Parliamentary Committee recommends further MAiD expansion despite unresolved problems In 2021, Parliament set up a special committee of MPs and Senators to study the issue of “medical assistance in dying” (or MAiD) and to make recommendations to Parliament. The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying released its “Choices for Canadians” report on February…
Assisted death has gone from a last resort to an earth-friendly way to reduce the world’s population Liberalism used to mean live and let live. If your neighbour painted his house Day-Glo green, liberals shrugged and said, “so be it”. Now? You must not only heap fulsome public praise on his paint preference but you…
Increases to the Marginal Effective Tax Rate taking even more of your hard-earned money
New Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is correct when he says governments discourage work with taxes and clawbacks. The Marginal Effective Tax Rate (METR) measures what government takes from each new dollar earned in taxes and clawbacks of income-related government benefits. In his leadership acceptance speech and an August 19 video called “Make work pay,” Poilievre…
Literacy lessons tailored to early grade-schoolers with reading difficulties show promising results
As educators around the world assess how school disruptions and online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic have affected students, a project led by a University of Alberta researcher is showing that targeted interventions can help make up for learning loss among students with reading difficulties and set them up for educational success later on. George…
Paralympian Danielle Peers questions how to eliminate barriers that prevent athletes from getting involved in parasport
The 2022 Winter Paralympics will shine a brief spotlight on Canada’s elite athletes in China over the next 10 days. But much more is needed at the community level to get athletes involved in parasport before they can even dream of competing at an elite level, according to former Paralympian Danielle Peers. While changes are needed at the…
No difference between spinal and general anesthesia in primary outcomes with patients with hip fractures
Spinal anesthesia is not safer or more effective than general anesthesia in patients who undergo surgery for hip fractures, according to a major study. The finding, which challenges the accepted view, offers doctors and patients better information in choosing the method that’s best for them. “The assumption of the anesthesia and surgical communities based on…
Device would allow children with severe mobility issues to control toys or wheelchairs with their minds
Imagine children with severe mobility issues being able to move their wheelchairs with their minds. That’s the idea behind a new brain-computer interface being developed by researchers at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Think2Switch is designed to be a simple and nearly universal bridge connecting brain signals to switch-enabled devices such as a wheelchair,…
Edmonton researchers provide the tools parents need to make informed decisions about their children’s health in a crisis
It’s midnight and your four-year-old child is congested and struggling to breathe, with a barky cough. Do you go to the nearest hospital? The children’s hospital across town? Do you wait and call your family doctor in the morning? Many parents experience situations like this, and it’s terrifying. Edmonton researchers Lisa Hartling and Shannon Scott…
Ontario's single public school system will never adequately meet the needs of all of its families
Recent controversy over the provincial government’s provision of rapid tests to independent (private) schools but not public schools stems from the fact that independent schools in Ontario exist in a policy no-man’s-land. If education policy throughout the pandemic has proved anything, it’s that the provincial government doesn’t have the framework to make adequate provisions for…
And is accelerating the process with disturbing speed
Although euthanasia was illegal in Canada until five years ago, our country is on the verge of having the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world. Canada has shifted gears from a culture of life to one of death and is putting its foot to the pedal to accelerate the process with disturbing speed. How…