A Former Alberta Professor Appeals a $300 thousand Settlement and Decision to Prevent her from Reclaiming her Former Position
By Bobby Kushner / January 16, 2026
She spoke out against CBC disciplining its broadcaster Wendy Mesley over referencing a book title.
The political scientist then pushed back against educators for presenting indigenous science as real science before she fought back against her colleagues for urging university administrators to fire her for supporting Mesley and questioning the objectiveness of indigenous science.
Frances Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University political-scientist professor, appears February 6 before the Alberta Labour Relations Board to appeal an Alberta arbitrator’s $300 thousand settlement and its decision to prevent Widdowson from regaining her former position after the arbitrator ruled the university wrongfully fired her in December 2021. Widdowson’s Workplace Harassment and Termination Happened This Way
From June to July 2020, Widdowson advocated for former CBC broadcaster Wendy Mesley after the CBC disciplined Mesley for referencing a book title “White Niggers of America” in CBC staff meetings.
“I spoke out for Mesley because she didn’t use the title to insult someone or discriminate against a group,” Widdowson said. “She just said it to reference the book to CBC editors in staff meetings.”
Later, Widdowson publicly opposed educators presenting indigenous science as objective science since indigenous science draws its conclusions from native-elder anecdotes and spiritual legends.
“Science must always be based on facts, not untested stories or beliefs,” Widdowson said. “So indigenous science isn’t, at all, science.”
In July 2020, the political-scientist professor caught the attention of her colleague Gabrielle Weasel Head, an indigenous studies professor at the same university.
Weasel Head, in response to Widdowson’s dissenting views, defamed Widdowson online by naming Widdowson a racist and a danger to university faculty and students. She also urged university students and faculty to file complaints against Widdowson and harass her online.
After Gabrielle Weasel Head complained to the university about Widdowson satirizing her defamatory social-media posts about Widdowson, the university then developed its nonexistent social-media policies to target Widdowson and restrict what Widdowson and other faculty members post online.
“It’s crazy how a woke professor can target another professor for dissenting views that aren’t hateful or discriminatory,” Widdowson said. “and the university does nothing. But when the victim satirizes or criticizes that woke professor’s conduct, the victim is the one being investigated, not the attacker.
“Such contradictory standards!
“Plus, harassment and safety complaints shouldn’t be used as a tool to silence factual and dissenting views, especially in an academic environment where professors are supposed to pursue the truth.”
In December 2020, Weasel Head resigned from the university because she felt Widdowson endangered her safety.
After Gabrielle Weasel Head resigned, the university fired Widdowson in December 2021 then rehired Weasel Head two-months after Widdowson’s termination.
“Mount Royal University brands itself as a first-nation friendly university for indigenous students, so it needs Weasel Head as a faculty member to be its spokesperson for that brand, and having me on staff is detrimental to that brand,” Widdowson said.
After her termination, Widdowson filed ten grievances with an Alberta arbitrator against the university.
The arbitrator, David Phillip Jones, ruled in July 2024 the university wrongfully terminated Widdowson and awarded Widdowson $300 thousand in damages. Jones also ruled to allow the university to not reinstate Widdowson in her former position because Widdowson’s presence creates an acrimonious workplace.
So Widdowson filed an appeal with the Alberta Labour Relations Board in July 2024 for the university to reinstate her in her former position and increase the financial damages awarded.
To learn more about Frances Widdowson’s February 6 hearing, visit Widdowson’s website wokeacademy or email her at widdowsonfrances@gmail.com
Bobby Kushner, a screenplay, feature and public-relations writer in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. To work with Kushner or pitch your story ideas, contact him at kushnerbobby@gmail.com or 226 - 220 - 4961
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Two Liberal and Conservative Experts Blame Plummeting Employment on North America’s Free-Trade Agreements
By Bobby Kushner / January 15, 2026
KITCHENER, ONT. –- Idris Reza and Roovert Katz sit together on the wooden retaining wall adjacent to the driveway of their townhouse rental.
Reza stares at the driveway deep in thought before he inhales deeply on a cigarette and exhales twin streams of smoke out his nostrils.
Katz eyes his friend in distress before he pops an extra-large sour-key treat in his cheek and slides up on Reza. Katz now drapes his arm on the back of Reza’s shoulders and pulls him in close and embraces him.
“Muhammad – Reza’s son – get that job detasseling corn?”
“No Brother!” Reza says. “The farmers only hire the Jamaicans.”
