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Friday, July 25, 2025

Doctors sound alarm on worsening food insecurity after woman diagnosed with scurvy

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

As food insecurity continues to grow across Canada, doctors are starting to be on the lookout for scurvy, a disease that results from a lack of vitamin C commonly associated with 18th century sailors who’ve been away at sea for long periods of time. 

The Canadian Medical Association Journal published a report o​​n Monday detailing the case study of a 65-year-old woman who was diagnosed with scurvy at a Toronto hospital in 2023.

The woman’s diagnosis led the authors to make the case that doctors should be considering the disease as a possibility, especially among patients who have a higher risk of being nutrient deficient like older adults who live alone and those living in poverty. 

While discussing her diagnosis, the report concluded that she had a social history which revealed “a several-years-long period of substantial limitations in her instrumental activities of daily living, including grocery shopping and meal preparation, owing to difficulties ambulating, attributed to symptoms of leg claudication,“ reads the report.

“She reported little social and family support. This social isolation had resulted in a sustained period of dietary intake limited to predominantly nonperishable foods — specifically, canned soup and tuna fish, along with white bread and processed cheese.”

In addition to a poor diet, the woman was not taking any supplements or vitamins. 

According to the report, people with a lower income are more likely to skip meals and eat food with reduced nutritional value when they do eat. 

Foods known to offer a natural source of vitamin C are citrus fruits such as grapefruits, lemons and oranges as well as vegetables like spinach and broccoli. 

There is currently no data available on whether cases of scurvy are on the rise in Canada, however, what research is available regarding cases in the U.S. and U.K., shows that the disease is far from being antiquated. 

“Data from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency in the United States was 5.9%, while reports from the United Kingdom suggest that the prevalence of deficiency may be as high as 25% in some groups with low socioeconomic status,” reads the report. 

Statistics Canada released data in May that reported 16.9% of Canadians faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022, compared with 12.9% the year before. 

“Although hypovitaminosis C is often asymptomatic and rarely represents the primary concern for presentation to acute care, the condition should not be considered only an archaic diagnosis of 18th-century seafarers,” reads the CMAJ report.

“Several modern-day case reports of hypovitaminosis C from Canadian centres as well as a report showing a 12% prevalence of symptoms in patients admitted to an acute care geriatric ward, suggest the need for its consideration in the differential diagnosis of abnormal bleeding, as well as more nebulous presentations such as fatigue, edema, or dyspnea.”

Scurvy symptoms may typically appear within eight to 12 weeks of consistent vitamin C deficiency, which may come in the form of fatigue, large patches of bruising, bleeding gums and others.If left untreated the disease can result in spontaneous internal bleeding, the killing of red blood cells and death.

Taxpayers group urges premiers to join legal battle against carbon tax

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging all provincial premiers to join New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs’ federal carbon tax legal challenge.

The federation’s call follows Higgs relaunching another legal challenge against the federal carbon tax as the province nears an election this month. 

“Higgs is right that the carbon tax is an unfair punishment on Canadians, and all premiers should stick up for their taxpayers by following his lead,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. 

New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan have provincial elections in Oct. 

“Taxpayers are taking it on the chin every time we pay our heating bills, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is blowing a hole through constitutional accountability with his unequal application of the carbon tax,” added Terrazzano.  

While the CTF called on all premiers to join the fight, the federation’s prairie director, Gage Haubrich, specifically called on the Saskatchewan Premier and the province’s NDP leader to join the legal challenge.  

Premier Scott Moe and provincial NDP Leader Carla Beck have called on the Liberals to scrap the federal carbon tax. 

Seven provincial premiers previously called for carbon tax relief. So too did seven in ten Canadians. 

Despite the calls, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected any request to meet about the carbon tax and discuss its future. 

“The federal government could and should provide relief immediately by scrapping the carbon tax. The feds could also end the carbon tax-on-tax, remove the carbon tax from everyone’s home heating bills, and take the carbon tax off all farm fuels,” Terrazzano told True North. 

