Category: Other

Yesterday Stephen Harper announced that the Conservative Party of Canada will hold its first policy convention in Montreal in mid-March on the 17th through the 19th.

Montreal is an ideal location as Harper has stated that a full 25% of the delegates will be from Québec and it’s true that the Western party faithful will follow the convention wherever it might have been held. I believe that it’s a good strategy to show that the CPC is a national party and a real alternative to the Liberals. One thing the conference must have to be successful, in my opinion, is the presence of key Québec political figures. Will Brian Mulroney make an appearance? Jean Charest a renewed Tory? Mario Dumont? (Sorted in order of increasing levels of ‘Highly unlikely’), yet more radical shifts have occurred in a period of six months. This policy convention cannot show emptiness in Québec but must rather show potential gains and real representation in that province.

In today’s edition of the Globe and Mail, Robert Matas reports that the family of a woman who died in a hospital parking lot plans to sue because the only response to the emergency situation by staff inside the hospital was to call 911.

Jessica Peace was dying in the hospital parking lot when Jim Roberts ran into the hospital for help.

“Ms. Peace’s death came 16 months after an 88-year-old man died of cardiac arrest outside a residence care facility next to the hospital, fuelling suspicion the institution has a policy of calling 911, rather than responding immediately to those in need”

Here is an example where protocol trumped common sense and a life may have been lost because of it.

The hospital staff must have felt that emergency situations outside of the hospital ER are outside of their jurisdiction and within that of the ambulance staff and union.

In a figurative example, Ms. Peace’s death was merely the burnt-out light bulb in your office unable to be replaced until two members from the building maintenance union could come and do the job.

When did Canada’s healthcare system place the territory of unions over the life and care of the patient?

When did a job become worthy of an individual instead of the individual being worthy of the job? And when did the value of a life become worthy of neither?

Here’s an interesting article about a report describing luxurious spa treatments for Canadian female inmates.

Toronto’s police chief Julian Fantino says that the criminal justice system is “broken” and has demanded to meet with Anne McLellan, the federal Liberal justice minister.

Inmates reportedly received manicures, pedicures, aromatherapy treatments and a harp serenade while enjoying tea on fine china.