“What!” Katz snaps back.
“The farmers all saying, ‘The government or something allows the Jamaicans to work 60 hours before any overtime pay.’”
“Wow,” Katz shoots back in surprise. “I worked that same job in the 90s. Was 12-years-old back then. Now, the job’s only available for immigrants open to working longer and harder for less.”
“Ya Brother,” Reza said. “That’s life!”
The two North York residents, Idris Reza and Roovert Katz, rent together a one-bed-room basement apartment. Reza’s wife and two teenage kids also live in the one-bedroom rental.
Reza earns a minimum wage working customer service in retail and Katz the same as a labourer for a dubious home-renovation company, which often shirks paying Katz his full pay.
Before Reza and Katz worked these low-pay-and-status jobs, Reza relocated to North York from Iran and Katz from Windsor, Ontario. Reza earned his Ontario mechanical-engineer license three-years past and Katz his double-major undergrad in chemistry and neuroscience two-years past.
However, the two highly educated individuals struggle to find living-wage work both inside and outside their careers, and Reza’s son low-wage agricultural work for the summer. In 2025, these three situations prevail throughout North America!
Two known experts blame the plummeting employment, wages and labour standards on our North American free-trade agreements, not global conflicts, pandemics, misfortune or U.S. President Donald Trump.
Victor Hanson – a conservative columnist, senior fellow at Hoover Institute, Stanford University and professor at California State University and Hillsdale College – said, “Free-trade always encouraged mass immigration, which encourages poorer wages and labour and environmental standards in America, so U.S. employers need to make their labour and products cheaper to compete with the sweatshop-labour in Mexico and China, and that’s a fact – not a myth.”
Chris Hedges – a liberal columnist, writer, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and senior fellow at The Nation Institute – said, “The North American free-trade agreements, for example, NAFTA – renamed USMCA – accelerated mass job losses, wage stagnation and deindustrialization throughout the U.S. and Canada – especially in manufacturing regions.”
Chris Hedges on the Left and Victor Hanson on the Right Assert this about North America’s Free-trade Agreements
Canada and America’s free-trade deals fuel deindustrialization and unemployment for the working class, and the skyrocketing unemployment fuels drug use, domestic violence, mass shootings, suicides and crime.
“Free-trade recreated oligarchy capitalism,” Hedges said. “. . . And the unchecked greed of these elites created phenomena like the opioid crisis, suicides, political extremists both on the left and right, mass shootings and crime in deindustrialized areas.”
Liberal and conservative leaders in Canada and the U.S. presented free-trade, globalism, as a means to better jobs, products, services, innovations and environmental standards.
Yet the opposite occurred!
“NAFTA mainly was mainly created to boost profit margins for the elites and the coastal cosmopolitans through the use of worker exploitation, cheap materials, low-quality manufacturing and non-existent employment and environmental standards in Mexico and China,” Hanson said.
“. . . Microplastics are found in almost everything throughout the world: our water, soil, animals and bodies.
“It’s proven globalism, with its shipping lanes and waste dumping, caused this. However, the elites and cosmopolitans still declare free-trade environmentally more safe, so the left will say anything to oppose Trump, even if it undermines its own desires and objectives.
“Plus, globalism always pushed to erode working-class prosperity, national sovereignty and cultural identity, especially in America.”
Hedges said, “Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Bill Clinton and Jean Chretien pushed for NAFTA.
“. . . So the Democrats abandoned the working class when it supported the Republicans in these trade deals. . . .
“ . . . And our gravest mistake happened when we failed to build a counterweight to the Democratic Party after NAFTA.”
Chris Hedges Opposes President Trump’s Tariffs as Victor Hanson Advocates for Them.
Hedges wants mass social movements, protests and union influence to dismantle the oligarchy behind North America’s free-trade deals.
“Persistent-mass protests, social movements and civil disobedience backed by unions produced the change throughout history – not obedience, politicians or the elites.” Hedges said.
However, Hanson describes President Trump’s tariffs as the means to smash the oligarchy behind free-trade and thwart China, Mexico and India from their engagement in mercantilism, a country exporting more than it imports through,
- tariffing imports
- subsidizing exports
- manipulating the value of its currency
- shirking labour and environmental standards
- flooding global markets with cheap goods
- stealing intellectual property and technology
- and using any other means to force one-sided trade
“China always engaged in mercantilism against the U.S.,” Hanson said. “by subsidizing Chinese exports, tariffing U.S. exports, stealing U.S. intellectual property and technology, flooding our markets with inferior-and-cheap products and manipulating the value of its currency.
