Nova Scotia Labour Department investigating worker death at Michelin tire plant

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Department of Labour says it is investigating a workplace death at a Michelin tire plant.

The department issued a brief statement saying a worker died Wednesday at Michelin’s plant in Waterville, N.S.

It says a stop work order issued for the equipment involved in the incident continues.

The department says it can’t release further details about the incident because its investigation is active.

The company was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

In addition to its plant in Waterville, Michelin also operates plants in Bridgewater, N.S., and Granton, N.S.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2022.

CFL teams start cancelling training camp workouts after contract talks break off

TORONTO — Three CFL teams formally cancelled the start of training camp workouts Sunday after the league and its players union were unable to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts formally cancelled practices Sunday, which was scheduled to be the opening day of training camp for CFL teams. More are expected to follow suit.

The CFL and CFL Players' Association broke off negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement Saturday.

The last agreement, reached in 2019 and amended last year to allow the league to stage a 14-game campaign, expired at midnight Saturday.

The union directed players from seven of the CFL's nine teams to participate in a work stoppage beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET.

Players with the Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders will report to their respective camps as they'll be in a legal strike position later this month, as per provincial labour laws.

The lone previous CFL strike came in 1974. The labour situation was resolved before the start of the season that year.

It's unclear when the CFL and CFLPA will resume negotiations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2022.

NO CAMPING?: With CFLPA turning down CFL offer, Redblacks players told not to report Sunday

Tim Baines, Postmedia - Yesterday

Uh oh, buckle up as the CFL and its players association are taking us on what could be a bumpy ride.


© Provided by Ottawa SunOttawa Redblacks rookie camp, Wednesday at TD Place in Ottawa. Zack Pelehos (52) during camp, May 11, 2022.

Training camps were supposed to open across the league Sunday. But after talks on a new collective bargaining agreement collapsed Saturday afternoon, players from seven CFL teams, including the Redblacks, have been told to stay away from the field. The CBA that had been in place expired at midnight.

A proposal by the CFL was turned down by the CFLPA Saturday afternoon, leaving what happens next in doubt. The CFL’s offer was shared to fans and players by commissioner Randy Ambrosie. Among the highlights: Partially guaranteed contracts when re-signing veterans, increases to the league’s minimum salary (to $70,000 in 2023 and $75,000 in 2027), each roster would have a minimum of at least six Canadian players (a seventh could be either a Canadian or a nationalized American – a non-quarterback who has been in the league for at least four years or has played with the same team for three years), a starting Canadian QB would count as a national, plus 25 per cent of revenue growth to be added to the salary cap in 2023

The CFLPA bargaining committee has directed its members from seven of the league’s nine teams (B.C., Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal) to participate in a work stoppage immediately – effective Sunday. Members under contract to clubs in Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) will join the work stoppage as soon as provincial labour laws allow.

The Redblacks had planned to have morning practices through the week, leading to a fan fest next Saturday (May 21), from 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. But what happens next … who knows? The CFL will have to show a willingness to bend on some deal-breaking issues, including the number of padded practices.

If the league and its players can put aside their differences and find common ground, the Redblacks will be looking to put two disastrous seasons behind them. With three wins and 15 losses in 2019 and three wins and 11 losses in 2021 sandwiching a lost COVID season, it’s hard to imagine there’s anywhere to go but up. How do you get people to stop talking about being a bad football team? It’s simple. Win football games.

“I try not to look too far into the past — whether it’s a winning season or a losing season,” said Paul LaPolice, going into his second season as Redblacks head coach/offensive co-ordinator. “I’m just excited to be doing football again. The past is the past. The best part of our business is every year is a brand new year. We’re all undefeated — we haven’t lost a game and we haven’t won a game yet, either.”

“What happened here last year was a lot of players got opportunities when maybe they didn’t know the league as well or maybe weren’t quite as ready,” said Redblacks general manager Shawn Burke. “I’m definitely excited to see some of the guys coming to their second training camp. The expectations will be raised for them, they’re not rookies anymore.”


© Tony Caldwell

Ottawa Redblacks rookie camp began Wednesday at TD Place in Ottawa. Keaton Bruggeling during camp.

Training camp is a coming together of old and new faces, trying to get them working together. It’ll certainly be much different than camp of a year ago, which was delayed into July.