Higgs’ renewed call followed the federal government exempting home heating oil from the carbon tax for three years, primarily benefitting Atlantic Canadians after the Liberals plummeted in the region’s polls. 

As of Monday, polling shows that the Conservatives would win 24 of 32 seats in Atlantic Canada. 

When Higgs announced his renewed court challenge, he aligned himself with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s “Axe the Tax” campaign.

Poilievre returned the favour days later, celebrating Higgs’ lawsuit in Parliament.

The Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick said that the province’s Liberal Leader, Susan Holt, will support the tax and implement her own if it is defeated.

“Liberal carve-outs violate the Supreme Court’s ruling, and the tax makes gas, groceries, and essential services more expensive,” wrote the Party.

Home heating oil makes up only about three percent of residential heating energy, according to the government of Nova Scotia. Conversely, natural gas is the most commonly used energy source.

According to the Canadian Gas Association, the average Canadian home uses 2,385 cubic metres of natural gas annually. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation calculated that removing the current federal carbon tax would save the average home $360 this year.

However, advocating against the federal carbon tax isn’t the only thing premiers can do.

Terrazzano told True North that premiers must also commit to not implementing their own provincial tax if the federal tax is removed. 

“Premiers must commit to ending all carbon taxes, including the consumer and industrial carbon taxes because all carbon taxes make life more expensive,” said Terrazzano. “Premiers should also lead by example and cut their provincial fuel taxes to make life more affordable.”

Terrazzano said that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation will continue to fight the carbon tax and push politicians to scrap the tax.

“The CTF will continue to push all politicians of every political stripe to oppose carbon taxes, and we will continue to hold them accountable,” said Terrazzano. “O’Toole flip-flipped and broke his promise to fight carbon taxes. He was held accountable, and now O’Toole isn’t a politician.”

OP-ED: Fired Alberta professor partially vindicated

By
Hymie Rubenstein
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Source: Frances Widdowson

An arbitrator has ruled that Calgary’s Mount Royal University (MRU) acted in a “disproportionate” manner in late 2021 in its firing of tenured professor Frances Widdowson.

Widdowson joined MRU in 2008 and was granted tenure – a virtual lifetime appointment –  in 2011. She taught courses in political science and policy studies, with a specialization in Indigenous peoples’ policy and Indigenous affairs.

While the decision was delivered in July, it has only now been revealed.

Dr. Widdowson, an outspoken critic of the politically charged but theoretically simplistic notions of the academic culture wars at Mount Royal and elsewhere, expressed nearly exclusively on her Woke Academy website and social media, was fired just before Christmas 2021 during what arbitrator D.P. Jones called a “Twitter War” between her and a few activist colleagues opposed to her views.

The hearing took 30 days spread over 10 months as 25 witnesses gave evidence. It included thousands of pages of exhibits, focusing on complaints of harassment filed by Widdowson’s colleagues, countered by Widdowson’s claims that she was the one who was being harassed.

The main findings of the hearings were on the appropriateness and fairness of the procedures used to dismiss her, not on the reasons given for her dismissal.

The latter concerned September 2020 comments from Widdowson that far from constituting genocide, aboriginal children gained educational benefits by attending Canada’s Indian Residential Schools, an outrageously scandalous opinion at ultra-woke MRU.

Widdowson was also excoriated for arguing that the Black Lives Matter movement had “destroyed” the culture at MRU, resulting in a petition to have her fired which garnered over 6,000 signatures. (She now says the statement about BLM was intended to be hyperbolic.)

Her position on both issues would certainly have been considered heretical at MRU, a former community college where extreme pro-indigenous, anti-colonial, anti-white privilege perspectives have long ruled.

Widdowson was also in the headlines last year when a faculty member invited her to speak at the University of Lethbridge, spurring a student protest which successfully blocked her attempts to speak in an open and approved forum.