“NAFTA creates, with just Mexico alone, a $170 billion each year in job losses and trade deficits because the trade deal allows Mexico to engage in sweatshop-labour and ignore employment and environmental standards with no sanctions.
“So Trump’s tariffs just match the tariffs on U.S. goods from other countries to force fairer deals, end worker exploitation and protect American workers.
“Trump’s tariffs also challenge traditional conservative free-market orthodoxy. Something overdue and needed!”
Canadian Liberal and Conservative Leaders Vie to Preserve the Status Quo for Canada’s Free Trade
President Trump's tariffs hand Canada an opportunity to exit its free-trade deals and rebuild its gutted economy through its own efforts and self-determination.
However, Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney and Canadian Leader of the Opposition, Pierre Poilievre vie to preserve all Canada’s free-trade deals and replace America in USMCA with Mexico, China and the European Union, so Canada’s liberal and conservative leaders lack the will to transform Canada’s economy into an independent and productive one.
Since we last spoke in 2020, Idris Reza and Roovert Katz received their American green cards, and Reza a designer and engineer job offer from an automotive EV supplier and Katz a scholarship to a Tennessee medical school.
The two already applied for a bank loan to relocate together to the U.S. with Reza’s wife and kids.
“There’s really no opportunity in Canada for capable people,” Katz said. “unless you got all the right connections and timing. Once we leave this place, we’re gone for good!”
“Unless we come back to visit you,” Reza cracked a smile and said.
To view Chris Hedges’ content, visit his Youtube @ChrisHedgesChannel or Subtack chrishedges.substack.com channel
And Victor Hanson’s content on his “The Blade of Perseus” website at victorhanson.com and Youtube channel @victordavishanson7273
Bobby Kushner, a screenplay, feature and public-relations writer in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. To work with Kushner or pitch your story ideas, contact him at kushnerbobby@gmail.com or 226 - 220 - 4961
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The Kamloops Residential Indian School Resurges in the Media for Unexpected Reasons
By Bobby Kushner / January 6, 2026
KITCHENER, ONT. -- The Kamloops Indian Band proclaimed in May 2021, It discovered 215 bodies of children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia and uncovered countless accusations – from its elders – of child rape, battery and neglect from residential-school staff.
However, the unexpected unfolded!
Four-years later, the first nation still presented no remains for the 215 bodies and no past reports or criminal complaints for the missing children and countless accusations of child abuse from residential-school staff.
The topic of the 215 bodies resurged in the media after criminal lawyer, James Heller, filed suit against the Law Society of British Columbia for publicly naming Heller a racist when he confronted the law society for its courses asserting as fact the 215 child graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The topic gained even more publicity when John Rustad, the former leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, ousted Dallas Brodie, a Vancouver-Quilchena MLA, from his conservative caucus after Brodie publicly supported Heller’s defamation suit against the law society.
Brodie said, “All law society courses and material need to be based on facts, not rumours and popular opinions. So yes, I decided to speak out about the misinformation and support James Heller, a criminal lawyer who defended numerous indigenous defendants throughout his career.”
James Heller’s Dispute with the Law Society Started This Way
Heller perused a law society manual titled “Indigenous Intercultural Course.” The manual discusses the history and legacy of indigenous legislation and residential schools, and the law society requires all British Columbia lawyers to study it to retain their law license.
He formally requested the law society to change the factual errors in its manual regarding the Kamloops Indian Band discovering 215 child graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Heller also included in his requested amendment an appellate ruling on the matter from British Columbia Chief Justice, Leonard Marchand, also indigenous.
In July 2024, Chief Justice Marchand ruled in Miranda Dick’s appeal, No bodies were found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The burials and deaths are still unconfirmed, so British Columbia Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick presented no prejudice or factual errors about the residential-school burials or the accused, Miranda Dick, before sentencing Dick to 28 days in jail for violating an injunction, a court order, to not obstruct the construction of the trans-canada pipeline or endanger the safety of the pipeline’s workers.
> Levi Landry's coverage on Chief Justice Marchand’s ruling and Miranda Dick’s appeal
In its public response to James Heller’s request, the law society claimed Heller’s request to be misinformed and named him a racist, so Heller filed suit for defamation in August 2025 against the law society.
