Jews in Canada

"Brym [Robert Brym, sociologist,University of Toronto] believes that the Israel-Hamas war plays a part -- surveys elsewhere in the world show that Muslims' negative sentiments toward Jews rise whenever war breaks out."

"But he also points to local factors; of Canada's religious groups, Jews are the highest earners and are the least impoverished, while Muslims earn the least and are impoverished the most."

"Nearly two-thirds of Muslims, but less than one-third of Jews, are immigrants. And on average, Canadian Muslims are much younger than Canadian Jews."

Jamie Sarkonak, journalist, National Post

Anti-Israel protest in Ottawa, April 20, 2024. Photo by Dacey Media

Generally, on the other hand, the vast majority of Muslims have a darkly negative view of Jews, ingrained not only in the culture, but emphasized by hadiths and the Koran, addressing relations with Jews; on the one hand, Islam counts Jews and Christians with a modicum of regard since they are part of the Abrahamic triangle; people of 'the book'. On the other they must be subservient to Islam with the understanding that Islam according to its reckoning, represents God's final presentation to humanity. They are 'kuffar', undeserving of respect for not surrendering their souls to Islam and Allah.

 

Resentment and victimization represent another facet of how Muslims regard Jews; believing all Jews to be wealthy and privileged. The Jewish presence in Canada dates back hundreds of years and while Jews mostly maintained their religious devotion in Judaism, they respect the laws of Canada, consider themselves Canadian, and integrate into the political, justice, and social system, content to be another Canadian. Muslim presence in Canada is of a far more recent vintage. Assimilation into the general culture, adapting the prevailing values, is not favoured by most practising Muslims for whom Sharia, not the law of the land is the final arbiter of justice for them.

 

Muslims typically have large numbers of progeny since Islam promotes childbearing as a moral religious duty, as does Catholicism to a lesser degree and Orthodox Judaism as well. In Canada it can be costly raising a large family, certain to be an economic challenge to many for whom large families is part of their religious devotion. The very fact that there are many more Muslims that are recent immigrants than Jews with lower economic standing, relates to the fact that it takes time to establish a presence in the country, including employment with high remunerative qualities.

Sociologist Robert Brym undertook a study recently, and published the results, looking into Canadian attitudes toward Jews and Israel. Surveys undertaken in early2024 list the most negative attitudes toward Jews spring from the Muslim demographic, alongside Quebecers and non-Jewish university students. The most negative sentiments expressed toward Israel, stem from Muslims and non-Jewish university students, and supporters of the New Democratic Party.

A survey sample of over 300 Muslims indicate unmistakable distrust and negativity toward Jews. Merely five percent of Canadian non-Jews reported their belief that "Jewish people are largely to blame for the negative consequences of globalization", but among Muslims the figure became 48 percent; while 83 percent of non-Jewish Canadians disagreed that Jews have too much power in Canada, 34 percent of Muslims held the same belief.

Unsurprising to a degree then, that Toronto and other Canadian cities have seen frequent well-attended protests proceeding through the streets, aggravating and accusing Canadian Jews of 'genocide' against Palestinians for their support of Israel, shouting 'intifada' in unison, and 'from the river to the sea', common shorthand for the destruction of Israel; Arabic speakers and signs, the Qu'ran in proud prominence and university campuses taken over by the 'pro-Palestinian' protests, targeting Jewish students.

The statement on the survey that "There is no justification for Palestinian suicide bombers targeting Israeli civilians", brought 30 percent disagreement from Muslims in comparison to 11 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. And while 54 percent of Muslims express the belief that Israel is an apartheid state, 34 percent of the general population appears to concur, thanks to ingrained antisemitism and successful propaganda. 60 percent of Muslims equate Zionism with racism, while 38 percent of non-Jewish Canadians concur.

As far as 81 percent of Muslims are concerned, the current war in Gaza represents genocide, a belief shared by 49 percent of non-Jewish Canadians. Logically, bringing in new immigrants, refugees and migrants whose culture and religious devotion dictates their values and inculcates prejudices born of historical events and antipathies, more or less guarantees that this level of blame from a victimhood-prone group against an already-existing group would result. 

Victimhood, resentment, anger and hatred coalesce and become a threat by one to the other, and with the help of a powerful propaganda device of victimhood and occupation led by student groups of Palestinian and Arab origin, the slander of a democratic state that is anything but racist and apartheid finds a ready audience among the demographic of non-Jewish, non-Arab Canadians from various backgrounds, origins and cultures, happy to take up a cause that happens to coincide with their own prejudices.

Canada now hosts some 1.8 million Muslims, half of which immigrated from 2011 forward with increasing frequency and numbers. It is now clear that government authorities had no interest in ensuring that those comprising great numbers of an ethnic, social, cultural, religious background that tended not to accept the culture, social justice system, values of a society they gravitated to, might very well present as a future danger to social cohesion and the general social compact in a democratic society.

All of which has led to spectacles of violent demonstrations against a much smaller demographic of about 350,000 Jewish Canadians who view with dismay and disappointment the inaction of their fellow Canadians, much less Canadian governments at every level, failing to react and act to uphold the law and to protect the Canadian Jewish population threatened by increasingly volatile and violent 'protesters' who no longer bother shielding their support of Palestinian terrorists from public view.

Canadian universities for the past few decades have succumbed to leftist progressive divisiveness, promoting the ideology of 'anti-oppression, teaching that colonialism of which they claim Israel is a prime example, is morally indefensible, that people of European ancestry are born exceptionalists, superior and dominating others of 'colour', under Critical Race Theory. Privilege and intersectional 'oppressor' beliefs are reflective of university campuses in this age.

Published

2024-04-09

"Most Canadian Jews feel unsafe and victimized. They perceive a rise in negative attitudes toward Jews in recent months and years. Most doubt the situation will improve. The main reason they feel this way is that extreme anti-Israel statements and actions have proliferated in recent months. Because support for the existence of a Jewish state in Israel is a central component of their identity, most Jews regard extreme anti-Israel statements and actions as a threat to their existence as Jews."

