Responsible Parenting Precludes Enabling Addictions

"He would bug us and for the longest time we said 'Absolutely not. It's illegal and blah blah blah'."

"I would say every single one of my son's [high school] friends has an account."

"Every single kid is betting, like everybody ... Eventually, I was just worn down ... Eventually he used my ID -- which I'm not proud of -- and opened an account." 

"My son knows kids who have lost thousands of dollars. One kid won $6,000 on slots at [school] lunch."

Kath (last name withheld) Toronto

 

"It seems like the government has off-loaded this to the families and parents."

"It's giving lip service to responsible gambling."

Harley Redlick, lawyer, responsible-gambling activist

 

"It's definitely widespread."

"And it's a problem because you're getting kids ... addicted to a behaviour that has real-life consequences as they get older."

"Kids are not going into personal bankruptcy. It's feeding this addictive personality." 

David (last name withheld) Toronto 

 

"This is not good for me."

"I have very, very very few friends who have actually made money [on gambling apps]. I know many people who are down by a significant amount of money."

"[I know of people who] have gambled during school and have won big and ... also lost." 

Matt, 17

 

Ontario Provincial Police spokeswoman Tracey Mellersh confirmed that to facilitate access to underage online gambling in the province of Ontario is illegal. No charges have ever to date been laid, however, with the Force choosing a harm reduction, education-based approach to warn parents and guardians of the law and the potential risks inherent in having young people betting.  

 

One person was charged in 2024 by the Ontario Provincial Police for a scheme involving a site called TopBets. In Orillia, Ontario several underage teens were said to have been lured into gambling, then, when they racked up debts were threatened with violence.

 

Kath explained confidentially that she had made use of her own credentials in setting up an account for her 16-year-old son on a government-regulated gambling app. Rules that ban anyone under 19 from using the sites after that ruse, did not apply to him. Her son, she said, had argued unceasingly that his friends were already engaged in doing that very same thing. Groups of boys gathered to bet on sports events or casino games, as a social activity. 

 

When Ontario decided to legalize commercial gambling apps it was a controversial move, and it has only become more controversial as time goes on. Over $100 billion was bet in the last year alone. And with that activity, gambling addiction has spiked, alongside bankruptcies linked to gambling, as well as suicides attributed to gambling losses. Underage teens -- mostly boys -- have taken to gambling in social groups, at home and while at school.

 

Lawyer and activist Harley Redlick reveals that numerous parents have confided to him that they opened accounts for their teenage children, referencing an 'epidemic' of internet betting among adolescents that has become an irresistible social phenomenon. Although hard data linked to the prevalence of underage betting is limited, the market continues to grow, taking the lives of adults and underage teens to new heights of addiction.

 

Mental Health and Online Gambling in Adolescents   Public Health Ontario

 

Last year's Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey revealed that online gambling by teens had "increased significantly" to the  extent that 12 percent of surveyed high school students stated they had bet on the sites, an increase from 2023's eight percent. Harley Redlick is executive director of the Canadian Addiction Recovery Association, who also teaches a professional-development course on gaming law at the Law Society of Ontario.

 

In his experience, he says, some youngsters will borrow IDs without permission in their anxiety to open accounts, taking photos of their parents to upload for their accounts. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario regulator fined Betty Gaming Ltd. $120,000 for 'failures' whereby nine people under 19 created accounts, deposited money to gamble, while another 14 set up accounts without money being deposited. The age restriction is "one of the most basic and important safeguards" in the regulated Ontario system. 

 

"Something they do not know is that actually it's a crime", said Mina Hazar, responsible for a youth gambling awareness program for the YMCA. She hesitates to judge parents who set up gambling accounts for their children, suggesting they consider the long-term consequences -- such as risk of developing a gambling addiction. 

 

The  undeveloped brains of kids that age represents a perfect environment for growing addictions, points out Matthew Young of Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO). In his opinion, relying on being able to monitor their internet gambling -- which might appear to be little different than any other activity on a smartphone -- might not be feasible.