Past Facts about the Kamloops Residential Indian School
". . . Heinous crimes of child abuse and genocide must be based on evidence, not hearsay . . . ," said Michelle Stirling, a Canadian researcher and writer on the confederation and formation of Canada.
"GPR, ground penetrating radar, also isn't capable of identifying bodies in the ground, just anomalies, and Canadians are still unaware that the Kamloops Indian Residential School were largely run by indigenous people from the Kamloops Indian Band, not white people.
". . . Although the band received $12 million in government funds to dig up the site and collect any human remains, the first nation still doesn't want to excavate the supposed burial site because it designated the site sacred ground, so the site can't be disturbed. . . .
" . . . Regardless, the Kamloops first nation owes us the remains of the bodies after it accused my ancestors of genocide and took $12 million in government money to excavate the site."
Canadian political scientist and writer about Canadian indigenous governance, Frances Widdowson said, "It turns out the excavated tooth at the Kamloops residential school from the early 2000s wasn't even human and the rib bone too poorly tested and documented to conclude if its human and or if it came from the Kamloops school.
"It’s also unusual no parents from the Kamloops band complained or filed any reports of their children going missing. All parents, regardless of race, panic and complain when their kids go missing.”
Residential-school Provisions in First-nation Treaties
Nigel Biggar, a University of Oxford theology professor and historian, explained, The Canadian government created residential schools for indigenous tribes not to extinguish their culture and language but to grant the tribes educational provisions. Provisions the tribes included themselves in their treaties, their agreements with the Crown.
"The natives lobbied for residential schools," Biggar said. ". . . When the bison population collapsed, the Natives and the Crown made treaties with another, and the tribes persuaded the Crown to provide provisions in education, land, protection, agriculture, weapons, medical care and hunting. Provisions the Natives still receive from the Crown to this day.”
A Famous Indigenous Writer’s Take on Canadian Residential Schools
Huffington Post reporter, Joshua Ostroff asked in 2015 Tomson Highway, a Canadian playwright, author and composer, about the abuse he experienced at Guy Hill Residential School in Manitoba and his difficulties in life after his departure from the school.
“That was a mistake,” Highway responded. “My residential school experience was fantastic. So much of that is skewed. You don't have the whole picture.”
> Highway’s 2015 televised interview
American Lobbies and First-Nation Governments and Organizations
Three American foundations fund many first-nation governments, organizations and unions to lobby the Canadian government and the United Nations about first-nation natural resources, land claims and residential schools.
Dallas Brodie, now the leader of the OneBC party, said, “Foundations like the Tides, Ford and Rockefeller foundations finance numerous indigenous lobbies in Canada also UN declarations like UNDRIP -- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."
Read more about the three American foundations by clicking,
The Future of Residential-school Death and Abuse Claims
NDP Winnipeg Centre MP, Leah Gazan moved in October 2025 to legislate questioning any residential-school abuse or death claim a criminal offence and all residential-school claims to be classified as genocides.
"We know children died there. We know children were abused there," said Wade Grant, a Musqueam first-nation member. "So why do we need to dig graves to prove this."
Currently, the Kamloops Indian Band fenced off the disputed burial site and appointed security to bar any access to it.
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The Waterloo Region Crown Office Appeals a Kitchener Man’s
DUI Charges Based on the Readback Provision
By Bobby Kushner / September 23, 2025
KITCHENER, ONT. -- A 52-year-old Kitchener man sat in January 2025 in the Waterloo Region Courthouse and waited for Justice Dominique Kennedy to read his verdict on the 52-year-old’s two DUI, driving under the influence, charges.
The accused mechanical engineer hoped to hear not guilty on all charges!
After a seven-day trial, Justice Kennedy read his verdict to the accused: not guilty on all charges.
However, the Waterloo Region lead Crown, Alanna Fedak-Tarnopolsky appealed the Justice’s ruling based on the Readback provision in the Criminal Code.
The accused’s lead counsel, Gloria Ichim said, “The Crown pursued a clear care-and-control case against my client and only presented evidence for that case. Nothing about my client driving intoxicated earlier in the day, which the Crown never presented evidence for at trial.”
The Criminal Code’s Care And Control provision bars any intoxicated person from occupying the vehicle’s driver seat or operating its controls: the vehicle’s gearshifter, ignition and steering wheel.
The accused’s co-counsel, Emmanuel Wingate, said, “If the Crown filed a Readback application at trial, the court would have sent us – the defence – a Notice To Call, which the court never did.”
