Opinions
The human being behind the badge
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 15th, 2018
Sometimes, even the helpers are in need of help. Last Monday’s World Suicide Prevention Day event in Lethbridge highlighted the fact that first responders can fall victim to the darkness of depression. And depression, taken to an extreme, can lead to suicidal thoughts. One of the presenters at the Lethbridge event knows very well what ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Guest Column: The many faces of poverty in Canada
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 14th, 2018
The federal government is to be congratulated on its just-released Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Strategy itself, running to more than 100 pages, endorses the idea of an official poverty line, relieving Statistics Canada from the impossible task of finding a purely statistical basis for defining and measuring poverty. It further endorses the idea that poverty ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Guest Column: Medically assisted dying cases need stronger review to safeguard us all
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 14th, 2018
In the early days of Canada’s public conversation about medical assistance in dying (MAID), Dr. Jeff Blackmer, then vice-president of the Canadian Medical Association, expressed the gravitas of the policy choices that lay ahead as “no less than a sea change” to the ethos and culture of the medical profession. That was in 2016, after ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Blanket ban on cellphones in class would not be smart
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 13th, 2018
With students back in class, educators, parents and politicians are talking about cellphones. Again. Along with sex education, “discovery” math and seemingly everything else going on in Ontario classrooms, Premier Doug Ford wants parents to weigh in on cellphone use in school. His Progressive Conservative party campaigned on a promise to bring in an outright ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Jagmeet Singh digs himself a deep hole
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 12th, 2018
New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh has opened a new can of worms. His decision to bar sitting MP Erin Weir from contesting the NDP nomination in his own riding has sparked an open revolt in the Saskatchewan wing of the party. “There’s a lot of outrage,” former Saskatchewan NDP MP Lorne Nystrom, a 32-year ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Guest Column: Canada’s crude oil profit margin is being railroaded
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 12th, 2018
When Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal quashed the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, citing inadequate consultation with First Nations and concerns over marine tanker traffic, it was the latest blow in a bad few months for Canada’s heavy oil producers. Crude oil exports shipped by rail reached a record high ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Big Pharma should share opioid blame
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 11th, 2018
Attorney General David Eby has announced a class-action lawsuit by B.C. against more than 40 manufacturers and distributors of opioid drugs. He has invited other provinces to join him. Eby’s complaint against the manufacturers centres on two main allegations. First, that they knowingly understated the addictive qualities of opioids. And second, that they advocated using ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Highway 3 twinning a crucial project
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 10th, 2018
Later this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the completion of work to twin the Trans-Canada Highway entirely through Saskatchewan. The event was officially marked in December of that year with a government celebration of the achievement, and you can be sure travellers celebrated, too. Here in southern Alberta, Highway 3 is just as ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!Separatist talk simmers in Alberta
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 8th, 2018
Alberta separatism is on the rise, at least according to UCP Leader Jason Kenney. Although he proclaimed himself a “Canadian nationalist” in an interview with CTV’s Power Play, Kenney warned that a growing number of Albertans are having doubts about confederation. In the same interview, the UCP leader suggested he would challenge Canada’s equalization payment ... Read More »
1 responseGuest Column: Why do social media users choose to intentionally add to someone’s pain?
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 8th, 2018
I spent my first few years of life in Communist Germany, the second of three children. My dad had spoken out once too often at town meetings and was in danger of being imprisoned. Mother and father hatched a plan of escape. It worked, and we found ourselves in West Berlin, the escape route for ... Read More »
Be the first to comment!On matters of pipelines, talk is cheap, but Canada needs some action
By Medicine Hat News Opinon on September 7th, 2018
The photo this week of Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does indeed tell a long story. Notley looks ticked off, as though she’s given it her all and has hit a brick wall. Trudeau, clasping his hands, legs crossed and a fixed facial expression, looks for all the world as though someone ... Read More »
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