Specialized Trans-Clinic Referrals Rising

"[The percentage of trans and nonbinary children undergoing surgery dropped in 2022 as hospitals in Canada were forced to deal with the catch-up of pandemic-driven surgical backlogs]. But the private clinics just kept churning them through."

"The fact that you can't get the numbers [of trans-surgeries] from private clinics ... it's very cloak-and-dagger. They're still billing OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan]. That's tax dollars. That should be publicly accessible information. We need to see these numbers and ask questions."

"If this was just about the schools, and just about kids being allowed to wear what they want and say what they want and be called whatever name they want and it stopped there, who would care? But medicine got involved."

Medical practitioner familiar with trans medicine, requesting anonymity to avoid professional repercussions

"[Trans teens are known to be at  higher risk of harassment and cyberbullying. Early access to surgery may reduce the bullying, or help facilitate] age-appropriate romantic and sexual development in adolescents who may otherwise be prevented from engaging in these activities due to gender dysphoria."

Authors of a recent review on surgical and ethical concerns of gender affirming surgery in teens

 

A new analysis on medical care of trans children indicates that hundreds of adolescents in Canada have undergone "top surgery"; double mastectomies for female-to-male makeovers in the past five years. In 2018-19 there were 536 hospitalizations and day surgery visits for bilateral mastectomies for gender reassignment surgery. By 2022-23, that number had risen sharply to 985, reflecting data compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Youth 18 and under saw 602 cases of a total of 4,071 visits involving gender-affirming mastectomies or breast reductions since 2018. Of the 602 involved, 303 reflected teens of age 17 and younger, with the youngest being 14 years of age. The data do not include hospitals in Quebec, along with surgeries performed in private clinics. One such private clinic in Mississauga, Ontario, the McLean Clinic, describes its surgeons as "industry pioneers" in top surgery. 

 

Top surgery includes mastectomies and breast reductions in people recognized at birth as female, and the reverse -- breast augmentation for those born male who are transitioning to female. According to one specialist in transgender health issues, "50 to 70 percent will go to McLean" when applying for OHIP coverage for those looking for taxpayer-funded top surgery.

 

Most provinces in Canada cover the cost of the mastectomy itself, but not several thousand dollars or more in extra add on fees for “chest contouring." Photo by Getty Images

Removing breasts to achieve a flatter, masculinized torso characterizes female-to-male chest surgery, to align the person's physical presence with their gender identity to reduce gender dysphoria, defined as persistent distress accompanying the mismatch between the identifying gender and birth gender. Uncertainties exist relating to the long-term health effects, the potential for regret and whether trans identity will be lasting.

Society in general is polarized about the complex issues involved -- from health professionals, human rights groups and school boards approving the new open gender theology and the increasingly commonplace issues around transitioning, inclusive of gender-blocking drugs administered to children at and pre-puberty and surgical procedures that are life-changing and enduring being undertaken with little research being done respecting the possibility of future harm.

Above all, parents are confused and upset about the new role assigned them by many school boards and hospitals as non-involved bystanders in their children's futures. Where instructions go out to teachers and to health staff to pay attention solely to the claims of a child and to studiously avoid involving parents in requests to change pronouns, names and recognition of an alter-gender choice; honouring and respecting a child's choice, negating the parental role in guidance and nurturing their child.

 

New rules will help 8-yr-old Warner down the road. CTV News

 

The first country to authorize legal gender transitions in 1972, Sweden last year began limiting mastectomies for teenage girls to research settings. "The uncertain state of knowledge calls for caution", warned the head of the country's National Board of Health and Welfare. 

A dramatic shift in the sex ratio of children and teens referred to specialized  gender identity clinics across the country, from predominantly young boys to children born female accounts for the rise in surgeries. It was found that 34 percent of those considered female at birth were referred for top surgery, according to a study involving 174 trans and nonbinary children and teens who were referred to ten gender identity clinics in Canada. At time of referral, most were 15 or 16 years of age.

Typically, for a double mastectomy, two incisions are made on the bottom border of the pectoral muscle or chest area. "The skin is then lifted to surgically remove the breast tissue underneath", according to the McLean Clinic's website. The nipples are removed, resized and repositioned by grafting "to suit the new masculine appearance of the chest".

Performed under general anesthetic, this is a day-surgery procedure taking approximately two hours to completion. Bruising, wound infections and scarring can result as complications. Nipple sensitivity is lost, along with the future capability of breastfeeding, should a pregnancy eventuate at some future date. The American Academy of Pediatrics is endorsed a gender-affirming approach to care promoting "optimal physical mental and social well-being". That major medical group suggests eligibility for gender-affirmative surgery in teens should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Referrals growth to specialized clinics has been linked to greater awareness and social acceptance, allied with the teaching of gender identity in school settings, according to expert opinion. Why the phenomenon of gender dysphoria appears to be more common in girls is as yet unknown. "Decisions for care should be made by youth, their families and their health-care providers, who are best-positioned to support them", states the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital.