A Notice to Call, a court notice directing the defence to call its experts to test the accuracy of the police’s physical evidence and examine if the police followed the proper procedures when collecting and handling that evidence.
Ichim’s appellate response outlines the case this way:
- The accused entered a Kitchener restaurant while waiting for a friend.
A restaurant patron said to police and later testified, “The accused appeared sober when arriving at the restaurant.”
- The accused then drank spirits as he continued to wait for his friend.
- After the accused’s friend left the restaurant, the accused entered his vehicle, urinated in a bottle, phoned his wife for a ride home then returned to the restaurant and consumed more spirits.
- The patron then phoned police about an intoxicated patron entering his vehicle.
- When the accused’s wife arrived to collect her husband, the police also arrived then charged the accused in April 2023 for Impaired Operation and Over 80.
- At trial, the Crown pursued a care-and-control case against the accused. A case based on the accused occupying the vehicle’s driver seat or operating its controls while intoxicated.
- Justice Kennedy ruled in January 2025 the accused not guilty on both charges.
- Waterloo Region lead Crown, Alanna Fedak-Tarnopolsky appealed in September 2025 the Justice’s ruling and asserted, The accused drove while intoxicated to the restaurant.
- Ichim said, "My top concern, the Crown never presented any evidence or testimony showing the accused drove intoxicated to the restaurant nor served us a Notice To Call to challenge the Crown’s Readback application because the Crown never filed that application at trial.
"Meaning, the Crown's appeal violates the accused's Charter rights to challenge the Crown's new position, which wasn't presented at trial, and examine the accuracy of the police's physical evidence.
"So the Crown filed this appeal to uphold the Bell precedent, and nothing more!"
To learn more about this appeal, email Gloria Ichim at gichim4@gmail.com or 519-772-7626
Ichim Law, a family, estate and criminal law firm in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
For additional information about Ichim's practice and other cases, click Ichim Law
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The First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun and 10 Defendants Face a Lawsuit for Assaults, Hate Crimes, Frauds and Criminal Harassments
FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 15, 2025
By Bobby Kushner / November 7, 2025
MAYO, YUKON -- A racist First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun heritage manager and finance director engaged in assaults and hate crimes against a mixed-race Israeli, Ojibwa and African employee of the First Nation because the employee refused to be treated as a second-class citizen by those employees of the First Nation.
A prejudice First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun governance director, councillor and social-media assistant also engaged in the same against the same mixed-race employee of the First Nation.
The First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun promotes violence, discrimination and hate crimes against races outside of the First Nation and views deviating from its extremist-liberal politics, and the Yukon First Nation now faces civil litigation for it February 11 at the Yukon Supreme Court in Whitehorse, Yukon.
"The attacks from FNNND employees often start as racial slurs like interloper, nigger, kike and southern squaw then progress to the employees sabotaging our work and directing FNNND citizens to accost and assault us for being outsiders,” a former First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun employee said.
"It’s also clear this First Nation still struggles not because of residential schools and past discrimination but because of the blatant theft of funds and criminal activity from its administrators, so FNNND’s incompetence isn't circumstantial but intentional because of its criminal activity and corruption, similar to many third-world countries.”
A former RCMP commander and First Nation of Nacho Nyak justice and governance director, Robert Gillan said, “The Yukon First Nations are so damaged from residential schools that they can’t be held accountable for their corruption, racism and criminal activity.”
“I agree,” the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun executive director, McGarry Selbee said. “Employees coming to the First Nation as outsiders need to grow a thicker skin and tolerate some deserved prejudice for past wrongs done to this First Nation by our colonist ancestors.”
The Yukon statement of claim lists 10 First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun employees as defendants:
- Teresa Samson, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun heritage manager
- Adrienne Hill, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun finance director
- Eileen Peter, a Yukon Soaps Company and First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun social-media assistant
- Karen Clark-Marlow, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun human-resource director
- Robert Gillan, a former First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun justice-governance director
- Geri-Lee Buyck, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun councillor
- McGarry Selbee, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun executive director
- Ronalda Moses, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun human-resource technician
- Peter Idoko, a former First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun information-technology manager
- Joella Hogan, the owner of the Yukon Soaps Company and a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun contractor
Click below for the plaintiff's claim and evidence file and the defendants' defence and other affidavits.