 

Kids are gambling on sports and casino games in social groups, at home and even while at school. Photo by Ty Lim

 

"I get the sentiment of these parents -- this idea that 'I'd rather my kids drink in my basement because they're going to do it anyway'."

"[But] online gambling is very, very easy to hide. ... How do you keep an eye on it is the question?"

Matthew Young, GREO gambling research organization 

Natural Disasters Equal to Wars Compelling Government Responses

"FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year."

"Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met [we offered you status as the 51st state, after all]."

Michigan Rep. John James

Hazardous air quality is creating another day of inconvenience across Metro Detroit, forcing families, visitors, and event organizers to rethink plans as smoke lingers in the region. (WDIV ClickOnDetroit)

 

"If there's some politician out there chirping away, maybe what you should do instead of complaining is send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends." 

"I find it a shame the administration in the U.S. and Congress people [are] writing these letters and blaming us."

"We had the water bombers and everyone going over to California. It was last year.... That's what neighbours do." 

"You don’t get on and start threatening and criticizing, because guess what, one day it's going to be your turn and we're going to be down there without hesitation to support our neighbours, which we should be."

"It's unfortunate they want to politicize this." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

A new evacuation centre has opened in Thunder Bay for people displaced by northern Ontario wildfires. Premier Doug Ford warned that people refusing evacuation orders are hindering firefighting efforts.  Still from video/CBC

 

Thankfully, some of Canada's friends in the United States have chosen a different approach to the matter of conquering the wildfires. In comparison, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, offered  state personnel to assist with wildfire prevention. There are 191 active wildfires across northern Ontario as of Saturday afternoon, 73 of which while being fought, are not yet under control, according to the provincial Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) agency. 

 

The U.S. Republican myth -- which saw a number of U.S. Republican politicians writing a joint letter of warning to Ontario's premier -- that Canada is failing through "inaction" to meet the challenge of the wildfires is simply inaccurate. Ontario, pointed out Premier Ford, is twice the geographic size of the State of Texas. And in Texas authorities there have been battling catastrophic flooding following heavy rains. Were they negligent?

 

In Ontario last year $125 million was budgeted for emergency forest firefighting, but by year's end that budget expenditured to over double, reaching $271 million. Complaints aimed at the Conservative government in Ontario have also arrived from NDP and Liberal MPPs criticizing base budgeting numbers as too low.

 

More communities are under evacuation orders as wildfires rage across Ontario, with smoke affecting air quality across much of the province. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is throwing all resources at the response. Still from video/CBC

 

"In times of crisis, all levels of government, including the opposition, need to come together." The criticism was "absolutely disgusting", responded Mr. Ford. "What I find despicable and disgusting is that opposition (members) would politicize the amount of being being spend and go out there and put false information out." 

 

Some northern communities in Ontario have complained that the response to wildfires by the provincial government was not sufficiently swift to react to rapidly changing conditions. As well, union members representing workers in forest fire response also commented that funding allocations have not kept pace with increasingly severe wildfire seasons in Ontario. 

 

Members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation are seen in Thunder Bay, Ont., following an evacuation of the entire community on Monday due to a wildfire. (Sarah Law/CBC)

 

According to Mike Harris, Ontario minister of natural resources, the sheer scale of the wildfires leaves provincial authorities in the position of not being able to be everywhere at once. North of Thunder Bay, in Collins, a large fire broke out close to the community, moving so swiftly it reached the town even before a provincial response could be co-ordinated. Residents were evacuated to Thunder Bay, one of several places hosting those displaced by the fires ranging from Sioux Lookout to Niagara Falls, to Toronto.