“The biggest difference is obviously COVID protocols and everything,” said LaPolice. “The coaches were quarantined for seven days and we weren’t able to see them until the day before camp. Being able to have the time with the coaches has obviously been a welcome change.”

As for out with the old and in with the new, LaPolice said: “There are possibly 28 new guys here who have some CFL experience. We talked about in our staff meeting that one of the most important things we have to do get these guys to understand what we want and what we think wins football games in the Canadian Football League. We have to get this group to grow together, where they want to be together and don’t want to leave the building. We have to start building those relationships as soon as possible. We want to create an environment where these guys come together as a team as quickly as possible.”


© Tony Caldwell

Ottawa. Redblacks head coach Paul LaPolice at Ottawa Redblacks rookie camp at TD Place in Ottawa, May 11, 2022.

The highest-profile free agent brought in was quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, the East Division’s Most Outstanding Player in 2018. With some injuries sprinkled in, he struggled at times with consistency and hasn’t reached that level of play since. But, with significant signings on the offensive line and at receiver by the Redblacks, this could be a springboard for the 33-year-old quarterback.

“We know Jeremiah has talent, we know he has tools,” said LaPolice. “We’ve added things he’d been successful with in Hamilton to our system. Now we have to figure out what he does best — within his stuff and our stuff. I’ve got a note on my board: ‘How quickly can we get Jeremiah Masoli to take control of our offence?’ Everybody has said so many great things about the guy, how great he is as a teammate, how hard-working he is. We’ve had great conversations. He comes as advertised.”

One thing that should elevate the quality of the team is a much higher level of competition — there will be a sense of urgency with guys pushing each other for roster spots.

“Competition will always elevate everyone,” said Burke. “It’s one of the first words I brought up with Coach LaPolice. Constant competition at training camp and practice elevates you — you’re more ready to play on game day. The guys that want to be great pros, it’s my belief they’ll embrace that competition and they’ll buy in. That’ll make everybody better collectively. It’s something we focused on during free agency. We also have some good younger guys coming in to push those veterans. It’s supposed to be about the younger guys trying to take those veteran jobs and the veteran players saying, ‘Young guy, you’re not quite ready to take my job yet.’ ”

After pre-season games against Toronto May 27 (at home) and in Montreal June 3, the Redblacks will open their regular season with two games that are about as tough as it gets — against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the two-time defending Grey Cup champs. They’re in Winnipeg June 10 and the teams will play at TD Place June 17.

“They threw us into the fire right away,” said LaPolice. “We’ll be ready to play, we’ll have a game plan.

CFL, CFLPA talks on new agreement break off

OUR BALLS ARE BIGGER THAN THE NFL

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — The CFL and CFL Players' Association broke off negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement Saturday.

The move comes after the two sides met for roughly 16 hours into the night Friday, then returned to the bargaining table Saturday morning. The current agreement, reached in 2019 and amended last year to allow the league to stage a 14-game campaign, is slated to expire at 12 a.m. ET on Sunday.

It’s unclear when the two sides will meet again. Training camps are scheduled to open Sunday but the union has directed players from seven of of the CFL's nine teams to participate in a work stoppage beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Edmonton Elks and Calgary Stampeders players will report to camp but will join the work stoppage once provincial labour laws allow. And while the union says Montreal Alouettes players won’t report Sunday, there's confusion regarding whether Quebec labour laws would put them in a legal strike position.

In a letter to CFL players that was posted on the league's website, commissioner Randy Ambrosie outlined the offer that was tabled to the union Saturday. He said the deal, which covers seven years, boosts total player compensation "by more than $24 million over the term of the agreement – plus an opportunity to share in revenue increases as we successfully work together to grow the league."

He added it "protects jobs for Canadian players, the bedrock of the CFL. It offers partially guaranteed contracts, for the first time in our league’s history. It recognizes the contribution of veteran Americans, with a new opportunity to extend their careers with their team, without restricting free agency in any way."

Other details of the offer include:

_ Two increases in the league’s minimum salary, which was $65,000 last season.

_ $18.9 million in total guaranteed increases to the salary cap league-wide.

_ $5.94 million in guaranteed compensation paid for community outreach and promotional appearances league-wide.