"What we do know is that regret does take place, and it does take place later on in life."

"If we know that people can come to this realization that maybe this may have not been the best decision for them, if that takes place after five years or ten years, we don't have all the information to allow patients to make an informed decision."

"[For such a permanent decision as the removal of healthy breasts], I'm always looking at the why, and because that hasn't been answered yet, that's what leads to my ambivalence."

"What all this says to me is that we need to be much more thoughtful in our approach and in our assessments."

Trans medicine specialist, speaking anonymously for fear of 'transphobic' labelling

Environmentally Manipulative Skills Predating Homo Sapiens

"Waterlogged deposits ... preserved two interlocking logs joined transversely by an intentionally cut notch."

"This construction has no known parallels in the African or European Palaeolithic."

"We also recovered four wood tools ... including a wedge, digging stick, cut log and notched branch. The finds show an unexpected early diversity of forms and the capacity to shape tree trunks into large combined structures."

"These new data not only extend the age range of woodworking in Africa but expand our understanding of the technical cognition of early hominins, forcing re-examination of the use of trees in the history of technology."

Professor Larry Barham, Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool

 

"That the wood has remained in place and intact for half a million years is extraordinary. And it gives us this real insight, this window into this time period."

"It’s completely changed my view of what people were capable of at that time."

Geoff Duller, professor of geography and Earth sciences, University of Aberystwyth, United Kingdom

The excavation team uncovers the wooden structure along the bank of Zambia's Kalambo River.  Professor Larry Barham/University of Liverpool

Archaeologists at work in Zambia discovered the remains of a wood structure, believed to represent the oldest wooden structure in the world dated to about 476,000 years ago. Which places these newly-discovered, human-worked and shaped logs to a position close to a hundred times more ancient than the construction of Egypt's pyramids. The remains were discovered, surprisingly intact, despite their venerable lineage, at Kalambo Falls in the central African nation of Zambia.

It is a region considered to be an archaeological treasure geology by scientists, where evidence of human habitation can be detected back in the early Stone Age period, forward to the modern era. Professor Barham describesd how his team discovered preserved wooden remains they were able to date to almost half a million years ago, published in a paper in the journal Nature.

The area's  high water table aided in the preservation of organic matter that would otherwise rot in a short period of time through exposure to the elements, and decompose, buried deep underground. The team meticulously worked to recover a 1.4-metre piece of wood notched in a manner that would do justice to present-day log cabin construction methodology. 

Modern humans are thought by archaeological science to have appeared some 350,000 years ago in the evolutionary timeline. Yet these newly-discovered structures serve to predate even the appearance of Homo sapiens, by thousands of years. At least one piece of wood indicated evidence of having been shaped with a broad, cleaver-like edge. "We interpret this object as a portion of tree trunk cut to size, indicating capacity to work wood at a large scale", the scientific team noted in their published paper.

The paper observed that Kalambo's dense forest cover teamed with a high water table would have resulted in frequent flooding, both of which provided the necessity and the means -- given the raw resources right at hand -- for the construction of "a raised platform, walkway or foundation for dwellings". Human ingenuity is never to be under-rated, even during its most primal appearance; an intelligence designed by nature to think ahead and seek out solutions to problems associated with ensuring survival in a raw world.

The wooden structure was found at an archaeological site upstream of Kalambo Falls in Zambia. Professor Geoff Duller/Aberystwyth University

Photo: Larry Barham/University of Liverpool

"You could see the individual chop marks really clearly. It's extraordinary. Everything just looks so fresh you think 'it can not be this old'."

"And when Geoff's dates came through, 477,000 [years old], I thought wow! It's just amazing. We were lucky."

"They are locking something in. So it restricts the movement and that's intentional. And nothing has been seen like that the archaeological record at this time and really they won't be seen again until maybe 9,000 years later, so a huge gap in time between what these people could do 477,000 years ago and then when we see that again in the archaeological record, in this case in the European record."

"So that's how I understand it, so this a framework on which things could then be added, like a platform."

 "It's what I call a disruptive discovery. I never expected it. And it took me a while before I appreciated what we were looking at. It didn't look very nice, to be honest. But it is much more complex than I thought and it suggests to me that early humans, early hominins before us, were actually capable of doing things which we would marvel at if we were doing it ourselves. So it's not just the stone tools, it's the wood as well. They've got this repertoire of materials now. They can transform their environment. They can build things that are lasting. That's new."

Professor Larry Barham

 

"What I've been involved in is a method called luminescence dating and this enables us to fill in this gap that other dating techniques really can't touch."

"And in particular what's useful about it is that we can apply it to the sands that the river deposits themselves, so we don't have to find special materials, we don't have to find tephra [volcanic ash] or anything particularly, it's just common minerals that occur in these sediments."

"And we can date those to give an age range."

Geoff Duller, Professor of Quaternary Science, Aberystwyth University

Cannabis Medical Use to Alleviate Mental Health Symptoms : Cannabis Use the Cause of Schizophrenia

"Our findings demonstrate an important increase in risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia after an episode of substance-induced psychosis or substance use without psychosis -- 163 times and ten times higher than the background risk in the general population."