Following her dismissal, Widdowson filed 10 grievances, eight on procedural grounds and two on substantive ones. In his nearly 300-page decision, Jones threw out the grievances involving the procedures employed by the university in its dealings with Widdowson.

On the matter of discipline, Jones found that while Widdowson’s behaviour was “just cause” for discipline, her firing was “disproportionate” to that behaviour.

“A number of the 12 factors enumerated in the December 20, 2021 dismissal letter are inaccurate, or have not been proved in the arbitration hearing, or are not worthy to be considered in a university that values academic freedom,” Jones wrote.

Accordingly, the eight procedural grievances were dismissed by Jones. On one of Widdowson’s substantive grievances, Jones ruled that a two-week suspension was disproportionate and therefore ruled that a letter of reprimand be substituted in place of the suspension.

When it came to Widdowson’s firing, Jones wrote that there was just cause for discipline based on Widdowson’s conduct, but that dismissal was not an appropriate penalty.

However, Jones said that Widdowson’s continued employment with the university would not be viable for several reasons, including Widdowson’s ongoing hostility toward the university and colleagues, witness testimony that stated her return to the university would be disruptive, and her “persistence” throughout the arbitration hearing that several tweets investigated did not constitute harassment.

Instead, the arbitrator suggested, “In my judgment, this is an appropriate case in which to substitute a monetary payment rather than reinstatement with lesser penalties.”

In an interview with CBC News on Friday, October 4, Widdowson said she’s pleased with the arbitrator’s ruling that she was wrongfully terminated but that she continues to be upset about how the arbitration approached the issue of harassment.

“People continue to think that I engaged in harassment, which I did not. I’ve done extensive analysis of the different findings which were put forward by the different investigators,” she said.

“There were four different investigators hired by MRU, and these investigators all had different, contradictory findings. What we need from the decision is for there to be a neutral person who makes findings of facts about this.”

“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be reinstated,” she said during a phone interview with the Epoch Times.

“The people who don’t want me to return to MRU, I don’t work with those people.”

She doesn’t “work with those people” because she shares nothing with them intellectually. The apparent irony is that Widdowson is an old-school leftist, a classical Marxist whose views on inequality focus on inter-class conflict having little to do with racial, ethnic, sexual, or gender identity, the preoccupation of contemporary identity politics, also known as wokeism.

Traditional Marxists and disciples of wokeism are both on the left, often the hard left. But they support incompatible paradigms about the causes and consequences of social and economic inequality, hence their mutual loathing.

Widdowson said she is appealing the decision so she can regain her tenured faculty position though it seems likely she will end up accepting a huge payout instead.

The arbitration report notes that the conflicts on Twitter (now called X), occurred over a four-year period.

“In a series of events from 2016 through 2019, Dr. Widdowson alerted officials at the University that she was being mocked on Twitter,” with the conflict between Widdowson and other faculty increasing into a “Twitter War” in summer 2020.

In his ruling, Jones found that although Widdowson has “controversial views on a number of topics … there has never been a complaint about the quality or ethics of her scholarship; she has never received performance management counselling for either her teaching or scholarship; and the University has supported and recognized her scholarly activities.”

Mount Royal officials said, “While the formal process continues, we will have no further comment.”

Hymie Rubenstein is editor of  REAL Indigenous Report, a retired professor of anthropology, and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. 

The Daily Brief | Anti-Israel protests take place on anniversary of Oct 7 terrorist attack

By
Lindsay Shepherd
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Source: Facebook

Will law enforcement in Canada take a tougher stance against anti-Israel protesters today on the anniversary of the October 7th terrorist attack?

Plus, a CBC News host has come under fire for allegedly editorializing during a broadcast of its talk-radio show Cross Country Checkup.

And RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme has confirmed that the federal police force is currently investigating a scandal involving the Liberal government allegedly distributing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to ineligible companies.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Lindsay Shepherd and Isaac Lamoureux!

