Blog

Education
Clea Emerald

Research Involving Human Subjects: Is Nova Scotia Ready?

For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that in clinical research/clinical trials, you, as a participant, will receive the Cadillac of care: no wait times for imaging, diagnostic tests, prompt medical attention if you experience what is referred to as an Adverse Event (AE). This highlights the sad reality that in Nova Scotia with a deeply challenged health care system (shortage of medical personnel, equipment, IT infrastructure), your best bet to receive top-notch care, may be enrolling in a clinical trial.

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Community
Clea Emerald

A Digital Health Perspective

the information in the Your Health NS (YHNS) app is disjointed and partially inaccurate, so if one of the purposes of the app is to allow my future primary care provider, or god forbid, a paramedic or ER doc, to make sense of my medical history in NS; it is NOT going to happen with YHNS.
So my question is: what is the actual PURPOSE of this app for the citizens, and those (including our government officials), who have access to it?

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Education
editor

The Supreme Court hearing of “Gary” Pro Se: Property Rights and a Constitutional Question

The Judge listened and seemed very interested in this new approach and agreed to allow me to argue the constitutionality of legislation that has enabled this building official to violate my rights. It will be heard on Dec 19th. We got into some merits of the case, after I presented, the Judge then questioned the municipality that the case against me is lacking in merit, and positioned to the solicitor perhaps they might want to ask themselves if it’s worth pursuing after I pointed to legislation showing that my structure is within the limits of the regulations, and in a zone that allows for accessory buildings without a main building on the lot.

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Community
Mary Ella

Dying with dignity?

I quickly learned that Canada was the Number One country in the world using MAiD and had more deaths due to it than any other country. This was disheartening to say the least.

Along with being the Number One country using MAiD we were also the leading country in organ donations, and some organs are being sold to other countries.

This was a lightbulb moment. More research led me to find that MAiD was being offered to veterans: some suffering from PTSD and others who are homeless because our government refuses to give them what they need to survive.

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Health
olivercresswell

Bill 419

Interestingly PHIA already has provisions – 31(l) and 38(1)(g) – which allow for the Minister to collect personal health information for the purpose of planning and management of the health system. It also already contains provisions for the Minister to collect that information for the purposes of creating or maintaining an electronic health record at 31(o). The difference now, however, seems to be that custodians will no longer be able to refuse to disclose your personal health information to the government.

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Legal
amanda_ridding

The Master Rulebook

TO BE CLEAR, policy is NOT law! Nor should policy be made a legislative enactment as defined by the meaning of “regulation” under subsection 2 (1) of the Statutory Instruments Act, seen and established in Canadian Statute.

So if the rule maker makes a new rule which allows this rule maker to share their rule making power and blend their rule making power with the administrators (executive government), would you not agree the rule maker who made a rule to share or blend their rule making power without a rule existing in the Master Rulebook to make that rule, BROKE THE RULES of the Master Rulebook?

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Health
pairodocs

Save the Planet, Kill Your Patient

The most obvious implication of this plan would be a new generation of physicians and surgeons who are less competent and more “woke” than their predecessors, which is terrifying enough in and of itself: If I’m about to have my gallbladder removed, I want my surgeon to be excellent at removing gallbladders and I don’t care one iota whether he or she can quote Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. And let’s face it, there are only so many hours in a week. Every hour a medical resident spends learning about “anti-racism” and “analyzing the world through the lens of power” is one hour not spent practicing gallbladder surgery.

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Community
olivercresswell

War is Good for Nothing

They say that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Yet sadly, while this weekend marks the 104th observation of Remembrance Day, the world is once again at war.
Many of us grew up attending often large ceremonies at memorials or cenotaphs where elderly veterans were the center of a deeply emotional and reverential experience. Perhaps the waning of such services is a sign only that WWI and WWII are now moving beyond living memory, but there are plenty of other wars and veterans of them deserving of our recognition. A fact which tells me that we don’t remember very well.

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Education
olivercresswell

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?!

Children in the protest group held signs that read “Let us be kids”, while others read “Educate don’t indoctrinate” and “We are parents, not right wing groups.” There were people of all ages present, and a myriad of faiths and races. It was a truly heterogenous group that came together to voice their concerns on the material being taught to their children in schools.
One of the books in question is Beyond the Basics, a resource for educators created by Action Canada targeting children as young as 6 years old.

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Community
olivercresswell

Nova Scotia’s Wildfire Response

Fires are still raging across Canada. A large area of Upper Tantallon was the first area in Nova Scotia to burn on Sunday May 28th, followed swiftly by the ongoing fire in Shelburne. At one point there were 10 fires raging across Nova Scotia in the past few weeks, with hundreds more across the country.

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