Monday, January 31, 2011
Canadians flee Egypt on Monday
2 planes with room for nearly 600 expected to travel to Frankfurt today.
Canadians hoping to flee Egypt board a bus at Cairo International Airport en route to an Air Canada flight that will take them to Frankfurt, Germany. (Nahlah Ayed/CBC) The federal government plans to put Canadians on flights out of Egypt starting Monday afternoon, but some trying to flee the country in its seventh day of violent protests say they are having difficulty getting departure details.
Foreign Affairs said they are operating on plans for two flights out of Egypt on Monday, with room for a total of 585 passengers.But the CBC's Nahlah Ayed told CBC News Network "it appears there may be only one plane leaving [Cairo] today."
Reporting from outside Cairo's airport, where she says some 200 Canadians were being processed before entering the terminal, Ayed said a flight that was to have left already had not departed."There was mention possibly of another plane tomorrow because there were supposed to be two today," Ayed reported. "That second plane may be there for whoever shows up tomorrow, but the process itself is fluid and it's difficult to determine exactly how it goes."
The first flight was an Air Canada plane scheduled to leave Cairo for Frankfurt, Germany, at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) with room for 335 passengers. The second flight, with room for 250 passengers, was scheduled to leave Cairo at 7 p.m. local time (noon ET). Annilee Guy of Victoria told CBC News Monday that she and her friends had "been up all night" to try to secure a spot on one of the government-organized flights.
Canadians in Egypt who want to leave should:
•Call Canada's embassy in Cairo at 20 2 2791 8700.
•Call collect to the Foreign Affairs Department's emergency operations centre in Ottawa at (613) 996-8885.
Relatives in Canada can contact the centre toll-free at (800) 606-5499.
"We were really lucky," Guy said. "We got through to the embassy at about 3 a.m. (8 p.m. ET) and were able to give them our passport information, so that is why we were able to get on this flight." Five hours later, the Canadian Embassy contacted Guy and four friends and told them to "get to the airport as soon as possible," she said. Many of her colleagues at the British Columbia Canadian International School in Cairo, however, were still waiting to find out if and when they would be able to leave.
'Really excited to get on the plane'
"There's a lot more Canadians than just two planes trying to escape," Guy said. "It's a really terrifying situation right now."
In recent days, looters have targeted her wealthy neighbourhood. Members of a "vigilante neighbourhood watch" stand on street corners, using crutches, tree branches and clubs to fend them off. "Last night the apartment I was at, there were two men who had machine guns, so there were two tanks who followed them into this sandy sort of area behind the apartment building I was staying in," Guy said.
"All my colleagues and friends are kind of in the same boat, wondering what we were going to do next. We packed everything that we owned, as much as we could, into one suitcase and just going to be really excited to get on the plane." At least 100 Canadians were at Cairo International Airport on Monday afternoon, waiting for information on when exactly they might leave, Ayed reported. "Some of them complained the process was confusing and that when they arrived at the airport, they didn't really have a lot of direction, but it seems that things are under control now," Ayed said.
For others, the airport was a scene of chaos and confusion. Shouting matches erupted and some passengers even had a fistfight as thousands crammed inside the airport's new Terminal 3 seeking a flight home.
In an attempt to reduce tensions, the airport's departures board stopped announcing flight times — but that simply fuelled anger over cancelled or delayed flights.Check-in counters were poorly staffed because many EgyptAir employees had been unable to get to work due to a 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew and traffic breakdowns across the Egyptian capital.
Stranded in Alexandria
For Donia Ahmed, trying to secure a spot on a flight has proven an immense challenge. Passengers trying to leave Egypt were stranded and forced to sleep overnight at Cairo International Airport. (Bertrand Combaldieu/Associated Press) "I have no information," said Ahmed, who is visiting family in the port city of Alexandria with her two young daughters.Ahmed told CBC News she has been calling the Canadian Embassy in Cairo since Tuesday, but has heard nothing back. "I tried maybe three times, four times, [and] they did not reply to me," Ahmed said Monday morning. "I have three numbers. They are busy, or on the answering machine there is no space to leave a message."
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES
Follow the chaos in Egypt as it unfolds online. Calls by the CBC to a toll-free number established by Foreign Affairs also found that the voice mailbox was full; callers were unable to leave a message. Ahmed said the local television station has been broadcasting evacuation hotline numbers for American, Israeli, Saudi Arabian, Turkish and Iraqi citizens."But no presence of the Canadian in all of the channel," she said.
Opposition to hold Tories to account
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday the government was "looking for options" to help evacuate Canadians from cities other than Cairo, such as Alexandria. "Individuals located outside of Cairo are advised not to try to make their way to Cairo for safety reasons," Cannon said in a press release. He was expected to hold a press conference about the evacuations at 11 a.m. ET. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party would be "holding the government to account and making sure that they do absolutely everything to help Canadians" in Egypt.
Flights "have been slow getting there," Ignatieff said, before adding he didn't want to "play politics with this." "Let's work as Canadians to get Canadians to safety," he said. On Sunday, Cannon said Canada would organize chartered flights from Cairo to hubs in Paris, London and Frankfurt, where Canada has large consular staffs able to help the evacuees. Evacuees are to pay their own fares and will be responsible for their passage from Europe back to Canada, Cannon said.
Egypt has been in turmoil since Tuesday, when anti-government demonstrators began fierce protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Cannon said Sunday the flights would accommodate between 700 and 800 Canadians. At least 1,200 Canadians are registered at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo; there are an estimated 6,500 Canadians living in Egypt.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/31/egypt-canadian-evacuees.html?ref=rss#ixzz1CdIR3xi4
Canadians hoping to flee Egypt board a bus at Cairo International Airport en route to an Air Canada flight that will take them to Frankfurt, Germany. (Nahlah Ayed/CBC) The federal government plans to put Canadians on flights out of Egypt starting Monday afternoon, but some trying to flee the country in its seventh day of violent protests say they are having difficulty getting departure details.
Foreign Affairs said they are operating on plans for two flights out of Egypt on Monday, with room for a total of 585 passengers.But the CBC's Nahlah Ayed told CBC News Network "it appears there may be only one plane leaving [Cairo] today."
Reporting from outside Cairo's airport, where she says some 200 Canadians were being processed before entering the terminal, Ayed said a flight that was to have left already had not departed."There was mention possibly of another plane tomorrow because there were supposed to be two today," Ayed reported. "That second plane may be there for whoever shows up tomorrow, but the process itself is fluid and it's difficult to determine exactly how it goes."
The first flight was an Air Canada plane scheduled to leave Cairo for Frankfurt, Germany, at 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) with room for 335 passengers. The second flight, with room for 250 passengers, was scheduled to leave Cairo at 7 p.m. local time (noon ET). Annilee Guy of Victoria told CBC News Monday that she and her friends had "been up all night" to try to secure a spot on one of the government-organized flights.
Canadians in Egypt who want to leave should:
•Call Canada's embassy in Cairo at 20 2 2791 8700.
•Call collect to the Foreign Affairs Department's emergency operations centre in Ottawa at (613) 996-8885.
Relatives in Canada can contact the centre toll-free at (800) 606-5499.
"We were really lucky," Guy said. "We got through to the embassy at about 3 a.m. (8 p.m. ET) and were able to give them our passport information, so that is why we were able to get on this flight." Five hours later, the Canadian Embassy contacted Guy and four friends and told them to "get to the airport as soon as possible," she said. Many of her colleagues at the British Columbia Canadian International School in Cairo, however, were still waiting to find out if and when they would be able to leave.
'Really excited to get on the plane'
"There's a lot more Canadians than just two planes trying to escape," Guy said. "It's a really terrifying situation right now."
In recent days, looters have targeted her wealthy neighbourhood. Members of a "vigilante neighbourhood watch" stand on street corners, using crutches, tree branches and clubs to fend them off. "Last night the apartment I was at, there were two men who had machine guns, so there were two tanks who followed them into this sandy sort of area behind the apartment building I was staying in," Guy said.
"All my colleagues and friends are kind of in the same boat, wondering what we were going to do next. We packed everything that we owned, as much as we could, into one suitcase and just going to be really excited to get on the plane." At least 100 Canadians were at Cairo International Airport on Monday afternoon, waiting for information on when exactly they might leave, Ayed reported. "Some of them complained the process was confusing and that when they arrived at the airport, they didn't really have a lot of direction, but it seems that things are under control now," Ayed said.
For others, the airport was a scene of chaos and confusion. Shouting matches erupted and some passengers even had a fistfight as thousands crammed inside the airport's new Terminal 3 seeking a flight home.
In an attempt to reduce tensions, the airport's departures board stopped announcing flight times — but that simply fuelled anger over cancelled or delayed flights.Check-in counters were poorly staffed because many EgyptAir employees had been unable to get to work due to a 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew and traffic breakdowns across the Egyptian capital.
Stranded in Alexandria
For Donia Ahmed, trying to secure a spot on a flight has proven an immense challenge. Passengers trying to leave Egypt were stranded and forced to sleep overnight at Cairo International Airport. (Bertrand Combaldieu/Associated Press) "I have no information," said Ahmed, who is visiting family in the port city of Alexandria with her two young daughters.Ahmed told CBC News she has been calling the Canadian Embassy in Cairo since Tuesday, but has heard nothing back. "I tried maybe three times, four times, [and] they did not reply to me," Ahmed said Monday morning. "I have three numbers. They are busy, or on the answering machine there is no space to leave a message."
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES
Follow the chaos in Egypt as it unfolds online. Calls by the CBC to a toll-free number established by Foreign Affairs also found that the voice mailbox was full; callers were unable to leave a message. Ahmed said the local television station has been broadcasting evacuation hotline numbers for American, Israeli, Saudi Arabian, Turkish and Iraqi citizens."But no presence of the Canadian in all of the channel," she said.
Opposition to hold Tories to account
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday the government was "looking for options" to help evacuate Canadians from cities other than Cairo, such as Alexandria. "Individuals located outside of Cairo are advised not to try to make their way to Cairo for safety reasons," Cannon said in a press release. He was expected to hold a press conference about the evacuations at 11 a.m. ET. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said his party would be "holding the government to account and making sure that they do absolutely everything to help Canadians" in Egypt.
Flights "have been slow getting there," Ignatieff said, before adding he didn't want to "play politics with this." "Let's work as Canadians to get Canadians to safety," he said. On Sunday, Cannon said Canada would organize chartered flights from Cairo to hubs in Paris, London and Frankfurt, where Canada has large consular staffs able to help the evacuees. Evacuees are to pay their own fares and will be responsible for their passage from Europe back to Canada, Cannon said.
Egypt has been in turmoil since Tuesday, when anti-government demonstrators began fierce protests calling for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Cannon said Sunday the flights would accommodate between 700 and 800 Canadians. At least 1,200 Canadians are registered at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo; there are an estimated 6,500 Canadians living in Egypt.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/31/egypt-canadian-evacuees.html?ref=rss#ixzz1CdIR3xi4
Sunday, January 30, 2011
University of British Columbia team illuminates Brain strokes
ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2011) — Each year, approximately 150,000 Canadians have a transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes known as a mini-stroke. New research published January 28 in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association shows these attacks may not be transient at all. They in fact create lasting damage to the brain.
The stroke research team, led by Dr. Lara Boyd, physical therapist and neuroscientist with the Brain Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia, studied 13 patients from the Stroke Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital and compared them against 13 healthy study participants. The TIA subjects had all experienced an acute episode affecting motor systems, but had symptoms resolved within 24 hours. The patients were studied within 14-30 days of their episode, and showed no impairment through clinical evaluation or standard imaging (CT or MRI). Participants then underwent a unique brain mapping procedure using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with profound results.
"What we found has never been seen before," says Dr. Boyd, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Motor Learning at UBC. "The brain mapping capabilities of the TMS showed us that TIA is actually causing damage to the brain that lasts much longer than we previously thought it did. In fact, we are not sure if the brain ever recovers."
In the TIA group, brain cells on the affected side of the brain showed changes in their excitability -- making it harder for both excitatory and inhibitory neurons to respond as compared to the undamaged side and to a group of people with healthy brains. These changes are very concerning to the researchers as they show that TIA is likely not a transient event.
A transient ischemic attack is characterized as a brief episode of blood loss to the brain, creating symptoms such as numbness or tingling, temporary loss of vision, difficulty speaking, or weakness on one side of the body. Symptoms usually resolve quickly and many people do not take such an episode seriously. However, TIAs are often warning signs of a future stroke. The risk of a stroke increases dramatically in the days after an attack, and the TIA may offer an opportunity to find a cause or minimize the risk to prevent the permanent neurologic damage that results because of a stroke.
"These findings are very important," says Dr. Philip Teal, head of the Stroke Prevention Clinic at VGH and co-author of the study. "We know that TIA is a warning sign of future stroke. We treat every TIA as though it will result in a stroke, but not every person goes on to have a stroke. By refining this brain mapping technique, our hope is to identify who is most at risk, and direct treatment more appropriately."
The stroke research team, led by Dr. Lara Boyd, physical therapist and neuroscientist with the Brain Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia, studied 13 patients from the Stroke Prevention Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital and compared them against 13 healthy study participants. The TIA subjects had all experienced an acute episode affecting motor systems, but had symptoms resolved within 24 hours. The patients were studied within 14-30 days of their episode, and showed no impairment through clinical evaluation or standard imaging (CT or MRI). Participants then underwent a unique brain mapping procedure using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with profound results.
"What we found has never been seen before," says Dr. Boyd, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Motor Learning at UBC. "The brain mapping capabilities of the TMS showed us that TIA is actually causing damage to the brain that lasts much longer than we previously thought it did. In fact, we are not sure if the brain ever recovers."
In the TIA group, brain cells on the affected side of the brain showed changes in their excitability -- making it harder for both excitatory and inhibitory neurons to respond as compared to the undamaged side and to a group of people with healthy brains. These changes are very concerning to the researchers as they show that TIA is likely not a transient event.
A transient ischemic attack is characterized as a brief episode of blood loss to the brain, creating symptoms such as numbness or tingling, temporary loss of vision, difficulty speaking, or weakness on one side of the body. Symptoms usually resolve quickly and many people do not take such an episode seriously. However, TIAs are often warning signs of a future stroke. The risk of a stroke increases dramatically in the days after an attack, and the TIA may offer an opportunity to find a cause or minimize the risk to prevent the permanent neurologic damage that results because of a stroke.
"These findings are very important," says Dr. Philip Teal, head of the Stroke Prevention Clinic at VGH and co-author of the study. "We know that TIA is a warning sign of future stroke. We treat every TIA as though it will result in a stroke, but not every person goes on to have a stroke. By refining this brain mapping technique, our hope is to identify who is most at risk, and direct treatment more appropriately."
