December 27, 2024

We started Medicare without knowing how we would pay for it and, decades later, our universal health-care system is on life support because we never bothered to figure it out.

November 12, 2024

TMU Medical School plans to fill 75 of its 94 available seats for “equity serving groups” …non-academic considerations are given priority. What could possibly go wrong?

Canadians have been too nice, for too long. It's time to stand against the noisy minority that is undermining our values, laws and institutions.

Drug-addicted patients openly smoke meth and fentanyl, and inject heroin. Dealers traffic illicit drugs. Nurses are harassed, forced to work amidst the toxic fumes from drugs and can’t confiscate weapons. In short, according to one nurse, “We’ve absolutely lost control.”

April 2, 2024

Almost three years into the experimental opiate “safer supply” program in British Columbia and no one, including those handing out the pills, seems to know if it is working or […]

March 1, 2024

A national Pharmacare deal has been reached and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is proclaiming it to be a huge win for his party. But amidst the Gatorade celebrations and public self-congratulatory statements, Mr. Singh and his MPs appear to be blind to the possibility that this deal may be the final straw that breaks what’s left of the back of Canadian healthcare.

Jan 18, 2024

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.

January 7, 2024

Almost as many Canadians have been lost to drug overdoses in the last seven years as were killed in combat throughout the Second World War. Yet governments, health care professionals and addiction experts continue to quarrel over virtually every aspect of the opioid crisis – its causes, possible remedies and even whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents. And amidst this dithering and experimentation, the horrific death toll mounts.

January 28, 2024

Alberta is trying a different approach, one focused on helping addicts to get off drugs. The early results seem promising.

December 10, 2023

The government of British Columbia is off on another lengthy legal boondoggle as it seeks to make opioid manufacturers pay for the ongoing epidemic of opioid overdoses.It spent an estimated $75 to $100 million dollars to sue Dr. Brian Day for operating a private surgical clinic. That legal action started in 2009 and ended this year. But even as it was suing Dr. Day, it was also paying him and his clinic for their services to help eliminate long surgical wait lists.
Another massive lawsuit has BC trying to recover health care costs from the tobacco companies. It was initiated in 1998 and, 25 years later, is still ongoing.

November 20, 2023

The Canadian Constitution Foundation has published a free e-book on Health Care Choice in Canada. Susan contributed a chapter on Politicians and Healthcare: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way.

October 22, 2023

How many doctors does it take to change a government policy killing young Canadians?Seventeen? Maybe.
That’s the number of medical addictions specialists who drafted an enlightening open letter to the federal government to tell them that the current safe/safer supply programs for opioid addicts are anything but.

September 11, 2023

For the past decade, activist groups have been spreading the news about the so-called ‘right to die’ and, according to the latest statistics, their efforts have been a success.The province of Quebec is now the world leader with more assisted deaths per capita (5.1% of all deaths) than any other jurisdiction. Across Canada, that number is 3.3% of all deaths – higher than Belgium (2.3%) and gaining on the Netherlands (4.8%).
Our lead on the world stage of death is a rather dubious distinction, but it becomes even more concerning against the backdrop of Canada’s low performing healthcare system.

September 2, 2023

What’s wrong with Canadian healthcare? And how can we fix it?These are no longer just rhetorical questions — they are passionate inquiries that demand a response from our political leaders. NOW.
They are posed by almost every Canadian who, in recent times, has tried to obtain healthcare for themselves or their loved ones. It doesn’t matter if they need cancer treatments, hip operations, or an appointment with a family doctor to get a prescription – there is always a wait and there are no guarantees of accessing care in time.

August 18, 2023

Last month, the Winnipeg Free Press ran a particularly sharp critique of Manitoba’s healthcare system, decrying provincial healthcare budgeting as “parsimony” and stating that monetary decisions made by the government since 2015 have created a healthcare crisis in Manitoba. It strongly implied that the solution is … more money.

July 5, 2023

What is the end goal for a policy that deals with drug addiction?
That’s the key question that political leaders and societal stakeholders should be considering as they announce ever more alarming initiatives in an attempt to limit the number of drug-overdose deaths across Canada.