"[Canada, which was the second country in the world after Uruguay to legalize cannabis is becoming] the world's laboratory for seeing what happens."

"You worry about long-term increases in the number of people living with schizophrenia."

Dr. Daniel Myran, assistant professor, University of Ottawa

 

"Frequently, people using cannabis are not aware of the associated risks for their mental health and need to be better informed."

"[Substance use is the rule, rather than the exception and people tend to have] zero literacy on the effects of cannabis on mental health."

"People should know what they are buying and I don't think that is the case."

Marco Solmi, medical director, First Episode Psychosis On Track service, The Ottawa Hospital 

Credit: Unsplash Public Domain

 

A new study led by Ottawa researchers -- one of the largest of its kind -- found that people treated in emergency departments with substance-induced psychosis had an 18.5 percent chance of developing schizophrenia within three years of treatment. This is the latest study highlighting mental health risks seen to be associated with the use of cannabis, striking young men in particular. Some Ottawa-area mental health specialists are seeing a "striking increase" in patients with significant psychiatric issues appearing to be linked to cannabis use. 

Annual rates of cannabis-induced psychosis increased across the province of Ontario by 220.7 percent between 2014 and 2021.Heightened risk of developing schizophrenia was also seen among those who visited emergency departments for substance use without psychosis. For this group the risk appeared significantly reduced, yet higher than the risk to the general population; 0.1 percent.

The research study which Dr. Myran, a researcher with Ottawa's Bruyere Research Institute, and an assistant professor at University of Ottawa guided, was published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry. Brief periods of hallucinations or delusions triggered by substance use or substance withdrawal are the hallmarks of substance-induced psychosis, while schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder characterized by disruptions in thought processes, perceptions, emotional responsiveness and social interactions.

According to the study, although amphetamine use is a risk factor as well, risk factors for diagnosis with schizophrenia are higher for cannabis than with other substances. Individuals had a 3.7 percent risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia within three years, who were treated in emergency for amphetamine use without psychosis -- a risk greater than 28 percent higher than the general population. Researchers studied health records of close to ten million people in Ontario between January 2008 and March 2022. They found 407,737 people had visited an emergency department for substance use, among the total.

People who had visited an emergency department with cannabis-induced psychosis held a 26 percent grater risk of developing schizophrenia within three years, a figure 242 times greater than the risk posed to the general population. Males between the ages of 14 and 24 were found to have the highest risk with over 40 percent in that age group who came to an emergency department with cannabis-induced psychosis being diagnosed with schizophrenia within three  years.

A sharp increase in emergency room visits for cannabis-induced psychosis in recent years had  strong links between cannabis-induced psychosis in young men with schizophrenia, although it is unclear how much of the increase could be related to the legalization of cannabis in 2018, or to other factors; for example the appearance of the pandemic. Dr. Myran spoke of potential policy implications related to these findings, in possibly discouraging the early use of cannabis.

Recommended delaying of the use of cannabis is linked to lower-risk cannabis guidelines until at least age 16, and preferably in the mid-20s. Cannabis use is seen to be highest among people under age 25. 2022 data from the federal government indicates that 27 percent of Canadians used cannabis over the previous year. With youth aged 16 to 19, the rate of  use was 29 percent and 50 percent in youth between the ages of 20 and 24. The survey found that 22 percent of people between 16 and 19 and 29 percent between 20 and 24 made use of cannabis at least five days each week.

Mental health specialists are alert to increases in psychiatric issues appearing to be linked to cannabis use. Dr. Jess Fiedorwicz, head of the department of mental health at The Ottawa Hospital, stated that specialists at the hospital had seen a "striking increase" in people presenting with significant psychiatric issues appearing as a result of cannabis use, at a time when surveys indicate a steady trend of increased cannabis use across the country. "We hope this study draws attention to this important but too often ignored public health issue", he pointed out.

"The high risk of cannabis use, particularly for young men, has important implications for public education and policies given global trends of increasing cannabis use and interest in the legalization of cannabis."

"I think in general the public is not aware as they could be about the risk."

Dr. Daniel Myran, lead author, study on links between drug use and schizophrenia

Water Intoxicaton -- How Much Water Is Too Much?

"My sister who lives in Indiana was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon."

"Her brain swelled to the point that it cut off the blood supply to her brain. All this happened apparently from water toxicity."

"On the Tuesday she drank a lot of water [at one point four bottles in fewer than 20 minutes]. All this caused her brain tissue to start swelling."

"By Tuesday evening she was unconscious in the hospital and never woke up again."

Brother of Ashley Miller Summers

Ashley Summers, of Indiana   (WLFI)

It is called water toxicity, alternately, water poisoning. And relatives of Ashley Miller Summers, 35, a mother of two, claimed that she died of water toxicity after she had consumed too much water including about two litres [four standard 500-mL bottles] within a twenty minute time-frame. When too much water is released from the kidneys diluting electrolytes in the body, it leads to water intoxication which may cause hyponatremia or low levels of sodium present in the blood.