Simone Osborne sings (600th post)
At 24, Vancouver-born opera singer Simone Osborne is set to take her biggest role to date — as Pamina in the Canadian Opera Company's new staging of The Magic Flute.She'll sing in four performances of the Toronto production, playing the heroine who is held captive by the wizard Sarastro and must find her way out of the underworld at the side of her true love, Tamino. She alternates the role with internationally renowned Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian.
Osborne is a member of the COC's Ensemble Studio, a corps of promising young singers working towards star roles in the opera firmament. In an interview with CBC's Eli Glasner, Osborne described herself as a person with a "big personality" who never felt out of step singing opera while her peers were into pop music."There's nothing that can't be expressed through the human voice," she said, explaining how she fell in love with opera at the age of 16.
Her first Vancouver singing instructor introduced her to opera. She also attended the summer opera program at the University of British Columbia. In 2008, then 21-year-old Osborne became one of the youngest singers ever to win the Metropolitan Opera's national council auditions.Along with gaining the experience of singing on the Met's famed stage, she won $15,000 US and the attention of a New York Times critic, who described her voice as "sweet and clear, with sensitive phrasing and gleaming sustained notes."
That prompted COC director Alexander Neef to take a close look at Osborne.
"When you hear someone interesting like Simone, you're like, 'This is really good material. It's not something you can learn. It's only something you have, and then you develop technique, style and all that.'
"But first of all, a really exciting singer needs great material and she so evidently had it," he told CBC News.As part of the COC Ensemble Studio, Osborne has performed in Carmen, Maria Stuarda, The Nightingale and Other Short Fables and Idomeneo.
In addition to her debut in The Magic Flute, set for Feb. 10, she is set for roles in Rigoletto and Gianni Schicchi in the upcoming season.Later this year, Osborne also will travel to New York with the COC to perform Robert LePage's The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2011/01/28/simone-osborne.html#ixzz1CRyuH2O7
Osborne is a member of the COC's Ensemble Studio, a corps of promising young singers working towards star roles in the opera firmament. In an interview with CBC's Eli Glasner, Osborne described herself as a person with a "big personality" who never felt out of step singing opera while her peers were into pop music."There's nothing that can't be expressed through the human voice," she said, explaining how she fell in love with opera at the age of 16.
Her first Vancouver singing instructor introduced her to opera. She also attended the summer opera program at the University of British Columbia. In 2008, then 21-year-old Osborne became one of the youngest singers ever to win the Metropolitan Opera's national council auditions.Along with gaining the experience of singing on the Met's famed stage, she won $15,000 US and the attention of a New York Times critic, who described her voice as "sweet and clear, with sensitive phrasing and gleaming sustained notes."
That prompted COC director Alexander Neef to take a close look at Osborne.
"When you hear someone interesting like Simone, you're like, 'This is really good material. It's not something you can learn. It's only something you have, and then you develop technique, style and all that.'
"But first of all, a really exciting singer needs great material and she so evidently had it," he told CBC News.As part of the COC Ensemble Studio, Osborne has performed in Carmen, Maria Stuarda, The Nightingale and Other Short Fables and Idomeneo.
In addition to her debut in The Magic Flute, set for Feb. 10, she is set for roles in Rigoletto and Gianni Schicchi in the upcoming season.Later this year, Osborne also will travel to New York with the COC to perform Robert LePage's The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/story/2011/01/28/simone-osborne.html#ixzz1CRyuH2O7
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Interprovincial Migration at 20-year high
The number of Canadians moving to another province has punched to a high not seen in 20 years as people pack up in search of better jobs and salaries elsewhere.Roughly 337,000 Canadians were on the move in 2010, says a report on interprovincial migration published Thursday by TD Economics. That’s 45,000 more than the year before and the most since the late 1980s. It also represents the largest share of the overall population since 1998.
“It’s a good sign in the sense that whenever you see that kind of movement, it’s an expression of a labour market that’s healing after a pretty severe recession,” said TD senior economist Pascal Gauthier, who wrote the study. “People are either returning home or moving to areas that didn’t have employment before. For those that are already employed, they’re finding potentially better prospects.” Interprovincial migration matters because when there is a net movement of people to higher-employment and higher-productivity areas, that generates net economic output gains on a national basis. It’s also crucial for businesses because people often make big-ticket purchases when they move, which can have a significant impact on local housing and retail markets.
Canada’s situation lies in stark contrast with the United States, where census data show long-distance moves across states fell last year to the lowest level since the government began tracking them in 1948. Americans used to be a nation of big movers, with as many as one in five relocating for work every year in the 1950s. Now, experts are debating why they’ve become a nation of “hunkered-down homebodies,” as the New York Times put it.Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, says the United States is experiencing a new kind of class divide now between “mobile” people who have the resources and flexibility to pursue economic opportunity, and “stuck” citizens who are tied to places with weaker economies. He argues the U.S. housing crisis is a big factor slowing mobility down. When the housing bubble popped, it left millions of Americans unable to sell their homes. “It’s bitterly ironic that housing, for so many Americans, has gone from being a cornerstone of their American dream to being a burden,” he wrote in a recent opinion piece. Mr. Gauthier agrees that the housing crash is partly to blame for keeping Americans put. “There’s such a glut of supply that it’s just difficult to sell your house. In Canada, that’s not been an issue.”
In Canada, the biggest impediment to the free flow of labour between provinces and territories remains regulation as occupational requirements fall under provincial jurisdiction. Workers in regulated professions and skilled trades, such as teachers and engineers, still face major barriers trying to work in provinces other than their own. Solving that problem will be key ahead of the looming labour force crunch, Mr. Gauthier argues. Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan have seen the strongest net inflow of people of all provinces for the past three years and that will not change in the short term, the TD report forecasts. The three jurisdictions are working to implement a newly signed trade and labour mobility agreement between them that could eventually see seamless movement of workers between their borders.TD says Ontario and Quebec will continue to lose residents to other provinces on a net basis, but the bleeding will be at a slower pace than in previous years. It says Manitoba and Prince Edward Island will be the only provinces still shedding a significant share of residents through the end of 2012.
In Manitoba’s case, it’s not that there aren’t any jobs. The province’s unemployment rate has been consistently lower than that of the rest of Canada since the 1990s. It’s that people are being lured by the prospect of higher-paying jobs in neighbouring provinces.
Financial Post
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/fp/story/2011/01/27/4180290.html#ixzz1CRzXhqh4
“It’s a good sign in the sense that whenever you see that kind of movement, it’s an expression of a labour market that’s healing after a pretty severe recession,” said TD senior economist Pascal Gauthier, who wrote the study. “People are either returning home or moving to areas that didn’t have employment before. For those that are already employed, they’re finding potentially better prospects.” Interprovincial migration matters because when there is a net movement of people to higher-employment and higher-productivity areas, that generates net economic output gains on a national basis. It’s also crucial for businesses because people often make big-ticket purchases when they move, which can have a significant impact on local housing and retail markets.
Canada’s situation lies in stark contrast with the United States, where census data show long-distance moves across states fell last year to the lowest level since the government began tracking them in 1948. Americans used to be a nation of big movers, with as many as one in five relocating for work every year in the 1950s. Now, experts are debating why they’ve become a nation of “hunkered-down homebodies,” as the New York Times put it.Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, says the United States is experiencing a new kind of class divide now between “mobile” people who have the resources and flexibility to pursue economic opportunity, and “stuck” citizens who are tied to places with weaker economies. He argues the U.S. housing crisis is a big factor slowing mobility down. When the housing bubble popped, it left millions of Americans unable to sell their homes. “It’s bitterly ironic that housing, for so many Americans, has gone from being a cornerstone of their American dream to being a burden,” he wrote in a recent opinion piece. Mr. Gauthier agrees that the housing crash is partly to blame for keeping Americans put. “There’s such a glut of supply that it’s just difficult to sell your house. In Canada, that’s not been an issue.”
In Canada, the biggest impediment to the free flow of labour between provinces and territories remains regulation as occupational requirements fall under provincial jurisdiction. Workers in regulated professions and skilled trades, such as teachers and engineers, still face major barriers trying to work in provinces other than their own. Solving that problem will be key ahead of the looming labour force crunch, Mr. Gauthier argues. Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan have seen the strongest net inflow of people of all provinces for the past three years and that will not change in the short term, the TD report forecasts. The three jurisdictions are working to implement a newly signed trade and labour mobility agreement between them that could eventually see seamless movement of workers between their borders.TD says Ontario and Quebec will continue to lose residents to other provinces on a net basis, but the bleeding will be at a slower pace than in previous years. It says Manitoba and Prince Edward Island will be the only provinces still shedding a significant share of residents through the end of 2012.
In Manitoba’s case, it’s not that there aren’t any jobs. The province’s unemployment rate has been consistently lower than that of the rest of Canada since the 1990s. It’s that people are being lured by the prospect of higher-paying jobs in neighbouring provinces.
Financial Post
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/fp/story/2011/01/27/4180290.html#ixzz1CRzXhqh4
What Canadians really fear
By Susan Riley, Ottawa Citizen
It is hard to believe any political party can win office -- never mind a majority -- travelling the country championing tax cuts for corporations (even if the lucky beneficiaries are now branded "job-creators.")
What kind of cringing, beaten-down, brainwashed wimps are we if we let that happen?
You don't have to be a Marxist to take offence, especially when you know Canada's corporate rates are already reasonable -- comparable to, if not better than, those of our competitors. Even if you don't know that, is there really a motherlode of untapped sympathy for profitable oil companies, wealthy banks and their academic apologists, all of whom escaped the recession in better shape than the rest of us?
That doesn't mean voters are ready to rush to the barricades, shouting "make the rich pay!" Canadians are cautious, moderate -- but with a keen eye for fairness. And rewarding the wealthiest, while everyone else faces increasing taxes, a record deficit and higher energy costs, should be a hard sell.
That said, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has to take care not to overplay his hand in vowing to roll back the last corporate cut and delay future reductions until the deficit is reduced. First, he's too elegant to start ranting like a Scottish union boss -- convincingly, at least.
It could also be confusing, given that Jean Chretien started the downward trend in corporate taxes (from 28 per cent to 21 per cent) using the same arguments Prime Minister Stephen Harper now employs: that lower corporate taxes mean more jobs. And Ignatieff has to keep explaining why, if he deplores Harper's followup reductions -- first to 18 per cent, now 16.5 per cent and 15 per cent next year -- he allowed the measures to pass without comment in 2007. (He says the problem is the timing of the cuts, not the cuts themselves.)
All this to say the issue will probably fade once an election is launched -- and this week, disclaimers aside, the big showdown is looking more imminent. So what, then, will it be about? Nothing tangible, of course -- elections don't allow for serious scrutiny of ideas for securing pensions, or bolstering health care, or equipping the military. Heck, daily politics no longer leaves room for deeper, less partisan debate.
Instead, the coming race will centre on the leader -- his authenticity, his mood, values, or vision, or what is now called "narrative." This week we got a course outline: two scripts from the major party leaders, that are, in some ways, not that different. Both Harper and Ignatieff are in politics to serve. Both love this country. Both are focused on helping mainstream families. But different families. Harper likes blue-collar, non-complainers, "the quiet people, who don't usually make the news -- who don't make many demands -- but who are the ones who keep their families and communities going," as he told a fifth anniversary rally of party faithful last weekend.
Typically selective, he narrows his target audience: the truck driver, bank teller, pensioner, salesperson, farmer, fisherman, entrepreneur, autoworker, tradesperson and soldier. (Notice journalist appears nowhere on that list.) "They are the people we serve," he said. "These people love Canada. They love it deeply. And whoever has the honour to lead them must care about Canada and must love Canada as much as they do." Not like that visiting professor, what'shis-name.
But Ignatieff, we learn, loves Canadian families, too -- "hard-pressed middle-class families" who have been "playing by the rules," but have fallen behind during five years of Conservative rule. They are not better off than in 2006, their jobs are less secure, their kids can't find work, their pensions are imperilled and they are worried about what happens when their elderly parents need care.
"These are our priorities, this is what we care about," Ignatieff declared in a vigorous, uncharacteristically emotive speech to his caucus this week. "I've seen the fear in the eyes of Canadian families, and, if the Liberal party believes in anything, it is to take that fear away. ... No one faces that fear alone."
The pitches are similar in another way: Both talk about hope and play on fear. The ballot question may be what voters fear most: illegal immigrants, rampant crime, Russian bombers and the census taker, or growing income inequality, deteriorating social services and stagnating middle-class incomes.
If so, it is advantage Ignatieff. He has penetrated the time-wasting squabbles in Ottawa and discovered what really has Canadians worried -- and is telling voters they are not alone, that Liberals will put "ground under their feet." Details are scarce; this is a narrative, not a plan. But, by contrast, Harper's peevish warnings and tepid boasts already sound old.
Susan Riley writes on national politics.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/What+Canadians+really+fear/4189061/story.html#ixzz1CQit4HM2
It is hard to believe any political party can win office -- never mind a majority -- travelling the country championing tax cuts for corporations (even if the lucky beneficiaries are now branded "job-creators.")
What kind of cringing, beaten-down, brainwashed wimps are we if we let that happen?
You don't have to be a Marxist to take offence, especially when you know Canada's corporate rates are already reasonable -- comparable to, if not better than, those of our competitors. Even if you don't know that, is there really a motherlode of untapped sympathy for profitable oil companies, wealthy banks and their academic apologists, all of whom escaped the recession in better shape than the rest of us?
That doesn't mean voters are ready to rush to the barricades, shouting "make the rich pay!" Canadians are cautious, moderate -- but with a keen eye for fairness. And rewarding the wealthiest, while everyone else faces increasing taxes, a record deficit and higher energy costs, should be a hard sell.
That said, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has to take care not to overplay his hand in vowing to roll back the last corporate cut and delay future reductions until the deficit is reduced. First, he's too elegant to start ranting like a Scottish union boss -- convincingly, at least.
It could also be confusing, given that Jean Chretien started the downward trend in corporate taxes (from 28 per cent to 21 per cent) using the same arguments Prime Minister Stephen Harper now employs: that lower corporate taxes mean more jobs. And Ignatieff has to keep explaining why, if he deplores Harper's followup reductions -- first to 18 per cent, now 16.5 per cent and 15 per cent next year -- he allowed the measures to pass without comment in 2007. (He says the problem is the timing of the cuts, not the cuts themselves.)
All this to say the issue will probably fade once an election is launched -- and this week, disclaimers aside, the big showdown is looking more imminent. So what, then, will it be about? Nothing tangible, of course -- elections don't allow for serious scrutiny of ideas for securing pensions, or bolstering health care, or equipping the military. Heck, daily politics no longer leaves room for deeper, less partisan debate.
Instead, the coming race will centre on the leader -- his authenticity, his mood, values, or vision, or what is now called "narrative." This week we got a course outline: two scripts from the major party leaders, that are, in some ways, not that different. Both Harper and Ignatieff are in politics to serve. Both love this country. Both are focused on helping mainstream families. But different families. Harper likes blue-collar, non-complainers, "the quiet people, who don't usually make the news -- who don't make many demands -- but who are the ones who keep their families and communities going," as he told a fifth anniversary rally of party faithful last weekend.