OP-ED – Ofek Rousso: A Tale of Courage and Sacrifice on Israel’s Darkest Day, October 7th

By
Dotan Rousso
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Source: Dotan Rousso

October 7th was the most horrible day in Israel’s history when thousands of Hamas militants crossed the border with the intent to kill as many civilians as possible and take many more as hostages. On that day, more than 1,200 people were massacred. There is a well-known saying that the death of one person is a tragedy, while the death of many becomes just a statistic. To the extent that this is true, it is important to share the personal stories of those whose lives ended that day. Today, I want to share the story of one of them: my nephew, Ofek Rousso.

Ofek was born on October 2, 2002, to my brother Yaniv and his wife, Faye. As the younger brother to Inbar, he grew up with a shy smile, blond hair, and striking blue eyes. He was a beautiful child who excelled in everything he did. Ofek played the saxophone, drums, and guitar, mastered karate, and won international martial arts competitions. He even became a professional skateboarder, always pushing himself to achieve more.

Ofek’s determination and dedication were evident in everything he did. He had an inner strength that everyone who met him felt instantly. As he approached the end of high school, like many young men in Israel, he began to think about his military service. Ofek wanted to serve in the most challenging and meaningful unit possible, where he could give his utmost for his country. For him, that meant one thing: Shayetet 13, Israel’s elite naval commando unit.

Source: Dotan Rousso

“Shayetet 13” is one of the most prestigious units in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but it is also incredibly difficult to join. Many aspire to be part of it, but few are accepted, and even fewer complete the gruelling two-year training. Ofek, determined as always, prepared himself both physically and mentally for the challenge. He participated in rigorous pre-enlistment training to improve his fitness and prepare for the hardships ahead.

The first step in joining Shayetet 13 is a brutal week-long selection process known as “Gibush.” Out of 27 candidates in his group, Ofek was the only one to successfully complete the week and be accepted into the course. What followed were nearly two years of unimaginable challenges: long, gruelling marches with heavy loads, survival in extreme conditions, and hours of combat training. Throughout it all, Ofek persevered and succeeded, passing every test with flying colours.

In June 2023, Ofek graduated as a certified naval commando fighter. It was the happiest day of his life. His parents, sister, girlfriend, and grandparents attended the ceremony, which was also graced by the Israeli Minister of Defense and the Commander of the Israeli Navy. The future seemed bright, and Ofek, with his exceptional abilities and iron will, was ready to take on the world.

But fate had other plans.

Just five days after celebrating his 21st birthday, on the morning of October 7th, Ofek and his comrades were dispatched to rescue civilians and confront the terrorists who had already killed hundreds.

What followed was a day of horror and heroism. Ofek and his comrades fought in close-quarter combat, facing overwhelming odds. Despite being vastly outnumbered, they managed to kill many terrorists and save dozens of civilians. Amidst the chaos, they witnessed unimaginable scenes of families slaughtered in their homes, entire lives extinguished in an instant.

At 2:00 a.m. on October 8th, Ofek heard a call for help. An IDF officer had been shot and was critically wounded. Without hesitation, Ofek ran into the line of fire to provide life-saving treatment. In doing so, he was hit by a burst of gunfire. Ofek died on the spot, but the officer’s life was saved.

Source: Dotan Rousso

As we mark the first anniversary of his death, we remember Ofek’s bravery, kindness, and determination. He lived a meaningful life, fulfilling his dreams and ultimately giving his life to save others.

His story, like the stories of so many other young men and women who died defending Israel, will be passed down through generations.

Dotan Rousso. Holds a Ph.D. in Law—a former criminal prosecutor in Israel. He lives in Alberta and teaches Philosophy at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).

RCMP confirms ongoing investigation into SDTC scandal

By
Noah Jarvis, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme has confirmed that the federal police force is currently investigating a scandal involving the Liberal government allegedly distributing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to ineligible companies. 

Police have said they are looking at whether there is any criminal wrongdoing associated with the Sustainable Development Technology Canada scandal.

In comments made to reporters on Thursday, Duheme confirmed that the RCMP have received documents pertinent to the scandal and is currently conducting an investigation into the matter.