 

Hyponatremia symptoms are inclusive of nausea and vomiting, low blood pressure, headaches, confusion or disorientation, fatigue and muscle cramps. Over the July 4 weekend, the young woman had been out boating, soon becoming severely dehydrated. Which led to a series of events described by her brother, leading her family to the conclusion she had overdosed as it were, on water.

Two months after her death, a report was issued from the Tippecanoe County Coroner that ruled Ashley Summers' death wasn't attributable directly to water toxicity. Carrie Costello, County Coroner, wrote her decision that laboratory tests and analyses along with a forensic autopsy led her to conclude that the young woman died as a result of a combination of heat stroke, alcohol intake, and an electrolyte imbalance. 

"Cerebral edema and herniation with anoxic brain injury due to electrolyte imbalance" described the unfortunate cause of death officially. Drinking too much water in too short a time frame can cause an electrolyte imbalance. However, in Ms. Summers' instance that was demonstrated unequivocally not to have been the cause of her death, the coroner ruled.

The amount of water people require to function in good health on a daily basis varies by individual and in any given situation. Citing research by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Mayo Clinic suggests 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 for women of water intake on a daily basis. The recommendation, it should be noted, is inclusive of fluid derived from a day's food, including any type of drinks as well as plain, potable water. 

Two litres per day is held to be a reasonable goal for most people, under ordinary circumstances.

"Someone said that she drank four bottles of water in that 20 minutes. And I mean, you know, average water bottle is, her bottle of water is like 16 ounces."

"So, that was 64 ounces that she drank in the span of 20 minutes. That’s half a gallon. That’s what you’re supposed to drink in a whole day."

Devon G. Miller

Ashley Summers was on the lake with her husband and two daughters when she began feeling ill. New York Post

Canada's Faulty WWII Memory

"The Canadian government should directly condemn SS Galicia, not honour it. It is  unbelievable this happened in the first place."

"Members of this division were involved in mass murder of Jews, Poles and Ukrainians during [the Second World War], and many of them did this before they joined this division."

"They're considered to be Nazi collaborators, and they are not regarded even as heroes in Ukraine by the Ukrainian government."

"They massacred entire villages of Polish residents in this region… including women and children because they were accused of being associated with Soviet partisans. This was just mass murder without any real justification."

"In addition to this, the SS Galicia Division was involved in other cases of violence. They took part in the suppression of the anti-Nazi uprising in Slovakia, and they also took part in the brutal and violent suppression of the anti-Nazi partisan movement in Yugoslavia."

Ivan Katchanovski, Ukrainian Canadian professor, University of Ottawa 

 

"Those units were involved in real acts of atrocities against Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime."

"The Nazi units, like the one he was involved with, did not give the victims of the Holocaust, the millions of them, Jews and others, an opportunity to live their lives, have children and grandchildren and live to be 98 years old."

"[It's] absolutely critical that we reflect back on Canada's absolutely awful, awful record of holding Nazis accountable for their crimes."

"We have failed at that -- we were a safe haven for so many that came in."

Wiesenthal Center president, CEO Michael Levitt 

"[The military division contributed to the deaths of six million Poles during the war, half of whom were Jewish." 

"This is a person who participated in an organization that was targeting Poles, was committing mass murders of Poles, not only the military personnel but also civilians." 

"For me, such people should not be present in public life and probably should be prosecuted."

Witold Dzielski, Poland's ambassador to Canada

The obtusely stunning performance -- during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Canada, preparing to address Parliament -- to reveal the invited presence of a Ukrainian WWII 'hero',

98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka by Parliamentary Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota as a surprise went sideways fairly quickly. "He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service" said Speaker Rota in introducing the nonagenarian invitee. The entire chamber burst out in an ovation of appreciation.

Only to soon enough discover him to be a Ukrainian who had voluntarily, during World War II, joined a Nazi SS division, fighting with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division known as well as the SS 14th Waffen Division, referred to as well as the First Ukrainian Division under the command of Nazi SS officers. Friday was the day that Yaroslav Hunka was feted by Parliament, and on Sunday, Speaker Rota apologized for the man's presence in Parliament, before a Jewish Ukrainian president no less, whose family had perished in the Holocaust.

Jewish groups in Canada and the world over were shocked, dismayed and angered, demanding at the very least an apology from the Canadian government, the rousing standing ovation honouring a Ukrainian Nazi, beyond belief. Poland too has demanded an apology. And has gone even further issuing a formal request for the man's extradition to Poland to stand trial for war crimes as a former officer of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division.

 

Yaroslav Hunka, right, waits for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Photo by Patrick Doyle /The Canadian Press

Calls for the resignation of House of commons Speaker Anthony Rota were swift in coming. And finally, on Tuesday, he did resign, under pressure from even several members of his own governing party. What stretches credulity is that everyone invited to appear in person at a parliamentary session is given a background security check, and in this instance it would have been no different. It was well known in North Bay and among Ukrainians that the man was a Nazi collaborator. That he was a resident of the Speaker's riding, fails to excuse Mr. Rota of ignorance of his past.

