Tag Archives: Health Canada

Health

BC’s Drug Response Isn’t Following the Evidence, Former Chief Coroner says


By Michelle Gamage, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe recently criticized B.C.’s drug policies, saying the province’s approach to the ongoing toxic drug crisis is not evidence based. 

Lapointe, who was B.C.’s longest-standing chief coroner and held the position for 13 years before retiring in 2024, was speaking as part of a new, ongoing webinar series, “Perspectives on 10 Years in Crisis,” hosted by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition. 

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Animals, Health

Chronic Wasting Disease reported in the Kootenay Region

On January 31, 2024, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that two cases of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) have been found south of Cranbrook, in the Kootenays. ‘The first sample came from a ‘harvested’ adult male mule deer and the second from a white-tailed doe that was struck on the road. 

CWD is a highly infectious and fatal disease, which the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention states, “affects many different species of hoofed animals including North American elk or wapiti, red deer, mule deer, black-tailed deer, white-tailed deer, sika deer, reindeer, and moose.”

This is the first report of CWD west of the Rocky Mountains in Canada or the United States.  

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Politics, Transportation

Canada’s New Electric Vehicle Availability Standard

On Tuesday, December 19, The Government of Canada announced a gradual phasing out of gas powered light vehicle sales until 2035, after which all new vehicles must be 100% emissions free.

“Transportation is the most polluting  sector in Canada after oil and gas, a lot of that comes from road transportation. So from the vehicles we drive that are on the road, from sitting in traffic. This regulation is aiming  to ensure that we’re putting forward technologies like zero emission vehicles, that includes electric vehicles, that will drastically reduce emissions within that sector and this regulation says that it will have emissions reductions of 360 million tons. That’s the equivalent of 62,000 Olympic swimming pools full of gas that have been burned,” explained Meena Bibra, Senior Policy Analyst with Clean Energy Canada. 

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Health, Politics

NDP-Liberal agreement prompted increased lobbying efforts from Big Pharma

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Big Pharma has stepped up its lobbying game ever since the federal NDP struck a deal to prop up the Liberals’ minority government contingent on several big-ticket items — including progress on national pharmacare.

Announced last March, the Liberal-NDP agreement hinges on the federal government launching a dental care program for low-income Canadians and “continuing progress towards a universal national pharmacare program by passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023.”

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Health

It’s the ‘Eve of Decriminalization’ for Drug Possession in BC

By Moira Wyton, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

People who use drugs are cautiously optimistic about British Columbia’s forthcoming move to decriminalize possession of some  drugs, but frontline harm reduction groups across the province say  uncertainty about how it will be enforced is hampering their efforts to  prepare.

On Jan. 31, B.C. will  become the first jurisdiction in Canada to decriminalize possession of  small amounts of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, MDMA and methamphetamine for  personal use. 

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