Typically selective, he narrows his target audience: the truck driver, bank teller, pensioner, salesperson, farmer, fisherman, entrepreneur, autoworker, tradesperson and soldier. (Notice journalist appears nowhere on that list.) "They are the people we serve," he said. "These people love Canada. They love it deeply. And whoever has the honour to lead them must care about Canada and must love Canada as much as they do." Not like that visiting professor, what'shis-name.
But Ignatieff, we learn, loves Canadian families, too -- "hard-pressed middle-class families" who have been "playing by the rules," but have fallen behind during five years of Conservative rule. They are not better off than in 2006, their jobs are less secure, their kids can't find work, their pensions are imperilled and they are worried about what happens when their elderly parents need care.
"These are our priorities, this is what we care about," Ignatieff declared in a vigorous, uncharacteristically emotive speech to his caucus this week. "I've seen the fear in the eyes of Canadian families, and, if the Liberal party believes in anything, it is to take that fear away. ... No one faces that fear alone."
The pitches are similar in another way: Both talk about hope and play on fear. The ballot question may be what voters fear most: illegal immigrants, rampant crime, Russian bombers and the census taker, or growing income inequality, deteriorating social services and stagnating middle-class incomes.
If so, it is advantage Ignatieff. He has penetrated the time-wasting squabbles in Ottawa and discovered what really has Canadians worried -- and is telling voters they are not alone, that Liberals will put "ground under their feet." Details are scarce; this is a narrative, not a plan. But, by contrast, Harper's peevish warnings and tepid boasts already sound old.
Susan Riley writes on national politics.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/What+Canadians+really+fear/4189061/story.html#ixzz1CQit4HM2
Friday, January 28, 2011
How Canada can learn from Reaganomics
By Don Pittis, CBC News
U.S. President Barack Obama says he wants to "make America the best place on Earth to do business," but some economists think Canada has a better chance.
Brian Wesbury, a well-known U.S. economic commentator, recently told the CBC's Mike Hornbrook the Canadian advantage is that the country has "learned the lessons of Reaganomics."
Reaganomics in Canada? It is enough to make Prime Minister Stephen Harper blush. But don't expect Harper, or his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, to start using the term. That's because Reaganomics is an epithet that repels as many as it attracts.
To economic conservatives, Reaganomics, named after the movie star U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, is all about tax cuts and deregulation. From this point of view, the argument is that business makes a country strong. Governments just get in the way. Proponents of Reaganomics say business makes the money while governments waste it. You can see why the people who own businesses like lower taxes. It means more money for them.
But what is the effect of Reaganomics on ordinary folk?
Well, according to this argument, what's good for business is good for you. Low taxes create more business investment, and more investment means a stronger economy and more jobs. This is very much the argument being preached this week by Flaherty and the other Conservative ministers out on a campaign to convince Canadians the idea is a winner. To less conservative people, on the other hand, Reaganomics is a term that sets teeth on edge. Like Thatcherism in Britain, it stands for union busting, tax cuts for the rich and diverting tax money to the military industrial complex.
Finding facts in ideology
To our federal parties to the left of the Tories, business is not the only creator of wealth. Reaganomics, they would say, amounts to "corporate welfare" and attacks all the good things about government, from health care to public education.
Combing the facts out of the ideology is far more difficult. But if the rising tide of rhetoric and attack ads is any indication, that is something Canadian voters soon may be forced to do.
Is an economic boom a result of current cuts to taxes? Or is it the fruit of previous government largesse on things like education and infrastructure? It is almost impossible to prove.
I remember one media report that showed economic growth during Britain under Margaret Thatcher was exactly equal to the new output of North Sea oil during that same period. Things Thatcher was famous for, like busting the crumbling and unpopular coal miners' union, had no significant effect.
Of course, the lack of irrefutable evidence will not, and probably should not, stop a government from following its ideological course. It is as voters we are forced to consider the implications.
Besides the "strong business versus government waste" argument mentioned above, one of the most plausible benefits of corporate tax cuts is that they encourage business to locate here instead of somewhere else.
For Canadians, who share a border with an industrial power 10 times our size, this seems like a good plan. It is certainly better than what has happened many times in the past, with Canadian businesses escaping south to lower taxes and labour costs.
According to Jayson Myers, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 10 years of corporate tax cuts have not resulted in a flood of new business arrivals.
Of course, that doesn't mean it won't happen as taxes get even lower.
Lessons from the Emerald Isle
Myers says, however, that Canadian taxes are somewhere in the middle of the pack. Taxes in Ireland, for example, are much lower.
But the mention of Ireland must bring us to a grinding halt and lead us to the most valuable lesson of Reaganomics. The fact that the U.S. president sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling with our own Brian Mulroney is not the only connection between the Emerald Isle and Reagan's policies.
Reagan and Ireland both cut taxes. But they did not raise revenue or cut spending enough to compensate. So impressed were they with their own ideology that both the Reagan administration and the Irish government borrowed heavily, confident the cuts would bring a future windfall.
Under the Reagan regime, the U.S. government deficit doubled and the debt tripled to nearly $3 billion, starting an addiction to borrowing that continues today.
At 12.5 per cent, Ireland still has the lowest corporate taxes in the world. But Ireland is proof that low taxes are not enough. Even with European guarantees, no one wants Irish bonds. The government is cutting its spending to the bone. Despite that, a poll of global investors this week predicts the country will default on its loans.
If Canada is stronger than some today, it is less about Reaganomics than because of a balanced budget bequeathed to us by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin when he was in charge of finance. We had to bite the bullet then. But is it better than the bullet the Irish are biting now. And despite Obama's brave words, I'm afraid our American cousins still have some bullet-biting in their future.
As voters, you may decide that tax cuts are good for business and good for the economy. But let's not follow the Reaganomics script too closely. Don't let the government borrow to pay for tax cuts.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Paul Dutton from Saskatchewan nominated for an Academy Award
Sask.-raised animator's work up for Oscar
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 26, 2011
6:01 PM CST Comments7Recommend12.
CBC News
The hand-drawn animated film The Illusionist is nominated for an Academy Award. (Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics) An animator and filmmaker originally from Yorkton, Sask., will be schmoozing with Hollywood elite after learning the movie he worked on, The Illusionist, is up for an Academy Award.
Paul Dutton, who now works in Calgary, was animation director of the film and learned of the Oscar nomination Tuesday morning.
"My wife and I were set up in the kitchen, watching ... and woke all the kids with the shouting," Dutton told CBC News in an interview Wednesday. "It was good to be the centre of attention for a day. Lots of fun."
The animation for The Illusionist was unique, considering the advent of computers into the genre, in that each frame was drawn by hand.
"It's quite a difficult way to make a movie," Dutton said. "We were set up on the top floor of a space in Edinburgh, Scotland.
"It was a small international crew on a tight budget, working long hours," he said. "The process required each and every frame be done by hand."
"When we started, we had a difficult time finding people," he added. Dutton solved that problem by embarking on a recruitment drive across Europe, "which was a lot fun. But I saw a lot of hotels and airports."
Some of the talent had other jobs, such as bus driver, and were animating in their spare time. "It was very difficult to find our crew," he said, adding that some came from previous well-known projects, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The story of The Illusionist follows an old music hall performer whose career is fading but, as he travels from gig to gig, finally captures a receptive audience in a remote part of Scotland.
Jacques Tati inspires main character
The production paid extra attention to the lead "actor" for the story, which is based upon Jacques Tati.
In France Tati was a beloved live-action filmmaker, who might be equated with Charlie Chaplin. Tati's movies came after the silent era but also eschewed dialogue. His on-screen mannerisms were well known to his audience.
"We really had to study, to get those [movements] right," Dutton said. The team watched his movies, including the seminal work Mon Oncle, and interviews.
"We drew pictures from anything we could [find] to get his mannerisms," Dutton explained.
The story for The Illusionist was written by Tati in the 1950s, but never produced until now.
While the majority of the scenes were drawn from the imaginations of the artists, Dutton said some sequences relied heavily on reference material shot to guide the artists, including a segment featuring a Scottish dance.
"I took a camera out to a small amateur group who enjoyed doing traditional Scottish dance and played them the [music] track. They choreographed something and we captured it on video," Dutton explained.
The result was edited and provided to an animator as a visual guide. "It took that animator probably eight months to do those two scenes," he said, noting the results appear on screen for about 45 seconds.
"It's a labour of love," Dutton said.
Dutton's animation career was inspired as a youngster watching Saturday morning cartoons with his grandfather and fostered by a insatiable desire to draw.
"I drew and I drew and I drew," he said, recalling a time in high school when he met an animator, from Yorkton, who was working in Australia. "I figured if he could do it, I could do it." Dutton said that, so far, he has carved out a niche in the hand-made animation genre and has resisted the lure of Los Angeles and computer rendering.He currently runs a production company called Rough House Animation, with a number of works in progress.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/01/26/sk-animator-the-illusionist-110126.html#ixzz1CF6Vs5ql
How Canada can learn from Reaganomics
By Don Pittis, CBC News
U.S. President Barack Obama says he wants to "make America the best place on Earth to do business," but some economists think Canada has a better chance.Brian Wesbury, a well-known U.S. economic commentator, recently told the CBC's Mike Hornbrook the Canadian advantage is that the country has "learned the lessons of Reaganomics."
Reaganomics in Canada? It is enough to make Prime Minister Stephen Harper blush. But don't expect Harper, or his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, to start using the term. That's because Reaganomics is an epithet that repels as many as it attracts.
To economic conservatives, Reaganomics, named after the movie star U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, is all about tax cuts and deregulation. From this point of view, the argument is that business makes a country strong. Governments just get in the way. Proponents of Reaganomics say business makes the money while governments waste it. You can see why the people who own businesses like lower taxes. It means more money for them.
But what is the effect of Reaganomics on ordinary folk?
Well, according to this argument, what's good for business is good for you. Low taxes create more business investment, and more investment means a stronger economy and more jobs. This is very much the argument being preached this week by Flaherty and the other Conservative ministers out on a campaign to convince Canadians the idea is a winner. To less conservative people, on the other hand, Reaganomics is a term that sets teeth on edge. Like Thatcherism in Britain, it stands for union busting, tax cuts for the rich and diverting tax money to the military industrial complex.
Finding facts in ideology
To our federal parties to the left of the Tories, business is not the only creator of wealth. Reaganomics, they would say, amounts to "corporate welfare" and attacks all the good things about government, from health care to public education.
Combing the facts out of the ideology is far more difficult. But if the rising tide of rhetoric and attack ads is any indication, that is something Canadian voters soon may be forced to do. Is an economic boom a result of current cuts to taxes? Or is it the fruit of previous government largesse on things like education and infrastructure? It is almost impossible to prove.
I remember one media report that showed economic growth during Britain under Margaret Thatcher was exactly equal to the new output of North Sea oil during that same period. Things Thatcher was famous for, like busting the crumbling and unpopular coal miners' union, had no significant effect.
Of course, the lack of irrefutable evidence will not, and probably should not, stop a government from following its ideological course. It is as voters we are forced to consider the implications.Besides the "strong business versus government waste" argument mentioned above, one of the most plausible benefits of corporate tax cuts is that they encourage business to locate here instead of somewhere else.
For Canadians, who share a border with an industrial power 10 times our size, this seems like a good plan. It is certainly better than what has happened many times in the past, with Canadian businesses escaping south to lower taxes and labour costs. According to Jayson Myers, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 10 years of corporate tax cuts have not resulted in a flood of new business arrivals. Of course, that doesn't mean it won't happen as taxes get even lower.
Lessons from the Emerald Isle
Myers says, however, that Canadian taxes are somewhere in the middle of the pack. Taxes in Ireland, for example, are much lower.
But the mention of Ireland must bring us to a grinding halt and lead us to the most valuable lesson of Reaganomics. The fact that the U.S. president sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling with our own Brian Mulroney is not the only connection between the Emerald Isle and Reagan's policies.Reagan and Ireland both cut taxes. But they did not raise revenue or cut spending enough to compensate. So impressed were they with their own ideology that both the Reagan administration and the Irish government borrowed heavily, confident the cuts would bring a future windfall.
Under the Reagan regime, the U.S. government deficit doubled and the debt tripled to nearly $3 billion, starting an addiction to borrowing that continues today.At 12.5 per cent, Ireland still has the lowest corporate taxes in the world. But Ireland is proof that low taxes are not enough. Even with European guarantees, no one wants Irish bonds. The government is cutting its spending to the bone. Despite that, a poll of global investors this week predicts the country will default on its loans.
If Canada is stronger than some today, it is less about Reaganomics than because of a balanced budget bequeathed to us by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin when he was in charge of finance. We had to bite the bullet then. But is it better than the bullet the Irish are biting now. And despite Obama's brave words, I'm afraid our American cousins still have some bullet-biting in their future.As voters, you may decide that tax cuts are good for business and good for the economy. But let's not follow the Reaganomics script too closely. Don't let the government borrow to pay for tax cuts.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2011/01/26/f-vp-pittis-reaganomics-canada.html#ixzz1CF3XOqwr
U.S. President Barack Obama says he wants to "make America the best place on Earth to do business," but some economists think Canada has a better chance.Brian Wesbury, a well-known U.S. economic commentator, recently told the CBC's Mike Hornbrook the Canadian advantage is that the country has "learned the lessons of Reaganomics."
Reaganomics in Canada? It is enough to make Prime Minister Stephen Harper blush. But don't expect Harper, or his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, to start using the term. That's because Reaganomics is an epithet that repels as many as it attracts.
To economic conservatives, Reaganomics, named after the movie star U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, is all about tax cuts and deregulation. From this point of view, the argument is that business makes a country strong. Governments just get in the way. Proponents of Reaganomics say business makes the money while governments waste it. You can see why the people who own businesses like lower taxes. It means more money for them.
But what is the effect of Reaganomics on ordinary folk?
Well, according to this argument, what's good for business is good for you. Low taxes create more business investment, and more investment means a stronger economy and more jobs. This is very much the argument being preached this week by Flaherty and the other Conservative ministers out on a campaign to convince Canadians the idea is a winner. To less conservative people, on the other hand, Reaganomics is a term that sets teeth on edge. Like Thatcherism in Britain, it stands for union busting, tax cuts for the rich and diverting tax money to the military industrial complex.
Finding facts in ideology
To our federal parties to the left of the Tories, business is not the only creator of wealth. Reaganomics, they would say, amounts to "corporate welfare" and attacks all the good things about government, from health care to public education.
Combing the facts out of the ideology is far more difficult. But if the rising tide of rhetoric and attack ads is any indication, that is something Canadian voters soon may be forced to do. Is an economic boom a result of current cuts to taxes? Or is it the fruit of previous government largesse on things like education and infrastructure? It is almost impossible to prove.