A website honouring the division that includes photographs of the man in his Nazi uniform offers ample details. The photographs that the professor posted on social media were viewed over three million times. The shameful episode on Parliament Hill has been reported in American, British, Polish and Australian legacy media. The Waffen-SS Galicia Division is well noted for its role in murdering civilians and its involvement during the war in bloody massacres.

At that point of the war after Hitler's Germany had invaded Russia, despite its pact with Germany as part of the Axis group, Soviet Russia allied itself with Canada, the United States, Britain and other Allied nations against Nazi Germany. The Ukrainian SS division dates from 1943 when Germany looked for allies to support its forces at a time when the Allies began gaining traction in the war and Germany became concerned the war was its to lose.

Recruitment of Ukraines to the SS made use of propaganda, one particularly appealing poster featuring an SS soldier in conflict with a caricature with the Star of David emblazoned on its arm. In the end, 80,000 Ukrainians volunteered for the SS Division with 12,000 making the final selection. Many more Ukrainians fought against the Nazis, with the Soviet military. Following war's end, the International Military Tribunal included the units of the Waffen SS like the Galicia division in its identifying them as criminal organizations. 

In Canada, there remain some nationalist Ukrainian-Canadians that view the 14th Waffen Division as heroes for fighting Soviet forces. Oakville, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta have sites where monuments honouring the Ukrainian SS troops were erected to express that pride. And while the monuments fail to state the Divisions as part of the Nazi SS, this is what they clearly are.  B'nai Brith Canada and the Canadian Polish Congress jointly called for their removal.

Finally, not a word from Chrystia Freeland, finance minister, and deputy prime minister of Canada. Whose own Ukrainian-Canadian background surely entitles her to make some pithy comments. Then again, perhaps not, given that her grandfather was in essence, little different from a Ukrainian member of a Waffen SS. He was stationed in German-occupied Poland, editor of a newspaper that parroted Nazi propaganda de-humanizing Jews, a collaborator himself.

In Thee We Trust

"Currently, deaths caused by errors are unmeasured and discussions about prevention occur in limited and confidential forums, such as a hospital's internal root cause analysis committee or a department's morbidity and mortality conference."

"These forums review only a fraction of detected adverse events and the lessons learned are not disseminated beyond the institution or department."

Johns Hopkins researchers, U.S. hospitals

 

"If there are as many wrongful deaths as the research suggests, many claims for compensation will follow, along with a revolution in medical procedures."

"Negligent physicians and hospitals will face high medical malpractice insurance premiums while those who observe high standards will see their fees decline."

"Most importantly, by getting the incentives right the medical culture will begin to change, from one that looks the other way when someone meets a premature end to one that vigilantly enforces and enhances high standards."

Lawrence Solomon, executive director, Consumer Policy Institute

McGill Office for Science and Society

Research emanating from leading institutions' researchers point out a rate of accidental death in health care outstrips the estimate of the National Safety Council of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which concludes that construction is the most dangerous industry in the United States. The 1991 Harvard Medical Practice Study in 1991 published a groundbreaking study that identified "Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients". 

In it came the shocking news that the U.S. health-care industry gave little attention to the unexpectedly high rates of medical error. Since then, similar findings were published by the Institute of Medicine, the Inspector General, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal in Canada. Published close to 20 years ago the CMAJ study estimated errors led to up to 23,750 preventable hospital deaths.

"One in 17 hospital patients are harmed by mistakes that sometimes turn deadly", read part of an expose published months earlier. A recent Second Street study stated that close to 2,100 patients died in Ontario alone last year while awaiting surgery. Properly prioritized for surgery with hospital resources available when needed, many if not most of those patients might still be alive.

In Canada, a shortfall in hospital capacity hasn't been caused by insufficient investment. Canada spends more on health care per capita as a percentage of GDP than any other OECD country which provides universal health care; 25% more than the OECD average. Despite which, Canada ranks close to the bottom in terms of physicians, hospital beds and equipment like MRI units and CT scanners.

 

Medical errors include preventable complications, diagnostic errors and communication breakdowns. (ChaNaWiT/Shutterstock)

 

Canada's medical system is heavily bureaucratized, heavily regulated. The Canadian health-care system is inefficient. Health care requires less bureaucracy and regulation, and greater accountability to enable medical resources to save lives. Needless death analyses in both the U.S. and Canada isolate a culture of secrecy. Dr. Ross Baker, professor emeritus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto speaks of an additional hurdle; politicians shunning accountability.

"I don't think politicians want to see this. [What exists is] a formidable blanket of secrecy, [where] nothing the nurses or doctors tell [investigators] about what had occurred that day will ever be made public." Such estimates fail to count needless deaths that occur in out-patient care at ambulatory surgical centres, in nursing homes, at medical clinics, or at home. Nor do they count what are untold numbers of cases where preventable medical injuries brushed the cusp of death.

