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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-10-28, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010. PAGE 5. “Y ou gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well? Do ya, punk?” – Harry Callaghan Ah, yes. Good old, bad old, Dirty Harry, squinting down the barrel of his handgun cannon and giving the killer/kidnapper/ psycho one last shot at macho redemption. Is Harry’s gun empty? Maybe, maybe not. If it is, his opponent only has to pick up his piece and blow Harry away. Killer/kidnapper/ psycho decides that he does, in fact, feel lucky; he goes for his gun. It doesn’t work out for him. Well, luck’s a funny thing. Sometimes you’re the windshield, as my pappy used to say, and sometimes you’re the bug. Except when you’re all windshield, like Joan Ginther of Bishop, Texas. Last spring she won $10 million with a scratch off ticket in a Texas lottery. “Oh, goody,” thought Ms. Ginther. “I can put that with the $3 million I won in the 2008 lottery. And the $2 million I won in 2006. Not to mention the $5.4 million I won in 1993.” True story. Experts say you’ve got a better shot at being fricasseed by a lightning bolt than you have of winning a lottery. Joan Ginther’s been struck by Fate’s Golden Forefinger four times in the past two decades. Unlike Chris Tarttelin. He’s a 37-year-old Brit trying to become a Canadian. He figured he’d won the Life Lottery when he moved to Saskatoon with his wife and two kids two years ago. He’s a computer software developer and he’d already lined up a good job – just the kind of new blood you’d think we’d bend over backwards to attract. All he had to do was pass a routine medical exam and he was in. Oops. Turns out Mister Tarttelin couldn’t pass the medical exam. He suffers from one grievous personal handicap that renders him unfit for Canadian citizenship. He’s too honest. When asked if he’d ever taken drugs, Tarttelin replied, “I tried pot as a teenager but I didn’t really take to it. I tried it a couple of times and that was about it.” Wrong answer. Tarttelin was told he would have to have a psychiatric assessment. What’s more he’d have to have the assessment done and a report from the psychiatrist within 60 days. “You can’t see a psychiatrist in Saskatoon in that time frame,” says Tarttelin. He’s moving back to Britain with his family. The level of hypocrisy here is truly mind boggling. A psychiatric assessment for a couple of joints smoked 19 years ago? If that’s valid, 98 per cent of Canadians should be on the couch or living at the funny farm. Barack Obama tried pot. So did Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ted Turner, Stephen King and Sir Richard Branson. Pierre Berton went on Rick Mercer’s TV show and delivered a joint-rolling tutorial. He was in his 80s! And those are just the famous folks who manned up and owned it. (Still not inhaling, Bill Clinton?) I venture to guess that the Citizenship and Immigration buzzards who vetoed Tarttelin’s bid for Canadian citizenship themselves toked up a time or two in their lives. Lesson for all prospective Canadian immigrants: if you admit to so much as sniffing a cannabis leaf you’re history. Liars and cheaters, however, are welcome. It all comes down to luck in the end, and it’s Chris Tarttelin’s bad luck to be unusually honest.“I’m a painfully honest person. It doesn’t occur to me to answer questions any other way.” Loser. We don’t need your kind in Canada. Why don’t you try Germany? They’re more tolerant of over-indulgers there. As evidenced by the 35-year-old Polish immigrant who moved to Bochum, Germany five years ago. Recently he went to the doctor to have a cyst removed from the back of his head. The doctor removed a bullet instead. Confronted with the lead nugget, the guy dimly recalled receiving a blow to the head at a New Year’s party “in 2004 or 2005”. He told the doctor he didn’t remember it all that clearly because he had been “very stoned”. Talk about dumb luck. Arthur Black Other Views Dumb luck strikes more than once While I feel I have always been generous whilst whipping out my wallet to donate to worthy charitable causes, I feel I have undertaken very little charitable action on my own; so this November, I have decided to change that. After encouragement from friends and family members and a glimpse of the support in the community for The Citizen and its employees, as seen at both of our 25-year anniversary open house events last week, I have decided wear a ribbon of support for men’s health in Canada... on my face. I will show up to work clean-shaven on Nov. 1 and will commit to growing a mustache for the following 30 days. All the while, doing my best to collect for Prostate Cancer Canada. The initiative is called Movember and it started in Australia in 2004. It’s said that the idea was conceived over a few beers by some men who were inspired by the great work being done by women in Australia to raise money for breast cancer. In that first year, 432 men grew mustaches and made the commitment and by 2009, over 250,000 people were “changing their appearance and the face of men’s health”. Over 35,000 of those people were Canadian, second only to Australia, raising over $7.8 million for Prostate Cancer Canada. I have been inspired by the generosity of this community time and time again and I hope readers will take the time to stop into the office and donate to an extremely worthy cause that has touched far too many lives. I’ll be providing weekly updates right here (look for a new picture every week) and once Movember is through, I’ll be honoured to include a list of the names of all those who find it in their heart to donate in this column as well. I will have a supply of donation forms at both the Blyth and Brussels offices ready to be filled out. If you wish to donate by cheque, you may leave