Healthcare in Ontario

I wont get into my past health issues and WSIB problems because I don’t really think it is relevant to this, but you can search the blog for more stories. I recently (8 weeks ago) developed what I thought was a knot in my right shoulder. After vigorous shoulder rolls, exercise and massage did nothing to help and the pain kept getting worse I made an appointment to see my doctor. In the week it took before I could get into to see her the pain moved from my shoulder to my arm, elbow, wrist, and fingers. So it was apparent this was not just a simple knot. A CT scan was recommended and I got a call a few days later for a spot the following week. SO now with increasing discomfort and pain the waiting begins. During the scan I was barely able to lay flat on my back and moaned during the entire thing prompting the poor girl to ask what I did and if I was okay. I responded I had no idea what I did and most certainly I had felt better.

Two weeks later I get a call from the Doctors office and told it is some type of “bone spurs” in my neck C4, C5, C6, C7 pinching a nerve in my neck and surgery will be needed. Before that can happen an MRI is needed and now have learned that wont happen till May 15th. Who knows after that how long till the actual surgery. Is almost 3 months acceptable to get treatment for this? This is not an “elective” procedure, I”m talking about non stop pain 24/7. The kind of pain that makes you cry and rock back and forth occasionally. Not fun. And I dont think this is right.

Chimney Fire Saturday night!

As I was minding my own business tonight playing SH4 I heard a faint roar coming from downstairs. I thought one of the kids had turned up the furnace but when I went down to investigate saw smoke coming from the wood stove pipe joint at the wall and a loud roaring of fire much different than normal. A quick check outside discovered the fire in the chimney, so I yanked off the clean out cover and started scooping out flaming soot with a piece of wood with one hand and dialing 911 with the other. Awesome response time by the Chesterville FD under 20 minutes and after a brief check signaled the all clear. I have to wonder though. Londondale was just here 2 months ago and cleaned the chimney, so how is it possible to have a fire so soon?

Living in rural Ontario

Woke up and saw this Friday morning. According to the OPP there has been a lot of this going on south of Ottawa. Hope whomever is responsible feels better about themselves. Idiots!

Dalton Mcguinty Resigns

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/10/15/dalton-mcguinty-stepping-down-as-liberal-leader

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Dalton+McGuinty+steps+down+Liberal+leader/7393909/story.html

Is this an admission of guilt? Not likely, but is it now the time to unleash the Mounties on all the scandals, wasted money, and lies that the people of Ontario have had to endure under this Liberal leader?

More to come

Government vs The People

I am working on an article concerning the salaries, pensions, perks, etc, of Government employees versus the private sector. Meaning, the rest of us. While I am compiling the numbers and stats, what do you think. Why do those we elect to represent us make 3-4x and upwards a yearly salary, PLUS benefits, and pensions, when the rest of us do not have anything even close to it. Why?

And your views on the senate? Overpaid under worked payoff positions?

Looking for help

Normally I wouldnt post this sort of thing here but we are getting a little worried. Our son came home from a relatives last week near cardinal with a rash and sores that have gotten worse over time. Now our 6 year old has a little spot that “appears” to be similar.

What the heck is this?

Diagnosis or “guesses” from M.D’s so far

Wild parsnip

Autoimmune deficiency

Pemphigus vulgaris

Update

It is impetigo with a staph infection. Antibiotics and steroid cream has been prescribed.

Time for a longer school year?

Are we falling behind other countries? Would our children benefit from more time in the classroom? I think the answer to these questions is a resounding yes. Countries like India and China are already providing additional classroom times, with some even considering school all year round. This of course, would cause a lot of problems for many people and costs would go up. But there are many benefits as well, and for some the cost of daycare over the summer is a serious burden. After all, not everyone has the luxury of the entire summer off.

Our Society has been geared this way for a very long time and change would not come easy, but is that a good enough reason to not attempt it? At least experiment a little with the idea? I think a couple of weeks off around Christmas and then another two off during the summer is plenty. And this would give our kids more time for learning, and give the parents a break as well from the stress of filling their summer days, and daycare costs for those that have to work.

Instead of offering full time daycare in the schools this might be money better well spent. It would be hard to argue the benefits of more education, and the extra cost in maintenance and salaries would be minimal. The schools have to be maintained over the summer anyways, and we’re only talking a couple dozen more days of work for the staff. It’s a thought and I’d like to hear your ideas on the subject.

“Anglophone” bride killed in Quebec

August 24th 2012 was supposed to be a happy time for the bride-to-be, accompanied by family and friends doing a photo shoot just days before her wedding at the Dorwin falls just north of Montreal. Apparently she lost her footing standing on some rocks and was swept away by the current.

“She was Anglophone, and she started screaming, ‘Help!’” the witness said.

Excuse me? While it appears the photographer tried to pull her from the water, were the others gathered there just standing around in confusion not knowing what the Anglophone word “help” meant? Was this a family member? Surely then they knew the meaning of it one would think anyways? Only one person there came to her aid, and none of them jumped in after her? They just stood there watching as she was carried away screaming this foreign word? I find it extremely bizarre and more than a little disturbing that this “witness” felt compelled to describe this person as an anglophone and not just “a woman”, Or perhaps even her friend, the bride, that poor woman, anything other than identifying her by what language she was pleading for help in.

I wonder, if she was a francophone yelling for help in the water would someone actually have jumped in and tried to save her?

What the hell is going on.

The Quebec Identity Act

Get a load of this.

Newly arrived immigrants will be required to have an “appropriate” working knowledge of French to be sworn in as Quebec citizens – even if the province is still part of Canada – if legislation proposed by the Parti Québécois is adopted.

