Infertile couples suffer in silence in a baby-crazed culture. Treatments are lightly regulated and cost a fortune. Why public funding could ease the burden and improve care It’s just another September day in Nova Scotia—sun shining, birds chirping, a late summer breeze playing in the treetops. Only one thing is different today for Shawna Young: […] More »

“This is about the complete failure of democracy,” Alan Young says, munching on his strawberry-jam toast at Sunnybrook Restaurant in Toronto. Young, a criminal lawyer, has been Canada’s forerunning pot reformist since he got a judge to declare that “marijuana is relatively harmless compared to the so-called hard drugs, and including tobacco and alcohol” during […] More »

Aside from the fact that single older women have enough stigma to deal with, the “cougar” trend has been a rampant part of pop culture for years now. And while, for some reason, the thought of an older woman dating a younger man draws giggles and raised eyebrows more often than not, up until this […] More »

Chances are Henrietta Lacks has been a part of your life. Without actually seeing her, Lacks could have helped you recover from surgery or a rare medical treatment. And while you might not know who she is, you may have heard of her alter ego: HeLa. Henrietta Lacks lived only to the age of 31, […] More »

Pretty much every “women and children first!” joke has already been made relating to the upcoming G8/G20 conferences in Toronto and Muskoka, and the Prime Minister’s announcement that maternal and children’s health would be the core of the agenda. The Conservatives have been dancing around the issue of reproductive planning and what they actually consider […] More »

Despite ongoing efforts by the Harper government to shut it down, Insite, the Vancouver-based supervised-injection site, is alive and thriving, with over 10,000 registered users and around 800 daily visitors. To Mark Townsend, an Insite representative, it’s a success story that needs to be replicated in other cities. Established in 2003 as a scientific research […] More »

As the world prepares for H1N1’s much-touted fall resurgence, Dr. Bonnie Henry’s approachable, non-technical guide to flu preparedness fails to deliver on its promise, offering neither protection nor peace of mind. Readers in search of preventative measures won’t find much insight beyond the obvious: wash your hands. True to her title, Dr. Henry, the director […] More »

When was the last time you called Bayer or GlaxoSmithKline up for a chat about your prescription regime? Never, right? Doctors are our go-between, the ones who prescribe and manage our health, who pay attention to developments in pharmaceuticals, and we generally have to trust them to know what we need. While many provinces are […] More »

In March 2009, Nova Scotia became the seventh province to incorporate midwifery into the public health care system. Instead of paying and arranging for the service privately, residents now have it covered and regulated by the provincial government. Midwifery should be seen as the progressive (yet traditional) and cost-effective method of childbirth in Canada. But […] More »

Susan Chamberlain says she’s reluctant to complain about money. We’re talking about the difficulties in providing mental health care for foster children, and the problem is essentially one we hear from so many reaches of health care policy. The ‘R’ word: resources. There’s not enough money. “There’s no question that the kids need it,” says […] More »

When we’re put on wait lists, or stand in line at clinics, or fall asleep in waiting rooms it’s easy to think that there’s something wrong with Canada’s health care system. We need more doctors, we need more nurses, we need more surgeons — we need a better way to get better. But what if […] More »