_ An opportunity for 25 per cent of all revenue growth over an agreed upon threshold to be added to the salary cap starting in 2023.

_ Clubs can re-sign their veterans to partially guaranteed contracts, a first for the CFL.

_ A club can choose one American player (non-quarterback), who has been in the league for at least four years or played with the same team for at least three years, who would be considered a Nationalized American.

_ The Nationalized American would count as a National on the roster, joining 20 or 21 Canadians who also count as Nationals on the roster.

_ Each roster would have a minimum of seven National starters. This would include at least six Canadian players. The seventh starter could be either the Nationalized American or an additional Canadian.

_ The roster would also include three quarterbacks of any nationality, 19 Americans and up to two Global players.

_ A starting Canadian quarterback would count as a National (Canadian).

_ These roster changes would kick in as of 2023.

_ The minimum salary would increase to $70,000 in 2023 and $75,000 in 2027.

_ An updated code of conduct that applies to all members of the CFL community, including fans, instead of just players.

_ A CFLPA seat on the board of CFL ventures, the commercial arm of the league to allow for all to work on marketing the CFL and building its business.

"It's designed to build a true partnership with you, our talented, hard-working, community minded CFL players," Ambrosie wrote. "This is a win-win offer.

"It creates a stronger partnership, so we can work together to further improve our game and build our business. And it comes at a critical time. Our league, our clubs, and especially our players have been through so much during the pandemic. We turned the corner in 2021, working together to get back on the field. Now we have an opportunity to accelerate towards a brighter future.

"Let’s seize that opportunity, together."

In a memo to players, the union said that the league was trying to undermine the CFLPA bargaining committee.

"You have or will receive an email from your Club outlining the League's spin on the breakdown of bargaining," the memo read. "We had tabled a counter offer to the League's 'take it or leave it offer' this afternoon. Instead of using the time to consider our counter proposals the league, instead, took the time to craft the communication you just received.

"When we returned to the bargaining table the league informed us they are walking away from the bargaining table and that they would be communicating directly to you. This is an aggressive and crass effort to try to undermine your Players’ Association Bargaining Committee."

The memo also mentioned that the CFL purposefully walked away from the bargaining table to "try to interfere in our internal structure."

Despite their issues with the league's messaging, the union appears ready to resume negotiations.

"We expressed our regret at the league’s decision and told them we are ready to return to the table whenever they are prepared to negotiate in good faith."

Former Montreal Alouette Marc-Olivier Brouillette took to social media to support the players and union.

"Stay strong and united," he tweeted. "You're worth a lot more than you think. @CFLPA"

The league and union resumed negotiations last Wednesday, six days after the CFLPA rejected the CFL's first proposal.

The lone previous CFL strike came in 1974. The labour situation was resolved before the start of the season that year.

The 2022 regular season is scheduled to begin June 9.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2022.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press

Sirota: Biden administration’s reported $10B deal with Amazon ‘shrouded in secrecy’

Caitlin McLean - Saturday
 Provided by The Hill



David Sirota, founder of The Lever news outlet, said he believes a reported $10 billion deal between the Biden administration and Amazon is hidden in “secrecy.”

In late April, the news outlet Nextgov reported that the National Security Agency had re-awarded Amazon a contract for cloud-computing services.

“NSA recently awarded a contract to Amazon Web Services that delivers cloud computing services to support the agency’s mission,” an NSA official told Nextgov.

Sirota expressed concerns with the reported contract.

“We don’t actually know the details of this contract. It’s shrouded in secrecy, there’s a national security exemption for the details of the contract, but we know it’s a cloud computing contract,” Sirota said while appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”

“There is a privacy question about what the NSA needs with a $10 billion build out of cloud computing. The mind can run wild about what that’s all about in terms of surveillance and data collection,” he added.

Sirota said the size of the contract is “huge.”

“There’s very few details about what that contract is and I think that people need to understand how big the contract is. Federal contracts go out all the time in the millions of dollars even hundred of millions of dollars. A $10 billion federal contract, even at the federal government level, that is a huge contract,” Sirota said.

Sirota said the size of the contract can provide some answers to as why the Biden administration awarded it.

“Whatever they are actually building out with that, whatever the NSA is doing with it, you can rest assured that it is a big thing,” he added.