I remember one media report that showed economic growth during Britain under Margaret Thatcher was exactly equal to the new output of North Sea oil during that same period. Things Thatcher was famous for, like busting the crumbling and unpopular coal miners' union, had no significant effect.
Of course, the lack of irrefutable evidence will not, and probably should not, stop a government from following its ideological course. It is as voters we are forced to consider the implications.Besides the "strong business versus government waste" argument mentioned above, one of the most plausible benefits of corporate tax cuts is that they encourage business to locate here instead of somewhere else.
For Canadians, who share a border with an industrial power 10 times our size, this seems like a good plan. It is certainly better than what has happened many times in the past, with Canadian businesses escaping south to lower taxes and labour costs. According to Jayson Myers, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 10 years of corporate tax cuts have not resulted in a flood of new business arrivals. Of course, that doesn't mean it won't happen as taxes get even lower.
Lessons from the Emerald Isle
Myers says, however, that Canadian taxes are somewhere in the middle of the pack. Taxes in Ireland, for example, are much lower.
But the mention of Ireland must bring us to a grinding halt and lead us to the most valuable lesson of Reaganomics. The fact that the U.S. president sang When Irish Eyes Are Smiling with our own Brian Mulroney is not the only connection between the Emerald Isle and Reagan's policies.Reagan and Ireland both cut taxes. But they did not raise revenue or cut spending enough to compensate. So impressed were they with their own ideology that both the Reagan administration and the Irish government borrowed heavily, confident the cuts would bring a future windfall.
Under the Reagan regime, the U.S. government deficit doubled and the debt tripled to nearly $3 billion, starting an addiction to borrowing that continues today.At 12.5 per cent, Ireland still has the lowest corporate taxes in the world. But Ireland is proof that low taxes are not enough. Even with European guarantees, no one wants Irish bonds. The government is cutting its spending to the bone. Despite that, a poll of global investors this week predicts the country will default on its loans.
If Canada is stronger than some today, it is less about Reaganomics than because of a balanced budget bequeathed to us by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin when he was in charge of finance. We had to bite the bullet then. But is it better than the bullet the Irish are biting now. And despite Obama's brave words, I'm afraid our American cousins still have some bullet-biting in their future.As voters, you may decide that tax cuts are good for business and good for the economy. But let's not follow the Reaganomics script too closely. Don't let the government borrow to pay for tax cuts.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2011/01/26/f-vp-pittis-reaganomics-canada.html#ixzz1CF3XOqwr
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Gretzky's greatness gets better at 50
NHL legend's milestones virtually untouched
No one hits a milestone quite like Wayne Gretzky.
Whether it was scoring five times in one evening to reach 50 goals in 39 games or breaking the NHL's all-time points record during a trip back to Edmonton with the Los Angeles Kings, Gretzky always seemed to find a way to make his entries in the record book unique.Incredibly, as The Great One, who grew up in Brantford, Ont., passes one of life's significant signposts and turns 50 Wednesday, his milestones remain virtually untouched.
There have been more than 13,000 NHL games played since Gretzky retired in 1999 and he has only surrendered one of his 61 records — Nicklas Lidstrom and a handful of others now have more career assists in overtime during the regular season, no doubt aided by the change to 4-on-4 for the tiebreaker and the fact a point is now awarded to the losing team."If you're going to be passed, you might as well be passed by a guy that's a great player and a Hall of Famer," Gretzky, gracious as ever, said of Lidstrom.
In reality, he has been passed by no one.
"One of them had to fall," said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. "The fact that he has 60 records, I don't think any player in any sport has ever or can ever dominate in that way. He was a consummate superstar ambassador for the game on and off the ice. I don't think there's anyone comparable because he's always represented this game with elegance and class. …
"I believe that he's in a class by himself."
Staggering stats
Gretzky has been without an official tie to the NHL since stepping down as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes in September 2009 — part of the fallout from the franchise's messy bankruptcy proceedings.
Even though he's gone, he's far from forgotten.
Admiration continues to pour in from all directions: top executives from every corner of the hockey world, current players, retired contemporaries and even the current crop of top NHL draft prospects, who are too young to remember Gretzky as a member of the St. Louis Blues, let alone the Oilers or Kings.Many of them feel No. 99 is the best to ever play the game.
"It depends I guess who's doing the analytical part of it," said Glen Sather, the GM and coach of Gretzky's great Edmonton teams. "If you ask Harry Sinden, he's going to say Bobby Orr. If you ask Mario Lemieux, he's probably going to say it's Sidney Crosby. It's a really subjective thing."When you look at records and you look at success, I don't think anybody qualifies better than Wayne."The numbers alone are staggering: 2,857 career points (970 more than Mark Messier at No. 2); a 92-goal season (Alex Ovechkin's 65 two seasons ago is the best total since Gretzky retired); and 215 points in a season (95 more than Sidney Crosby's career best in a season).
No wonder many of the league's top players can only shake their head at his accomplishments.
•Crosby: "I think he definitely [has an aura]. Most of the players playing today had a chance to watch him play and if they were a little too young then, they have seen the highlights or heard all about his records."
•Jarome Iginla: "Time goes fast. I watched him growing up. Absolutely everybody looked up to him, he's the best player of all time."
•Mike Cammalleri: "He was always the man for me. I had some other favourites along with him, but at my parents house in Richmon Hill (Ont.) he's painted on the wall still. He's still there."
It seems like he's been everywhere.
For those too young to remember Gretzky as an unstoppable force during the high-flying days in Edmonton, images of him in an off-role leading the Canadian men's Olympic team to its first gold medal in 50 years might stand out. He set the tone for the entire tournament in 2002 by delivering a passionate "us against the world" speech early on, and celebrated along with a nation when Joe Sakic iced the gold-medal game by scoring a late breakaway goal.
"Do you know people remember more than anything else? When the camera cuts to him in the stands and he's pumping his fist like a fan, like us — he's cheering for Canada like us," said Brian Cooper, a former Gretzky business partner and longtime friend who was in Salt Lake City. "That was it. I don't think you'll find another golden moment like that."
Simpler life
Even though memories of what he accomplished as a player have started to fade over time, one thing that endures is his personal appeal. Gretzky has largely avoided scandal or controversy, refusing to speak out publicly when he lost millions in the Coyotes bankruptcy case and emerging unscathed when reports of an illegal gambling ring revealed his wife Janet had made wagers in 2006.
Through it all, Gretzky remained great.
'Wayne is a magical person," said Bettman. "He did incredible things on the ice, but more than that, the way he always carried himself and represented the game, I don't think there's a superstar that can compare."
Perhaps the most amazing thing about his legacy in hockey is that it remains so strong despite the fact he tries to avoid the spotlight. Gretzky was a special adviser on Steve Yzerman's staff with last year's Olympic team in Vancouver but chose to remain in the background.
He seems to genuinely be enjoying a simpler life than he's had in decades. Living in suburban Los Angeles, he shuttles seven-year-old Emma and 10-year-old Tristan to school and stays involved in the lives of his older three children as well.There's no guarantee he'll find his way back to a job in hockey."I don't have an answer for that," Gretzky said when asked about his future. "Everything I have in my life is because of hockey and the NHL. The NHL was always just great to me — maybe one day it'll happen but it's not something I sit around and think about or talk about."
Bettman fully understands that way of thinking."As somebody who is 58, sometimes your focus on what you do in your life changes as you get older — particularly when you hit 50," he said. "The things you want to be doing and how you do them changes."
What's next?
It's hard to imagine what Gretzky has left to accomplish.Other than the allure of potentially adding another Stanley Cup to the four he won as a player, there is nothing pulling him back beyond the love of the game. Friends will tell you that his passion for hockey hasn't diminished in the least.
"I can tell you he's a person that I always talk to about the game," said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. "He always has time and he wants the game to be healthy in Canada and throughout the world. He's a true ambassador and great leader of the sport."
Interestingly, his efforts have had the biggest impact in his adopted home. The controversial August 1988 trade that sent Gretzky from Edmonton to Los Angeles sent shockwaves throughout the U.S. Southwest and got kids playing hockey in record numbers.It's no coincidence that the number of NHL draft picks from California has risen sharply in recent years — including Beau Bennett and Emerson Etem, both selected in the first round at Staples Center last June as the entry draft visited Los Angeles for the first time.
USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean believes Gretzky's appeal went far beyond the record-breaking numbers. His style of play appealed to many Americans who had dismissed hockey as a barbaric sport."Wayne looked real normal," said Ogrean. "Wayne looked like your neighbour or somebody that you want to school with. Physically, he was fit of course, but he looked like a regular guy."I think that helped make the sport of hockey feel more accessible to people that wondered whether they could be playing."
Frozen in time
Ultimately, the main thing that seemed to set Gretzky apart was his ability to stay on top for so long. He hit the 50-goal plateau each of his first eight seasons in the NHL and surpassed the 100-point mark 13 years running.
Greatness was expected and he almost always delivered.
"He's got the makeup for it," said Sather. "The pressure that was on him, he was able to accept it. Most superstars at some point in their careers find some way to blemish it, but here's a guy that is impeccable in what he's done with himself."
In many ways, Gretzky is one of a kind. Now middle-aged, his lasting image for some is that of him as a much younger man. "The vision of him in mind's eye was always the long flowing hair in either his Oilers or Kings uniform with the sweater tucked in one side," said Bettman.
Alas, time has marched on.
Gretzky was just 17 when Sather met him for the first time, and the veteran hockey man passed along the best birthday message of them all."Let's hope he gets another 50 years," said Sather.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/01/26/sp-nhl-gretzky-50-birthday.html#ixzz1C9sT0GfJ
No one hits a milestone quite like Wayne Gretzky.
Whether it was scoring five times in one evening to reach 50 goals in 39 games or breaking the NHL's all-time points record during a trip back to Edmonton with the Los Angeles Kings, Gretzky always seemed to find a way to make his entries in the record book unique.Incredibly, as The Great One, who grew up in Brantford, Ont., passes one of life's significant signposts and turns 50 Wednesday, his milestones remain virtually untouched.
There have been more than 13,000 NHL games played since Gretzky retired in 1999 and he has only surrendered one of his 61 records — Nicklas Lidstrom and a handful of others now have more career assists in overtime during the regular season, no doubt aided by the change to 4-on-4 for the tiebreaker and the fact a point is now awarded to the losing team."If you're going to be passed, you might as well be passed by a guy that's a great player and a Hall of Famer," Gretzky, gracious as ever, said of Lidstrom.
In reality, he has been passed by no one.
"One of them had to fall," said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. "The fact that he has 60 records, I don't think any player in any sport has ever or can ever dominate in that way. He was a consummate superstar ambassador for the game on and off the ice. I don't think there's anyone comparable because he's always represented this game with elegance and class. …
"I believe that he's in a class by himself."
Staggering stats
Gretzky has been without an official tie to the NHL since stepping down as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes in September 2009 — part of the fallout from the franchise's messy bankruptcy proceedings.
Even though he's gone, he's far from forgotten.
Admiration continues to pour in from all directions: top executives from every corner of the hockey world, current players, retired contemporaries and even the current crop of top NHL draft prospects, who are too young to remember Gretzky as a member of the St. Louis Blues, let alone the Oilers or Kings.Many of them feel No. 99 is the best to ever play the game.
"It depends I guess who's doing the analytical part of it," said Glen Sather, the GM and coach of Gretzky's great Edmonton teams. "If you ask Harry Sinden, he's going to say Bobby Orr. If you ask Mario Lemieux, he's probably going to say it's Sidney Crosby. It's a really subjective thing."When you look at records and you look at success, I don't think anybody qualifies better than Wayne."The numbers alone are staggering: 2,857 career points (970 more than Mark Messier at No. 2); a 92-goal season (Alex Ovechkin's 65 two seasons ago is the best total since Gretzky retired); and 215 points in a season (95 more than Sidney Crosby's career best in a season).
No wonder many of the league's top players can only shake their head at his accomplishments.
•Crosby: "I think he definitely [has an aura]. Most of the players playing today had a chance to watch him play and if they were a little too young then, they have seen the highlights or heard all about his records."
•Jarome Iginla: "Time goes fast. I watched him growing up. Absolutely everybody looked up to him, he's the best player of all time."
•Mike Cammalleri: "He was always the man for me. I had some other favourites along with him, but at my parents house in Richmon Hill (Ont.) he's painted on the wall still. He's still there."
It seems like he's been everywhere.
For those too young to remember Gretzky as an unstoppable force during the high-flying days in Edmonton, images of him in an off-role leading the Canadian men's Olympic team to its first gold medal in 50 years might stand out. He set the tone for the entire tournament in 2002 by delivering a passionate "us against the world" speech early on, and celebrated along with a nation when Joe Sakic iced the gold-medal game by scoring a late breakaway goal.
"Do you know people remember more than anything else? When the camera cuts to him in the stands and he's pumping his fist like a fan, like us — he's cheering for Canada like us," said Brian Cooper, a former Gretzky business partner and longtime friend who was in Salt Lake City. "That was it. I don't think you'll find another golden moment like that."
Simpler life
Even though memories of what he accomplished as a player have started to fade over time, one thing that endures is his personal appeal. Gretzky has largely avoided scandal or controversy, refusing to speak out publicly when he lost millions in the Coyotes bankruptcy case and emerging unscathed when reports of an illegal gambling ring revealed his wife Janet had made wagers in 2006.
Through it all, Gretzky remained great.
'Wayne is a magical person," said Bettman. "He did incredible things on the ice, but more than that, the way he always carried himself and represented the game, I don't think there's a superstar that can compare."
Perhaps the most amazing thing about his legacy in hockey is that it remains so strong despite the fact he tries to avoid the spotlight. Gretzky was a special adviser on Steve Yzerman's staff with last year's Olympic team in Vancouver but chose to remain in the background.
He seems to genuinely be enjoying a simpler life than he's had in decades. Living in suburban Los Angeles, he shuttles seven-year-old Emma and 10-year-old Tristan to school and stays involved in the lives of his older three children as well.There's no guarantee he'll find his way back to a job in hockey."I don't have an answer for that," Gretzky said when asked about his future. "Everything I have in my life is because of hockey and the NHL. The NHL was always just great to me — maybe one day it'll happen but it's not something I sit around and think about or talk about."
Bettman fully understands that way of thinking."As somebody who is 58, sometimes your focus on what you do in your life changes as you get older — particularly when you hit 50," he said. "The things you want to be doing and how you do them changes."
What's next?
It's hard to imagine what Gretzky has left to accomplish.Other than the allure of potentially adding another Stanley Cup to the four he won as a player, there is nothing pulling him back beyond the love of the game. Friends will tell you that his passion for hockey hasn't diminished in the least.
"I can tell you he's a person that I always talk to about the game," said Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson. "He always has time and he wants the game to be healthy in Canada and throughout the world. He's a true ambassador and great leader of the sport."