Failure of regulation despite government's control over health care has been ignored for the most part. "Research has suggested that the amount of error in health care may not have changed" the academic journal BMJ Quality and Safety reported.

The current system of "self-regulation" within colleges of physicians and surgeons could be countered were health-care regulation to be geared to exposing poor practices and incompetence. Physicians regulating themselves makes little sense. Self-regulation incentives are wrong; doctors admitting their or their institution's failings would affect their reputations and by default their medical malpractice insurance premiums.

A necessary first step in making the health-care system accountable is the measurement of medical deaths, requiring the category of "medical error" to be available when filling out death certificates. A lack of proper identification of why and where patients died, poor practices by physicians and hospitals cannot be rectified without proper identification. Additionally, an "adverse events reporting system" should be established to enable people close to the deceased to report possible wrongful deaths.

Emily Jerry was two years old when she lost her life after a pharmacy technician filled her intravenous bag with more than 20 times the recommended dose of sodium chloride.

Courtesy of Chris Jerry

"Soldiers of God"

"This is a harrowing story of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage perpetrated on minors by a cult in the municipality of Socorro, Suragao del Norte."

"We are talking about over a thousand young people in the hands of a deceitful, cruel, and abusive cult ... real children are in danger, and time is of the essence."

"We cannot, we must not, look away."

Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros

 

"We urgently call upon the government, specifically our law enforcement agencies, to conduct immediate and thorough investigations into these incidents, secure the protection of the affected children, and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Time is of the essence and we fear that there could be more affected children who are unaccounted for, and whose lives and future are at risk."

"Our work to protect children doesn't end with the passage of laws; it begins there. It is of utmost importance that laws around protecting children from abuse and early marriage are not merely words on paper but are instead, rigorously implemented and enforced."
Alberto Muyot, chief executive, Philippines branch Save the Children

Socorro Bayanihan Services reportedly has at least 3,500 members

A group recognized as an exploitative, quasi-religious cult known as Omega de Salonera surfaced in 2017, instilling fear over a powerful earthquake in 2019 to lure people to come to the mountains where the cult's leaders, escaping scrutiny, commit "monstrous" abuses while operating a covert drugs operation whose activities are protected by their own private army.

Filipino lawmakers revealed that the group has up to 3,500 members, led by Jey Rence B Quilario, referred to as "The Messiah". The chairman of the Philippine senate committee on women and children used her congressional privilege to accuse Quilario and his associates of widespread exploitation, demanding action to address its existence and come to the rescue of the vulnerable children trapped within the group.

 

After an earthquake rocked the region, the cult exploited the natural disaster to lure thousands to its cause in its mountain lair

 

Another senator, Ronald Dela Rosa, accused the group's leaders as well of making "human shields" of cult members to avoid drug trafficking prosecution. He too demanded an immediate probe into the group's activities. Reports he received claim the group runs a methamphetamine laboratory operating out of an underground bunker located near the "White House" where Quilario and other cult leaders live, protected by a private army supported by a local extremist group.

Testimony was cited from adults and children who managed to escape the cult, a 15-year-old among them who spoke of having been forced into marriage with a 21-year-old man when she was 13. Quilario locked her in a room with the man, forcing her into sex, telling the man "he had the right to rape her" because they were, after all, married. 

 

Quilario, according to Senator Hontiveros, raped children himself, prevented minors from attending school, demanded up to 60 percent of members' pensions and welfare payments, and smuggled drugs. Young girls, affirmed Senator Dela Rosa, trapped within the cult were forced to have sex with Quilario before being married at age 12.

Anna Fionah L. Bojos, member of the Cebu for Human Rights NGO documented forced labour, children forced to haul sand and rocks. "Although the cult said it was voluntary labour on their part, they were actually monitored and disciplined for failure to do work", said Bojos, saying children were physically assaulted if work was considered unsatisfactory and sometimes sent to "foxholes" for up to a week of solitary confinement.

Children were also required to do "masi-masi" every day; physical exercises; jogging with a sack full of rocks; undergo obstacle challenges; firearm and bladed weapons handling; learn martial arts; swim and crawl in the mud full of waste and urine. Socorro Bayanihan Services deny the accusations, claiming children had been taught to "fabricate" such stories.

Since then, more former cult members have emerged, a 28-year-old former Agila Squad member (armed wing of Socorro Bayanihan Services) reporting that over 100 members were part of the squad, among them children as young as 12, undergoing combat training, told they were "soldiers of God" involved in a divine mission.

Canada, Once Again on the World Stage

"Amid the ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, sources have revealed that the Khalistani leader was found to be at flight risk in the United States and was on USA’s no-fly list in 2019."

"Meanwhile, in contradiction to Trudeau’s recent support to the Khalistani activist, it has been learned that Nijjar was also included in Canada's no-fly list in 2017–18."