"Most non-Jewish Canadians do not have negative toward Jews. However, non-Jewish university students, Quebecois, and especially Muslim Canadians tend to have significantly more negative attitudes towards Jews than does the non-Jewish population as a whole."

Abstract: Jews and Israel 2024: A Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Jewish Perceptions : Robert Brym

Statistical Bias and Perceptions on Religious Devotion

"Caring for others versus personal fulfillment, those are two very different value constructs. And the relationship between them and religiosity is really significant."
"What this survey proves is that having a faith, being part of a faith community, seems to propel people in the direction of developing higher levels of compassion or caring."
"I find it noteworthy that we have significant divisions in this country on some moral issues, and those divisions seem to be heavily correlated with religious belief and membership in faith communities."
"We like to sometimes paint ourselves as this country where, unlike the United States, which has deep value differences, we are all sort of linked arm-to-arm on all issues. Actually, that's not true."
Angus Reid, founder/chairman, Angus Reid Institute

"On the one hand, in contrast to the prevalent public narrative that religion is private and it doesn't mater, it's quite clear that for the vast majority of Canadians, it does. Over half say, 'Religion is actually shaping my identity and my decisions'."
"On the other hand, that engagement is a relatively thin engagement."
Ray Pennings, executive vice-president, Christian think-tank Cardus

While some Canadians might not attend religious institutions like church regularly, many of them have religious views and personal faith. (Chris Corday/CBC) 

 

On Mr. Reid's part, the recent survey his firm conducted allied with Faith in Canada 150, appears to validate for him a foregone conclusion -- that religious faith makes us better people, more aware of the needs of others, willing to inconvenience ourselves for the sake of aiding others, and being more receptive to the need to be charitable and generous and caring. On Mr. Penning's part, that validation has a bitter core; that not enough members of the broader public have committed to religious adherence and those that have do so in a tepid manner. Religion or not people who live fulfilled lives themselves tend to be more generous with others; it's called simple human decency.



This project took a year to gauge the beliefs of Canadians who took part in the poll to arrive at a consensus on their religious practices. People responding to the questions were divided into four distinct categories identifying them  as a) non-believers on to b) religiously committed devotees regularly attending places of worship. Responding to the choice of two alternatives representing their idea of "the best way to live life", 53 percent chose "achieving our own dreams and happiness" rather than "being concerned about helping others".

When religion was brought into the equation, it was found that 67 percent of those committed to religion chose helping others, while 65 percent of non-believers selected the personal pursuit of happiness. Something seems to be missing here, and that is the common-sense understanding that people who are happy and satisfied are more likely and able to extend themselves to helping others, while those who are miserable are usually so caught up in their situation they are  most often incapable of giving aid to others.

Across different regions of Canada the question elicited different responses, with the Province of Quebec scoring the highest proportion of people selecting for self-fulfillment at 65 percent, while Alberta was second at 54 percent and British Columbia came next at 43 percent. Elsewhere in Canada, a majority of respondents selected giving aid to others; Saskatchewan proving the most generous at 59 percent.

Oddly enough, Quebecers were traditionally the most bound to Catholicism before undergoing a sweeping change where the Catholic Church stepped back during the Quiet Revolution as formerly devout parishioners rebelled against the stranglehold on life of the Church. And Quebec is the province whose administration is the most broadly social-welfare inclined, so Quebecers are accustomed to having things done for them, not to doing for others. Religious devotion still plays a private, not a public role in the province, despite which Quebecers are parsimonious when it comes to funding charities.



A total of 2,006 Canadian adults took part in the survey and responded to a series of questions with clear moral overtones. Pollsters concluded that the two groups representing the religious spectrum, both privately faithful and religiously committed were likelier to agree that:

• Canada should accept fewer immigrants and refugees;
• They would be uncomfortable if a child planned to marry someone from a different cultural or religious background;
• There should not be a greater social acceptance of people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer);
• Preserving life is more important than people's freedom to choose on issues like abortion and doctor-assisted death;

Which hardly shines a socially g enerous light on religious adherents; rather their socially conservative attitude bespeaks issues of intolerance and a lack of openly generous impulse. Another question was where the poll led participants to select the statement they felt reflected their personal views:

• People are fundamentally sinners and in need of salvation; or
• People are essentially good and sin has been invented to control people.

The essential goodness of people was selected by two thirds of those pooled while the religiously committed, providing roughly one-fifth of the survey group, felt by 73 percent that people are fundamentally sinners. The concept of right and wrong in absolute terms or a vacillating conception was posed as well with a large majority of 68 percent finding that right or wrong "depends on the circumstances", while close to 66 percent outright rejected that moral questions' outcome differ for different cultures.



Religiously committed were the most likely to claim universal rights apply to the entire human race, at 74 percent. And they represented people stating their faith to be of primary importance to their personal identity at 54 percent, and to their day-to-day lives at 55 percent. Of course religion, as does culture and heritage, shapes an individual's values and colours the way others are viewed; human beings are programmed by nature to cleave to those who share like commitments and values. Which should not deter them from viewing those outside their groups as worthy, but that too reflects basic human nature.

Health-and-Sanity Hazards : The Tenants From Hell

"I could tell you things that no human should know about what happens to mould when it grows on semen."
"It [the condition of his rental house] was a biohazard, it was a fire hazard, it was a health hazard."
"The law just does not protect people I'm the victim here. If I went to your house and did what they did to my house, I'd be charged criminally."
"I rented for 25 years, I'm all for tenants' rights, but that presumes reasonable people behaving normally."
"There's no law to stop anyone from keeping a goat in the house."
Simon Andrew, landlord, Kingston, Ontario

A goat, yes, and oh well, rabbits, chickens and pigeons as well. Evidently, the goat slept on the sofa, pictured above. Free to go where they would around the three-bedroom house he rented out in 2014 to a mature couple and their adult son. At the time, they had "interviewed well", said Mr. Andrew, and appeared to him, as people with references, like "really nice people". To his anguish and cost, what he assumed was evidently not all there was to these unassuming, nice people.