Interestingly, his efforts have had the biggest impact in his adopted home. The controversial August 1988 trade that sent Gretzky from Edmonton to Los Angeles sent shockwaves throughout the U.S. Southwest and got kids playing hockey in record numbers.It's no coincidence that the number of NHL draft picks from California has risen sharply in recent years — including Beau Bennett and Emerson Etem, both selected in the first round at Staples Center last June as the entry draft visited Los Angeles for the first time.
USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean believes Gretzky's appeal went far beyond the record-breaking numbers. His style of play appealed to many Americans who had dismissed hockey as a barbaric sport."Wayne looked real normal," said Ogrean. "Wayne looked like your neighbour or somebody that you want to school with. Physically, he was fit of course, but he looked like a regular guy."I think that helped make the sport of hockey feel more accessible to people that wondered whether they could be playing."
Frozen in time
Ultimately, the main thing that seemed to set Gretzky apart was his ability to stay on top for so long. He hit the 50-goal plateau each of his first eight seasons in the NHL and surpassed the 100-point mark 13 years running.
Greatness was expected and he almost always delivered.
"He's got the makeup for it," said Sather. "The pressure that was on him, he was able to accept it. Most superstars at some point in their careers find some way to blemish it, but here's a guy that is impeccable in what he's done with himself."
In many ways, Gretzky is one of a kind. Now middle-aged, his lasting image for some is that of him as a much younger man. "The vision of him in mind's eye was always the long flowing hair in either his Oilers or Kings uniform with the sweater tucked in one side," said Bettman.
Alas, time has marched on.
Gretzky was just 17 when Sather met him for the first time, and the veteran hockey man passed along the best birthday message of them all."Let's hope he gets another 50 years," said Sather.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2011/01/26/sp-nhl-gretzky-50-birthday.html#ixzz1C9sT0GfJ
Canada's North, South agree on Arctic: study
Country clashes with other Arctic nations on sovereignty
CBC News
The Arctic is highly important and deserving of a dominant place in the country's foreign policy, a new poll suggests. (Canadian Press) People in Canada's North and South agree that the Arctic is highly important and deserving of a dominant place in the country's foreign policy, a new poll suggests.There is a "surprising level of consensus within Canada on these issues," says a report released Tuesday by the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, an independent philanthropic group based in Toronto.
ARCTIC POLL
"There's very few things [in Canada] that we can say that we have a general common agreement upon," said Neil Desai, a director of programs and communication with the Munk School, located at the University of Toronto. "I jokingly say that you have hockey, beer and now the Arctic."The report is based on an EKOS Research Associates poll that included phone interviews with close to 2,800 Canadians, including 744 residents of the territories.Responses in both the North and South suggest that the Arctic is a cornerstone of national identity, that it is the country's foremost foreign policy priority, that environmental issues are the North's primary concern, and that the region is under-resourced.
"Southern public opinion is largely consistent with northern public opinion," the report says. "The main area of difference ... is that sovereignty and security issues are relatively more prominent for the South and the infrastructure and the environment are relatively more important for the North."When asked unprompted a plurality of respondents — 33 per cent in the North and 39 per cent in the South — said the environment was the Arctic's most important issue.However, community infrastructure was the second most chosen top priority in the North at nine per cent, while in the South sovereignty was the next most popular answer at 19 per cent.
A majority of Canadians in both the North (59 per cent) and the South (56 per cent) believe military security should be a top priority, even if it means pulling military resources away from other parts of the world.The researchers also surveyed the seven other member nations of the Arctic Council: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.While internally Canadians may see eye to eye on Arctic issues, the Canadian public is the least open of these countries to negotiation and compromise, says the report.
Canadians are overwhelmingly convinced that the Northwest Passage is a sovereign Canadian waterway, the report suggests, but none of the other countries share this view.That hardline attitude includes Canada's ongoing dispute over the Beaufort Sea."The majority of Canadians stated that they want their government to assert its sovereignty over the Beaufort Sea as opposed to negotiating a deal with the Americans," Desai said. "Interestingly enough, the Americans polled said they would prefer to negotiate a deal with their best friend and neighbour, Canada."
Timo Koivurova, a research professor and director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the University of Lapland in Finland, said one of the biggest surprises for her was that the respondents had a "fairly realistic view" of the Arctic."The media seems to tell us that there is [a] scrabble for resources or that the cold war never left the Arctic, but in the end I think most of the researchers nowadays admit that there is no race for resources, there is no Cold War there, and the interviews were very realistic as to what is actually happening," he said.
He said the biggest threat to the Arctic is the environment and the results reflected that. In total, the study included a total of 9,083 respondents. The margin of error ranged from plus or minus 3.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, in the territories, to plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, in the provinces.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2011/01/24/canada-north-south-arctic-poll.html#ixzz1C3df4EUw
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
$1M grant to McGill scientist for parasite fight
CBC News
Parasitic disease treatment research received a $1-million Canadian grant on Monday aimed at tackling the serious global health issue.McGill University scientist Timothy Geary's investigation focused on parasitic worms, or helminths, which live inside the body.'The drugs we plan to develop through this research will combat growing resistance to existing therapies, an important next step in the treatment and control of parasitic disease.'— Tim Geary
Geary is working with African scientists in Cape Town and Botswana to conduct the research.More than one billion people, or one-sixth of the world's population, suffer from so-called neglected tropical diseases.Some of the diseases are considered neglected because the victims lack a political voice and rarely affect travellers, according to the World Health Organization.The diseases cause disfigurement, disability and death in the developing world.
Now Grand Challenges Canada, Canada's International Development Research Centre, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are providing a $1-million grant that aims to address parasitic disease."The drugs we plan to develop through this research will combat growing resistance to existing therapies, an important next step in the treatment and control of parasitic disease," Geary said in a statement.The Montreal scientist is focused on identifying compounds in African plants and microbes that could lead to new drugs to eliminate parasitic worms from the body.
The $1-million award comes from three funders:
• $500,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
• $250,000 from Grand Challenges Canada through the Canadian government's Capital Development Innovation Fund.
• $250,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Grand Challenges Canada calls itself a unique and independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of people in developing countries by integrating scientific, technological, business and social innovation.The organization aims to support global partnerships to solve the developing world's most difficult and pressing health challenges.
Grand Challenges is getting $225 million in federal funding over five years — money announced in 2008.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/01/24/parasite-tropical-disease.html#ixzz1C0fRWOCk
Monday, January 24, 2011
Immigrants staying in Atlantic Canada: study
CBC News
Ather Akbari says Statistics Canada numbers show better jobs are keeping more immigrants in Atlantic Canada. (Saint Mary's University) New research indicates immigrants are no longer using the Atlantic provinces merely as an entry point to Canada but are making the region a long-term home.
A study of Statistics Canada information at Saint Mary's University in Halifax found newcomers who settle in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island fare better than people who settle in traditional immigration hubs such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
The East Coast immigrants are more likely to have work and earn more than recent immigrants in Ontario, the study found.
Dr. Ather Akbari, an economics professor at St. Mary's University who was involved in the research, said the Atlantic provinces are more likely to see immigrants who have been targeted for specific jobs, than immigrants who simply choose this part of Canada for a new life."People who come here, because they are intended to fill in specific jobs, chances are that they will get fair market value for their work, [better] than in other provinces."The Atlantic provinces tend to recruit professionals to staff hospitals and similar high value positions, while immigrants who aren't targeted in this way tend to go to Ontario, primarily to join their families.
Good jobs means people stay
Once living on the East Coast and holding good jobs, an increasing number of immigrants decide to stick around rather than take the traditional path west, Akbari said. In fact, more immigrants are now trying Toronto first and then moving to Atlantic Canada than the reverse.
In 2001, about 54 per cent of immigrants who arrived in the Atlantic provinces in the previous five years were still in the region. This figure had risen to about 65 per cent by 2006, Akbari said.At a meeting of the Association for New Canadians on Friday in Newfoundland, a class full of newcomers shared stories and discussed settling into a new country. Natalia Volkozha moved to Canada from Israel with her family a decade ago. They tried to settle in Montreal, but it did not work out. She heard good stories about life in Newfoundland and so she and her family moved to the island.
Her background in education gave her a foot in the door as a daycare teacher. Eight years later, she is a few months away from completing her master's degree in education.
"We are planning to stay here," she said. "We are new homeowners so I have roots, growing roots here."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/01/23/ns-immigrants-staying-atlantic-canada.html#ixzz1BxWJNiPt
Ather Akbari says Statistics Canada numbers show better jobs are keeping more immigrants in Atlantic Canada. (Saint Mary's University) New research indicates immigrants are no longer using the Atlantic provinces merely as an entry point to Canada but are making the region a long-term home.
A study of Statistics Canada information at Saint Mary's University in Halifax found newcomers who settle in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island fare better than people who settle in traditional immigration hubs such as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
The East Coast immigrants are more likely to have work and earn more than recent immigrants in Ontario, the study found.
Dr. Ather Akbari, an economics professor at St. Mary's University who was involved in the research, said the Atlantic provinces are more likely to see immigrants who have been targeted for specific jobs, than immigrants who simply choose this part of Canada for a new life."People who come here, because they are intended to fill in specific jobs, chances are that they will get fair market value for their work, [better] than in other provinces."The Atlantic provinces tend to recruit professionals to staff hospitals and similar high value positions, while immigrants who aren't targeted in this way tend to go to Ontario, primarily to join their families.
Good jobs means people stay
Once living on the East Coast and holding good jobs, an increasing number of immigrants decide to stick around rather than take the traditional path west, Akbari said. In fact, more immigrants are now trying Toronto first and then moving to Atlantic Canada than the reverse.
In 2001, about 54 per cent of immigrants who arrived in the Atlantic provinces in the previous five years were still in the region. This figure had risen to about 65 per cent by 2006, Akbari said.At a meeting of the Association for New Canadians on Friday in Newfoundland, a class full of newcomers shared stories and discussed settling into a new country. Natalia Volkozha moved to Canada from Israel with her family a decade ago. They tried to settle in Montreal, but it did not work out. She heard good stories about life in Newfoundland and so she and her family moved to the island.
Her background in education gave her a foot in the door as a daycare teacher. Eight years later, she is a few months away from completing her master's degree in education.
"We are planning to stay here," she said. "We are new homeowners so I have roots, growing roots here."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/01/23/ns-immigrants-staying-atlantic-canada.html#ixzz1BxWJNiPt
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Forging links for the impoverished- Shawn Ahmed
He’s not a CEO, a prime minister, or a financial wizard. He doesn’t even have a steady salary.
But an enterprising young Canadian, who has carved out a social-media career with a twist, has scored a high-profile invitation to next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he will meet and mingle with business leaders and heads of state.
Shawn Ahmed, a 29-year-old video blogger based in Richmond Hill, Ont., was chosen this week as the winner of the 2011 Davos Debates. His prize was based on a YouTube video he submitted about how corporations and charities need to bridge the “digital divide” in poor countries. The judges received more than 100 video essays on poverty, climate change and a host of other issues. The prize was an invitation to take part in the annual meeting of the world’s elite – a venue any professional, in any industry, would likely welcome.
Mr. Ahmed has been travelling to Bangladesh since 2007, posting on-the-ground videos as part of his one-man “Uncultured Project.” The project has given a voice to rural Bangladeshis, earned 2.6 million views online and helped raise money for development projects. He also has more than 270,000 Twitter followers, which is about how many UNICEF has.
Even before he hops on a plane for Switzerland, he already has a date booked with Microsoft, an interview set with CNN, and an audience scheduled with Klaus Schwab, the forum’s founder. As the Davos Debates winner, he will also help bloggers in the Davos social-media centre and participate in a discussion forum.“If I were to describe myself in word, it would be a bridge-maker,” he said in an interview on Friday. “That is, I try and leverage technology … to connect communities on the ground, mostly in Bangladesh, to communities on the Internet. And not just have the conversation for the conversation’s sake, but actually have something come out of it.” Mr. Ahmed hopes to spread his message about how mainstream charities need to better make use of social media.
His self-styled career as an independent interlocutor between Web users and the world’s poor – so far largely subsidized by his family but also with some corporate donations of equipment – has now given him a voice among the world’s top decision-makers. A few years ago, he was a graduate student in sociology at Notre Dame University, in South Bend, Ind. The son of an Imperial Oil executive, he was born in Sarnia, Ont., and raised in Bedford, N.S. and Markham, Ont., before completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto.
One day, economist Jeffrey Sachs give a speech at Notre Dame about ending extreme poverty around the world. The talk changed Mr. Ahmed’s life – he left academia and headed to Bangladesh, his parents’ homeland, with little more than a laptop and a camcorder. He stayed with his grandmother.
Mr. Ahmed says the way many charities that help developing countries chose to communicate – mainly with guilt-driven television ads with images of crying children – is too negative and simply doesn’t work with the social-media generation. “I didn’t think that message would resonate with people. And I started a project to try to prove that there’s a better way to talk about poverty.”
He took a different approach, and decided to allow the people he met while travelling in rural Bangladesh speak for themselves, and directly to audiences on the Web. He says the direct connections between Bangladeshis and donors recreates the way many Bangladeshis give to charity themselves – directly to a person in need. It also allows them to upload “thank you” videos.
A recent video highlighted the story of a young boy whose school was destroyed by the cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 2007, and how exposure on YouTube attracted donations to rebuild the school.
He works closely with the U.S. arm of Save the Children, which he says has endorsed his approach and worked on the school project. But he said other charities are reluctant to work with him. According to his blog, he told a forum of charity workers last year that when he approached the American Red Cross about working with him in Haiti, “I was dismissed as ‘just some guy on YouTube.’ ” (The two have since made amends, Mr. Ahmed said.)
U of T business professor Don Tapscott, a Davos regular and the author of MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, said Mr. Ahmed is anything but another YouTube flash-in-the-pan.
“As the person who coined the term ‘digital divide’ 15 years ago, I’ve got to agree with him,” Mr. Tapscott said, saying new technology means global institutions, including charities, will need to become more collaborative and less top-down. “… Leaders of old paradigms have great difficulty embracing the new.”
Ellie Hadley: The art of speaking out
Ellie Hadley: The art of speaking out
Lessons from a life of a 89-year-old concerned citizen
By Douglas Arrowsmith, CBC News
Eleanor Hadley — "Ellie," as she is known in her neighbourhood — has been an activist in Vancouver since she arrived from Windsor, Ont., at the end of the 1960s.
Eleanor Hadley: Still going head-to-head with politicians as she approaches 90. (Douglas Arrowsmith/CBC) Her story is one of remarkable perseverance, beginning with the death of her husband when she had just reached middle age, followed by the loss of her daughter in the years after that. Part of her healing came through her advocacy work on behalf of her community, and she's made it her practice to attend public meetings and voice her opinion.
Hadley, 89, feels the art of speaking out has been her greatest achievement and hopes it sets an example for younger generations.One of her fiercest passions became defending Stanley Park from commercialization — a battle she admits she may not have won. She thinks Lord Stanley's decree, that the park be left in its natural state, has been ignored.