 

In battling 191 separate fires in Ontario fire crews are performing at their utmost professionalism. Ten communities have been either evacuated or are under evacuation notice, with another four on standby pending the status of nearby fires. Last year's fire season saw some 600,000 hectares of forest burned. This year's total has already reached 650,000 hectares. Over 150 crews are currently engaged with forest fires in the north, with over 80 firefighting aircraft at work in the region, pointed out provincial minister of emergency preparedness and response, Jill Dunlop.  

Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. "

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to increase import tariffs on Canada over the 'unnecessary invasion' of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires that have destroyed communities and forced people from their homes. CBC News

 

 

Coping With Runaway Car Theft

"If  you're shameless enough to prey on other members of the community for your own reckless gain then  you'll lose that privilege [to own a valid driver's license]."

"We've seen ... in Manitoba, that they have implemented something similar with a five-year suspension." 

"The [Ontario] Highway Traffic Act has instances where you can lose your license for life as well."

"It's about sending a strong message to people in this province that we're taking this seriously. We're doing everything we can under the provision of the provincial government to come down tough on those ... who decide to break the law."

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria

This is a still image of surveillance camera video of a high end car theft in action. The Ontario government will introduce legislation that would suspend the driving licences of convicted auto thieves. (Supplied)

In the province of Ontario a vehicle is stolen every14 minutes. A 78 percent increase in violent carjackings has taken place in the past three years. The phenomenon of vehicle theft costs the province a yearly $1.2 billion. Compelling the province to attempt to enact a new law that would be as painful to the carjacking perpetrators as their actions have been to the owners of the vehicles and the provincial government.

 

A ten-year license suspension would apply in the event of a conviction of theft (any other penalty such as fines and jail time added to the suspension). In the event of a second such offence, an additional 15-year ban on driving would apply. A lifetime suspension would reflect the penalty of a third similar offence. The new law is set to be introduced imminently to the Ontario legislature, in the hope that the stringent new penalties will stem the tide of auto thefts.

At present, driving with a suspended license could earn a car thief a $5,000 fine along with six months' incarceration. Ontario, according to the province's solicitor general, has been appealing to the federal government to enact minimum sentencing rules for car theft. Inspections of outgoing cargo from Canada, particularly at the Port of Montreal, where recently hundreds of stolen vehicles were  apprehended from leaving the country, should be increased in an effort to keep stolen vehicles from being shipped out of Canada to points abroad.

"This is something the federal government can do today if they want to do, and we're calling them to do just that", emphasized Solicitor General Michael Kerzner. The question was raised during a news conference: "Where's the incentive for the manufacturers to make a car that can't be stolen with a $200 online key fob duplicator?"

A complicating issue is that auto-vehicle theft gangs employ young thugs to perform the actual thefts. It would then be the young thieves who would face conviction in a court of law, and pay the penalty for their crimes, while the criminal syndicates and their heads face no such penalties unless they can be linked to the thefts. It has also been noted that the profits from the sales of the stolen vehicles are then used to prop up the real purpose of the gangs' actions; smuggling of arms and ammunition into Canada.

One of the lines in this year's budget targets a growing crisis in Ontario and across the country. Auto thefts have skyrocketed in recent years with the element of violence also increasing.   CBC

The Rush to Vaccinate -- It's The Variants

"This [rise of new COVID variant cases] is extremely, extremely unlikely just to be an undulation. The new variants of concern are now leading the epidemic curve."

"But this [that the new variant is more lethal] is not driving the number of deaths -- in the first place what drives the number of deaths is that this thing is more transmissible. It's much more important how many people get the disease."

"Other parts of the province are a bit delayed, so they might have one or two weeks longer. But every week counts."

"For the Golden Horseshoe, we're too late. The vaccines won't come early enough to help. We know what's coming is inevitable. The longer we wait [holding off on another lockdown], the more painful it gets. We are between a rock and a hard place."

Dr.Peter Juni, scientific director, COVID-19 Science Table Ontario 

 

"We need to be zeroing in 100 percent on the vaccine now because this is our saving grace."

