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The Globe and Mail Sat May 9 2015

An Ottawa trans man who paid out of pocket for a double mastectomy has launched a Charter challenge against the Ontario government, arguing that a law that forces trans people to obtain approvals for sex-reassignment surgery from one overburdened Toronto clinic is a violation of his rights. A notice of application filed in the Ontario Superior Court on Friday asks the court to strike down a Health Insurance Act regulation that says trans people can obtain public funding for their sex reassignment surgeries only if they first get the goahead from the Adult Gender Identity Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Mr. Maillet's lawyer, Tim Gleason, plans to argue that the regulation violates his client's right to life, liberty and security of the person, and his equality rights, both of which are guarded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "This regulation, in my view, is a relic," Mr. Gleason said. "It's a relic of a past that's rooted in ignorance and bigotry. This regulation treats transgender people differently than other people, exclusively on the basis of their gender or their sex ... it can't be justified." The Globe and Mail reported last month on the case of Mr. Maillet, who decided to extend his line of credit to cover the $7,401.50 cost of a double mastectomy he underwent on March 3, 2013.

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Projected on the side of a building in Spokane, Washington in 2013, the message against 'fast track' authority, which would restrict lawmakers ability to weigh in or make changes to the deal, has been key in the fight against the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership agreement. The reason: If the American people knew what was in this deal they would never allow their members of Congress to vote in favor of it. (Photo: Michael Beasley of Spokane Coalition Builders/flickr/cc)

Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster.

May 10, 2016

By Laura Brightwell

On the evening of Monday May 2, Canada's only sex reassignment surgery clinic was subject to an arson attack. A man, armed with a machete, axe and gas can, set fire to the operating room.

May 9, 2015

The Council of Canadians opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Toronto Star explains, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement between 12 countries on the Pacific Ocean: Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore, Peru, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei. ...The TPP covers a wide range of non-tariff concerns, including intellectual property, food safety, and labour standards. ...The negotiations have been conducted in secret. Drafts have been leaked of TPP sections on three significant topics: intellectual property, the environment, and 'investor-state dispute settlement' — common but controversial rules that give companies the right to go to arbitration panels, outside the regular courts, to challenge laws they believe violate their rights under the deal."

Toronto Star Mon Aug 31 2015

Imagine a health-care system where the clinician you meet before a surgery is the same person who cares for you while you're in hospital and after you make it home. Imagine that clinician being available to you 24/7 by phone or iPad to field pre-surgery questions or, during recovery, to listen to worries about that incision you found flaring up, or an unexpected amount of pain.

That kind of treatment sounds like an unlikely scenario - one that doctors can dream about, but rarely provide because of cuts to health care and the growing strains squeezing our system. But at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, it's been a reality for patients enrolled in the hospital's Integrated Comprehensive Care Project since 2012. And so far, it's paying off.

October 6, 2015

The news yesterday that the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have concluded is one that should worry Canadians, especially in regards to the relationship between intellectual property rights (IP) and pharmaceuticals (the text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which are about trade). Even the likes of Paul Krugman have changed their tune and stated, “this is not a trade agreement. It’s about intellectual property and dispute settlement; the big beneficiaries are likely to be pharma companies and firms that want to sue governments.” Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently added that, “you will hear much about the importance of the TPP for 'free trade.' The reality is that this is an agreement to manage its members’ trade and investment relations – and to do so on behalf of each country’s most powerful business lobbies. Make no mistake: It is evident from the main outstanding issues, over which negotiators are still haggling, that the TPP is not about “free” trade.”

by Arne Rückert & Ronald Labonté

September 30, 2015

Canadian media coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has almost exclusively focused on the effects the deal would have on the economy, especially the dairy industry and auto sector. The implications for health and health care have hardly received any media attention in Canada. We feel this is a grave oversight.

January 28, 2015

The negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership - a free trade zone of twelve countries including Canada - could be concluded this March. The TPP, representing 40 per cent of the world's economy, would also include the United States, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has described the TPP as a deal that will only benefit the wealthy 1 per cent, not the rest of us who make up the 99 per cent.

Feb 3, 2016

As Canada prepares to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership,

a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPPA) report confirms the massive deal will severely weaken our public health care system.

by Bobbie Blair

• More than a decade after he was fired from his position as senior scientific advisor at Health Canada for telling the truth, Canadian ‘whistleblower’ Dr. Shiv Chopra is now warning us about a new threat to our health and our food safety: the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). In 2004, Dr. Chopra lost his job for refusing to approve a genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH) developed to increase milk production in dairy cows. He faced an incredible amount of pressure to lie to the public, not only from the powerful biotech industry, but also from his superiors inside the government agency. Dr. Chopra’s story is still a red flag for us today: we cannot rely on the government to look out for our health. But while they took his job and destroyed his career, neither the industry nor Health Canada could rob Dr. Chopra of his good name. A Federal Court established it was not only his right, but also his duty to blow the whistle about rBGH health concerns, as a scientist holding a position of public trust. Dr. Chopra has no regrets. A couple of years ago, he told an audience, “I would blow the whistle again!” This year, he keeps his promise.

