Detailed data will help community organizations in Alberta develop effective injury prevention programs
A new report from the Injury Prevention Centre is the first in Alberta to provide data on injury-related emergency department visits by people experiencing houselessness – information that will help community organizations deliver injury prevention programs tailored to the distinct health-care needs of this population. “This is the first step in understanding what the injury issues are,” says…
Why the headlong rush into expansion while so many questions remain?
Just six years after legalization, the availability of assisted suicide in Canada is about to expand again. But members of Parliaments and senators who’ll tackle these life-and-death questions don’t have enough time to consider all the weighty matters before them. Much less have they taken stock of how assisted suicide has affected the entire health-care…
Policing is fraught with physical dangers that most of us never see. Then there's the psychological trauma
The attack on the United States Capitol in Washington and its aftermath have taken a toll. Unfortunately, the Jan. 6 incident will remain remote and extraordinary for most. The incident has been politicized, sensationalized and reconstructed, but its tragic impact on those on the front lines is undeniable. Metropolitan Police Officer Kyle DeFreytag was found…
Daily positive messages are designed to help emergency personnel cope with trauma of the job, similar to successful Text4Hope
Two free text messaging services have been launched to support the mental health of Alberta’s first responders. Text4PTSI and Text4Well-being are designed to help emergency personnel cope positively with feelings of stress, anxiety, depression, disturbed sleep and suicidal thoughts, said project lead Vincent Agyapong, clinical professor of psychiatry and global mental health in the University of Alberta Faculty…
A single year to legalize such a wholesale change about the ending of human life signals a country moving away from its past
For two evenings recently, my Cardus colleagues and a panel of expert guests have engaged in an in-depth discussion on YouTube on Canada’s post-COVID future. They covered an impressive range of issues from education to the bifurcation of society as the pandemic exposed real, and really troubling, differences in how cohorts of Canadian society were…
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…
Ableism - discrimination in favour of able-bodied people - is a poisonous rot that eats away at the roots of care and life-giving supports for the disabled
In my work with Christian Horizons, I regularly provide grief training and debriefing in times of significant loss for people close to those with disabilities. In these profound moments of remembrance and mourning, it is evident that the human passing from life to death should be one of the most social and interconnected experiences of…
The Islamist group has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2.3 million people since 2009
The world reacted with shock and horror when 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. Some of the girls managed to escape, others were rescued by military forces, but many were coerced into serving the group’s terrorist agenda, some acting as suicide bombers. While the mass abduction in the small Nigerian town…
Former Mountie Sean Murphy is calling for a Criminal Code amendment to protect conscientious objections to MAiD
Sean Murphy has what he considers a clear way through the tangle between the House of Commons and Senate over Liberal government legislation to expand Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). The former veteran Mountie and coroner says the bill’s status would be clarified if all Canadians understood that MAiD means homicide. A logical outcome he…
The use of euphemisms such as "assisted dying" rather than “euthanasia” or “assisted suicide” is putting our most vulnerable at risk
By Andre Schutten and Anna Nienhuis ARPA Canada Action inspires action. This is often positive, as people’s activities motivate others to engage in positive service too. But there are times when action inspires deadly action. As the Senate continues its review of Bill C-7’s dramatic expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD), possibly proposing amendments…
A new report from the Injury Prevention Centre is the first in Alberta to provide data on injury-related emergency department visits by people experiencing houselessness – information that will help community organizations deliver injury prevention programs tailored to the distinct health-care needs of this population. “This is the first step in understanding what the injury issues are,” says…