June 8, 2023

It’s time to move on.The Alberta election is over: Danielle Smith is the premier and that means it is time for the politicians to put aside the campaign’s empty rhetoric and face the realities of how they can best fix a broken health-care system.
It is estimated that as many as 800,000 Albertans currently do not have a family doctor to guide their care. The province is leaking physicians and struggling to recruit doctors for family medicine positions, particularly in rural areas. It will take many years to ensure that each Albertan has a doctor to guide their care.

June 1, 2023

The dominos continue to fall in Canada’s rapidly imploding healthcare system. This week, the spotlight is on British Columbia’s cancer patients who have been waiting months to undergo radiation treatments.
As a result, BC Health Minister Adrian Dix has announced that the province will send patients with breast and prostate cancer (the largest patient populations that have been waiting for extended periods) to clinics in Bellingham, Washington, for radiation therapy.

May 05, 2023

The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election – health care.On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel Notley promised that a NDP government would expand hours at medical clinics and create family health teams to ensure that every Albertan has access to a family doctor, nurse practitioner, mental health therapist, pharmacist, social worker and dietician. She also plans to magically ease the pressure on emergency departments and ambulances.
If all of that seems like a dream that is too good to be true, it probably is.

April 16, 2023

For the past 14 years, Vancouver surgeon Dr. Brian Day has led the charge for health-care reform, pushing for the right of patients to pay for private care if their health and well-being are threatened as a result of waiting in a stagnant and overburdened public system.
He argued that these prolonged waits violate a patient’s constitutional right to life, liberty, and security of the person.

March 06, 2023

What’s wrong with Canada’s healthcare system?Dysfunctional systems, wait lists, not enough doctors, and not enough beds. Those are just the obvious ‘starters’ in a long list of problems that are keeping Canadians from accessing medical care.
Tossing more money at the problem will provide some temporary relief, but it can’t fix the one defining issue that prevents positive change in delivering healthcare services – ideology. Canada’s healthcare system is falling apart because it has been built on the faulty idea that only government can pay for, and deliver, healthcare (called single-payer universality), rather than on the more practical notion of actually providing timely medical care.

February 09, 2023

When the Premiers were first called to a sit-down lunch to talk about healthcare with Prime Minister Trudeau, there was plenty of talk about the potential for systemic change, innovation and accountability. It seemed that Canadians and their leaders were finally on the same page in recognizing that healthcare, as it is, is largely broken and money alone isn’t going to fix it.
But the meeting has come and gone, and there were no new ideas and no talk of change. The Prime Minister offered the premiers a big wad of cash over a two-hour luncheon and the key message was take it or leave it.

August 17, 2022

Canada’s health-care system continues to implode and fail Canadian patients at a catastrophic level.
Systemic problems and staffing issues are overwhelming health care delivery and people are dying from a lack of proper care. Daily news reports now relate the most egregious dysfunctions that have occurred as patients sought help and instead found themselves in a chaotic system that can no longer guarantee the provision of basic medical care.

July 25, 2022

It has been a revealing week for Canadian health care and what we have witnessed is not good.
In Fredericton, NB, a senior passed away while waiting for care at a hospital emergency department. A witness noted that the man was “clearly in discomfort,” yet it wasn’t enough to gain the attention of health-care workers. He eventually slumped over and died from a heart attack. Premier Blaine Higgs responded to the resultant public outcry by firing both his Health Minister and the CEO of the health authority that oversees the hospital.

June 23, 2022

Our health-care system is irretrievably broken.
At least five million Canadians are without a family doctor. More than one million Canadians were on waitlists before the pandemic even started. Now, in Ontario alone, it is estimated that 21 million patient services (surgeries, screenings, diagnostic procedures) have been delayed by COVID.

May 09, 2022

The coronavirus pandemic has accomplished what a multitude of government reports could not – that is, to draw Canadians’ attention to a faltering health-care system characterized by a chronic shortage of beds, overflowing emergency departments, and limited numbers of surgical personnel and operating suites. The flaws have been there for decades, but a willful blindness on the part of our politicians has successfully kept systemic change at bay and patients on wait lists for medical care.

February 23, 2022

As we enter the third year of a global pandemic, it is glaringly obvious that Canadians are divided into two camps – those who are vaccinated and those who aren’t.Those who are vaccinated can keep their jobs, go to restaurants, work out at the gym, go to movies, attend hospitals, enter public buildings and fly on airplanes. Even shopping may soon become a vaxxed-only activity: In Quebec, large box stores have begun to ask adult customers to show proof of vaccination prior to entering the store.
Unfortunately, those who are not vaccinated, for whatever reason, cannot do any of the above. Governments may continue to claim that we do not have vaccine ‘passports,’ but the realities of life suggest otherwise.