"We are slow on the vaccines and we are quickly moving into the third wave. It's a colliding disaster."

Doris Grinspun, CEO, Ontario Registered Nurses' Association

"[In Toronto, COVID cases were plateauing], now they seem to be on the upswing."

"Do you define it as a third wave or not? You can get these kinds of up and down swings."

"But there's no question, the variants are on the rise, and if we see more cases you can expect to see [the associated]  hospitalizations and deaths -- except where people are vaccinated."

Dr.Vinita Dubey, Toronto associate medical officer of  health

The third COVID-19 vaccination clinic in the London area. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)

Complications where complications were anticipated. The impossible was achieved when -- instead of taking five years to tailor and create a new vaccine that would efficiently and safely protect populations around the world from the stealth approach and devastating effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 to rescue the world from the talons of a global pandemic -- it became possible to rush headlong into vaccinating entire populations to achieve herd immunity and beat the novel coronavirus at its game. But then, it cleverly mutated in ways that would beat us at our game. 

The mutated strains have been numerous, but none presented with more serious challenges to the world medical community until the arrival of three new variants; from the U.K., South Africa and Brazil, each inheriting a variant through mutation of the original posing new threats. They have been altered to produce spike proteins covering the virus that are more adhesive, enabling them to better grab onto and enter human cells. Additionally, smaller virus amounts are now capable of causing infection and the amount shed when infectious is higher.

According to infectious disease specialist Dr.Zane Chagla, the South Africa and Brazil variants carry a mutation allowing the virus to escape antibodies that would normally disable them. Shedding greater amounts of virus with the variants is another threat "which just makes it much easier to infect person-to-person", he explained during an Ontario Medical Association media briefing.

Most of Italy, Germany and France with a third wave sweeping through, has driven another lockdown. Europe, experiencing a delay in the delivery of vaccines, just as Canada is, finds a disadvantage against the viral predator in that very fact. The variants, according to studies out of the U.K. are now the cause of more severe disease. And for all those reasons and more Ontario has acknowledged that a third wave of COVID-19 is now sweeping the province leaving scientific advisers concerned that more people could begin to crowd intensive care than during the previous two waves.

 

People line up outside of a Shoppers Drug Mart location on Toronto's Danforth Avenue for their COVID-19 vaccine, Thursday March 11, 2021. Photo by Peter J Thompson / National Post

Some in the expert medical community may be loathe to announce a third wave just yet, but it is clear that the new "variants of concern" are responsible for over half -- 53 percent -- of new infections in Ontario. Of the mutated viruses behind the surge, the B.l.l.7 variant first detected in southeast England last year is recognized as hyper-contagious which allows it to spread faster and more efficiently than previously circulating variants. And then there is the recognition that they may be 30 to 60 percent deadlier.

The densely population-packed Golden Horseshoe region around Lake Ontario, has appeared to succumb to the ravages of the B.l.l.7 variant, and as Dr.Juni asserts, it will not be long before other areas in Ontario will follow suit. The situation has led to the province's science advisory table meeting for a discussion on whether hospitalization numbers and ICU admissions per one thousand diagnoses might increase over earlier waves. "That's the question we're trying to answer", stated Dr.Juni. 

According to Dr.James Downar, a critical care specialist at University of Ottawa, people appear to bear more complicated courses of infection where they improve and then lapse, becoming more ill again. As well, those in younger age demographics appear to be contracting the variant strain. "It is a bit hard to know if that is related to variants, because until recently we were not sequencing every sample", he explained. Exponential growth of SARS-CoV-2 is now being experienced in two-thirds of Ontario's 34 public health units.