To say merely that they trashed his property would represent a deliberately affected evasion of the truth. When it came time for housecleaning, this family went at it in a way that must have seemed to them most direct, using water by the bucketful -- literally, to clean the floor, sweeping the resulting slurry of detritus and filth, garbage and animal feces right through to the heating vents. When the landlord succeeded finally in ousting his tenants, cleaners took to chiseling dried feces off floors and walls.
In all, an impressive nine tones of garbage was removed from this unprepossessing house. Used tampons, hypodermic needles used to inject insulin, and trays of urine that had been left in drawers had to be withdrawn and discarded -- with as much distaste and care as can be imagined. Surely, the cleaners came equipped with biohazard uniforms?! It has been months since the family left the pigsty they had converted this rental property into, and the cleanup continues.

Evidently the house had suffered from the indignity of being "grease-bombed", as well. Fatty meat was placed in the oven, the heat turned to high, the oven door left ajar, and as fumes filled the house the grease settled on the top of walls, then ran down toward the floor. With the help of a ruling from Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board and six months of effort, the family was finally evicted.

Discovered in the cleanp-up among the debris was evidence of the family's dedication to paying their way. Overdue bills in the thousands for utilities, propane and telephone and Internet remained behind. At a rough estimate, Mr. Andrew figures that repairs to his house will come to a total of around $30,000. "They are leaving a trail of destruction of other people's lives, that's what they are really doing. They are screwing up my life", he said, bitterly frustrated.

Can anyone blame this man for his hapless frustration?
Photos: courtesy of Simon Andrew, one very unhappy man.

Defying Tradition and Culture in Afghanistan

"There was never a better time to set my worst-ever [race] time. The five local [Afghan] women who took part in the [Bamiyan marathon] this year are the new leaders who are stepping outside the norm. They are making a statement by using the marathon as a vehicle to show they are going to do what they need to do and they are not going to be stopped."
"It  was then I made a vow: if I could recover in time, I would run the 206 Marathon of Afghanistan and support Zainab's [first Afghan female runner] efforts to show that sport is for everyone."
"Many of these older [Bamiyan village elders] men had big families, some with four or five daughters. They said, 'No, we want our daughters to get educated, to get on in the world. We want them to run'."
" ... I thought, here is a young woman who has been dealt a tough hand, losing her friends in the [University] bombing, so I decided then that the purpose of me going there was to help Kubra do this marathon, that if she wants to do a marathon then I'm going to help her through it. The next day I gave a running clinic for the five Afghan women [among 60 men runners], talking about nutrition, hydration and pacing, and after the clinic I pulled her aside and said, 'I'm willing to run with you'. So in the end I found my purpose -- helping this brave young woman complete her first marathon."
"The first half was uphill, a continuous climb. Then it was all downhill coming back. I've never done a marathon quite like it. It was so tough."
Martin Parnell, 60, Canadian Marathon Man, Cochrane, Alberta

Canada’s Marathon Man, Martin Parnell, from Cochrane, Alberta, and a 25-year-old Afghan woman called Kubra, took part in 42-kilometre marathon in Afghanistan in early November.

This doughty man proved his running mettle in Canada and internationally by having completed no fewer than 250 marathons in a single year. He has also been involved in raising over $1.3 million in charitable donations to be used for the Right To Play international charity [which supports underprivileged children's exposure to sports]. A year ago, while recovering from treatment for a blood clot in his brain, he had heard about the inaugural marathon taking place in Afghanistan. The first female runner to be involved in the marathon had been stoned and slandered as a prostitute for doing what no women in Afghan society traditionally involved herself in.

What he read motivated him to become involved in the following year's marathon. He was not the only international runner who determined to become involved in the race, and on October 26 he and a few other runners from Britain, the Netherlands and the United States met up in the Afghan capital Kabul, then flew on to Bamiyan, an isolated town of 35,000 residents located in central Afghanistan, in Bamiyan province. Readers of international news may recall that a world renowned heritage site at Bamiyan containing gigantic statues of Buddha were destroyed by explosive set by the Taliban in 2001.

Smaller of the two Buddha statues at Bamiyan, Afghanistan; photograph from 1977. Both statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

The foreign volunteers flew in to Bamiyan because the roads leading from the capital to the valley  though only 240 kilometres from Kabul, are heavily mined with improvised explosive devices, a favourite tactic of the Taliban, well known by NATO forces when the U.S.-led coalition entered the country to disperse al-Qaeda, honoured guests of the Taliban. The people of the province have long been exposed to the rigours of living in their traditional territory while being attacked by the Taliban who doubtless take umbrage at the area's more liberal social stance than other parts of the embattled country.

The race was designed to be run in a manner more physically challenging than might be considered the norm elsewhere, in reflection of the mountainous terrain, than what most westerners are accustomed to. Its pinnacle reaches to an altitude of 2,740 metres, which represents the halfway point at which time any runners who have managed to get to that point, turn around for the return portion of the run. There is a seven-hour window within which runners are held to have achieved their goal; anyone taking over seven hours to complete their run is disqualified.

Martin Parnell was impressed with the attitude of a 25-year-old Afghan woman by the name of Kubra for whom this attempt didn't represent her first run in a long-distance event which had been unsuccessful. She was motivated to try again, and this time the Bamiyan marathon, a gruelling, difficult race that she meant to dedicate to the memory of friends who died when the Taliban set explosives at the Kabul university where she and they were students. She trained, running through Kabul streets, becoming familiar with the taunts of jeering men.

 Mr. Parnell, in assessing the young woman's readiness, attempted to persuade her to commit to a shorter, ten-km event that would take place simultaneously with the longer, more arduous one. She, however, insisted she was committed to the difficult route and meant to accomplish what she set out to do. Pledging to run alongside her, the pair began on a 3C chilly morning, but a fine autumn day full of sunlight. They agreed on their strategy, to run for a nine-minute segment, then walk for one minute and repeat constantly.