YouTube

 

"Murdered Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was allegedly involved in crime since the 1980s and had connections with local goons from a young age, a detailed dossier prepared by Indian authorities, and accessed by NDTV, revealed. It further says Nijjar, who fled to Canada on a forged passport in 1996 and maintained a low profile as a truck driver there, travelled to Pakistan for arms and explosives training. He also allegedly ordered several killings and attacks in Punjab while taking refuge on Canadian soil."

"Later, he allegedly came in touch with Pakistan based KTF Chief, Jagtar Singh Tara. He also visited Pakistan in the garb of a Baisakhi jatha member in April 2012 and underwent an arms and explosive training there for a fortnight, the dossier said."

NDTV legacy news outlet

 

"In light of the current environment where tensions have heightened, we are taking action to ensure the safety of our diplomats."

"As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily adjust staff presence in India."

Jean-Pierre Godbout, spokesperson, Global Affairs Canada

 

"There is no question that India is a country of growing importance. And a country that we need to continue to work with."

"We're not looking to provoke or cause problems. But we are unequivocal around the importance of the rule of law and unequivocal about the importance of protecting Canadians and standing up for our values."

"We call upon the government of India to work with us to take seriously these allegations and to allow justice to follow its course."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

 

"[It appears Canada's allegations] are primarily politically driven."

"No specific information has been shared by Canada on this case. We are willing to look at any specific information; we have conveyed this to the Canadians."

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 9  Evan Vucci—POOL/AFP/Getty Images

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's accusation on Monday that the Indian government had a role in orchestrating an assassination of a Canadian Sikh embroiled in Khalistani agitation against India did not go down well in India. As a prime minister with a personal background in administrative malfeasance, lapse of ethical conduct, theatrical and embarrassing behaviour on the world stage, while at home pushing a woke agenda on mostly unwilling Canadians whom he refers to as 'racist' and 'homophobic' for their protests, and having alienated one end of the country from the other by his environmental politics, it is hard for many to take his accusations seriously.

 

In June of this year a Surrey, B.C. resident with citizenship in Canada, Hardeep Singh Nijjar -- described variously as a "Sikh community leader" and a "peaceful advocate for Sikh independence" as president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey -- was gunned down in the parking lot of the gurdwara by two masked thugs who fled the scene and whose identities remain unknown. In India, on the other hand, the man had a notorious reputation as a terrorist: a "terrorist fugitive from India who emigrated to Canada".

 

On his disastrously embarrassing 2018 trip to India, Justin Trudeau had been handed a list of "Khalistani operatives in Canada" by Amarinder Singh, at the time chief minister of Punjab province. Nijjar's name was on that list. Canada has a reputation of harbouring Sikh separatists. Khalistanis, as they are called, are known to be extremists and have been involved in violent incidents in the past, not the least of which was their bombing of Air India Flight 182, which killed 329 people -- most of whom were Canadian-Indian Hindus -- in mid-flight over Ireland in 1985.

 

A banner with the image of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple in Surrey, British Columbia (REUTERS)

Little wonder that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is convinced that Canada has done nothing to prevent the threat of violence against its diplomats assigned to Canada on the evidence, blatant and ignored. There are more incidents of agitation for a Punjab Khalistani homeland out of Canadian Sikh separatists than there is among Punjab majority-Sikh residents where it is now considered a non-issue. The provocations and threats emanate from among Canadian Sikh separatists who stage loud protests in Vancouver and Toronto with placards openly threatening Indian diplomats.

One parade float in Brampton Ontario glorified the 1984 assassination of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi by her trusted Sikh bodyguards. And then there was the issue of an unofficial Khalistani secessionist referendum held in the Toronto area a year ago, a referendum that Hardeep Singh Nijjar was deeply involved with. Billboards in Surrey in the aftermath of Nijjar's killing were emblazoned with "assassination wanted", listing names and photographs of Indian diplomats. 

Little wonder the government of India is convinced that Canada is wholly indifferent to the safety and security of its large expatriate Indian community, both Hindu and Sikh, living in Canada, almost two million in combined numbers, much less the large number of Indian students who come to Canada for their post-secondary education in a fellow democracy.

Supporters of the Khalistan movement, a push for an independent Sikh homeland in northern India, protest outside the Consulate General of India in Vancouver on Sept. 8. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Trudeau: "We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations"

"Trans people -- they exist in society, and they deserve inclusion, just like everyone else."

"We need to talk to people, teach them the right vocabulary, the proper words, at an age-appropriate time, in order to explain that inclusion is a good thing."

"We need to make sure that their trans and queer peers at school feel welcome."

Trans activist Celeste Trianon 

"Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country."

"We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations, and we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country -- you are valid and you are valued."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

 

"We know that there are a lot of folks that don't feel safe because of the rise in hate and division that's targeting vulnerable people."

"But then you see a lot of people coming together, and it shows the strength of solidarity, of us supporting each other, of having each other's back."

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh

 

"I think our parents should become knowledgeable about what their kids are being taught and what is important for them to learn in schools and what's important for parents to make decisions on with kids that are under 16 years old."