GUESS HE CAN'T USE THE BOYS BATHROOM

Métis youth swimmer becomes 1st transgender male to compete in Manitoba

Renée Lilley - 
cbc.ca

Kahnay Johnson is breaking barriers in the Manitoba swim world by being the first transgender male to compete in the province.


© Colleen Johnson

Kahnay Johnson became the first transgender male to compete at a Manitoba swim meet last week.

On May 7, the 15-year-old Métis swimmer and member of the St. James Seals Swim Club officially competed in the male category in the Bison Sprint Invitational Meet hosted by the University of Manitoba Bisons swim team in Winnipeg.

"It was really cool, it was a little scary, but I think everything's a little scary [the] first time around," he said.

Kahnay ended up with some career-best swim times in the 50-metre freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke categories. He said he's glad to be an example for others in the sport.

"I think being able to swim as my authentic self is really good, and I really appreciate the fact that I'm able to," he said.

Kahnay said Swim Manitoba contacted him to see if he was interested in switching to the male swim category. He then re-registered as male, after five years of competing as female. Though he wasn't able to keep his previous swim times, he said he's still grateful for the opportunity, and the chance to inspire others.

"I hope that it becomes a more easily accessible thing for people to do when they switch over, when they come out, so everyone can feel that sense of support," he said.

One of Kahnay's biggest supporters is his mom, Colleen Johnson.

She said since Kahnay came out as transgender last year, it's been a different journey, especially with sports being divided into two genders.


"That made it a real challenge while Kahnay was trying to figure himself out," said Colleen.

"It made it uncomfortable, especially when it came to change rooms, and where do you fit in."
Providing a 'middle lane'

She said that since a lot of facilities in the city don't have gender-neutral change rooms, that may deter LGBTQ youth from participating in sports.

"Hopefully what Kahnay has done is going to bring some more awareness, and perhaps they can look at enhancing that experience, especially for kids that are struggling," she said.

Colleen said she hopes sports can accommodate more mixed-gender co-ed teams. She said kids just want to fit in.

"It would be nice to give them that middle lane where they can figure it out, feel comfortable while they're figuring it out, until they decide where their authentic self is."

Colleen said she's "super proud" of Kahnay.

"He has been courageous through all of this," she said.

"Kahnay has taught me so much that I never really knew and understood, so he's been a great teacher. [It's] amazing for me to continue to grow through his eyes, so that's been awesome."

Josh Koldon, head coach of the St. James Seals, has been Kahnay's swim coach for a year, but knew him from the pool before his transition.

He said he hopes Kahnay continues to swim.

"Sports tend to get named as a boys club or a girls club … it's really important to show that inclusiveness and make people comfortable in their own skin and allow them to compete however they wish," said Koldon.

"Watching him come back after the pandemic and post-transition, he's definitely been a lot happier. He enjoys the water a lot more."

2,000 attend new Tunisia opposition alliance demo


AFP - 

A crowd estimated at more than 2,000, lower than expected, took part Sunday in the first demonstration of a new alliance to oppose a power grab by President Kais Saied.

"We shall overcome," and "We are united, not divided," read banners of the National Salvation Front protesters gathered in front of the municipal theatre on Bourguiba Avenue, a traditional hub of demonstrations in central Tunis.


© FETHI BELAIDDemonstrators said they were disappointed by the numbers who turned out to the first public show of support for the National Salvation Front

"The people want... respect for the constitution and a return to democracy," they chanted.

Veteran opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi announced the formation of the new alliance on April 26 to "save" Tunisia from deep crisis following Saied's power grab last year.

Chebbi, 78, was a prominent opponent of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's rule.

Demonstrators said they were disappointed by the numbers that turned out for the first public show of support for the alliance.

"A larger crowd" was expected, said Salah Tzaoui, a 57-year-old teacher, especially by those who had lived under Ben Ali who was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising that sparked the Arab Spring revolts around the region.

Saied -- a former law professor elected in 2019 amid public anger against the political class -- on July 25 sacked the government, suspended parliament and seized wide-ranging powers.

He later gave himself powers to rule and legislate by decree, and seized control over the judiciary.

"He wants to govern alone. It's not possible. I'm here for my children and grandchildren," Tzaoui told AFP.