For the first three kilometres they ran through the town on a dirt track where burned-out Russian tanks sat, rusting in the landscape, reminders of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan before their army limped back home, defeated by the indomitable Afghan spirit spurning the presence of a foreign army, which eventually led to the rise of the Taliban, nurtured by the Pakistani Secret Service and the American CIA to represent a fighting force to free Afghanistan from the Soviet military presence. It is where al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were inspired. And when the Soviets did leave, Afghan war lords and the Northern Alliance fought the Taliban, but the Taliban conquest led to its extremist Islamist rule of the ruined country.

Once the pair reached the town outskirts where crowds of well-wishers had spurred them and other runners on to their best efforts, it was uphill into the mountains. It took them three hours and 36 minutes to reach the halfway point, before they could turn around and retrace their run. It was at this point where the young Afghan woman was struck with cramps. "I kept looking at the [time], hoping we could somehow make it before the seven-hour cutoff for finishing", explained Mr. Parnell.

"But this woman was tough, she wasn't going to quit and somehow we did it with eight minutes to spare. She had achieved her goal and she was thrilled." The Canadian runner and the young Afghan woman exulted in their finish, and embraced when they reached the finish line, to the amazement of the locals gathered around the finish line.

More Catholic Than the Pope

"It is the poorest women who are suffering from this crisis. It is not women in the upper-class neighbourhoods, who can protect themselves from mosquito bites."
"I haven't seen anything from the governments of these countries themselves [Latin America] that indicate they are reconsidering the restrictive laws because of this crisis. I haven't seen any of that."
"The only calls that have gone out from health ministers is 'Don't get pregnant', which is kind of an unrealistic demand I think, if contraception is not available for the poorest..."
"Of course men are responsible for having sex and getting women pregnant as well, but the reality is that men refuse to take this responsibility seriously. So women are the ones who get pregnant and they are the ones who are called upon to prevent getting pregnant."
Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, Dutch physician

Photo: Still from video

"Not only is increased access to abortion and abortifacients [abortion-inducing drugs] an illegitimate response to this crisis, but since it terminates the life of a child it is fundamentally not preventative."
Vatican statement

"[Unlike abortion], avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil [in certain circumstances it may be viewed as] the lesser evil."
"[However, abortion is never permitted, including foetuses with serious brain defects caused by the Zika virus as abortion is] a crime. It is killing one person to save another. It is what the mafia does … It is an absolute evil."
Pope Frances 

Photo: Still from news video

No woman considers the birth of a disabled child to represent a blessed event, not even when the Pope himself sanctifies such a birth giving it his personal blessing. Yet even he has compassion for the mother and the child who will be faced with a lifetime of sorrow in negotiating life's passages from such a hugely disadvantageous perspective. And so, he can personally and graciously overlook defiance of Church doctrine in the form of contraceptive for this singular situation, but never, no never, abortion, a cardinal sin.

An Internet-based helpline for women has lately been inundated with requests for help from desperate women, those who have access to computers (which rules out a lot of rural women living impoverished lives), speaking of their personal anguish, and reflecting the larger desperation of Brazil's demographic of child-bearing-aged women, as well as those across Latin America where the Zika virus is raising its grotesque head, leaving infants in its wake with uncharacteristically small heads and brains; microcephaly.

The Canada-based Women on Web providing advice and medications on request for women in need of abortion assistance haling from countries where abortion is banned, has been receiving increasing pleas for help through emails from women anxious to avoid giving birth to microcephalic babies. For those thousands of women who have already been shocked into insensibility by the reality that their newborns will face a life of uncertainty and discrimination, health misery and anguish, it is too late.

These women are begging for pills that are unavailable in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru or El Salvador where laws against abortion procurement prevail. Abortions in El Salvador are not to be had for any reason, including rape and incest. Colombia will permit abortions if severe deformity is identified in a foetus. The organization meant to aid women constrained by law from release of bearing a malformed baby was founded in 2005 by Dutch physician Dr. Rebecca Gomperts.

Women on Web has been supplying packages of Mifepristone and Misoprostol around the globe for over a decide to women who have requested their assistance. But the numbers have taken a sharp uptick since the Zika crisis has developed. "We think [the increase in requests] is related to the Zika outbreak. We cannot explain it any other way. Probably a lot of women are looking for abortion services now", stated Dr. Gomperts.

Little wonder, when in their patriarchal society that adheres to the strictures of the Roman Catholic Church forbidding both contraception use and abortion, when the women are informed by their highest government authority that it is up to them to avoid pregnancy, a true 'catch-2' that victimizes women and punishes them for having to bear a burden whose outcome is circumstantial and not of their volition or wishes.

Welcoming Baby to This World

"Basically, they're in withdrawal."
"We do know Ontario has an increasing problem with opioid addiction. But we're also a little more aware of the problem. There's much more awareness of this, so we may also be picking this up a little bit more."
"They [addicted babies] certainly need to be under close care, and watched closely by nurses."
Dr. Astrid Guttman, chief science officer, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto

"Since 2000, prescription opioids have supplanted heroin addiction as the mean reason for starting methadone in Toronto."
Study on drug-addicted newborns in Ontario (February 2016)

"In the last 10 years the rates [prescription drug abuse among pregnant women] have doubled or tripled and it seems to be increasing,"
"They would have symptoms [in neonatal abstinence syndrome] of irritability, jitteriness, quick breathing and a high temperature,"
"The baby is craving that medication and until we can wean the baby off it gradually, we don't want the baby in pain or distress, so we do give that baby liquid morphine. Unfortunately we do have to do that with the baby and that would be under close observation in the neo-natal intensive care unit,"
"This has really snuck up on us, or I guess crept up on us in the last 10 years, just slowly increasing and increasing and many of us in our training didn't really have any expertise in dealing with this situation. And hopefully now we're gaining a lot of expertise, as well we're getting used to seeing moms in this situation."
"It's a harm reduction program obviously given a choice you wouldn't be on any opioid in the pregnancy but the methadone program gives the mom at least an opportunity to have a healthy pregnancy."
Dr. Anne Drover, pediatrician, Eastern Health, Newfoundland and Labrador (March 2015)