Related News
A First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun Heritage Manager Pleads Guilty to Breach of Trust and Fraud
By Bobby Kushner / November 7, 2025
WHITEHORSE, YUKON -- Teresa Samson, a First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun heritage manager, pleads guilty to the charges after the Mayo RCMP arrested Samson for bilking $9 thousand from the Village of Mayo Ambulance Service to fund her hedonistic lifestyle.
> Click here for CBC's coverage of Samson's court case
To learn more about the upcoming October 31, 2025 hearing at the Yukon Supreme Court, contact Bobby Kushner at kushnerbobby@gmail.com or (226) 220 - 4961
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Canadian Patients Experience Increased Wait Times for Treatments and Surgeries
By Bobby Kushner / April 1, 2024
KITCHENER, ONT. -- A 55-year-old Hanover, Ontario resident points his finger at the asphalt on highway 4 because he struggles to see the passing vehicles on the highway, though the evening sun illuminates the road.
"Whenever any amount of light directly hits my eyes, I can't see anything," the 55-year-old says. "especially reflective light at night."
The cataracts of the 55-year-old John Gilroy have obfuscated his vision for a few years.
"I’ve been on the OHIP wait list for cataract surgery for over two-years now," Gilroy says. "If I don’t get the surgery soon, I’ll need to quit my job because I can’t drive or work when my eyes are deteriorating like this."
John Gilroy’s wait-list crisis resembles 78% of Canadian patients, a 2022 Fraser Institute study finds.
"Excessively long wait times remain a characteristic of Canada’s health-care system," says Mackenzie Moir, a Fraser Institute policy analyst.
"And yes, the long wait times decreased the quality of life and work productivity and increased unemployment, and in the worst cases, disability or death.
"For most Canadian patients wait for treatments and surgeries about two years and, sometimes, four years."
The provinces and territories together call the federal government to provide them a $28 billion annual increase, so they better contend with the staffing shortages. The federal government agrees to the funding increase if the provinces and territories compose a plan for expanding the health-care workforce and improving data sharing among the provinces and territories.
The director of the Manitoba Health Coalition, Thomas Linner says, "We need to staff up and share data in a more timely manner across all provinces and territories, so all Canadian health-care providers and facilities make more informed decisions more quickly, and so all patients benefit across Canada. . . .
I think the federal government’s starting to realize this."
Hoping to receive a date for his cataract surgery, John Gilroy phoned the office of his ophthalmologist. However, the office provided him no upcoming date for his surgery, so Gilroy still remains on the wait list.
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A Bus Driver Makes Efforts to Lift the Spirits of His Passengers
By Bobby Kushner / September 3, 2002
DETROIT, MICH. -- The rumble of Burton Cummings' baritone voice shakes the windows of the bus.
The bus driver dons a toque, from the Canadian band The Guess Who, and smiles.
David Murphy, a Wayne State University Law School bus driver and Canadian boxer, enjoys doing something extra to lift the spirits of his passengers
A passenger of Murphy's recalls Murphy handing out every Friday Canadian Eat-More candy bars to every passenger.
"A little effort to make others smile in this cruel world goes along ways," Murphy says.
Murphy also tries never to play the same CD twice in one day.
"I always take music requests from my passengers, but I'm always partial to anything Burton Cummings or The Guess Who," Murphy says as he tears open the wrapper for an Eat-More candy bar.
David Murphy began driving buses for Wayne State University Law School when he started in January 2002 his boxing training camp at the Kronk Gym and needed extra money.
He plans to keep driving buses for the law school until his training camp ends or until he jokingly finds a wife.
"Who knows!" Murphy chuckles. "Maybe oneday, my future bride will board my bus."
A Boy Holds Hostage a Detroit Police Officer with a Toy Gun
By Bobby Kushner / August 23, 2002
DETROIT, MICH. -- Detroit Police Officer Kevin Price felt the barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his head while he refueled his police vehicle at a gas station.
“Hands up before I shoot!” a voice said from behind Price.
“I never saw who it was or knew what was happening,” Price says. "but felt that I likely won't walk away from this."
Price then wrestled the suspect to the ground and handcuffed him. However, the suspect was a 10-year-old boy and the gun a replica toy gun.
“It looked like a Smith & Wesson pistol to me. But it was thankfully a metal-cap gun,” Price said.
The 10-year-old boy was charged with assaulting a police officer with a weapon and held with no bail.
