Will a Canadian or two please explain this to me? Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care Toronto, June 9 The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system. The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country's vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces. The system, providing Canadians with free doctor's services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character. But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists. The court ruled that the waiting lists had...
Happy Halloween
ReplyDeleteI was supposed to be an observer and peripheral monitor in an ongoing human-rights case. Instead, I've wound up in its inner circle partly because of a series of calamities, including the recent death of a key adviser, a lawyer-doctor with a background in prosecution, psychiatry and ethics. Doing this stuff puts you right in the middle of different forms and magnitudes of corruption. For me, the hardest thing to bear is the people for whom harming other people remains not merely a preoccupation but a life-force, including government officials.
The present occupant of the W.H. is without question the worst president in my lifetime, a puppet who spouts platitudes on cue—“I want to thank [an inept charlatan]for his service to the American people," and so on ad nauseam. His miserable "policies" will burden my daughter's generation and your children's generation with crushing financial and social debts for years to come—and their children's children's generation. By the time he's out of office five years, historians will have eviscerated him. Clinton has an affair and attempts to impeach him are made. Bush starts a war, lies about the reasons, and is reelected. His policies have politicized the CIA and FBI to the breaking point, and they, in turn, have degraded and infected our armed forces by being in contact with them. Millions know this now; additional millions will know it by the time he leaves office.
C.B.,
New York
10/31/05
How nice to see you, CB!
ReplyDeleteYour involvement in the human-rights case must be fascinating and grueling. For two years, researching a possible book about a sexual assault advocacy program, I learned something about bearing witness to pain, how it effects the witness. I so admire your ability to do that work.
Thanks for your comments on the Resident. Your thoughts are always welcome here.
Fafblog has been paying tribute to the season all week. As for me, I'll suggest:
ReplyDeleteTop Ten Scariest Canadian Halloween Costumes:
10) Paul Martian
9) The Ghoumery Report
8) The Parliament with Four Heads
7) The Restless Spirit of Western alienation
6) The Ghost Cod of Dildo, Newfoundland
5) The Chattering Visage of Ralph the Impaler
4) The Eastward-marching Mountain Pine Beetle
3) Don Cherry's tailor when he stops being so conseravtive
2) The West Nile Virus
and #1:
The Spectre of oncoming winter