Failing to learn French would bar an immigrant from holding public office at any level, raising funds for political parties, or petitioning the National Assembly for redress of a grievance.

This is happening today, in 2012. Here’s a little something from the past.

Nazi leaders began to carry out their pledge to persecute German Jews soon after their assumption of power. The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish German citizens was the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” of April 7, 1933, according to which Jewish and “politically unreliable” civil servants and employees were to be excluded from state service.

PQ leader Pauline Marois is no Canadian, or in my own opinion not even a decent human being. On October 18, 2007, Marois proposed Bill 195, the Quebec Identity Act, which included a requirement that immigrants must learn French in order to obtain rights, including a putative Quebec citizenship and the right to run in elections at all levels. The bill also proposed the fundamental values of Quebec should be taken into account in a future constitution, including equality between sexes and the predominance of French. Since it was defeated then she thinks now is a good time to try again. I suppose the transfer payments and million dollar handouts are not good enough. I suppose the corruption in Quebec needs something to distract the rest of the Countries attention.

Apparently something like 30-40% of francophone people living in Quebec support this, but I don’t know how accurate that is I heard it on CFRA. If this is true then it appears nearly half of the province is blatantly racist and bigoted towards any language other than French. Is this the Canada we want to live in? Is this even legal? Should the Federal Government step in? Can they? These are just some of the questions I have, but the most important one is what is the rest of Canada going to do about this.

English Canada has been dealing with the double standards and unfairness from Quebec for some time now (think bill 101) but I think now they are going to far. Is it also time that the Bloc be removed from OUR parliament since their own admitted mandate is to break up the Country. Some would say that is treason. Yet as Canadian taxpayers we are paying their salary’s and pensions. Swallow that and try not to choke.

I for one say it is time CANADA took a stand and said enough is enough. NO more transfer payments. No more money. If you live in Quebec no more federal employment with the Government of Canada. No more Ontario health care for those in Quebec unless you pay for it.

Thats a start.

Victoria Stafford-Gone but not Forgotten

The horror of what happened to this little girl still haunts me to this day, and as a father of two little girls close to the same age it has caused me to limit the freedoms of my children in an attempt to better protect them. Tori’s parents didn’t have a chance against the evil that was lurking in Woodstock that day. How could they know that allowing her to walk home from school alone was the last thing she would ever do.

It didnt help that Victoria’s mother was high on Oxycontin at the time, and even though Tori was 2 hours late did not call the police because she did not want to alarm anyone, more likely she was more concerned about her own condition. Tori only lived a few blocks from the school and instead of being outside waiting for her to arrive on this important day she was “partying”. Victoria had already been kidnapped, miles away in a car before her mother even started looking for her.

I’m not trying to say there is anything she could have done to prevent this but it sure didn’t help the situation being high and not as alert as she should have been. I know if it was me waiting for my daughter the first time she walked home I would have been standing outside looking up the street waiting for her, and if she was just 5 minutes late would be already on my way to see what was happening. Not just getting concerned 2 hours later and still not calling the police because she was too high and didnt want to get into trouble herself.

I have talked about GPS for children before and some people have expressed concern about loss of privacy and “big brother” issues. There is no doubt that this sort of thing could have saved Tori’s life that day.

In may of 2009 the killers were charged with her rape and murder, and while one of them confessed to the horrendous deed the other plead not guilty and went to trial. Thankfully he was found guilty and they are both now spending life behind bars. No I will not use their names ever again, they don’t deserve to be remembered. The male convicted in this case has now appealed his conviction citing errors by the judge and requesting a new trial even though the appeal was filed late. Such is our justice system he will be allowed to appeal and cost the taxpayers more money in a feeble attempt to escape what is rightfully coming to him.

This case has caused a resurgence in the discussion about capital punishment. Many people believe that for the rape and murder of a child it should be an automatic punishment, with no chance for appeals or leniency. Some people believe that is not civilized and lowers Society to the same level as the killers. What do you think?
The male convicted of Tori’s murder was searching for child porn and “underage rape” on the internet the day before Tori was abducted. That information was withheld from the jury because the police didn’t have a proper warrant for searching his laptop. It is a good thing the case didn’t depend on that evidence for a conviction. More twisted evidence was kept from the jury during trial, like the fact he downloaded the movie about Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. That was done 2 weeks after Tori disappeared. Maybe he was looking for ideas to hide what he had done, seeing as Karla is now free and living her life as a free sicko at large.
It is also disturbing that Victoria’s mother had actually met her daughters killer before all of this happened. She had been to her house on more than one occasion. Once to buy drugs and another time to discuss breeding their dogs, and although it has been denied this had anything to do with their choice of which child to take one cannot escape the cold irony of these facts.
Police have said recently that cases involving child porn and sexual assault are on the rise. They are seeing more and more of these types of crimes and it is happening all over the world. What the hell? What could motivate someone to commit an act such as this? What can we do to stop this, and prevent these things from ever happening at all? I don’t know if we can, but we can make sure that the people involved and committing these crimes never get the opportunity to do it again.
Victoria Stafford is gone forever, but the people responsible for this will be free to live their lives at some point. There will come a time when they will be free, and that is wrong. Why should those that steal the lives of others be allowed to have their own? Would others capable of doing such a thing be swayed if their own death was the punishment? Is Capital Punishment a deterrent? It is a daily occurrence on the news now that another child is missing, or that one has been found murdered. It happens far more in the United States than in Canada, but as this case has proven we are not immune to these horrors. In the days ahead the convicted killers appeal will be before the courts, and I hope what he did and the life he took is more important than any legal technicality or clerical mistake.

We cannot bring Victoria back, but we can ensure those responsible are punished, and that she is never forgotten.