“We did receive the documents and investigations are ongoing so I’ll limit my comments to that,” said Duheme.

SDTC – a crown corporation dedicated to advancing clean technology innovation – has come under fire after government oversight bodies concluded its board of directors and executives were involved in gross mismanagement of taxpayer funds and misconduct.

In June, just before the House of Commons’ summer recess, the Conservative party with the help of the Bloc Québécois, NDP and Green party passed a motion calling on the Trudeau government to surrender all relevant documents to the House’s law clerk who would then hand over the documents to the RCMP.

The Trudeau government has defied the order from the House, resulting in a condemnation from Liberal House Speaker Greg Fergus.

Government business in the House of Commons has ground to a screeching halt and will only resume once the Trudeau government complies with the order.

Opposition house leader Andrew Scheer celebrated the news that there was an investigation while demanding the Liberals release the SDTC files to the House.

“RCMP say they are investigating Liberal slush fund. Liberal insiders funnelled taxpayers’ money into their own businesses. Now Trudeau refuses to hand over all the evidence to the cops. Why the cover-up?” said Scheer.

The auditor general’s report and the ethics commissioner’s report, as well as an investigation conducted by Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton have found that SDTC’s board of directors and its executives had violated the Crown corporation’s funding agreement with the government, had breached conflict-of-interest and ethics laws while firing employees to cover up complaints.

In a report released in June, the auditor general stated that SDTC had granted millions of dollars to companies that were ineligible for funding under SDTC’s contribution agreement with the government.

Since the auditor general’s office had only looked at 58 of the projects that SDTC had granted funding to, they estimate that 1 in 10 start-up and scale-up projects that were awarded money were ineligible. 

In a previous report commissioned by Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada – the department responsible for administering SDTC – it was found that in a sample of 19 companies that had been awarded multi-million dollar grants, three of them had violated SDTC’s contribution agreement.

According to a whistleblower who spoke to True North, these three companies were GHGSat, Semios, and Miovision, which were awarded $20,000,000, $17,000,000, and $16,580,000 respectively.

The auditor general also found 90 instances in which SDTC’s Board of Directors had violated conflict of interest policies by voting on or participating in discussions about a company they had previously declared a conflict of interest with. These 90 cases were connected to projects that totalled nearly $76 million in funding from taxpayers. 

In a July report from the ethics commissioner, former SDTC board member Annette Vershcuren was found to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act twice by benefiting companies associated with the Verschuren Centre – a clean technology accelerator that she founded.

Former SDTC board director Guy Ouimet was also found to be in a conflict of interest with his role in a company he helped to found called Lithion Technologies, though he was cleared of any wrongdoing on the basis that he did not own enough Lithion stock to truly benefit from the grant. 

In an exclusive report from True North, it was discovered that Ouimet sits on the board of Lithion Technologies, a company that received $3,842,000 in funding from SDTC on August 29, 2018, just one and a half months after Lithion was incorporated. 

Quebeckers drink the most of any province: StatsCan

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

Less than half of the adults across the country drank alcohol every week last year, but those living in Quebec reported the most frequent drinking habits, as well as those who worked in the trades or the arts. 

According to data from the Canadian Community Health Survey and Statistics Canada, 77% of Canadian adults reported drinking at least one alcoholic beverage over the entire 2023 year.

When asked if they had consumed alcohol in the last seven days, 54% reported that they hadn’t, while 15% said they had one to two standard alcoholic drinks.

Another cohort of 15% reported drinking three to six drinks over the last seven days; the final cohort of 15% said they had consumed at least seven or more drinks over that period. 

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health last year, which offered Canadians informed recommendations on alcohol consumption. 

The guide categorizes four different risk zones based on the number of standard alcoholic drinks one consumes weekly.

  • 0 drinks per week — Not drinking has benefits, such as better health, and better sleep.
  • 2 standard drinks or less per week — You are likely to avoid alcohol-related consequences for yourself or others at this level.
  • 3–6 standard drinks per week — Your risk of developing several types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer, increases at this level.
  • 7 standard drinks or more per week — Your risk of heart disease or stroke increases significantly at this level.