The scale of the current drug crisis is on par, if not beyond, that of the crack era. According to the Centers for Disease Control, sales of opioid painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and hydromorphone quadrupled between 1999 and 2010. From 2007 to 2013, according to the CDC, the number of heroin users increased 150 percent. Those new users, 75 percent of whom were introduced to opiates through prescription painkillers, were almost uniformly white, as were 90 percent of those who began using heroin over the last decade. More than 9 out of 10 people who used heroin between 2002 and 2013 did so while using at least one other drug, and the CDC estimates that 45 percent were also addicted to prescription opioids. The number of women who began using heroin during that period doubled.
Consequently, neonatal abstinence syndrome—essentially, postnatal withdrawal afflicting babies exposed to opiates in utero—has become an increasingly visible issue as the number of opiate-dependent infants has increased. A 2014 study found opiate abuse among pregnant women more than doubled between 1998 and 2011, based on case reviews of 57 million deliveries in American hospitals. The University of Michigan, in a 2012 study, noted that the incidence of NAS almost tripled between 2000 and 2009. Researchers wrote that symptoms of NAS “have been described in 60 to 80 percent” of infants born to mothers who used heroin or methadone while pregnant. Reuters, in an investigative story released in late 2015, determined an opioid-addicted baby is born every 19 minutes.
Kali Holloway / AlterNet, January 12, 2016

Neonatal withdrawal from narcotics and other medications or drugs of abuse was first described as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in 1975 by Dr Loretta Finnegan. She described a generalized disorder of hyperirritability of the central nervous system, gastrointestinal and respiratory dysfunction, and vague autonomic nervous system symptoms.¹

In Australia the occurrence of NAS has increased dramatically from 0.97 per 10 000 live births to 42.4 per 10 000 live births in the past 25 years.² In northern Ontario, narcotic abuse (in particular oxycodone in long-acting OxyContin or short-acting Percocet) has become an increasing problem.³ Remote First Nations communities with high rates of unemployment, poverty, and overcrowding bear the additional social and economic burden of narcotic abuse and addiction, with profound narcotic abuse in some of these communities.⁴ A 2008 survey carried out in the northern Ontario reserve of Constance Lake revealed that 46.3% of respondents abused prescription drugs and 39.6% abused illegal or street drugs.⁴

Narcotic abuse among First Nations populations affects the entire community, as well as the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the individuals.⁴ Self-identified risks for drug use in these communities include peer pressure, cultural loss, grief, lack of self-esteem, trauma, housing problems, domestic violence, and mental health issues.⁴

Female drug abusers are often of reproductive age—in the United States, 90% of female drug abusers are in that age group.⁵ The birth rate in First Nations communities is double that of the rest of Canada (23.0 per 1000 women vs 11.1 per 1000 women), and women who abuse oxycodone might well do so during pregnancy.⁶

^{November 2011}

Fotolia     Babies born addicted to opioids go through withdrawal then are weaned off the drugs with morphine

A new Canadian study concludes that society is in a great deal of trouble, and of course the current study's conclusion has been reached by other researchers viewing the catastrophic rise of drug use among young women of child-bearing age. It cannot come as a surprise to any woman of child-bearing age that what she does with her own body will be transferred through the placenta in pregnancy to the body of any child she carries. That exposure to drugs, chemicals, alcohol, tobacco, to a developing foetus guarantees a physically and mentally impaired baby.

Canada appears to have higher rates of newborns addicted to narcotic painkillers exposed in the womb than that of any of their Wetern counterparts; greater than Britain, Australia or the United States, according to new research on the steadily rising rates of neonatal drug withdrawal syndrome, affecting up to 80 percent of babies of women who use opioids. Oxycodone, hydromorphone and fentanyl are identified as the drugs behind a rise in deaths from overdose, as well. A death wish on the part of the mother, and imparted to her infant.

When birth occurs and the placenta no longer serves as a source of opioids crossing into the baby's bloodstream, the affected baby struggles with withdrawal symptoms, becoming irritable, jittery, experiencing problems simply breathing. They have a faster heart rate, cry continually, may have seizures and go into respiratory distress. Dr. Guttman, a pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto was one of the authors of the recently released study.

The study, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood Fetal & Neonatal Edition,  looked at statistics for Ontario only, but since the province accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the Canadian population, it is assumed that the numbers arrived at fairly well reflect other provinces as well. Doctors prescribe these addictive drugs for chronic pain or similar conditions; the exposure to their use most often represents the starting gate into addiction.  Doctors in Canada have been damned by regulators for their indiscriminate prescriptive drug habits.

Canadian doctors are recognized as being the second-highest opioid prescribers in the world; only doctors in the United States prescribe in greater numbers. Charges of inappropriate prescribing, too-high dosages, arbitrary prescriptions, all apply to prescription-happy doctors. The researchers for this new study measured the situation in  England, Western Australia, the U.S. and Canada, with Canada's figures associated directly with that of Ontario.

In 2011, 5.1 per 1,000 live births reflected addiction withdrawal babies. That number represented a value doubling the rates in  England and Western Australia; higher as well than those in the United States (2.7 per 1,000 births and 3.6 respectively). Mothers under 19 years of age appear to deliver the greatest number of babies with neonatal drug withdrawal. Communities in Northern Ontario have rates ten times higher than those in other parts of the province. And that would be because First Nations communities have a higher rate of affliction.