People wear face masks as they cross a street in Montreal, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Curbing "Boutique" Psychiatrists

"[The ministry's data shows] that there are some physicians in Ontario who are providing a high volume of psychotherapy to a small number of patients for an extended period of time, with uncertain clinical benefit, while also limiting access for new patients."
Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care report

"Any physician who cultivates dependence is not practising evidence-based care. This can be very problematic."
"There are a number of psychiatrists in the GTA [greater Toronto area] who, based on reports, see fewer than 30 or 40 patients per year."
"There are many patients who are being seen by psychiatrists who need more than 24 hours of care per year."
"If the government doesn't fund other human resources for those individuals, where will they go?"
"I think the problem with the current system is it's a bit of a wild, wild west. We haven't implemented quality metrics. We are funding lots of things that don't fall into that evidence-based category and yet evidence-based therapies are not funded."
Javeed Sukhera, president-elect, Ontario Psychiatric Association

Illustration by Joe Morse

Among those who think that the government of Ontario's proposed cuts to limit funding for psychotherapy could end up with a redistribution of psychiatric care in a more equitable way is Dr. Mario Elia, practising in London Ontario, who is also an adjunct professor at Western University. In his community, he stated, outpatient OHIP-funded psychotherapy is "almost impossible to access". None of the 76 psychiatrists practising in London accept referrals for ongoing psychotherapy.

The vast majority, he says from his perspective as a family physician, are "doing their utmost to see as many patients as possible, as efficiently as possible to save as many lives as possible". However, he comes across psychiatrists who it appears haven't accepted new patients in years. A situation Dr. Elia finds puzzling since he believes most evidence-based psychotherapy is limited to a defined period of time.

The situation he reflects upon is one where within a single city MD-psychotherapists can conceivably gather within an affluent area to provide ongoing, unlimited therapy sessions for a population that becomes very well-serviced, while other areas are left with an overwhelming need that cannot be responded to in the absence of psychotherapists willing to provide service there.

The glaring geographic and socioeconomic discrepancies between affluent Ontario communities with two to three psychiatry practices per 10,000 people sits in stark contrast to other communities or areas even within  single city where 0.6 psychiatrists per 10,000 people is the norm.Toronto alone has 3.5 psychiatrists in contrast, per 10,000 residents.

The new announcement of the government of Ontario's proposal to limit psychotherapy funding is generally viewed with a degree of alarm. The need for psychiatric counselling has never been greater, particularly among the young, yet there is a noted scarcity of medical professionals in the field and the need to schedule appointments with mental-health professionals results in frustratingly-long waits.

Some physicians, however, claim to welcome cuts that could "curb boutique psychiatrists" with their focus on business and who "over-treat the worried well". Although the Ontario Ministry of Health has not formally announced planned funding cuts, they were included in a briefing document received by an arbitration board considering a contract dispute between the Ontario Medical Association and the ministry.

The suggestion included in the document is to limit OHIP funding to 24 hours of psychotherapy each patient per year to save an annual projected $13 million for the government. According to Dr. Mary Fernando, such cuts represent a "death sentence" for suicidal patients, precisely the concern expressed among Ontario psychiatrists and GP-psychotherapitsts.

The term "boutique psychiatrists" refers to mental health professionals who deign to see fewer than two new patients each month; they keep servicing the same patients over and over again, and are thus less likely to agree to see other patients, particularly poor patients, recent immigrants or patients who have recently been hospitalized for severe psychiatric illness.

A February study published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found about one-third of Ontario psychiatrists accept less than two new patients on average each month. Those same psychiatrists have 1,041 sessions with 69 patients throughout the space of a year. While at the opposite end, 27 percent of psychiatrists take on a new patient each day, with 2,274 appointments with 680 different people yearly.

Since only medical doctors can bill to OHIP that leaves an insufficient number of psychiatrists to meet the public need. The majority of psychotherapy is performed in the province by clinical psychologists and licensed therapists, often with social work backgrounds who are funded either by private insurance or by out-of-pocket payment, hence the allure of situating in prosperous areas. This is the reality of a two-tier system for mental health care in the province.

Medical doctors can charge the province $160 per hour to do unlimited amounts of psychotherapy on any patient. The government wants to limit treatment to 24 hours per year