Part of Ellie's daily routine is a walk to the same park bench overlooking English Bay – a ritual she admits she only attempts now when the weather is nice. But the challenges of turning 90 haven't kept her from wearing flowers in her hair or going head-to-head with politicians and standing up for what she sees are the "simple issues."
CBC's video producer Douglas Arrowsmith ran into Ellie on her favourite bench where she shared some of her life's lessons.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/18/f-video-ellie-hadley.html#ixzz1BrvklrdM
Lessons from a life of a 89-year-old concerned citizen
By Douglas Arrowsmith, CBC News
Eleanor Hadley — "Ellie," as she is known in her neighbourhood — has been an activist in Vancouver since she arrived from Windsor, Ont., at the end of the 1960s.
Eleanor Hadley: Still going head-to-head with politicians as she approaches 90. (Douglas Arrowsmith/CBC) Her story is one of remarkable perseverance, beginning with the death of her husband when she had just reached middle age, followed by the loss of her daughter in the years after that. Part of her healing came through her advocacy work on behalf of her community, and she's made it her practice to attend public meetings and voice her opinion.
Hadley, 89, feels the art of speaking out has been her greatest achievement and hopes it sets an example for younger generations.One of her fiercest passions became defending Stanley Park from commercialization — a battle she admits she may not have won. She thinks Lord Stanley's decree, that the park be left in its natural state, has been ignored.
Part of Ellie's daily routine is a walk to the same park bench overlooking English Bay – a ritual she admits she only attempts now when the weather is nice. But the challenges of turning 90 haven't kept her from wearing flowers in her hair or going head-to-head with politicians and standing up for what she sees are the "simple issues."
CBC's video producer Douglas Arrowsmith ran into Ellie on her favourite bench where she shared some of her life's lessons.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/18/f-video-ellie-hadley.html#ixzz1BrvklrdM
Saturday, January 22, 2011
"We don't live in Canada any more"
Please watch the whole video. Average Canadian citizens were told that they had no rights because "This isn't Canada any more". How did our government put us in this situation. Will it happen again?
Friday, January 21, 2011
Arctic bird scientist Radio-Canada's researcher of 2010
CBC News
Joël Bêty's research, published in Science in January 2010, showed that the risk of eggs being eaten by predators decreases 3.6 per cent for each degree of latitude north that nests are located. (Mario Bélanger/University of Quebec in Rimouski)
A biologist at the University of Quebec in Rimouski who uncovered why so many birds nest in the Arctic has been named researcher of the year for 2010 by Radio-Canada. Joël Bêty will be honoured Sunday on the radio program Les années lumière and will be profiled that day on the television program Découverte. Both air on Radio-Canada, CBC's French-language service.
Bêty's research, published in Science in January 2010, showed that the risk of eggs being eaten by predators decreases 3.6 per cent for each degree of latitude farther north that nests are located.The increased chance of survival for their young explains why so many birds make such a long migration north to nest, despite the costs, such as the energy required for the journey.The white-rumped sandpiper, whose eggs are shown here, is one of many bird species that make extremely long migrations to the High Arctic to nest each year. (Joël Bêty/University of Quebec in Rimouski)
"In the context of global warming, it will be important to record the movement of predators toward the north and the impact of these changes on birds that effectively find refuge in the High Arctic," Bêty told Radio-Canada in French.Bêty and his student Laura McKinnon conducted an experiment in which they placed 1,555 artificial nests between the southern end of James Bay and the north of Ellesmere Island. Each nest contained quail eggs.The researchers recorded how many eggs were destroyed by predators. After just two days, the eggs placed at the southern end of James Bay were completely destroyed by predators such as foxes, crows and gulls.
In the far north, almost 60 per cent of the nests remained intact after nine days.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2011/01/20/arctic-bird-bety.html#ixzz1BdGfwwxL
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Former GG Jean blasts Haiti aid delays
Canada's former GG expresses frustration over slow pace of progress
CBC News
A billboard calls for help on the road into Leogane, Haiti, the town at the epicentre of the January 2010 earthquake. Aid has been slow in reaching the people affected in the Caribbean nation. Michaëlle Jean, Canada's former governor general and now a special UN envoy to Haiti, voiced her anger Tuesday at the slow rate of aid delivery, blasting the international community for abandoning its commitments.
In a public letter co-authored with Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, Jean expressed frustration at the slow pace of progress in rebuilding the country of her birth."As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community," said Jean.
Jean and Bokova write that more than a million people are still living amid rubble, in emergency camps and "in abject poverty" and that cholera has claimed thousands of lives."Official commitments have not been honoured. Only a minuscule portion of what was promised has been paid out. The Haitian people feel abandoned and disheartened by the slowness in which the rebuilding is taking place."A year after she helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, Martine St-Victor told CBC News she doesn't know where that money has gone.
"I was a bit frustrated at one point because I didn't know where the money was going," St-Victor, who lives in Montreal but has family in Haiti, told CBC's Laurie Graham on Tuesday. "I was afraid I was feeding bureaucracy instead of contributing to rebuilding the country."Wednesday is the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that left an already impoverished Haiti in ruins.Since the quake, the Canadian government has committed $550 million to Haiti. Canadians have raised another $220 million for a total of $770 million to help offer relief in the wake of a disaster that killed 200,000 people and left a million more homeless.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced where a portion of that money will be spent.Canada's Minister of International Co-operation Beverley Oda announced several initiatives in Montreal on Tuesday aimed at helping Haitian recovery efforts on the eve of the first anniversary of the earthquake.
The announcement, totalling $93 million, includes a project to provide free, basic health services to three million people, the rebuilding of Haiti's midwifery school, new maternity beds and a pediatric ward."They're meaningful initiatives that will have a real impact on the lives of Haitians," said Oda.
'As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community.'—Michaëlle Jean, Canada's former governor general
But despite millions spent and allocated, aid workers in Haiti are still running into barriers on the ground delivering aid to those who need it. Speaking live from Haiti Tuesday on Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, Paul Hunter of CBC News said piles of rubble remain everywhere and almost a million people continue to live in tent cities."I’m not going to say that I’ve not seen progress, that it looks exactly as it did a year ago. Progress is happening, but it's slow," Hunter reported. "Is there a lot of work still to be done? Absolutely." The Red Cross alone has spent more than $100 million donated by individuals and organizations on emergency response efforts, getting people food, shelter and medical supplies. However, one year after the earthquake, the Red Cross said it is still dealing with basic crisis care.
"The thing that's complicated is that we are still in that emergency phase one year later," said Pam Aung Thin, the Red Cross's national director of public affairs and government relations. "In other situations, we have found that the emergency phase should be much shorter, and then you get on with the business of rebuilding." According to Robert Fox, executive director of aid group OXFAM, extensive rebuilding should have started by now. But he said government and international agencies are moving too slowly and getting bogged down in bureaucracy.
Aid bogged down in bureaucracy
"The fact is, the money that is stalled and that isn't moving forward is not the hundreds of millions donated by individuals," said Fox. Instead, he said it's the money provided by governments that is getting held up. "The governments of the United States, France, of Europe, of Canada need to get together with the Haitian government and the United Nations and move ahead with the reconstruction plan," he said. Hunter pointed out that much of the aid delivered is being slowed by red tape and corruption after supplies arrive in Haiti. He reported that supplies such as generators, water purifiers and medical supplies have been held in customs for months by red tape and rising duties.
"The Haitian government doesn't do itself any favours," said Hunter.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2011/01/11/haiti-aid-money-graham.html#ixzz1BDBPb33a
CBC News
A billboard calls for help on the road into Leogane, Haiti, the town at the epicentre of the January 2010 earthquake. Aid has been slow in reaching the people affected in the Caribbean nation. Michaëlle Jean, Canada's former governor general and now a special UN envoy to Haiti, voiced her anger Tuesday at the slow rate of aid delivery, blasting the international community for abandoning its commitments.
In a public letter co-authored with Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, Jean expressed frustration at the slow pace of progress in rebuilding the country of her birth."As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community," said Jean.
Jean and Bokova write that more than a million people are still living amid rubble, in emergency camps and "in abject poverty" and that cholera has claimed thousands of lives."Official commitments have not been honoured. Only a minuscule portion of what was promised has been paid out. The Haitian people feel abandoned and disheartened by the slowness in which the rebuilding is taking place."A year after she helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, Martine St-Victor told CBC News she doesn't know where that money has gone.
"I was a bit frustrated at one point because I didn't know where the money was going," St-Victor, who lives in Montreal but has family in Haiti, told CBC's Laurie Graham on Tuesday. "I was afraid I was feeding bureaucracy instead of contributing to rebuilding the country."Wednesday is the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that left an already impoverished Haiti in ruins.Since the quake, the Canadian government has committed $550 million to Haiti. Canadians have raised another $220 million for a total of $770 million to help offer relief in the wake of a disaster that killed 200,000 people and left a million more homeless.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced where a portion of that money will be spent.Canada's Minister of International Co-operation Beverley Oda announced several initiatives in Montreal on Tuesday aimed at helping Haitian recovery efforts on the eve of the first anniversary of the earthquake.
The announcement, totalling $93 million, includes a project to provide free, basic health services to three million people, the rebuilding of Haiti's midwifery school, new maternity beds and a pediatric ward."They're meaningful initiatives that will have a real impact on the lives of Haitians," said Oda.
'As time passes, what began as a natural disaster is becoming a disgraceful reflection on the international community.'—Michaëlle Jean, Canada's former governor general
But despite millions spent and allocated, aid workers in Haiti are still running into barriers on the ground delivering aid to those who need it. Speaking live from Haiti Tuesday on Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, Paul Hunter of CBC News said piles of rubble remain everywhere and almost a million people continue to live in tent cities."I’m not going to say that I’ve not seen progress, that it looks exactly as it did a year ago. Progress is happening, but it's slow," Hunter reported. "Is there a lot of work still to be done? Absolutely." The Red Cross alone has spent more than $100 million donated by individuals and organizations on emergency response efforts, getting people food, shelter and medical supplies. However, one year after the earthquake, the Red Cross said it is still dealing with basic crisis care.
"The thing that's complicated is that we are still in that emergency phase one year later," said Pam Aung Thin, the Red Cross's national director of public affairs and government relations. "In other situations, we have found that the emergency phase should be much shorter, and then you get on with the business of rebuilding." According to Robert Fox, executive director of aid group OXFAM, extensive rebuilding should have started by now. But he said government and international agencies are moving too slowly and getting bogged down in bureaucracy.
Aid bogged down in bureaucracy
"The fact is, the money that is stalled and that isn't moving forward is not the hundreds of millions donated by individuals," said Fox. Instead, he said it's the money provided by governments that is getting held up. "The governments of the United States, France, of Europe, of Canada need to get together with the Haitian government and the United Nations and move ahead with the reconstruction plan," he said. Hunter pointed out that much of the aid delivered is being slowed by red tape and corruption after supplies arrive in Haiti. He reported that supplies such as generators, water purifiers and medical supplies have been held in customs for months by red tape and rising duties.
"The Haitian government doesn't do itself any favours," said Hunter.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2011/01/11/haiti-aid-money-graham.html#ixzz1BDBPb33a
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Canadian Healthcare vs UK Healthcare
Kindly Canada has worse health-care than U.K., says expertPeter O'Neil, Europe Correspondent
Canada's health-care system is more expensive and less effective than the United Kingdom's, according to a U.S. health policy analyst — and one reason may be the public's reluctance to protest.
Canada's health-care system is more expensive and less effective than the United Kingdom's, according to a U.S. health policy analyst — and one reason may be the public's reluctance to protest.
"Canadians are too nice," said Robin Osborn, vice-president and director of The Commonwealth Fund's international program. In an email interview, Osborn commented on the introduction Wednesday by Britain's coalition government of the most radical reforms in the history of the 62-year-old National Health Service.
Osborn said that while she supported the idea of giving British doctors greater control over the massive health budget, as the legislation proposes, she said the changes bring some risks to a system that has proven to be one of the most successful in Europe.
"The U.K. is on many levels a real success story," she said."And, while health spending as a per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) is less than Canada, performance is significantly better on key measures that reflect the core attributes of a high-performing health-care system."The Commonwealth Fund has for almost a century advocated improvements to the health-care system in the U.S., and regularly conducts comparative analysis to show the American system lags far behind those in other western democracies.A poll last year of 19,700 people in 11 industrialized countries, including Canada, found that the U.K. is the only country where wealth doesn't determine access to care.
Another 2010 Commonwealth Fund ranked the British system second of seven countries analyzed, behind only Holland, in terms of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy lives. On efficiency, the U.K. was No. 1. Canada ranked sixth overall in the survey, ahead only of the U.S.Osborn said Britain's success is due to the reforms — and a huge infusion of cash — introduced after Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997.They included national wait times targets, the establishment of star ratings for hospitals, the creation of a National Institute for Clinical Excellence, and the launch of a new auditing system."Most importantly, these were all pulled together as part of a coherent national policy and strategic vision that was implemented and sustained over 10 years, which in politics and in health policy, is a rare luxury."
The Labour government's move to allow greater private-sector involvement, harshly criticized by Canadian unions in the health sector at the time, didn't play a significant role in the success story, she said.
For instance, the government allowed private companies to provide diagnostic services, with "mixed results."
She pointed out that the NHS is far more comprehensive than Canada's, covering dental and prescription drug charges.But the U.K. also allows parallel private insurance, now used by about 12 per cent of the population, as a "safety valve."Insured people can use the insurance to avoid long waits for elective surgeries, to choose and quickly access specialists, and to go to private hospitals with more amenities.
"It's not controversial. The public accept it, and don't see it as a threat to the NHS. But they definitely would not let the government expand it to replace what they expect the NHS to cover."
She blamed Canada's poor ranking on the billions of dollars in cuts to federal-provincial transfers imposed by the Liberal government of the mid-1990s, which reduced supply of doctors and hospital beds.
"This produces high rates of emergency room use, which is expensive and poses quality problems."
Canada has had "lots of commissions" of inquiry with strong recommendations to fix the system, but politicians failed to bring in visionary changes to accompany the restoration of federal funding in 2004 that then-prime minister Paul Martin said would fix Canadian medicare for a generation.
"Provinces received federal funds but did not have to meet performance targets on access, quality, and public reporting," Osborn noted, adding that there has been a lack of incentives for doctors and hospital administrators to improve quality or productivity."And, probably, a last problem: Canadians are too nice. That is, (there is a) lack of public protest."
Read it on Global News: Kindly Canada has worse health-care than U.K., says expert
Canada's health-care system is more expensive and less effective than the United Kingdom's, according to a U.S. health policy analyst — and one reason may be the public's reluctance to protest.
Canada's health-care system is more expensive and less effective than the United Kingdom's, according to a U.S. health policy analyst — and one reason may be the public's reluctance to protest.
"Canadians are too nice," said Robin Osborn, vice-president and director of The Commonwealth Fund's international program. In an email interview, Osborn commented on the introduction Wednesday by Britain's coalition government of the most radical reforms in the history of the 62-year-old National Health Service.