Khaled Benabdelkarim, a 60-year-old fellow teacher who voted for Saied three years ago, said the president had "betrayed the people and stolen democracy. He has no political project, no economic project."

The National Salvation Front comprises five political parties including Saied's nemesis the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, along with five civil society groups involving independent political figures.

Saied's initial power grab was welcomed by many Tunisians sick of the often-stalemated post-revolution political system.

But an increasing array of critics say he has moved the country down a dangerous path back towards autocracy in what was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring.

Saied has argued that the North African country's 2014 constitution allowed him to take "exceptional measures".

fka/hc/it

New Goldman Sachs policy gives bosses unlimited days off - The Telegraph

IMAGINE THE HUE & CRY IF UNIONS ASKED FOR THAT

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc will allow its partners and managing directors to take as much time off as they want under a new "flexible vacation" scheme to promote "rest and recharge," The Telegraph reported on Saturday, citing an internal memo.

The Wall Street bank memo said that, as of May 1, there will be no cap on paid leave and senior staff can "take time off when needed without a fixed vacation day entitlement," the newspaper added.

All employees are expected to take at least 15 days' leave per year from next January, with at least one week of consecutive time off, the report cited the memo as saying.

Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This change is significant for Wall Street banks, whose employees work extremely long hours. It comes about two months after a group of first-year Goldman Sachs analysts complained in March of being overworked and threatened to quit within six months unless conditions improved.

(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)

Moderate doses of zinc could help treat, prevent cancers - Israeli study



By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH - Monday
The Jerusalem Post
© (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)


Zinc is a trace mineral, meaning that the body only needs small amounts, and yet it is necessary for almost 300 enzymes to carry out vital chemical reactions. A major factor in the creation of DNA, growth of cells, building proteins, healing damaged tissue and supporting a healthy immune system, zinc is also important to wound healing and maintaining one’s sense of taste and smell.

The 24th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, it is found in chicken, red meat, fortified breakfast cereals, beans, nuts, almonds, avocados, blackberries, pomegranates, raspberries, guavas, cantaloupes, apricots, peaches, kiwifruit and blueberries. The concentration of zinc in such foods depends upon its level in the soil. With a varied diet, your body usually gets enough zinc.

Including zinc in your diet every day is safe if it’s within the recommended daily allowance, which is eight or nine milligrams for women and 11 mg. for adult men. Consumption of an excess amount can cause health problems. Exceeding 40 mg. per day of elemental zinc can cause flu-like symptoms such as fever, coughing, headache and fatigue.

Besides being involved in the production of enzymes, can it fight cancer?

IMAJ, the Israel Medical Association Journal, carries a five-page analysis by Dr. Amos Gelbard of the Zefat [Safed] Academic College that shows zinc as having the potential to treat malignancies. Gelbard has written widely on a variety of medical issues, looked at many studies and updated a preliminary study of the subject that he wrote for Harefuah, the Hebrew-language journal of the association in 2017.


© Provided by The Jerusalem PostDividing cancer cell (credit: INGIMAGE)

His analysis of 40 studies around the world shows deficiency of zinc in cancer patients, who tend to have more and faster disease progression and lower rates of survival. Studies began on healthy and cancerous tissue in the lab and continued on mice and rats. Promising results were confirmed in two studies on human cancer patients.

The Indian Journal of Medical Research published a study titled “Zinc: A promising agent in dietary chemoprevention of cancer.”

A large body of evidence suggests that a significant percentage of deaths resulting from cancer could be avoided through greater attention to proper and adequate nutrition. Although many dietary compounds have been suggested to contribute in the prevention of cancer, there is strong evidence to support the fact that zinc may be of particular importance in host defense against the initiation and progression of cancer, according to the authors of this study.

“Remarkably, 10% of the US population consumes less than half the recommended dietary allowance for zinc and is at increased risk for zinc deficiency.... Dietary deficiencies in the intake of zinc can contribute to single and double-strand DNA breaks and oxidative modifications to DNA that increase risk for cancer development.”

Zinc deficiency in humans is also associated with an increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, according to the study.

