Clive Mensah, a 30 year-old Black man, died on november 20, 2019. A new post-mortem report by the forensic service of Ontario concludes that he died of unknown causes. Responding to reports of a disturbance, the Peel police arrived at Mensah's backyard at 3:24 AM. After he was tasered 6 times and pepper-sprayed, Mensah was unconscious. The ambulance arrived at 3:39 and at 4:19 he was pronounced dead at hospital. His two uncles, the only family he has in Canada, indicate he has a mental health condition but it is not clear that the 333 pounds man was going through a crisis. The special investigations unit is still investigating.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Friday, December 25, 2020
Gender identity and common sense
New laws are being debated outlawing "conversion therapy". It turns out that a growing number of children would prefer to be assigned to the other sex. They can find support in gender clinics - there are 50 of them in the United States. Three quarters of them are girls who want to live as boys.
Federal bill C-6 and Quebec provincial bill PL-70 criminalize giving advice to teens who want to take puberty blockers or hormones.
Sex is determined when the sperm cell enters the egg and the distinction between girs and boys is a full chromosome which is present in every cell.
Gender blending is not limited to locker rooms. 8 male federal prisoners were transfered to female prisons because they said they identified as women!
For further reading, go to http://www.cawsbar.ca and http://www.genderreport.ca and http://www.detranscanada.com
I call for the removal of C-6 and PL-70 which threatens dortors and therapists with a five year prison terms for acting according to their convictions and common sense!
Melvis Owen dies of Covid-19 in prison
The coronavirus has invaded Manitoba's prisons. Headingley has reported 251 cases but 95% cured and Stony Mountain prison reports 236 cases with only 50% cured. In Ontario, Joyceville reports 83 cases within its walls and several sick prisoners who were transfered to other prisons. Visits are suspended in most prisons.
Man overboard!
Master sailor Duane Earle is missing from his boat. He probably fell in the Pacific ocean. His boat, the HMCS Winnipeg, is in service since 1966 with a total crew of 230. Military authorities are investigating. It is the ninth accidental death in Canda's armed forces this year.
Death of Claude Castonguay
He is widely recognized as the founder of Quebec's health insurance scheme. He also participated to Quebec's public pension plan, the law regulating professions, and Quebec's pharmacare scheme. He was minister of Health, family and welfare for a single mandate (ending in 1973), prefering to be a behind-the-scenes government advisor. He also led La Laurentienne, a large insurance company.
The health insurance scheme is now 50 years old. It is generally perceived as universal and free but it excludes immigrants, temporary foreign workers, most care when you are a tourist abroad, tourists here, chronic care, ambulance services, most psychologists and physiotherapy, oxygen, most dental care, reports to third parties like insurance companies, recently available equipment like retina tomography, soft lenses for cataracts, fiberglass casts for broken arms (instead of plaster casts). There is also a growing tendency for doctors to leave the medicare system and bill patients directly like the Lacroix clinics.
I am not arguing that our governments should pay all forms of medical care. It needs to prioritize, fighting tuberculosis first, then providing vaccines to travelers to exotic destinations, then contagious diseases, then wounds and injuries which will get infected or worse if not treated. To limit expenses, the system first limited billing for visits from the doctor. The patient is expected to go to the doctor (or hospital for critical care) Now it is difficult to find a GP so emergency rooms are overcrowded and wait times of 24 hours for non-urgent care are common. Costs were rising fast so campaigns like a switch to ambulatory care (le virage ambulatoire), the need for a referance from a generalist to see a specialist, administrative bundling of hospitals, re-arrangement of which hospital does what were instituted. Mr. Castonguay has been a witness of these transformations and he criticized the opposition to any change as an attack on "sacred cows". Limits to services can be put by expecting the patient to loose say 20 pounds before a procedure like an operation is performed. Why are vasectomies covered? Can we exclude from coverage heart disease, or obstructive pulmonary disease or even cancer? Mr. Castonguay's answer when he was in old age was "we have to find a new source of financing". That means a new form of taxation!
Before he was elected, Francois Legault suggested the construction of "homes for the aged" which would be less hospital-like. The Covid-19 events surprised the governments and demonstrated to Legault that before providing new buildings, he has got to staff existing resources adequately. The pandemic has strained resources in the health system, delaying operations, for example.
Mr. Castonguay was an actuary. In january 1966, the Régie des rentes came into being. At first it had almost no disbursement and millions of providers. The system had lots of reserves. But now, with an aging population, interests rates near 0, Covid uncertainty, government directives that CDPQ fund public transit which has no hope of being profitable, are we headed for the need to cut down annuities? Or an increase in salary deductions?
Brandon Bernard is executed
Brandon Bernard paid with his life his association to Christopher Vialva (who was 19 when the crime was committed), Tony Sparks (16), Christopher Lewis(15), and Terry Brown (17). This group of young Blacks robbed and sequestered Stacie and Todd Baglet, a protestant pastor couple, and locked them in the trunk of their car. That is when they asked Brandon for help. Bandon could provide his mother's car for fleeing the crime scene. The two cars were driven to a desolate place (which turned out to be part of a military base - making it a federal case). They opened the trumk and Vialva shot and killed Todd. He also shot Stacie, rendering her unconscious. Brandon Bernard (who was 18) helped set fire to the Baglet car (with the bodies in the trunk). The guilty verdict was pronounced in 2000 by a jury of 11 Whites and one Black. Christopher Vialva was executed on 24 september 2020. Christopher Lewis and Terry Brown were condemned to 20 years and have been freed.
Brandon Bernard was in death row in Terre Haute, Indiana. He counselled youths and was knitting in his 6 x 8 feet cell, He was lead to a courtyard every day for an hour where hi would play with a basketball alone. His family visited him once a year. He was executed on the 10th of december 2020. President-elect Biden is opposed to the death penalty.
Covid 19
The Great Barrington declaration is a document proposing less stringent measures to limit covid spreading. In response to this document, The Lancet published in its 14 october issue the John Snow memorandum to suggest stricter confinement measures. Read those documents on:
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