Getting the word out about a free hospital for pregnant Haitian women (photo by Isabelle Jeanson for Médecins sans Frontières) The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti has suffered as a result of international intervention for over five hundred years. The damage continues to this day, in the form of desperate poverty and extreme […] More »

I did a double-take when I came across a headline on the Medecins Sans Frontieres website the other day: “Medecins Sans Frontieres welcomes the introduction of a new open-source user-friendly drug combination against malaria.” The notion of “open source” is very familiar to me in my day-to-day work as a web-server administrator, conjuring up thoughts […] More »

Is anyone else confused by the recent developments in health care in Vancouver? So all you have to do is open a private care clinic and propose to charge $199 per visit and the province will step in and cover the patient fees? Is this the new way to open hospitals around here? So instead […] More »

Monday’s Toronto Star carries a Labour Day feature updating the plight of Hermelindo Gutierrez, a Mexican who worked as a seasonal farm worker in Ontario for several years before kidney failure left him dependent on a dialysis machine—an unthinkable expense in Mexico for the working class. Hermelindo’s story was previously told in the pages of […] More »

Ketamine: cat tranquilizer, hallucinagenic rave drug, and now, possible remedy for depression. A recent US study reports that initial trials of the drug on treatment resistant depression sufferers show promising results. Lead researcher Dr Carlos Zarate Junior, head of the mood and anxiety disorders programme at NIMH, said: “Within 110 minutes, half of the patients […] More »

In September of 2003, North America’s first safe-injection site opened in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Operated by the local health authority, Insite is allowed to exist thanks to funding and support from all three levels of government. Ottawa’s role includes a three-year exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The success of the facility has […] More »