According to the guide, “each additional standard drink radically increases the risk of alcohol-related consequences.”

Statistics Canada said that previous data revealed that males drink more alcohol compared to females and that alcohol affects the two genders differently. 

“Females generally absorb alcohol faster than males, which can lead to higher blood alcohol levels for the same amount of alcohol consumed,” reads the Statistics Canada report. 

“In 2023, nearly twice as many men (20%) as women (11%) reported drinking seven or more drinks in the past seven days, which is the level of alcohol consumption linked to the highest risk of alcohol-related harms.”

Of the cohort who reported drinking one to two drinks in the past seven days, men and women were similar, at 15% and 16%, respectively.

Those figures remained unchanged for men and women who reported drinking three to six drinks in the past seven days. 

However, when it came to abstinence, more women, 59%, reported drinking zero alcohol in the past seven days, compared to men at 49%. 

Age played a factor as Canadians between 18 and 22 reported the highest levels of not drinking any alcohol in the past week at 67%, compared to those in all other age groups which ranged from 51% to 57%.

That age group was also the least likely to consume seven or more alcoholic drinks in the past seven days at 8%, compared with other age groups which varied from 14% to 17%.

Provincially, Quebec residents reported drinking seven or more drinks in the past seven days at 18%, higher than the national average of 15% in 2023.

Those living in New Brunswick drank the least over seven days at 12%, followed by Ontario (14%), Saskatchewan (13%) and Alberta (14%).

Additionally, Quebec residents reported the lowest figure of not drinking any alcohol for the past seven days at 47%, compared with the national average of 54%.

Residents of Newfoundland and Labrador reported the highest number of zero alcohol consumed in seven days (58%), followed by New Brunswick (60%), Ontario (58%), Manitoba (57%), Saskatchewan (59%) and Alberta (57%).

One in five (19%) of Canada’s rural residents reported drinking seven or more drinks in the past seven days, which was higher than the 14% of those living in urban areas.

The CCHS survey also found a link between higher income and increased drinking, which is consistent with previous findings, with a higher likelihood among those more affluent.

When broken down by occupation, those working in trades, transport and equipment operation were the most likely to drink at 23%, followed by 22% of people working in arts, culture, recreation and sports.

Only 10% of people working in health occupations reported drinking seven or more drinks in the past seven days, which was the lowest of any occupation category.

Study shows Canadians earn less than US neighbours

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

A study comparing income in Canada’s ten provinces with 50 American states showed that Canadians are getting poorer and earning less on average than their American counterparts.

According to a Fraser Institute study, The wage and earnings gap between Canadian Provinces has grown compared to their American state counterparts since 2010.

Every Canadian province now ranks lower in median per-person income than each of the 50 US states.

The study measured each jurisdiction’s median economic earnings from 2010 to 2022, using purchasing price parities in 2017 as the base year of comparison. 

“This twelve-year period allows for the analysis of a full business cycle following the 2008 recession through to 2022 when the economic effects of the global COVID pandemic began to subside,’ the study said.

Statistics Canada, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis provided most of the data used for the time period measured.

“The data on earnings in this study show that, in general, Canadian provinces are getting poorer relative to their US peers. Further, Canada’s poorest provinces are the poorest in both countries and fell even further behind their US peers between 2010 and 2022,” the study said.

Alberta was the top-earning province in 2010, with the average Albertan making $40,525 and the only province to appear in the top half of the 60 jurisdictions it was measured against. Alberta was still the highest-earning Canadian jurisdiction in 2022 but was surpassed by all US states, though in 2010, only 12 US states reported higher median income.

Saskatchewan had the tenth-lowest median earnings, followed by Ontario with the ninth-lowest, beating only Idaho in 2010. The average Saskatchewan resident made $33,971, Ontario with $33,471, and Idaho in eighth place with $33,208.