May 17, 2016

May 17, 2016 8:3

A protest is being organized for Tuesday evening to underline the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia as well as lending support to one of Canada’s only trans health clinics which was firebombed in early May.

Each day, 32 million children in the United States get lunch at schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program, which uses agricultural surplus to feed children.

About a quarter of the school nutrition program has been privatized, much of it outsourced to food service management giants like Aramark, based in Philadelphia; Sodexo, based in France; and the Chartwells division of the Compass Group, based in Britain.

more and more pay processors to turn these healthy ingredients into fried chicken nuggets, fruit pastries, pizza and the like

Team approach to providing care before, during and after surgery proved successful in improving care and cutting costs by up to $4,000 per patient.

Registered nurse Anna Tran, left, visits with patient Audrey Holwerda, 82, at her home in Hamilton. Tran is Holwerda's care coordinator as part of St. Joseph Hospital's Integrated Comprehensive Care Program, which is now to be replicated in a series of pilot projects around the province.

By: Tara Deschamps Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Sep 02 2015

08/October/2015

Toronto, ON – Bowing to pressure from the United States (U.S.), “the Harper Conservative government has negotiated a damaging trade deal that gives patent protection to big pharmaceutical companies, while delaying access to lower cost generic drugs for ill patients who need them to stay alive. Life – saving medicines should not be a trade commodity, that only some can afford,” says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).Access to medicines is one of the key provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiated between Canada, the U.S. and ten other Pacific Rim countries. The TPP is the latest in a succession of trade deals that have limited access to medications by driving up drug prices. According to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, the deals are a contributing factor to drug costs tripling in the U.S. since 1987.

Apr 5, 2016

The Trans-Pacific Partnership signed by International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in February has been called “the biggest trade deal Canadians have never heard of.”

Canada has lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs since Jean Chrétien’s NAFTA deal. A Toronto report found that 20 per cent of people in and around that city are now employed in precarious, unstable or part-time jobs. This type of employment has increased by 50 per cent in the past 20 years since NAFTA was signed. In this same period, not a single notable social program has been introduced or expanded.

Oct 15, 2015

Social and labour organizations are urging the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to clarify his position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an open letter, they expose the fact that the TPP will slow down the introduction of generic medication to the market. This will force Canadians and residents of the other signatory countries who depend on life-saving medication to buy higher-cost brand name drugs for a longer period of time.  “The TPP is a bad deal for anyone who relies on prescription medication. This is why it’s important to act now” states the open letter. “If you support the TPP, Canadians should know that before they vote. Your opponents have made their positions clear, Stephen Harper supports this agreement and Thomas Mulcair opposes it”.

October 13, 2015

Provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath criticized a new Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying that it could have a negative impact on jobs and health care in Niagara if it receives parliamentary approval. Horwath visited the Douglas Memorial Hospital Site in Fort Erie Tuesday afternoon with NDP Niagara Falls riding candidate Carolyn Ioannoni and Welland incumbent Malcolm Allen.

According to Horwath, more than 8,000 “good-paying manufacturing jobs have been lost in Niagara” over the course of the last 10 years under Harper’s leadership, and the TPP deal, which has been largely "kept a secret," could “kill more jobs and make life-saving medication more expensive.”

Oct 15, 2015

Social and labour organizations are urging the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to clarify his position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an open letter, they expose the fact that the TPP will slow down the introduction of generic medication to the market. This will force Canadians and residents of the other signatory countries who depend on life-saving medication to buy higher-cost brand name drugs for a longer period of time.  “The TPP is a bad deal for anyone who relies on prescription medication. This is why it’s important to act now” states the open letter. “If you support the TPP, Canadians should know that before they vote. Your opponents have made their positions clear, Stephen Harper supports this agreement and Thomas Mulcair opposes it”.

May 11, 2016

In a presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, CUPE-Québec urged the federal government not to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, negotiated by the Harper government.

GENEVA, 17 May 2016—UNAIDS stands with people and organizations around the world in commemorating the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) on 17 May, the day 26 years ago when the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. The IDAHOT theme for 2016 is mental health and well-being.