Born in drug withdrawal, babies have an increased risk of neglect, their mothers more likely to die during the childhood of their babies, leaving them orphans exposed to the same kind of living conditions that brought such despair to their mothers. Dr. Guttman is of the opinion -- and there would not be too many in society who would oppose that recommendation -- that public health policies targeting prevention and more effective treatment services are required for addicted women.

Which might work just fine, but not if the conditions that catapulted those young women into drug dependency in the first place aren't adequately addressed; a large order of neglected business that must at some point be remediated if society at large has a care about decent living conditions and equal opportunities for all those who live in the country that likes to think of itself as civilized and advantaged.

With Profound and Fond Regrets

Celebrants at St. Matthias cozied together in the church chancel for the Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley’s homily on Christmas Day

 With Profound and Fond Regrets

"There's an aging infrastructure here that needs work. You can hear the gurgling in the heating system that needs attention, and there's water seepage in the basement that needs attention. We're not handicapped-accessible, and that needs attention."
"We could fix all of that, or we could choose to worship with our brothers and sisters down the street, and instead put that money into ministry."
"For a parish that was looking at the end of its own existence, to take that on because we believed it was the right thing to do, in spite of our troubles, is a strong testament to the courage and faith that lives in this community."
"The one that causes real heartache is in some way we may be betraying our forebears [by leaving]. How can we let it go? But the answer is simply, they would have done the same."
Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley, St.Matthias Anglican Church

Three of the church buildings that the congregation of St. Matthias has called home throughout the years. Due to declining numbers, the congregation will merge with a Westboro parish in the new year. (St. Matthias Anglican Parish)

"It takes me 20 minutes to walk here from home, 25 minutes to walk to All Saints Westboro, and 30 minutes to walk to the cathedral. So that tells you how over-churched we are  [in the community]."
"I mean, I have three churches -- three Anglican churches -- within a half-hour's walk."
Sylvia Shortliffe, area resident, Parkdale, Ottawa

"...We were married here, so we return on special occasions [though the family lives in another parish]. "
"It's sad to see it close. It's a beautiful building, and the wonderful people here have always been welcoming."
Todd Overtveld, Orleans

St. Matthias Anglican Church will be closing in the new year as the congregation merges with another church in Westboro. (Google Street View)

The church has been operating for some time at a deficit. Despite which the decision could have been made to allow it to continue for another five or even ten years. Instead, the decision was taken that its ministry operations were more vital to the spirit of the faith. And so, the the church is set to close and instead funding will be diverted to supporting food programs, lunch clubs, refugee sponsorships, shelters and other similar enterprises reflecting Church values.

St. Matthias Anglican Church on Parkdale Avenue is lamentably but willingly prepared to shutter its doors. Because of steeply declining attendance it has been decided that its final service is to take place on February 7. On March 2nd, the building is scheduled for deconsecration. St. Matthias's members have been cordially invited to attend services at All Saints Anglican church on Richmond Road, a veritable stone's throw away.

The church is large, built to accommodate at least six hundred congregants. St. Matthias has been the spiritual home of area residents for the past 127 years. So it will be with sorrow that it is destined to disappear from the area. The future of the site on which it stands is unknown, but the area Anglican diocese will make the determination of what will replace it. Whether it can be turned to use as an arts and community centre, or destroying the building and erecting in its stead, a residence for seniors.

It is a painful issue that has bemused and troubled other congregations elsewhere in the near past, and one which will continue to raise the attention of those who lament the passage of time and a dwindling church attendance from among the larger population.  On Friday, parishioner attendance was so sparse that people took their seats in the chancel, where the choir is accustomed to being accommodated; a mere few dozen of the faithful.

Christmas Eve service brought out a tad over two hundred people. An additional 80 arrived for an earlier service on Thursday. The 8:00 p.m. service was attended by a larger group than the Reverend Canon John Wilker-Blakley has greeted in two years. There is little doubt that regret and wistful memories brought out a few more congregants than had bothered attending in the last decade. Attendance tends to average around 75, noted the pastor.

The last song whose melody floated throughout St. Matthias in its final Christmas Day service happened to be Joy to the World. And that is how the congregants preferred to look on the decision that has stirred their memories of earlier times of familial church attendance during this one signal time of the year.

Bryan Bondy preaches to about two dozen parishioners at St. Matthias' Anglican church on Parkdale Ave. Friday's was the final Christmas Day service at the church, which is slated to be closed in the new year. Bruce Deachman / Ottawa Citizen

In Search of Enlightenment and Immortality

"Oliver Boldizar died from living life his own damn way. He lived about as far from the mainstream as it's possible to go, free from the bonds of 21st Century self-repression, a man from a different age and time."
"At 38, he died too young, but he spent more than half of that travelling and lived far more than double that in intensity, as his liver attested during the autopsy. He didn't drink alcohol, but he did experiment with various forms of biohacking in his search for knowledge and immortality."
Obituary

Paul and Darina Boldizar were informed at 11:11 a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 2015 that the younger of their two sons, the habitual traveller, the searcher-for-truth, for the meaning of life and what lies beyond in the Universe, was dead. He was one day away from his 38th birthday. They were devastated, understandably, as parents hearing that their beloved child was no longer among the living, would be, but perhaps not quite as surprised by that rude intrusion by the Angel of Death as most parents would be.

Their son was born on November 12, 1977 in Boldice, communist-era Czechoslovakia, and when Oliver was a year-and-a-half old, the family, including his older brother Alexander, fled to freedom from Communism. They were penniless, but not without hope for the future. After living for six months in an Austrian refugee camp, they were accepted as refugees seeking haven to become future Canadian permanent residents. Immigration officials would never know that in the two young boys resided extraordinary minds.

The boys both excelled academically, as they did as well in sports activities. As news of Oliver's death spread among those who had known him, a Facebook tribute written by a former classmate at high school remembered him by writing: "You made high school look like preschool. In science and math you were unequalled". Summing up the cerebral success in academics that reflected the minds of both Alexander and Oliver Boldizar. But it was only Oliver who was destined to search for a deep philosophical spiritual meaning in existence.

