailblazer following her death March 26 at the age of 72. “The loss of Claudette Bradshaw … will be deeply felt by everyone in our community. Thank you Claudette for blazing a path—from […]
Medical professionals’ discomfort with digital tech is stumbling block to spread of AI in health care, say experts
Medical professionals’ lack of comfort with new digital technologies is a major challenge that will need to be overcome as Health Canada develops the regulatory framework to support the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical devices, according to experts. “In medicine, there’s a huge divide between the IT side of the organization and the […]
Five barriers to the commercialization of medical AI research
Consistent and significant investments in AI research in Canada have resulted in globally recognized centres of academic excellence across the country. The often-repeated challenge moving forward is to translate that academic work into commercial success. Based on my experience spinning off two companies developing technologies using AI in the medical space from the University of […]
Tuberculosis cases surge amid the twin crises of COVID and conflict
You may have noticed that landmarks across Canada, from Niagara Falls, to the CN Tower, to the Victoria Legislature, glowed red last week. On March 24, World TB Day, these were some of the 44 landmarks across Canada that advocates ensured were lit up in red to draw attention to the fact that tuberculosis (TB), […]
Canada needs a mental health transfer to put national standards into practice
Think back to those early days of the pandemic, when there was an outpouring of “caremongering” and support for elderly neighbours needing groceries, and for healthcare workers on the front lines. We put handmade signs in our windows and we believed that we were all in this together. In doing hard things for the greater […]
Procurement revamp can create greater access for historically marginalized communities
Procurement practices and policies rarely dominate news headlines or dinner table conversations in Canada. At least, that was the case before two long pandemic years during which federal procurement was at the forefront of Canada’s response to COVID-19. From the great rush to secure personal protective equipment (PPE) to the international vaccine acquisition tussle that […]