The other seven provinces ranked below Idaho, the lowest-earning state in 2010.

By 2022, Alberta had the tenth lowest reported income out of the 60 jurisdictions, with the average Albertan making $38,969 that year. BC came in ninth place with a median income of $37,801.

The Atlantic provinces reported the lowest median income rates in 2022, with PEI coming last. The average Islander made $28,784 that year.

Seven Canadian provinces ranked near the bottom of earnings growth between 2010 and 2022.

“Both the relatively low rankings of Canadian provinces as well as the relative lack of growth in Canada should be a cause for concern for Canadians and policymakers alike, given the close connection between incomes and living standards,” it said.

After adjusting for inflation and currency, BC had the strongest earnings growth of all the provinces in that period, yet its growth only ranked 19 among the 60 provinces and states it was compared to. The province’s median earnings grew by $7,732 when compared to its listing in 2010.

Alberta was the only jurisdiction to see median earnings growth decline between 2010 and 2022, with a decline of $1,555 in inflation-adjusted income, though it’s still the province with the highest wages and earnings per capita.

“Albertans, who out-earned Texans in 2010, fell behind by 2022. As a result of negative income growth in Alberta combined with strong growth in Texas, Alberta’s lead of $3,423 per person became a deficit with Texas of $5,254 by 2022,” the study said.

Canadians report feeling the negative strain of the economy, too.

According to a Leger 360 poll, six out of ten Canadians believe the country is in an economic recession. Of Canadians aged 18-34, 67% believed the same.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 27 to 29 with 1,626 Canadians and 1010 US residents aged 18 and older, randomly selected from Leger’s LEO’s online panel.

Although a margin of error can’t be associated with a non-probability panel survey such as this, a probability sample of this size yields a margin of error of no greater than 2.43% 19 times out of twenty.

Nearly half of Canadians, 47%, reported living paycheck-to-paycheck and 57% of Canadians aged 18-34 reported the same.

The Ministry of Finance and its Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland did not respond to True North’s request to comment.

OP-ED: If women make better surgeons, do men make better firefighters?

By
Peter Shawn Taylor
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As if major surgery isn’t stressful enough, now there’s another thing to worry about: what if your surgeon is a man? 

A recent study based on over 700,000 surgeries in Ontario between 2009 and 2019 claims to show a 3 percent decline in “major morbidity” – that is, significant post-operative complications including death – within 90 days of surgery when the share of female surgeons and anaesthetists at an individual hospital rises above 35 percent. As lead author Julie Hallet, a surgeon at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, told the CBC, “It’s not only about equity and justice. It’s really about increasing performance and providing better care.”

Evidence that women are better at surgery than men can also be found in two other Ontario studies. One examined nearly 1.2 million operations performed from 2007 through 2019 that found patients with male surgeons had significantly higher rates of post-operative complications than those with female surgeons. The second compared surgeries performed by males and females and concluded total health care costs were $6,000 lower when a woman held the scalpel.

What might explain this? Since female surgeons take an average of 15 minutes longer to complete comparable surgeries than do men, the authors suggest they are more careful in the OR, and hence make fewer mistakes. Other research suggests women doctors spend more time communicating with their patients and are more aware of possible complications and concerns. All of which suggests a noticeable advantage for patients lucky enough to be operated on by a woman.

There are, however, big differences in the sorts of surgeries performed by men and women. Of 58,912 neurosurgeries in one study, 56,049 – or 95 percent – were performed by men. Cardiothoracic and orthopedic procedures had the same relative shares. In Hallet’s study, hospitals with greater than 35 percent female representation accounted for a mere 1.7 percent of cardiac operations in Ontario, and only 10.3 percent of neurosurgery.

As careful as they may be, female surgeons tend to focus on routine procedures while their male counterparts overwhelmingly handle the riskiest and most difficult tasks. The authors all claim their statistical work corrects for these huge discrepancies, but an expert second – and perhaps third – opinion seems warranted. 