Alexander, his older brother graduated from Harvard Law School, while Oliver dropped out of  university and instead chose to travel to Calgary to study with a guru, an Indian mystic, on an ashram. Later, his brother arranged an introduction to a Tibetan who had been one of his Harvard class colleagues, a man who is now Tibet's prime minister in exile, Lobsang Sangay. Oliver lived for six months with Lobsang's family in the Indian Himalaya, in Dharmsala.

Facebook photo of Oliver Boldizar

"That was the foundation of him studying Buddhism. But he found that too restrictive after awhile and started researching his own path and getting more and more into esoteric things", his brother Alex explained to a journalist. "Oliver didn't like conservatism of any sort. Even within the Buddhist tradition he felt most of the teachings were too conservative. He felt there was something more there, he just had to look a little harder, a little further, in a little more out-of-the-way place. I don't know what he was seeking. I honestly don't. I wish I could answer that."

Oliver did not come from a family of spiritual believers; the rest of his family are atheists, and he was, it seems, a born mystic. "He'd get into a philosophy or teachings and he didn't have that skeptical side that he had for corporations or the military industrial complex. He didn't apply that skepticism to whatever he was following in the moment. He would go in extremely deeply and come out the other side and see that it had flaws ... then he'd go on to something else. He was searching his whole life."

Searching for the unattainable. Nothing seemed to answer his queries to his satisfaction. And since nothing did, he simply continued the search. That search obviously gave purpose and direction to his life. It was what animated him. It created value in his life; his aspiration to find a definitive answer to his penetrating questions; the answer to which always eluded him and stirred him on to continue his search. That search took him to many exotic places in the world, and in those places to isolated areas where folk wisdom steered him toward the use of strange plants as medicaments.

Eventually his spoken Tibetan was fluent to the point that he could ply the professional trade of a translator, co-authoring a publication with the title Gongchig -- the Singular Intent, the Sacred Dharma. At times he would spend months as a spiritual hermit, living in a cave, meditating, his survival if not his nutritional needs met by a single daily bowl of rice brought to him as a tribute by villagers respecting holy men.

His mother was concerned over his welfare, a concern that lingered on his seemingly strange persona and interests. So much so that she persuaded her son on one occasion to allow her to accompany him to a hospital, for him to submit to a psychiatric evaluation. The outcome was that the doctors interviewing him felt there was nothing intrinsically awry with his mind. "Oliver talked circles around them", she concluded. Which could be interpreted as (a) a mother's pride; (b) his level of intelligence simply surpassing theirs; or (c) that he was able to conceal from his interlocutors the depth of his fascination for and singular devotion to his search.

When he was in high school, apart from his extraordinary level of academic excellence, he was interested in dating. And many years later in Brazil he had forged a serious relationship with a woman, which he eventually discarded. "Most of his life he was on his own. At the very end he was trying to transcend sexuality and gender", he brother explained. "I think he felt he should be celibate. But it wasn't in the Christian way of resisting temptation, it was more in terms of transcending biology."

When he was discovered, dead, in the room he had rented in Santiniketan, India, where he had been studying, his body was badly decomposed. An autopsy did manage to reveal that Oliver's liver was in a state of advanced cirrhosis. "He basically destroyed his liver by trying to make himself live forever", his brother said. The theory has been advanced that his liver poisoned his body, and stopped his heart from beating.

Facebook photo of Oliver Boldizar in childhood

Oliver passed away in Santiniketan, India, at 11:11 AM on 11-11-15 from complications resulting from living life his own damn way. He lived about as far from the mainstream as it's possible to go, free from the bonds of 21st century self-repression, a man from a different age and time. At 38, he died too young, but he spent more than half of that travelling and lived far more than double that in intensity, as his liver attested during the autopsy. He didn't drink alcohol, but he did experiment with various forms of biohacking in his search for knowledge and immortality.

He had no patience for organized structures of any sort, including school, but would have no problem doing 200,000 prostrations to get to the next stage in some Tantric teaching. He gave himself the equivalent of a PhD in several subjects, including ancient Tibetan texts, chemistry and eastern religions. He spoke English, Slovak, German, French, Spanish, Tibetan, Bengali, Hindi, Pali and possibly other languages he learned while living in caves, meditating for months at a time while villagers in India, Nepal, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, California, or any of the other odd places he lived, brought him one bowl of rice a day.

He had a beautiful mind and generous soul, and was loved as a son, brother, uncle, cousin, nephew, friend, but he would come back and haunt all of us if we gave him a mainstream funeral. In his honour, we have decided not to hold a standard memorial ceremony. Instead, we will plant him illegally under a tree in the Spring, so he can laugh at the Man one last time and his body can reincarnate along with his soul. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?pid=176925015#sthash.DX3RwTHL.dpuf

Questioning Medical Ethics in "Saving" Lives

"This is about invasive, aggressive, expensive life-sustaining treatments, used against people's wishes."
"Most people's concept of the dying moment is a tender moment, a warm moment, the family around you, holding your hand, preserving dignity. The reality for people undergoing resuscitation is the opposite of that."
"There's a real failure on our part to engage these older patients ... to honestly elicit their wishes."
Dr. Daren Heyland, critical-care physician/Queen's University professor

"Then when you sit down and have an open and direct conversation about it, you find out that's not what they want at all."
Dr. Stephen Workman, critical care specialist, QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax

"The big, long tradition of not really working with families is still very, very deep."
Sholom Glouberman, founder, Patients Canada (advocacy group)

Getty Creative   Issues over end-of-life care — from euthanasia to deciding when to stop life-preserving treatment — have been drawing attention recently like never before

A new study published in the journal BMJ Quality and Safety points out among other disturbing facts, that over a third of elderly and gravely sick patients who are hospitalized have been selected routinely to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation whether or not they have indicated that they want the application of this generally-agreed futile measure, given their health condition. Logic might have it that something of this vital nature would be discussed between the attending physician and the patient on admission to hospital or at some time before the perceived need to take such action arises.