Osborn said that while she supported the idea of giving British doctors greater control over the massive health budget, as the legislation proposes, she said the changes bring some risks to a system that has proven to be one of the most successful in Europe.
"The U.K. is on many levels a real success story," she said."And, while health spending as a per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) is less than Canada, performance is significantly better on key measures that reflect the core attributes of a high-performing health-care system."The Commonwealth Fund has for almost a century advocated improvements to the health-care system in the U.S., and regularly conducts comparative analysis to show the American system lags far behind those in other western democracies.A poll last year of 19,700 people in 11 industrialized countries, including Canada, found that the U.K. is the only country where wealth doesn't determine access to care.
Another 2010 Commonwealth Fund ranked the British system second of seven countries analyzed, behind only Holland, in terms of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and healthy lives. On efficiency, the U.K. was No. 1. Canada ranked sixth overall in the survey, ahead only of the U.S.Osborn said Britain's success is due to the reforms — and a huge infusion of cash — introduced after Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997.They included national wait times targets, the establishment of star ratings for hospitals, the creation of a National Institute for Clinical Excellence, and the launch of a new auditing system."Most importantly, these were all pulled together as part of a coherent national policy and strategic vision that was implemented and sustained over 10 years, which in politics and in health policy, is a rare luxury."
The Labour government's move to allow greater private-sector involvement, harshly criticized by Canadian unions in the health sector at the time, didn't play a significant role in the success story, she said.
For instance, the government allowed private companies to provide diagnostic services, with "mixed results."
She pointed out that the NHS is far more comprehensive than Canada's, covering dental and prescription drug charges.But the U.K. also allows parallel private insurance, now used by about 12 per cent of the population, as a "safety valve."Insured people can use the insurance to avoid long waits for elective surgeries, to choose and quickly access specialists, and to go to private hospitals with more amenities.
"It's not controversial. The public accept it, and don't see it as a threat to the NHS. But they definitely would not let the government expand it to replace what they expect the NHS to cover."
She blamed Canada's poor ranking on the billions of dollars in cuts to federal-provincial transfers imposed by the Liberal government of the mid-1990s, which reduced supply of doctors and hospital beds.
"This produces high rates of emergency room use, which is expensive and poses quality problems."
Canada has had "lots of commissions" of inquiry with strong recommendations to fix the system, but politicians failed to bring in visionary changes to accompany the restoration of federal funding in 2004 that then-prime minister Paul Martin said would fix Canadian medicare for a generation.
"Provinces received federal funds but did not have to meet performance targets on access, quality, and public reporting," Osborn noted, adding that there has been a lack of incentives for doctors and hospital administrators to improve quality or productivity."And, probably, a last problem: Canadians are too nice. That is, (there is a) lack of public protest."
Read it on Global News: Kindly Canada has worse health-care than U.K., says expert
Health agency barred C. difficile treatment: MD
Several C. difficile deaths could have been prevented, specialist says
By Kathy Tomlinson, CBC News
A hospital physician from a major B.C. facility says several patients died in the last year from C. difficile — unnecessarily — after the health authority stopped her and her colleagues from giving an experimental, simple and highly effective treatment. "I can't offer it to [to patients]. I can't do anything for them," said Dr. Jeanne Keegan-Henry, a specialist in hospital medicine from Burnaby Hospital, which is run by the Fraser Health Authority. "And I've seen some of them die."
The treatment, called a fecal transplant, involves introducing stool from a healthy donor — usually a relative — into an infected patient's bowel, usually through an enema. Proponents say it works because so-called good bacteria, from the healthy donor's feces, kills the "bad" bacteria in patients who have recurring infection and where antibiotics haven't been effective."C. difficile is a wimpy bug. If there are other bugs around it dies, it gets beaten up. So all we need is the right bugs," said Keegan-Henry.
Treatment called 'no-brainer'
"The fact that it would save lives seems to me to be a no-brainer, but that isn't what is happening."
Dr. Jeanne Keegan-Henry says the Fraser Valley Health Authority is blocking her from giving life-saving treatments. (CBC)C. difficile is a debilitating bacterial infection in the bowel, often caught by elderly or frail patients while they are in hospital. In B.C., 3,437 cases of C. difficile were reported between March 2009 and March 2010. Fifty of those patients died within a month. In 170 reported fecal transplants outside Canada, more than 90 per cent of the patients were cured.
In Canada, 50 patients at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ont. have undergone the transplant since 2008. Calgary physician Tom Louie gives the transplant to patients routinely, with consistent success rates reported.In addition, a full clinical trial, involving 146 patients, is underway through the University Health Network in Toronto.
Keegan-Henry believes the biggest obstacle to making the treatment widely available is what she calls the "ick factor.""[Heath care] bureaucracies don't like weird stuff. And this is something that sounds icky," she said.
Saved patient's life
Keegan-Henry gave a fecal transplant to 86-year-old Jane Thomas last year, which she believes saved her life."It was simple you know. And for the little bit I had to go through it was worth it," said Thomas.
Burnaby Hospital is run by the Fraser Health Authority, which says a formal proposal from doctors is needed before it will consider a fecal transplant research project. (CBC)The elderly woman said she suffered terribly for weeks with recurring infection. She lost 20 pounds and believed she was going to die.
"My heart goes out to these people that are going through it now, because I know what I went through," said Thomas. "I think the doctors should take charge because they know what they are doing. They are the medical doctors."Keegan-Henry said that after Thomas's transplant, administrators with Fraser Health decided she could not perform any more."I was told by our medical director that we were not allowed to use the hospital facilities to do it again," said Keegan-Henry. As a result, she said, "we lose people we don't have to lose."
She wrote up a treatment protocol, which she said was submitted to administration. She said she was then asked to write a business proposal, which she has yet to do."I think this is administration by exhaustion," she said. "[They] just keep asking people for one more piece of paper until they give up."
Others have died since
Since then, Keegan-Henry estimates at least 10 patients, who could have been saved by the treatment, died at Burnaby Hospital.Jane Thomas, 86, suffered from recurring C. difficile, but believes she was cured by a fecal transplant by Dr. Keegan-Henry. (CBC)"I am very angry sometimes. You look a family in the eye and say I am very sorry for your loss. Maybe I could have stopped it, but I'm not allowed to. It's not a very good place for me to be. Professionally that is very tough."
No one from Fraser Health was made available for an interview, but CBC News received a statement, attributed to Dr. Andrew Webb, vice-president of medicine."Patient safety is our primary concern. The safety of fecal transplantation has not been adequately studied. There must be strict controls to ensure other serious infections are not passed to the patient inadvertently," the statement reads.
"To date, we have not received a formal application for consideration to study the outcomes or benefits of fecal transplantation within a research protocol."Keegan-Henry countered that the risk of disease transmission can be virtually eliminated if donor feces are thoroughly tested beforehand.
"There are no cases of transmission of infection by this procedure — in the world — so far," she said.
Dr. George Sing, a gastroenterologist at Burnaby Hospital, also wants to provide the treatment to patients."We did table [a proposal], but it fell into the cracks," said Sing. "We have been through all the channels … but when it goes through committees it gets bogged down."Sing told CBC News the pushback he received was from a unit manager, who told him nurses were not insured to administer the treatment.
Fecal transplants involve introducing stool from a donor into the bowel of a C. difficile patient, where the healthy donor bacteria can kill the infection. (CBC)He estimated between 20 and 30 per cent of his C. difficile patients become resistant to antibiotics. Those are the patients, he said, who have nothing to lose by having a fecal transplant."A lot of people would benefit," he said. "And a lot of research supports this."
Keegan-Henry said she decided to go public with CBC News, in hopes of shaking up the "inertia" within Fraser Health."Just tell us we can go ahead," she pleaded. "I've got the equipment. Just tell us we can do it inside the hospital. We'll do it at the bedside if we have to. It's not that complicated."It's very bad for health care in this province and in Canada that good important ideas die on the table like this."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/01/17/bc-fecaltransplants.html#ixzz1BPzmeZaA
By Kathy Tomlinson, CBC News
A hospital physician from a major B.C. facility says several patients died in the last year from C. difficile — unnecessarily — after the health authority stopped her and her colleagues from giving an experimental, simple and highly effective treatment. "I can't offer it to [to patients]. I can't do anything for them," said Dr. Jeanne Keegan-Henry, a specialist in hospital medicine from Burnaby Hospital, which is run by the Fraser Health Authority. "And I've seen some of them die."
The treatment, called a fecal transplant, involves introducing stool from a healthy donor — usually a relative — into an infected patient's bowel, usually through an enema. Proponents say it works because so-called good bacteria, from the healthy donor's feces, kills the "bad" bacteria in patients who have recurring infection and where antibiotics haven't been effective."C. difficile is a wimpy bug. If there are other bugs around it dies, it gets beaten up. So all we need is the right bugs," said Keegan-Henry.
Treatment called 'no-brainer'
"The fact that it would save lives seems to me to be a no-brainer, but that isn't what is happening."
Dr. Jeanne Keegan-Henry says the Fraser Valley Health Authority is blocking her from giving life-saving treatments. (CBC)C. difficile is a debilitating bacterial infection in the bowel, often caught by elderly or frail patients while they are in hospital. In B.C., 3,437 cases of C. difficile were reported between March 2009 and March 2010. Fifty of those patients died within a month. In 170 reported fecal transplants outside Canada, more than 90 per cent of the patients were cured.
In Canada, 50 patients at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ont. have undergone the transplant since 2008. Calgary physician Tom Louie gives the transplant to patients routinely, with consistent success rates reported.In addition, a full clinical trial, involving 146 patients, is underway through the University Health Network in Toronto.
Keegan-Henry believes the biggest obstacle to making the treatment widely available is what she calls the "ick factor.""[Heath care] bureaucracies don't like weird stuff. And this is something that sounds icky," she said.
Saved patient's life
Keegan-Henry gave a fecal transplant to 86-year-old Jane Thomas last year, which she believes saved her life."It was simple you know. And for the little bit I had to go through it was worth it," said Thomas.
Burnaby Hospital is run by the Fraser Health Authority, which says a formal proposal from doctors is needed before it will consider a fecal transplant research project. (CBC)The elderly woman said she suffered terribly for weeks with recurring infection. She lost 20 pounds and believed she was going to die.
"My heart goes out to these people that are going through it now, because I know what I went through," said Thomas. "I think the doctors should take charge because they know what they are doing. They are the medical doctors."Keegan-Henry said that after Thomas's transplant, administrators with Fraser Health decided she could not perform any more."I was told by our medical director that we were not allowed to use the hospital facilities to do it again," said Keegan-Henry. As a result, she said, "we lose people we don't have to lose."
She wrote up a treatment protocol, which she said was submitted to administration. She said she was then asked to write a business proposal, which she has yet to do."I think this is administration by exhaustion," she said. "[They] just keep asking people for one more piece of paper until they give up."
Others have died since
Since then, Keegan-Henry estimates at least 10 patients, who could have been saved by the treatment, died at Burnaby Hospital.Jane Thomas, 86, suffered from recurring C. difficile, but believes she was cured by a fecal transplant by Dr. Keegan-Henry. (CBC)"I am very angry sometimes. You look a family in the eye and say I am very sorry for your loss. Maybe I could have stopped it, but I'm not allowed to. It's not a very good place for me to be. Professionally that is very tough."
No one from Fraser Health was made available for an interview, but CBC News received a statement, attributed to Dr. Andrew Webb, vice-president of medicine."Patient safety is our primary concern. The safety of fecal transplantation has not been adequately studied. There must be strict controls to ensure other serious infections are not passed to the patient inadvertently," the statement reads.
"To date, we have not received a formal application for consideration to study the outcomes or benefits of fecal transplantation within a research protocol."Keegan-Henry countered that the risk of disease transmission can be virtually eliminated if donor feces are thoroughly tested beforehand.
"There are no cases of transmission of infection by this procedure — in the world — so far," she said.
Dr. George Sing, a gastroenterologist at Burnaby Hospital, also wants to provide the treatment to patients."We did table [a proposal], but it fell into the cracks," said Sing. "We have been through all the channels … but when it goes through committees it gets bogged down."Sing told CBC News the pushback he received was from a unit manager, who told him nurses were not insured to administer the treatment.
Fecal transplants involve introducing stool from a donor into the bowel of a C. difficile patient, where the healthy donor bacteria can kill the infection. (CBC)He estimated between 20 and 30 per cent of his C. difficile patients become resistant to antibiotics. Those are the patients, he said, who have nothing to lose by having a fecal transplant."A lot of people would benefit," he said. "And a lot of research supports this."
Keegan-Henry said she decided to go public with CBC News, in hopes of shaking up the "inertia" within Fraser Health."Just tell us we can go ahead," she pleaded. "I've got the equipment. Just tell us we can do it inside the hospital. We'll do it at the bedside if we have to. It's not that complicated."It's very bad for health care in this province and in Canada that good important ideas die on the table like this."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/01/17/bc-fecaltransplants.html#ixzz1BPzmeZaA
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Federal government seeks ways to stop ‘honour killings'
Wow! This headline is not from Pakistan but from CANADA! How bizzarre and unacceptable is that? 13 women since 2003 have been killed this way in CANADA! I guess our Federal Government needs to do something!
Linda Nguyen, Postmedia News: Sunday, January 16, 2011 2:25 PM
TORONTO — They are disturbing stories of fathers trying to kill their daughters, of brothers murdering their sisters.Long prevalent in certain Muslim, Hindu and Sikh cultures in South Asia and the Middle East, “honour killings” have increasingly been making headlines in Canada in recent years. Now, the federal government is urging more community groups to come forward to help fight the rise of such crimes.
Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose first called for a pitch from organizations for projects targeting this type of violence in July. Since then, the department has received a couple of dozen formal applications but says it still has more funding that can be put toward helping eradicate these “intolerable” acts.
Since 2002, experts say, there have been 13 honour killings in Canada.
“We continue to encourage women’s groups and other community-based organizations to apply . . . for support for projects that explore, expose and (contribute) to ending violence against women, including honour-motivated violence,” said the minister’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Thompson, in a recent email.
Just over $2 million was set aside to fund initiatives curbing violence against women. So far, about $800,000 has been allocated to three projects in the Greater Toronto Area aimed at empowering women, particularly immigrants, to learn about their rights and to speak out against abuse.
Honour-based crimes or killings are usually committed by a man against a woman who is seen as having brought “shame” on their family. This perception has been triggered by such things as the woman not dressing in traditional clothing, embracing too much of “Western” culture or even just looking at a man of whom her family does not approve.
Since 2002, experts say, there have been 13 honour killings in Canada.
In July, Ambrose hinted that the Conservatives wanted to draw more attention to the growing issue and were looking at making honour killings a separate indictable offence under the Criminal Code. A Justice Department official quickly refuted the claim, though.
Thompson said the minister is not now pursuing that option, and one expert agreed that is the right choice.