February 22, 2022

Well. Apparently, Canadians do have a limit to the amount of unnecessary discomfort and ineffectual leadership that they will suffer. Polls, demonstrations and a convoy of truckers entrenched in downtown Ottawa all provide sufficient evidence to show that Canadians. Are. Fed. Up.
They want our society to go back to our pre-COVID norms and, while that may be the panacea for many of our frustrations, it can not – and should not – be the case for health care. In fact, there has never been a more opportune time for Canadians to demand changes to our archaic medical system.

December 7, 2021

As we enter the year 2022, most Canadians will have lived their entire lives under the shibboleth that says we have the best health-care system in the world. Our beloved medicare is universal in scope, free of charge and offers equal access to all. What country could beat that?

As it turns out, most countries can—hands down.

March 26, 2021

The Human Genome Project (HGP) stands as one of mankind’s most remarkable achievements; its significance is easily equal to, or even eclipses, Watson and Crick’s discovery of DNA’s helical structure or Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon.

The goal was to determine the position and function of the more than 100,000 genes that comprise the 23 chromosomes of human DNA. It was a massive endeavour and the challenge was so overwhelming that it could only be accomplished by the global collaboration of scientists.

March 23, 2021

It has been almost one year since the world was brought to its knees by a microscopic particle known as COVID-19. Since then, the virus has taken the lives of more than 20,000 Canadians and infected another 800,000.

But those are just the numbers that show up on media screens and government paperwork. The real human cost is exponentially higher if we consider the cumulative number of lives that have been disrupted or permanently altered as COVID-19 infections overtook family members and friends.

June 11, 2020

Modern medicine has at its disposal a vast array of technologies that can be utilized to identify, track and predict the risk and potential impact of emerging infectious diseases.
Bioassays, genome sequencing and molecular technology can identify a novel pathogen. Computer modelling (in real-time) can provide us with an instant status report showing how much it has – and can – spread. Infrared thermometers give us accurate temperature readings without the need for human touch and, ironically, computers analyze our human behaviour to determine and predict risks.

May 1, 2020

There are those who believe we shouldn’t criticize our political (and other) leaders during a crisis. The Canadian way is to get through it first, then hold inquiries and, many years and millions of dollars later, we will know who failed in their leadership tasks and who should be held accountable. Maybe.
Alternatively, since the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to punish Canada for the foreseeable future, we should state the obvious now; thus far, we have witnessed our federal leaders dither and defer over decisions, reverse statements, and backtrack on critical policies. In short, our COVID-19 leadership at the federal level has been a train wreck.

April 3, 2020

Finally on March 31, our Prime Minister announced that Canada will spend $2 billion to procure diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and the personal protective equipment (masks, face shields, gloves, gowns) that frontline healthcare workers require to carry out their duties during a pandemic.
Without the above, it is impossible for doctors to determine who is infected, to treat those with the most severe symptoms and, just as importantly, to ensure their own safety as they care for others.

March 19, 2020

These are just some of the basic tenets of crisis communications, and our Prime Minister and his Crisis Response Team would do well to take them to heart because, so far, their statements and actions have missed the mark in every way.
We are not yet one week into our worldwide pandemic, but every Canadian who checks the news knows that we have been slowly meandering into this territory for some time. There has been ample opportunity for the government and its affiliated bodies to come up with a coherent plan to contain and mitigate the virus and to effectively communicate those efforts to its citizenry.

February 29, 2020

For the past decade, Bell Canada has used the month of January to support awareness of mental health issues. Its extensive media campaigns have encouraged Canadians to talk openly about mental health and break the uncomfortable stigma that still tends to hover over such conversations.
There is plenty of data to document the prevalence of Canada’s struggles with mental health. A report by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health shows that one in five Canadians suffers from mental illness; it keeps 500,000 Canadians from their work, in any given week; and accounts for 33% of all hospital stays. While the resultant lost productivity is estimated to be $6 billion, it can be presumed that the personal losses are inestimable.

