Published on linkedin.com on 2015-11-18 In Montreal these days, with later sunrises and early sunsets, many cycling commuters are going to and from work in the dark. I don’t know if this is particular to Montreal, but many of these cyclists have no lights on their bicycles, and additionally wear…
Read moreArticles supplied: Arends J, Bachmann P, Baracos V et al. ESPEN guidelines on nutrition in cancer patients. Clin Nutr. 2017;36:11-48. Stobäus N, Müller MJ, Küpferling S, Schulzke JD, Norman K. Low Recent Protein Intake Predicts Cancer-Related Fatigue and Increased Mortality in Patients with Advanced Tumor Disease Undergoing Chemotherapy. Nutr Cancer.…
Read moreMy wife and I recently bought a 2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid vehicle. It suits our needs very well, as most of our trips are within its 40km all-electric range, but when we take longer trips, for example to Ottawa, we don’t experience range anxiety because the switch to…
Read moreEvery weekday morning, and often at other times, there is a line of cars backed up on Lansdowne south of Sherbrooke, waiting to turn left or right onto Sherbrooke. Not only is it extremely frustrating for drivers to wait through several cycles of the stoplights at Sherbrooke and Lansdowne, but…
Read moreIn Montreal, the federal government is building a new bridge over the St. Lawrence river, to replace the aging Champlain bridge. There has been plenty of discussion about whether tolls should be charged to users of the new bridge. It goes without saying that actual users are highly reluctant to pay tolls,…
Read moreOn July 6, 2013 an unattended freight train carrying crude oil rolled down a hill and derailed in the downtown area of the city of Lac-Mégantic, resulting in a huge explosion causing the loss of 47 lives. Many Canadian cities are concerned about the possibility of a similar disaster in their…
Read moreYesterday we heard that the tusks from 7,000 dead elephants, which had been confiscated by Kenya from illegal poaching of ivory, was set afire. Kenya’s President is hoping that this will help end the illegal trade which kills elephants. But what is the consequence of reducing the supply of ivory for which…
Read moreI believe that there are many people in Canada who feel as I do, that the existing governmental structures are serving the needs of ordinary Canadians less and less. My proposal is that we create a new federal political party, and invite individuals like Marc Garneau and Andrew Coyne to…
Read moreWhen I was a medical student at McGill in the late 1970s, we learned a straightforward explanation for the cause of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes in adults, accounting for about 90 per cent of all diabetes cases. We were told the insulin resistance responsible for…
Read moreI’ve been reading a most interesting book, titled “Deadly medicines and organized crime: how big pharma has corrupted healthcare,” by Dr. Peter Gøtzsche. Dr. Gøtzsche, a specialist in internal medicine and professor at the University of Copenhagen, co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and established the Nordic Cochrane Centre. The…
Read moreWith the Mike Duffy trial figuring prominently in the news these days, The NDP is renewing calls for abolition of the Senate. Instead of outright abolition of the “House of sober second thought” perhaps a major restructuring should be considered. Here is one suggestion: Reduce the size of the senate,…
Read moreYesterday I attended an all-day symposium at the Montreal Neurological Institute, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre. I went to hear talks by David Van Essen, Principal Investigator, The Human Connectome Project; Henry Markram, Director, The Blue Brain Project, and Coordinator, The Human Brain Project; and Robert…
Read moreWestern democracies are lining up to engage in bombing raids against Islamic State installations, citing the IS (aka ISIS, or ISIL) terrorists as particularly cruel and barbaric, a scourge that needs to be eliminated. We’ve seen the gruesome beheadings, and heard the warnings that Canadians may become radicalized, join IS,…
Read moreIn Canada and Quebec, the debate over the right to die with dignity, medically assisted suicide, and euthanasia is often heated. I am struck by the inconsistency, perhaps even hypocrisy, of governments that maintain that it is OK for individuals to commit suicide, but not to receive help from anyone…
Read moreThis was submitted as a Letter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette, on 2013-5-25: re: “Angelina Jolie got it right” (Friday, May 24): Dr. Labos is to be commended for his clearly written article on mastectomy for BRCA positive women. However, he did not mention that these unfortunate women…
Read moreLetter to the Editor, submitted to the Montreal Gazette on 2008-8-28. Many companies provide parking at no charge for their employees. This represents a subsidy, as parking spaces involve considerable costs including initial construction, drainage, paving, lighting as well as ongoing expenses such as snow removal, security, and electricity. Never…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Quebec’s Minister of Health and Social Services, Philippe Couillard, trumpets his government’s injection of $56 million in new funding for the province’s beleaguered mental health system (Gazette, “Quebec making great strides in mental health”, 2006-5-15). This is very timely, as a report…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The City of Westmount, with financial support from the province, is erecting a section of transparent sound barrier (Gazette 2006-4-24, “Innovative barrier keeps view intact”, page A7) at the foot of Abbott avenue as a pilot project. If effective at significantly reducing…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. One would think we had learned nothing from the U.S. experience with Prohibition, or the War on Drugs. Banning a substance such as alcohol or marijuana inevitably leads to the creation of a criminal underground which profits enormously, and supports a large…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Immigration Minister Judy Sgro believes that it is inappropriate for churches and other faith communities to provide sanctuary to refugee claimants who have been ordered deported after their hearings. It has been argued that churches should not usurp the role of democratically…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The federal liberals have made flouting the rules an art form, as demonstrated by the sponsorship scandal, Radwanski’s expense accounts, and the Shawinigate affair. Now, in Westmount, liberal incumbent Lucienne Robillard’s overeager campaign team are breaking the rules by erecting election posters…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The various arguments that have been made in favour of merging smaller municipalities into megacities have been demolished, one by one, as these undemocratically created monstrosities (monstrocities?) have failed to produce promised reductions in costs. It seems that the only remaining rationale…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The recent school board elections were noteworthy for the low voter turnout, and for the mysterious process whereby some voters who previously had been on the English school board electoral lists saw their names turn up on the lists for francophone school…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The strike of MTC maintenance workers is a terrible hardship for many people, but is it really necessary to limit service to a few hours daily and none on weekends? After all, it isn’t the bus drivers who are striking; it’s the…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Every couple of weeks or so, there appears an article about sleep, most recently “A mounting sleep debt is nothing to yawn about” (Gazette 2002-12-03) Typically, the authors decry the high prevalence of insufficient sleep, the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation, the…
Read moreWhen a patient’s wishes conflict with the doctor’s, or families disagree with medical teams about the treatment of a loved one, biomedical ethicists are often called in to help resolve the issues. Recent examples that made headlines include the case of Sophia Park, a twenty-five year old grad student, married…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appears that the Quebec government is employing a timeworn ploy to get its way with regard to the just-introduced legislation on the forced merger of Quebec cities. The ploy is: when trying to get a deal, always ask for more than…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. With reference to the article “Leading British doctors urge anesthetics for brain-dead organ donors” (Gazette, 20 Aug 2000, page A10), I find it surprising that the British Department of Health would reject in such a cavalier fashion the possibility that brain-dead individuals…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The recent shootings in Taber and Littleton have stirred up a great deal of commentary about the role of the media in promulgating violent behaviour. While the research seems to focus on the effects of watching violence on television or in the…
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