“Zinc might prevent cancer through its effect on angiogenesis and tumor progression. Zinc may also play an important role in the maintenance of DNA integrity in normal prostate epithelial cells by modulating DNA repair and damage response proteins.... In addition, findings support the role of zinc transporters as tumor suppressors in the prostate... restoration of high zinc levels in malignant cells could be efficacious in the treatment and prevention of cancer.

“Based on the accumulated data shown in this review,” concluded Gelbard, “one may conclude that zinc supplementation not only fixes the zinc deficiency found in cancer patients but also treats cancer as a whole.”

While more clinical studies are needed to prove its efficacy to oncologists, “it is therefore recommended that zinc become a part of cancer treatment protocol, sooner rather than later.”

Medical societies and health-care companies may be too close for comfort

Joel Lexchin, Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management, York University, Canada - Thursday
The Conversation

There are three different types of organizations for doctors in Canada: ones that license doctors to be able to practise and ensure that they are competent; ones that develop programs to train family doctors and specialists; and medical societies.

Medical societies are voluntary membership organizations primarily for doctors who share a common expertise in either a medical specialty (e.g., cardiology) or a common interest in a particular area of practice (e.g., rural medicine).

Societies serve important purposes: they provide continuing professional education to their members, they advocate to government and others on behalf of their members and the patients that they treat and they promote continual improvement in their area of knowledge.

Because of the nature of their work, medical societies are more likely than the other types of organizations to have interactions with companies that make drugs, medical devices or that develop medical technology. And they often receive money from these health-care companies.

Relationships with industry

There have been reports that recommendations from societies have been influenced by financial conflicts-of-interest and calls for societies to transform their modes of operation to prevent the appearance or reality of undue industry influence on their actions.

In an article that I recently published, I looked into the relationship between Canadian medical societies and health-care companies. There are 65 specialty societies listed on the website of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Twenty-three of these societies get sponsorships from companies for their general activities and 25 get money for their annual conferences. None of the societies say how much money they get from individual companies and only two make public the total amount that they get through donations.

When societies get money from companies, they usually feature the companies’ logos on their websites and doctors can also hyperlink to the websites of those companies.

Alarmingly, only 10 societies have public policies about how to deal with their interactions with companies. The absence of a policy about sponsorships is consistent with previous research about other aspects of the interactions between Canadian medical societies and health-care companies. Adrienne Shnier, a lawyer and adjunct professor at York University’s School of Health Policy & Management, and I found that these societies’ policies on industry involvement in continuing medical education were generally weak or non-existent.

Canadian medical societies are no different from those in other countries. Out of 131 Italian medical societies, 29 per cent had manufacturers’ logos on their web page, 4.6 per cent had an ethical code covering relationships with industry, 6.1 per cent published an annual financial report and 64.9 per cent received sponsorships for their last conference.

Industry influence

Does any of this really matter? Should we care about these relationships? There is good evidence that we should. When doctors hyperlink to company websites, they are directly exposed to information generated by those companies about their products.

A comprehensive review, of which I was one of the authors, examined the relationship between exposure to information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity and cost of physicians’ prescribing. In studies that found an association between pharma company information and prescribing, the result was either higher prescribing frequency, higher costs or lower prescribing quality. Some studies found no association, and no studies found an improvement in prescribing behaviour.

For medical societies, receiving money from companies is associated with taking actions that are favourable to the interests of those companies. Contraception guidelines released in 2011 by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) that endorsed the use of two oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin, were an almost identical copy of a consensus statement from a workshop sponsored by Bayer, the maker of these pills. The SOGC received funding from Bayer and its executive vice-president defended the guidelines.

In guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic non-cancer pain, those produced by four organizations with conflicts of interest with opioid manufacturers had multiple “red flags,” meaning items known to introduce potential bias.

In 2009, the American Society of Hypertension partnered with its then largest donor, pharma company Daiichi Sankyo, to create a training program for the company’s sales representatives who visit doctors’ offices.

Disclosure and transparency

Medical societies need to demonstrate to their membership and to the patients they serve that their actions are not influenced by who gives them money. There are some simple measures they can undertake to help achieve that objective.

All societies should have detailed policies about interactions with commercial entities. They should publish the amounts they get from individual companies so that everyone can see what percent of their budget comes from sponsorships. Acknowledging sponsors is appropriate, but hyperlinking to their websites is not and should be stopped.