The authors of the report consider these orders that appear longevity-unwarranted -- to impose on gravely ill elderly patients a procedure that is both painful and futile -- represent a 'medical error' resulting from lack of communication. According to Dr. Heyland, who headed the research project that informed the paper, attempts to restart an arrested heart only on rare occasions save someone's life. What these attempts do in more real terms is impose on the helpless unneeded violence at a time when they really need a tranquil passage from life to death.

Over 800 patients were interviewed by the researchers, along with 600 members of their families at sixteen hospitals across Canada. Among other questions, the critical one of whether the patient would wish CPR to be performed on them (chest compressions meant to restart the heart and keep the patient alive in the wake of a cardiac arrest)was posed. With the response noted, the researchers looked at the patients' bedside charts to determine whether they were compatible with the stated wishes of the patients themselves.

For the large majority of patients -- most of whom were in their 80s with four in ten having congestive heart failure, advanced cancer or end-stage dementia -- who expressed a wish not to have CPR, 35 percent of the charts expressly indicated "full code" or made no mention of CPR, both of which amounted to the same outcome; to use all methods to restart the heart. On the other hand, the study found evidence that eight percent who said they would wish CPR had the opposite written on their charts.

Fotolia Some doctors hide behind euphemisms because they’re afraid of upsetting families or simply unsure of the prognosis, one physician says

Up to two percent of patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation in hospital live to see another day at home. Half of that number come out of the experience with serious neurological damage ensuing as a result of the application of CPR. Most of those interviewed stated they had not informed medical staff of their preference and for the simple reason that they were not asked. The truth is, people on both sides of the equation, health service providers and the public alike, prefer to skirt the issue of unpleasant end-of-life issues. And this is to the detriment of both.

Dr. Workman in Halifax felt the default position used throughout health care practise places any patient in full code unless their chart states otherwise. He feels this is a fall-back negating the need of medical practitioners to broach an uncomfortable subject; both for themselves and the public. But unless the chart reflects the patient's specific position the obligation of health professionals to act in a manner consonant with a patient's wishes cannot result.

Increasing numbers of people are now looking after their sick and elderly family members. They are themselves quite reluctant to speak of such matters when they feel they are reflecting their loved one's best interests and wishes for themselves about when life-sustaining treatment should stop, advises Mr. Glouberman of the Patients Canada advocacy group. This is, of course, a matter affecting people everywhere, not just in Canada; an issue long overdue for a system of best-practise to be adopted.

Marital Incompatibility on Steroids

"If, despite all the evidence I have, the accused are allowed to escape then no other women will ever try to prosecute for this type of crime."
"Ultrasounds in India always happen behind closed doors because every doctor knows it's a crime and will never give the results in writing."
"They didn't say anything to me, but afterwards it was clear that my husband and my in-laws knew that I was carrying girls. After that, they began badgering me to have at least one of them killed. They told me we could not bring up two girls, we would not be able to afford to get them married."
"He threw me out of the house because he wants to remarry someone who can give him a son.""Even as an educated woman I am pushed around. But my daughters are now my biggest source of happiness, and I am proud that I have saved them."
Mitu Khurana, 39, pediatrician, Jaipur, Rajasthan

Mitu Khurana (right), from Jaipur, claims her husband Kamal (left) secretly asked doctors to take an ultra-sound of her babies while she was in hospital with a stomach complaint in 2004

China and India, each representing huge countries geographically and each having over a billion people (1.3-billion and 1.2-billion respectively) undertook to persuade their citizens to have fewer children; China with a one-child-only per family law, India with forced sterilization. In both countries boy babies were considered to be more desirable than girl babies and the result has been the abortion of female foetuses with a resulting gender imbalance causing social havoc in both countries. 

 

China has relented on its one-child coercion, and India has made ultrasounds illegal.

Social and cultural biases cannot be changed so readily to meet a new climate of enlightenment, however, and ultrasounds are still taking place, illegally. Dr. Mitu Khurana has fought a long legal battle over an ultrasound that was done at her husband's behest without her knowledge when she was pregnant with twin girls. She had experienced an allergic reaction and was taken to hospital, given sedatives and a kidney scan taken. Her husband took advantage of the opportunity to convince colleagues to take an ultrasound.

 

The 39-year-old paediatrician refused to abort the twins and is involved in a 'landmark' legal fight at India's high court

Dr. Kamal Khurana, her husband, has denied his wife's allegations. This is, in fact, the first time that such charges have ever been brought to an Indian court. But it is an important struggle for very basic human rights. It has been estimated that 12 million female foetuses were aborted in India through a period of 30 years. An investigation of 89 hospitals n Delhi alone discovered birthrate discrepancies of great proportions. In one instance, 285 girls were delivered for every 1,000 boys.

 

The United Nations made note of the situation and concluded that the number of violent sex crimes so common in India may very well be partially related to the dwindling number of Indian girls in the population, a shortage that has reached "emergency proportions". The lawsuit that Dr. Khurana brought both against her husband and the Jaipur Golden Hospital was thrown out recently by a lower court, citing a lack of evidence.

 

Dr. Khurana described the untenable situation she faced after the 2004 ultrasound had been taken without her permission, and against the law, in a collusion between her husband and other doctors at the hospital. Her husband afterward began insisting she have an abortion and was often violent in his behaviour; once, she stated, pushing her down a set of stairs. When she asked for medical help, her husband responded by confining her with "the intention to induce abortion".

 

It was her parents who brought her to hospital the next morning. Her twin girls, Guddi and Pari, were born some time later, prematurely at 31 weeks' gestation. They are now ten years of age. Dr. Khurana says that when one of her little girls was only four months old her mother-in-law had attempted to push the child down a staircase. Her husband denied the girls could have been his; he had been informed by a priest that he would have a son. He insisted that a DNA test be undertaken.