a cheque at either office and fill out one of the forms and I will be more than happy to mail them to Prostate Cancer Canada’s head office in Toronto on your behalf. If you wish to donate to the cause in cash, I will be taking a collection at either office. I will be keeping track of cash donations and at the end of the month, I will make the donations on your behalf (there is a process to ensure that physically-collected cash donations are properly attributed to the donor). Finally, the easiest way to donate is with a credit card online. I have set up a profile at the official Movember website. If you’re looking, you can visit www.movember.com and click Canada as your country and search “Shawn Loughlin” and I will come up. The direct link to my profile is http://ca.movember.com/mospace/572980/ Follow the donation directions and you’ll see my tally go up immediately. Last year I participated in an initiative to raise awareness for National Hunger Awareness Day, eating food from a local food bank for two days. I wrote about my experience and helped to raise awareness for the growing cause of local food banks. With this endeavour, I hope that by doing something silly like grow a mustache, that people may donate to a worthy cause. I have no idea how much I’ll raise, as I’ve never done anything like this before, but the way I look at it, if I raise $10, that’s $10 Prostate Cancer Canada didn’t have a month ago and if all I had to do was grow a mustache and field some strange looks for a month, there’s no question it will be worth it. Mr. Movember Ontario doctors have as many headaches as their patients and this is prompting them to talk quietly of strikes, or job actions, as they more diplomatically call them. It also gives Premier Dalton McGuinty one more issue to worry about in health, his most chronically irritating responsibility, and he should have no doubt many doctors are fed up. The Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which regulates the doctors, has approved their right to withdraw their services for reasons related to patient safety or their practice environment provided they take steps it specifies to mitigate the impact on patients and the public. The College for many years has required the doctors to take similar precautions when negotiations for increases in their fees failed. The College says doctors who withdraw services for any reason must fulfill their professional responsibilities and uphold the reputation of their profession. They should consider their patients’ best interests and ensure patients and, in a large scale withdrawal of services, the public, will not be placed at undue risk. They should explore all alternative options and withdraw services only as a last resort. If they withdraw services, they should take reasonable steps to mitigate where possible the impact on patients and public. Doctors should use their professional judgment to determine what steps are needed to ensure their patients and the public are not unduly harmed. The College pointed out there are many ways doctors can advocate change without withdrawing services. It said it updated its policy after extensive consultation with the public, doctors and other stakeholders. There is no suggestion a strike by doctors is imminent, but the College’s affirmation shows they are prepared to discuss this controversial issue. Doctors feel undermined for reasons including some powerful partners in healthcare and rivals for public funds, including the Ontario Hospital Association, have said Ontario spends more per resident on doctors than other provinces and urged the province to reduce it. The hospitals also want to change their relationship so doctors who have privileges to work in hospitals are more answerable to them. Doctors claim this would reduce their ability to act independently and in their patients’ interests, which they see as their first duty. Doctors also have expressed concern the province is promoting the introduction of clinics led by nurse practitioners and, while they support collaboration between professions, this is a deliberate attempt to reduce their influence in primary care. The Ontario Medical Association, representing doctors, made the serious charge other organizations are targeting doctors. The OMA is countering with newspaper advertisements telling readers “your life is our life’s work" and suggesting doctors often sacrifice their own health to help patients. It points to doctors “at risk or troubled by a range of personal and health-related problems." It is providing a health service for doctors and their families experiencing problems including stress, burnout, emotional and family issues, substance abuse and psychiatric illness. The OMA also has set up a series of programs to encourage doctors to take an active role in the political process and give their profession more influence with government. It points out many doctors already serve on such bodies as hospital committees and advisory community groups and contribute to fundraising and charitable causes. It suggests they also should be more aware of the value and importance of developing a continuing and valuable relationship with their members of the legislature. Doctors cannot expect their voice to be heard, it says, unless they make MPPs aware they have something to say. They also cannot expect elected officials to make informed decisions about healthcare unless they have views from those practising in the field. The doctors’ group also is ready to offer advice or how to get involved in an election campaign and lobby an MPP, which suggests the voice of doctors is about to get louder, even without strikes. Eric Dowd FFrroomm QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk Shawn Loughlin SShhaawwnn’’ss SSeennssee Possible strikes on the horizon Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.