Medical societies perform valuable work, but if there are doubts about who that work benefits, that’s not good for anyone.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Why Big Pharma must disclose payments to patient groups

How Big Pharma’s free samples encourage your doctor to prescribe more expensive drugs

In 2019-2021, Joel Lexchin received payments for writing a brief on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for Goodmans LLP and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for presenting at a workshop on conflict-of-interest in clinical practice guidelines. He is a member of the Foundation Board of Health Action International and the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written.

Canada's premiers are missing a real chance to fix our ailing health-care system

Tom McIntosh, Professor, Politics and International Studies, University of Regina 

THE CONVERSATION


When Canada’s premiers doubled down earlier this year on their demand for a $28 billion unconditional increase in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT), they missed an opportunity to finally achieve the kind of health-care reform our underperforming system has been told it needs over and over again.

The rationale for this demand is that the system is chronically underfunded (itself a debatable contention), and this is supposedly because, as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is fond of tweeting: “Ottawa used to fund 50 per cent of health care costs and now only funds 22 per cent of those costs.”

The premiers are also suggesting they’re being modest in their demands. They’re not asking for a return of the 50/50 deal struck in the 1960s, but only that Ottawa up its share to 35 per cent.

As I’ve argued previously, the premiers’ demand fundamentally misrepresents the history of health-care financing in Canada.

Read more: The disingenuous demands of Canada's premiers for $28 billion in health-care funding

They have forgotten that the 50/50 deal ended in 1977 with the full consent of the provincial governments. Since then, the size of the federal cash transfer for health has been subject to both intense federal-provincial diplomacy and federal unilateralism.

Their misleading take on history aside, the premiers seem determined that any increase in health funding from Ottawa pertains to the more or less unconditional general CHT, set at $45 billion to the provinces in 2022-23 — and not part of an agreement that might specify priorities for action and reform on their part.
Health accords didn’t bring about change

It’s clear that national accords, like those in 2000, 2003 and 2004, did little to effect real change in the system, although the 2004 Health Accord did provide stable and predictable increases in the CHT.

When the 2004 accord expired in 2017, neither the federal nor the provincial governments were in the mood for another grand bargain. Instead, Ottawa took a very different tack. It agreed to a 3.5 per cent annual increase in the CHT (up from a three per cent from 2014 to 2017) and to provide an additional $11.5 billion in targeted funding for improvements to community and mental health care.

In order to receive the cash, provinces had to sign bilateral agreements that set out, in varying degrees of detail, where and how the money would be spent.

As a colleague and I have argued elsewhere, these bilateral agreements, though still imperfect, are a markedly improved way of increasing transparency about where health-care dollars go.

They could also serve as an accountability tool for measuring progress focused not just on fixing but actually improving Canada’s publicly administered health-care system.

In all likelihood, Ottawa will want to continue what it started in 2017 and tie any significant funding increase to a new set of bilateral agreements based on priorities chosen by the provinces. It’s just as likely that this is what the premiers are really trying to avoid.

The impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic presents us with a unique opportunity to rethink and reform public health care in Canada.

There is no doubt that the system was hit hard — its capacity was stretched, its workforce took a still uncalculated toll and all manner of service delivery was interrupted. Most notably, surgical wait times (already a serious problem in Canada’s system) were made worse, with one report indicating Ontario alone had a backlog of a million surgical procedures.

Read more: How to solve Canada's wait time problem

Furthermore, the pandemic exposed profound problems in long-term care and community and mental health-care systems.

It’s precisely because of so many simultaneous challenges that we should be thinking not just of rebuilding Canadian health care, but undertaking the necessary and long demanded changes that would create a 21st-century publicly funded and administered health-care system.

There are two likely scenarios.

In the first, Ottawa agrees to a significant increase in the CHT and the provinces simply take the money without making any of the necessary changes to how and what services are delivered (much as the Senate concluded happened with the $40 billion provided by the 2004 Health Accord). At best, that means we return to a pre-pandemic status quo in which the provincial systems continue to lose ground.

In the second, new agreements target the funding to remake the health-care workforce, make better progress on primary health-care reform, reconfigure long-term care, build real community-based mental health care or reconfigure the continuum of care to manage wait times on an ongoing basis.
Co-operation from premiers needed

The second will not happen without some form of conditionality, transparency and accountability from the premiers themselves. Unfortunately, the 2017 bilateral agreements contain no obligation on the provinces’ part to report on achievements relative to their commitments.