February 4, 2020

As the title suggests, an article in The American Prospect What Medicare for All Really Looks
Like, claims to describe the realities of Canadian medicare to our southern neighbours. So, it is
both ironic – and disappointing – that a careful reading reveals it to be remarkable only in
its unwillingness to examine these realities in any meaningful way.
Instead, readers are offered a quixotic exposition on the noble ideals that undergird medicare,
and these idyllic principles are then used to dismiss and/or justify the many problems in our
healthcare system.

December 10, 2019

After years of political debate and public frustration, it seems that the future of Canadian healthcare may now depend on the outcome of a decade-long legal battle in the BC Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs are Dr. Brian Day, the private Cambie Surgery Centre and four British Columbians who have suffered permanent damage to their health while waiting for medically necessary treatment. Two other patients who were plaintiffs when the legal suit was launched in 2009 have since died.

October 5, 2019

The federal government has made a pre-election promise to establish a single, universal pharmacare program that would cover all, or most, of the costs of prescription drugs for Canadians.
The idea has been discussed for decades, but the public conversation has rarely gone beyond unproven hopes that it will save billions of dollars and is the only way to save those who ‘fall through the cracks’ of existing programs and cannot afford to pay for their medications.

August 29, 2019

When presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined a caravan of diabetics for a cross-border shopping trip to buy Canadian insulin, it was a deliberate attempt to publicize his proposed policies to reform healthcare. He likely had no idea that the ensuing media coverage of his actions would set off alarm bells amongst Canadians and, ultimately, may even motivate Canadians to take a stand against the very reforms that Sanders is promoting.

August 23, 2019

The Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare has presented the federal government with its plan for the creation of a universal, single-payer, public pharmacare system. A government program that covers prescription drug costs for every citizen sounds very caring and rooted in Canadian values. But, closer study reveals that it is just one more multi-billion dollar government initiative that will cost far more than expected and deliver far less.

July 25, 2019

There was “nothing new under the sun” last week when Canada’s premiers turned their annual discussion to healthcare. The premiers made the standard pledge to ensure “their residents have access to timely, quality services consistent with Canada’s universal healthcare systems” and the usual request for more cash from the federal government.

June 3, 2019

BC College of Physicians and Surgeons stance on chronic pain is an abuse of public trust. The BC College of Physicians and Surgeons has a mission to “serve the public,” but recent activities suggest it is doing anything but that for a patient group that has long been underserved and underfunded.

January 29, 2019

Every January, Bell Canada sponsors a media campaign encouraging Canadians to talk about mental illness on a designated, Let’s Talk Day. It donates five cents from every text or phone call made by its customers to various mental-health programs and, apparently, nickels do add up: Cumulative donations are about to surpass $100 million.

July 10, 2018

Statistics released last month show that Canada’s opioid problem continues to grow unchecked. More importantly, the numbers demonstrate that our health-care leaders have little understanding of what is driving the overdose crisis and the strategies that are necessary to contain it.

April 17, 2018

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is traveling through Europe this week, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with world leaders as he charmingly promotes Canada as a nation that is open for investment. Meanwhile, we at home are left to muse about Trudeau’s seeming inability to ensure that such opportunity truly exists in Canada and for Canadians.

April 2, 2018

When Justin Trudeau promised to legalize the use of recreational marijuana, he no doubt felt it would be one of his easiest and most rewarding tasks as Canada’s new and uber-cool prime minister. He vowed to make it a priority and change the laws within two years.

February 11, 2018

B.C.’s government has declared ICBC, our Crown-owned and -operated insurance company, to be a “financial dumpster fire” that faces a $1.3 billion loss by the end of 2019, unless drastic measures are taken.

January 30, 2018

In past weeks, the quaint community of Chilliwack has transmogrified into Ground Zero for a one-sided debate on gender fluidity (the idea that gender is changeable and not determined by biological sex).

April 20, 2018

This arrogance is growing tiresome and the public will react as its right to not be consumed by marijuana smoke is increasingly infringed upon.

To those familiar with drug culture, April 20th has long been known as 4/20 , a celebration marked by smoking pot and taking delight in all things related to cannabis.

April 10, 2017

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) recently attempted to put an end to the controversy over Muslim prayers at schools in the Peel School District. It ruled that it is the responsibility of educators to accommodate the religious needs of their students and, in the present case, that means providing a common time and place for Muslim students to carry out their required prayers “during normal school hours.”