Setting this skepticism aside, however, it remains plausible that women actually are better at surgery than men. Given the well-established differences between men and women in terms of risk-seeking, emotional intelligence, communications skills and so on, there may well be a distinct and measurable benefit attributable to female surgeons. And then what?

If women make better surgeons because of immutable sex-based characteristics, it stands to reason men must be better-suited to other jobs that take advantage of their unique traits and strengths. This suggests historical male dominance in certain sectors or occupations may not be evidence of patriarchal or systemic discrimination, as is often claimed, but rather an efficient sorting of tasks.

Consider firefighting, once the exclusive domain of men. Unlike for surgery, there is no centralized dataset available to examine the efficacy of male versus female firefighters when putting out blazes, prying open mangled automobiles or rescuing cats from trees. There is, however, ample evidence on how the two sexes bear up to the job’s physical challenges. And according to academic research on Canadian firefighters “Women experienced a 1.4-1.6 times greater likelihood of sustaining musculoskeletal” injuries than men. Another study found the “fitness profiles of female firefighters consistently differ in comparison to their male counterparts, in terms of cardiovascular levels, muscle strength and endurance.”

This doesn’t mean women cannot or should not be firefighters. But if efficiency and effectiveness are our measures, it appears men hold an edge because their bodies are better-suited to the tasks involved.

The same observation holds for soldiering. The U.S. military has been fully integrated since 1994, with all tasks – including combat roles – open to both men and women. But according to a comprehensive review of gender statistics from combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, female soldiers suffered 17 percent of all injuries despite accounting for only 11 percent of combat troops over this time. Conversely, women comprised just 1.6 percent of all U.S. Army deaths in Afghanistan and 2 percent in Iraq. It appears women tend to get injured more often,  but are rarely placed in the direct line of fire. An army assembled along strict efficiency grounds would almost certainly be all-male. Yet it remains a political objective to increase the enlistment of women in both the Canadian and U.S. militaries.

Directing movies is another male-dominated occupation that faces similar pressure to enlist more women. In the Academy Awards’ 96-year history, only three women have ever been named Best Director; the first being Kathryn Bigelow for her male-centric war movie The Hurt Locker in 2008. This factoid is frequently cited as prima facie evidence of rampant gender discrimination in Hollywood. But what if there is a distinct sex-based advantage to directing movies similar to that for female surgeons?

In 2022, provocative Hollywood blogger Sasha Stone claimed that men are simply better-suited to commanding a set and crafting a coherent visual message. “Men are uniquely built to be great directors because they are more visual/spatial than women,” she wrote on her much-read website AwardsDaily. “They’re great at the visual stuff, which is why they make great movies.” As might be expected, Stone’s observations set off an explosion of social media outrage.

While it makes intuitive sense that men and women could be better suited to different jobs, this logic only seems to work one way. Evidence that women may bring intrinsic advantages to certain tasks is generally greeted with great applause and acclaim, while evidence pointing in the opposite direction – that men may be innately suited to other jobs for analogous reasons – is treated with scorn and condemnation.

If there are benefits to society to be had from identifying sex-based differences in occupational performance – by improving outcomes or better matching workers to jobs, for example – this is the wrong way to go about it.

Peter Shawn Taylor is senior features editor at C2C Journal, where a longer version of this story first appeared.

The Alberta Roundup | An ATTACK on the free press

By
Isaac Lamoureux
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Source: Indo-Canadian Voice

A Calgary radio host was assaulted by two men on the streets of Calgary over his reporting on extortion and crime in the South Asian community. Rishi Nagar described the attack as one on the freedom of the press and the integrity of journalism. Is press freedom under threat in Canada?

Plus, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been taking some heat for some recent comments she made on chemtrails at a recent UCP event. But is anyone other than Trudeau cabinet ministers and leftist activists upset about this story?

And rapid population growth driven by immigration has Calgary considering reintroducing a municipal census in 2027 to address the immediate needs of the city after experiencing a population boom.

These stories and more on The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux!

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