Asking provinces to report to the federal government on how they manage their constitutional responsibilities for health care could be taken as a violation of provincial sovereignty. But they should not refuse to report to their own residents.

It’s hardly inappropriate for Ottawa to insist that provinces report to their residents on any targeted funding aimed at priorities the provinces themselves commit to tackling.

So, unless and until the premiers agree to set out — perhaps in a new set of bilateral agreements — how they intend to spend and report on the 62 per cent increase in transfers they are demanding to actually bring about real change in their respective health systems, Ottawa should refuse. And Canadians themselves should just say no.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Tom McIntosh received funding through the University of Calgary for a study of the 2017 bilateral health care accords.

Over 40,000 have died from COVID-19 in Canada, but hospitalizations are falling again

Sean Boynton - Friday
 Global News

At least 40,000 people across Canada have died after contracting COVID-19 since the pandemic began more than two years ago, according to provincial data, and more than 70 people are still dying per day.

Yet hospitalizations and confirmed cases have fallen over the past two weeks, suggesting the sixth wave may be coming to an end.

As of Friday, 40,217 fatalities have been confirmed by provinces and territories to date.

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Canada’s COVID-19 death toll could be thousands higher than official count: report

Experts have previously said the true death toll could be thousands higher than the official count due to gaps in data collection, suggesting around two-thirds of all COVID-19-related deaths may have been missed.

Most provinces have shifted to reporting COVID-19 data weekly, a majority of which report on Thursdays. The official death toll surpassed 40,000 on May 12, while Ontario and Quebec — which still report daily — added another 48 deaths combined on Friday.

The seven-day average of new deaths has hovered around 70 for the past two weeks, plateauing from the near-record of 165 seen during the fifth wave early this year.

The dozens of new deaths per day comes despite signs the sixth wave is waning.

As of Friday, the seven-day average of daily lab-confirmed cases sits just above 4,630, down nearly 50 per cent from the rate seen a month ago.

The number of people in hospital currently sits at 5,664, according to the latest data, down more than 10 per cent from two weeks ago.

That includes 363 people being treated in intensive care units, a number that has also ticked downward after rising throughout April.

Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said on May 6 that cases appear to have plateaued in some provinces and are falling in others, though the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remains high in some parts of the country.

Tam had warned nearly a month before that Canada was in the midst of a sixth wave, driven by the BA.2 subvariant of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The BA.2 subvariant is believed to be even more infectious than Omicron and is also leading to some reinfections of previous cases, according to Tam and other public health officials and experts.

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Tam and her provincial counterparts have said the number of confirmed cases being reported are likely an undercount of the true number of cases, which could be up to 10 times higher. Many parts of the country no longer provide laboratory tests for a majority of people after capacity was overwhelmed by the spread of Omicron in late 2021.

At the same time, those officials have moved away from widespread mandates toward allowing Canadians to make decisions on how to protect themselves from the latest wave based on their own personal health, as well as the setting they are in and the amount of transmission in their community.

Most provinces and territories have loosened all or nearly all of the public health restrictions they had imposed to combat previous waves of the pandemic.

Tam warned on April 1 that the country is in a period of pandemic transition that might see further waves of COVID-19 cases this year.

"We anticipate that progress will not be linear, and there will likely be more bumps along the way, including resurgence in cases this spring, and likely also in the fall and winter," she told a news briefing that day.

She said Canadians should keep wearing face coverings and ensure vaccinations are up to date amid rising case counts and reduced public health measures.

"I think the bottom line is everybody right now should still wear that mask and keep those layers of measures, no matter where you are in this country," she said.

Health officials are continuing to remind Canadians that vaccinations, including boosters, are the only way through the pandemic.

Although 90 per cent of the eligible population aged five and over have received at least one vaccine dose, and 86 per cent are considered fully vaccinated with two doses, less than half of all Canadians have received a third dose.

Boosters are considered critical to help prevent serious illness from Omicron, which has been proven to be more resilient to existing vaccines.

Vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna are developing a new generation of shots that will be designed to target more transmissible strains like Omicron.

— with files from the Canadian Press