High-risk Behaviors Linked to Attention Deficit Disorder
By Bobby Kushner / November 25, 2016
GUELPH, ONT. -- Feeling overwhelmed by ever-growing responsibilities at home, sudden changes at work and lack of sleep – Thomas Johnston destroyed everything in his Minto, Ontario home.
When police arrived at his residence, he looked at his wife.
“I want the police to kill me,” Johnston said before grabbing a replica gun, charging out the door and pointing it at police.
Thomas Johnston, 45, was arrested then taken to a psychiatric hospital in Guelph.
“When overwhelmed, I have sometimes reacted this way since a 12-year-old boy,” Johnston says.
A growing number of people, admitted to psychiatric hospitals for high-risk behaviors, are being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) instead of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
“When someone’s not hearing voices, doesn’t have racing thoughts and isn’t awake for days – a more logical explanation for these behaviors is ADD,” Dr. Shuang Xu says, a psychiatrist at Homewood Health Centre. “especially if these individuals struggled with impulsive behaviors since childhood.”
According to information from the Canadian Mental Health Association, impulsive behaviours begin in childhood for ADD patients and adulthood for schizophrenic and bipolar disorder ones.
Dr. Xu explained, ADD is often difficult to diagnose in adults because most patients aren’t forthcoming about their struggle with impulsive behaviors during childhood.
“This is frequently why many adults with ADD are misdiagnosed as being bipolar or schizophrenic,” Dr. Xu says.
“Uncontrolled anger, mood shifts and other impulsive behaviors are also key traits in biopolar disorder and schizophrenia, not just ADD.”
Johnston currently copes with his disorder by attending dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) programs at Homewood Health Centre.
He also takes Concerta, a stimulant used for treating ADD.
“An uncle of mine told me. I’ll live a hard life,” Johnston says. “if I continue destroying the things I’ve worked very hard to get when overwhelmed.”
THERAPY OPTIONS Two therapy options for ADD individuals wanting to better manage stressful life events
MEDICATION OPTIONS Five medication options for ADD individuals lacking norepinephrine in the body
Nonstimulant Form
Stimulant Form
Affordable Shelter Units for the Homeless and Refugees
By Bobby Kushner / June 17, 2018
GUELPH, ONT. -- Two companies manufacture affordable shelter units for the homeless and refugees.
1. InterShelter Inc sells a basic-model Intershelter unit for $7,500
Don Kubley, the founder of InterShelter, began retailing the geodesic dome in efforts to provide housing for homeless-military veterans.
Kubley bought the rights to the dome’s design from Craig Chamberlain, an architect who recreated the shelter from an invention by Buckminister Fuller.
The basic-model InterShelter unit spans 154-square-feet and stands nine-feet.
The 21-piece unit takes two hours to assemble. Each piece weighs 53 pounds and fits into the back of most pickup trucks.
The pieces are made of aerospace plastic, which lasts 30 years, never discolors and withstands temperatures of -70 and +120.
The unit allows for the addition of extra living spaces when combined with other units.
> Click here to learn more about Don Kubley's InterShelter unit
2. Reaction Inc sells the basic-model Exo unit for $5,000
Michael McDaniel, the founder of Reaction Inc, designed the Exo unit after observing the government’s inadequate housing plans for the displaced people in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
The basic-model Exo unit spans 72-square-feet and stands nine-feet.
The two-piece unit takes five minutes to assemble. Each piece is made of fire-resistant plastic, which lasts 10 years.
All basic-model Exo units come with these features:
- fold out beds, desks and shelves
- electrical outlets
- circuit breakers
- interior lights
- recessed fans for heating, cooling and ventilation
- a digital door lock
- and a smoke alarm
> Click here to learn more about Michael McDaniel's Exo unit
Chen Si Thwarts Over 300 Suicide Attempts
By Bobby Kushner / December 3, 2016
GUELPH, ONT. -- Chen Si has stopped more than 300 individuals from throwing themselves over the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a widely known suicide site in China.
Since 2004, Si devotes his weekends to patrolling the bridge ready to help anyone in distress.
According to a story by Louisa Lim, Si offers those whom he saves a place to stay in his two bedroom apartment.
"When I save people, I don’t want to just cheat them into living another day,” Si told Lim.
Louisa Lim’s NPR feature story “Samaritan Patrols Bridge for China’s Lost Souls” tells more about Chen Si’s efforts in helping those in distress.
> Read Louisa Lim’s NPR feature story about Chen Si by clicking here
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