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs

 

"I don't want them to be educated on whether they are a girl or a boy."

"Let them be what they want to be."

"If he [her son] decides in his life, when he's an adult, if he wants to change, I'm OK with that."

Jashandeep Dhillon, mother in Regina

 

"[Children were being] bullied by teachers into changing their pronouns]."

"It's one thing to say, well, we have various people who have different feelings about sexuality." 

"It's a different thing to teach everybody that it is perfectly normal, and that you [the student] should look into that, if it's applicable to you."

David Low, rally organizer, Prince George

Protests and counter-protests over LGBTQ school policies took place in Toronto on Wednesday, with many more happening across the country. The initial protests were organized under the banner of '1 Million March 4 Children' to 'protect our children from indoctrination and sexualization,' according to the group’s website. Counter-protests took place in response, with thousands gathering at places like Queen’s Park. CBC

 

Everyone is invested in the education of society's children, starting with their parents, and ending with the schools they attend where children in public schools are trusted to be introduced to and instructed in the most basic requirements of literacy and numeracy, geography, practical economics, history and enrichment programs associated with sports, nature, and social culture. This is all preparation for adulthood, for children maturing and accepted within their greater society. The stern educator of long ago demanding instant obedience from his classroom has long since been replaced by an easy-going instructor encouraging students to familiarize themselves with themselves. 

Where once unruly children were sent to the principal's office for the vice-principal to mete out appropriate punishment for anti-social and/or destructive or disruptive behaviour, it is now verboten. Students whose classroom performance is mediocre are now encouraged not necessarily to study more diligently and take part in classroom discussions, but to consider themselves special and extraordinary. In today's classrooms students can be disruptive and even physically abusive and face no penalties. Stories of teachers being assaulted physically and a general aura of violence have become common. There seem to be no penalties, children will be children.

 

Protesters march down Elgin Street in Ottawa as they demonstrate against sexual orientation and gender identity programs in schools on Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

"Safety can't be guaranteed in class; the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario says three-quarters of its members report having experienced or witnessed violence committed against colleagues."

"On Monday, a 14-year-old girl in Whitby, Ontario stabbed another girl in school, seriously injuring her; meanwhile, in Oshawa, a 12-year-old girl had to be subdued with a taser after she attacked fellow students and a teacher with scissors, sending one child to hospital." 

Tasha Kheiriddin, journalist, National Post

Parents over the past several years have become increasingly perturbed over the agendas in schools their children attend. Where once parents scrutinized report cards for results, they now wonder what has been happening with their children as students in public schools when they read reports of school boards mandating that teachers not reach out to parents to discuss their child's newly-emerged preference to change their birth biology by assuming the persona of a gender other than that they were born with. The child requesting to be addressed with specific pronouns rejecting their birth gender has the final word.

 

Protesters and counter-protesters are shown in Charlottetown. (Alex McIsaac/CBC)

 

 At one time students in Canada's public schools were in the high percentiles of successful learning, passing their grades in above-average numbers, indicating that the Canadian education system was in fine form and doing justice to the needs of the active minds of their students engaged in learning basic academic subjects. That is no longer true. Canada has distinguished itself of late by being identified as the sole G7 country whose scores in math and science are "steadily declining", according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a concerning reality for parents expecting their children to be properly educated.

What does now also hugely concern parents of school-age children is the new acculteration dominating the news of children being encouraged through the school system to think deeply about their sexual identity; whether it coincides with their ideas, thoughts, proclivities and orientations. Boys with girlish tendencies, and girls who emulate boyish behaviour are now engaged in the kind of introspection that leads them to question their gender realities, boosted by the literature they are now exposed to in their school libraries.

Young children are now introduced to aromantic (absence of romantic attraction), asexual (absence of sexual attraction), pansexual (attraction to any gender) or demisexual (attraction requiring an emotional bond) 'normalcies'. The atmosphere in the classroom is one of complete abandonment of biological determination based in science and nature, in favour of gender fluidity and the ease with which children can decide they prefer to alter their gender identification because it's alluring to them, and fits more neatly into how they perceive themselves after exposure to the alternatives available to them.

Transitions in fundamental biology that puzzle their parents and who have finally come to the conclusion that their role as guardians of their children's well-being, as nurturers and parents guiding their children into the future has been taken from them by a school system that cautions teachers and students not to inform parents of their children's preferences and decision-making. And so parents, some teachers who disagree with the system, and other concerned individuals mounted country-wide protests, called 1 Million March 4 Children.

True to his infamous virtue-signalling and condemnation of any who disagree with his social and cultural proclivities, the prime minister of Canada has denounced these hundreds of thousands of protesting parents as hateful and racist. Those who protest at school classrooms and libraries presenting drag queens acting out the theatrics of sexual exhibitionism and sex change, concerned for the welfare of their children being exposed to orientations of poor taste and no value, find themselves being told that there is no place for them in Canada, by their prime minister.

 

Hundreds demonstrated in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa Wednesday morning, one of several similar events across the country  CBC