“Honour killings should be treated as first-degree murder,” said Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist at Memorial University in Newfoundland who studies honour killings. “The public should be aware of the sensitivity and we should recognize it as an honour-based crime, but there should be no separate law.”
Muhammad said the issue is not necessarily cultural, but another example of domestic violence. If it were made a separate offence, it would make it easier for defendants to argue that they themselves are victims of a “cultural trend,” wrongly paving the way for more lenient sentences., he said. It may also perpetuate stereotypes that honour killings only occur in certain cultures or religions.
“We should not be focusing on any particular group or culture,” he said. “Honour killings can happen to anybody in Canada.”
Muhammad said the government should establish a committee to closely monitor the issue.
Last year, a Toronto man was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to run over his daughter, her boyfriend and his son-in-law with a speeding minivan. The Sri Lankan man apparently disapproved of his daughter’s boyfriend, who came from a family of a lower caste.
In October, the pre-trial motions began in the case against a Montreal couple and their son accused of killing three teenage sisters and the husband’s first wife in a submerged car in the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ont.
Mohammad Shafia; his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya; and their son, Hamed, face four counts each of first-degree murder in the deaths of their 19-, 17- and 13-year-old daughters, and the death of Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad.
Authorities have alleged that perceived “immoral behaviour” was behind the killings.
In June, Muhammad Parvez and his son, Waqas Parvez both pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez on Dec. 20, 2007. The girl from Mississauga, Ont., was killed by her father and brother for apparently refusing to wear a hijab head covering.
linnguyen@postmedia.com
Read it on Global News: Federal government seeks ways to stop ‘honour killings'
Linda Nguyen, Postmedia News: Sunday, January 16, 2011 2:25 PM
TORONTO — They are disturbing stories of fathers trying to kill their daughters, of brothers murdering their sisters.Long prevalent in certain Muslim, Hindu and Sikh cultures in South Asia and the Middle East, “honour killings” have increasingly been making headlines in Canada in recent years. Now, the federal government is urging more community groups to come forward to help fight the rise of such crimes.
Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose first called for a pitch from organizations for projects targeting this type of violence in July. Since then, the department has received a couple of dozen formal applications but says it still has more funding that can be put toward helping eradicate these “intolerable” acts.
Since 2002, experts say, there have been 13 honour killings in Canada.
“We continue to encourage women’s groups and other community-based organizations to apply . . . for support for projects that explore, expose and (contribute) to ending violence against women, including honour-motivated violence,” said the minister’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Thompson, in a recent email.
Just over $2 million was set aside to fund initiatives curbing violence against women. So far, about $800,000 has been allocated to three projects in the Greater Toronto Area aimed at empowering women, particularly immigrants, to learn about their rights and to speak out against abuse.
Honour-based crimes or killings are usually committed by a man against a woman who is seen as having brought “shame” on their family. This perception has been triggered by such things as the woman not dressing in traditional clothing, embracing too much of “Western” culture or even just looking at a man of whom her family does not approve.
Since 2002, experts say, there have been 13 honour killings in Canada.
In July, Ambrose hinted that the Conservatives wanted to draw more attention to the growing issue and were looking at making honour killings a separate indictable offence under the Criminal Code. A Justice Department official quickly refuted the claim, though.
Thompson said the minister is not now pursuing that option, and one expert agreed that is the right choice.
“Honour killings should be treated as first-degree murder,” said Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist at Memorial University in Newfoundland who studies honour killings. “The public should be aware of the sensitivity and we should recognize it as an honour-based crime, but there should be no separate law.”
Muhammad said the issue is not necessarily cultural, but another example of domestic violence. If it were made a separate offence, it would make it easier for defendants to argue that they themselves are victims of a “cultural trend,” wrongly paving the way for more lenient sentences., he said. It may also perpetuate stereotypes that honour killings only occur in certain cultures or religions.
“We should not be focusing on any particular group or culture,” he said. “Honour killings can happen to anybody in Canada.”
Muhammad said the government should establish a committee to closely monitor the issue.
Last year, a Toronto man was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to run over his daughter, her boyfriend and his son-in-law with a speeding minivan. The Sri Lankan man apparently disapproved of his daughter’s boyfriend, who came from a family of a lower caste.
In October, the pre-trial motions began in the case against a Montreal couple and their son accused of killing three teenage sisters and the husband’s first wife in a submerged car in the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ont.
Mohammad Shafia; his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya; and their son, Hamed, face four counts each of first-degree murder in the deaths of their 19-, 17- and 13-year-old daughters, and the death of Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad.
Authorities have alleged that perceived “immoral behaviour” was behind the killings.
In June, Muhammad Parvez and his son, Waqas Parvez both pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez on Dec. 20, 2007. The girl from Mississauga, Ont., was killed by her father and brother for apparently refusing to wear a hijab head covering.
linnguyen@postmedia.com
Read it on Global News: Federal government seeks ways to stop ‘honour killings'
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Canadians not as healthy as they think: poll
CBC News
In a new CBC poll, lack of time was the main reason Canadians gave for not exercising regularly. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)Many Canadians are deluding themselves about their weight, a poll released Monday for CBC News suggests.When asked if they're overweight, 44 per cent said yes, with seven per cent admitting to being obese. The reality is worse, said Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"Right now we have two-thirds of the Canadian population being overweight," said Sharma, who based his findings in part on a Statistics Canada report last year that directly measured heights and weights.
"We have about 20 per cent of the Canadians being what you would [consider] clinically obese."
Dan Carrol is one of those overweight Canadians, and he has a big goal with a deadline: to lose 70 pounds by his wedding day in October.
To help him shed the weight, Carrol is blogging all about his experience with healthier eating. He's also moving around more, while his brother captures the struggle on film, complete with a Rocky-like motivational trailer.
As Carrol runs down a metal staircase or beats back tempting treats, the 29-year-old Hamilton, Ont., man knows that success hinges on accountability. He confesses his sins of inactivity on couch potato days, when he approaches the scale with dread. At other times, he gains inspiration just from feeling fitter.
Carrol — who is six foot two inches tall and tips the scales at 267 pounds, down from 273 — fondly reflects on his days as a young athlete playing hockey, baseball, karate and football until sports injuries and working shifts as a rehabilitation therapist slowed him down.
P.O.V.:
Do you think you have a healthy bodyweight? Take our survey.
"I'm like most people," Carrol said. "I got caught up working, I get lazy at the end of the day, and before you know it, your pants don't fit anymore."
Carrol likens the accountability factor of the blog and the film to telling your parents you didn't do your homework. In this case, the work is the exercise regimen, which he's attacking with a new ferocity this new year, pledging in the film to "shed blood and sweat and tears to make it happen" for himself and his fiancée.
Time warp
At least Carrol has recognized his weight problem. Seventy-seven per cent of those polled by CBC News said they live a generally healthy lifestyle. Again, their answers on the specifics of diet, exercise and sleep don't bear that out.
When people were asked why they aren't healthier, lack of time was the main reason given:
• Not enough time to make healthy meals: 37 per cent.
• Not enough time to get vigorous exercise regularly: 42 per cent.
• Not enough time to sleep: 36 per cent.
Nearly 60 per cent of both adults and youth surveyed said they are tired most of the time, and nearly 40 per cent of adults reported feeling stressed most of the time.
Part of the problem is that few Canadians look at what actually drives poor eating habits and our sedentary nature, experts say.
Easy to be inactive
People feel they lack the time and skills to prepare healthy meals, while research shows insufficient sleep and stress actually change our metabolism and lead to cravings and changes in how the body stores energy, Sharma said.
Another source of the problem is how society makes it easy to be inactive, said Mark Tremblay, an obesity researcher with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa.
People choose cars over walking and video games over outdoor play in a society that is biologically and sociologically "wired" to embrace convenience. We're biologically trained for survival with little expenditure of effort, and our culture of labour-saving devices encourages mindless eating at otherwise idle moments.
"Increasingly, we are cocooning inside our houses, in front of screens, remaining motionless," Tremblay said.
Carrol recognizes those challenges, and is using the latest tools with the aim of returning to his more physically active days of yesteryear.
The online poll of 1,514 adults and 506 youth aged 12 to 17 was conducted by Leger Marketing from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17, 2010. The margin of error for the adult sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 for youth.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/12/31/canada-weighs-in-poll-health-myths.html?ref=rss#ixzz19zdwQioM
In a new CBC poll, lack of time was the main reason Canadians gave for not exercising regularly. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)Many Canadians are deluding themselves about their weight, a poll released Monday for CBC News suggests.When asked if they're overweight, 44 per cent said yes, with seven per cent admitting to being obese. The reality is worse, said Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"Right now we have two-thirds of the Canadian population being overweight," said Sharma, who based his findings in part on a Statistics Canada report last year that directly measured heights and weights.
"We have about 20 per cent of the Canadians being what you would [consider] clinically obese."
Dan Carrol is one of those overweight Canadians, and he has a big goal with a deadline: to lose 70 pounds by his wedding day in October.
To help him shed the weight, Carrol is blogging all about his experience with healthier eating. He's also moving around more, while his brother captures the struggle on film, complete with a Rocky-like motivational trailer.
As Carrol runs down a metal staircase or beats back tempting treats, the 29-year-old Hamilton, Ont., man knows that success hinges on accountability. He confesses his sins of inactivity on couch potato days, when he approaches the scale with dread. At other times, he gains inspiration just from feeling fitter.
Carrol — who is six foot two inches tall and tips the scales at 267 pounds, down from 273 — fondly reflects on his days as a young athlete playing hockey, baseball, karate and football until sports injuries and working shifts as a rehabilitation therapist slowed him down.
P.O.V.:
Do you think you have a healthy bodyweight? Take our survey.
"I'm like most people," Carrol said. "I got caught up working, I get lazy at the end of the day, and before you know it, your pants don't fit anymore."
Carrol likens the accountability factor of the blog and the film to telling your parents you didn't do your homework. In this case, the work is the exercise regimen, which he's attacking with a new ferocity this new year, pledging in the film to "shed blood and sweat and tears to make it happen" for himself and his fiancée.
Time warp
At least Carrol has recognized his weight problem. Seventy-seven per cent of those polled by CBC News said they live a generally healthy lifestyle. Again, their answers on the specifics of diet, exercise and sleep don't bear that out.
When people were asked why they aren't healthier, lack of time was the main reason given:
• Not enough time to make healthy meals: 37 per cent.
• Not enough time to get vigorous exercise regularly: 42 per cent.
• Not enough time to sleep: 36 per cent.
Nearly 60 per cent of both adults and youth surveyed said they are tired most of the time, and nearly 40 per cent of adults reported feeling stressed most of the time.
Part of the problem is that few Canadians look at what actually drives poor eating habits and our sedentary nature, experts say.
Easy to be inactive
People feel they lack the time and skills to prepare healthy meals, while research shows insufficient sleep and stress actually change our metabolism and lead to cravings and changes in how the body stores energy, Sharma said.
Another source of the problem is how society makes it easy to be inactive, said Mark Tremblay, an obesity researcher with the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa.
People choose cars over walking and video games over outdoor play in a society that is biologically and sociologically "wired" to embrace convenience. We're biologically trained for survival with little expenditure of effort, and our culture of labour-saving devices encourages mindless eating at otherwise idle moments.
"Increasingly, we are cocooning inside our houses, in front of screens, remaining motionless," Tremblay said.
Carrol recognizes those challenges, and is using the latest tools with the aim of returning to his more physically active days of yesteryear.
The online poll of 1,514 adults and 506 youth aged 12 to 17 was conducted by Leger Marketing from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17, 2010. The margin of error for the adult sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20 for youth.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/12/31/canada-weighs-in-poll-health-myths.html?ref=rss#ixzz19zdwQioM
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Davidson Black- Canadian Discoverer of Peking Man
In 1906, Black gained a degree in medical science from the University of Toronto. He continued in school studying comparative anatomy, and in 1909 became an anatomy instructor. In 1914 he spent half a year working under neuroanatomist Grafton Elliot Smith, in Manchester, England. Smith was studying Piltdown Man during this time. This began an interest in human evolution.
1917 he joined Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, where he treated injured returning Canadian soldiers.In 1919 after his discharge from the Canadian Army Medical Corps, he went to China to work at Peking Union Medical College. Starting as Professor of Neurology and Embryology, he would be promoted to head of the anatomy department in 1924. He planned to search for human fossils in 1926, though the College encouraged him to concentrate on teaching. During this period Johan Gunnar Andersson, who had done excavations near Dragon Bone Hill (Zhoukoudian) in 1921, learned in Sweden of Black's fossils examination. He gave Black two human-similar molars to examine. The following year, with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Black began his search around Zhoukoudian. During this time, though military unrest involving the National Revolutionary Army caused many western Scientists left China, Davidson Black and his family stayed.
Black then launched a large scale investigation at the site. He was appointed primary coordinator. As such, he appointed both Caucasian and Chinese scientists. In summer 1926, two molars were discovered by Otto Zdansky, who headed the excavations and who described them in 1927 (Bulletin of the Geolocical Survey, China) as fossils of genus Homo. Black thought they belonged to a new human species and named them Sinanthropus pekinensis. He put this tooth in a locket, which was placed around his neck.
Later, he presented the tooth to the Rockefeller Foundation, which wanted more specimens before further grants would be given. During November 1928, a lower jaw and several teeth and skull fragments were discovered. His find greatly expanded the knowledge of human evolution. Black presented this to the Foundation, which granted him $80,000. This grant continued the investigation and Black established the Cenozoic Research Laboratory with it.
Later another excavator found a skull. More specimens were found. Black would frequently examine these late into the night.Alas, most of the original bones were lost in the process of shipping them out of China for safe-keeping during the beginning of World War II. The Japanese gained control of the Peking Union Medical Center during the war, where the laboratory containing all the fossils was ransacked and all the remaining specimens were confiscated. To this day, the fossils have not been found and no one is sure if they were stolen or legitimately lost. Only the plaster imprints, which were in Beijing at the time, were left.
In 1934, he was hospitalized due to heart problems but continued working upon his release; these heart problems killed him. He died in his office with the fossils of the Peking Man beside him. He was 49 years of age.
Scepticism of researchFellow researchers were skeptical of Sinanthropus pekinensis as a distinctive species and genus. The reasons were the fact that the claim of a new species was originally based on a single tooth. Later the species was categorized as a subspecies of Homo erectus.
He married his wife, Adena Nevitt, in 1913, who accompanied him on his trips. They had two children together, a son (b. 1921) and a daughter (b. 1925). Both were born in China.
Unlike many Caucasians of his era, Davidson Black respected his Chinese coworkers. In return, he was well liked by many of them, who put flowers on his grave after his death.
Black believed artifacts discovered in China should be kept there.
Gigantopithecus blacki was named in his honour.
Author Dora Ridout Hood wrote a biography on him, called Davidson Black : a biography, which was printed by the University of Toronto Press.
Quote"The Peking man was a thinking being, standing erect, dating to the beginning of the Ice Age."
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