As someone who has relied on alternative medicine all my life for most of my ailments, I’m used to paying for health care. In that sense, public health care in Canada is a bit of a myth. Like most things, we compare ourselves to the U.S., who have about the worst health care system in the world and compared to them, our system is wonderful. For broken bones, cancer, and major surgery, public health care is excellent but it’s not perfect. As Globe and Mail health reporter André Picard just pointed out on CBC radio, we already have private clinics in many provinces, and they haven’t undermined public health care.

Claire Palmer comes to Nanaimo by way of Golden, B.C., where she was the former editor of the Golden Star. The corporation has officially launched its permanent bureau in Nanaimo, which will focus on telling stories from the mid-and-north Vancouver Island region. Video journalist Claire Palmer is now based in the Nanaimo bureau. CBC NewsBefore joining CBC, Claire worked as the editor of the Golden Star in Golden, B.C. Vancouver Island residents can see their stories reflected on all CBC News platforms, including local radio and television, the CBC Listen app and online at cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia.

Local Journalism InitiativeBy Alexandra Mehl Almost twenty years ago, Gregory Charleson Jr. fell in love with a song that his father, Quuia Charleson, would sing to him. Love Your Creator was a Christian hymn that Quuia learned in residential school. Quuia said that his son would ask him to sing the song in their language, Hesquiaht. However, he could not speak the language fluently. Gregory Jr. surprised his father, with the help of the late-elder Larry Paul, and a language teacher.

Mandatory minimum penalty for firing gun at house unconstitutional: Supreme CourtOTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a mandatory minimum sentence of four years for firing a gun at a house is unconstitutional on the basis it could amount to cruel and unusual punishment. In allowing Hills's appeal, the Supreme Court said the mandatory minimum sentence was grossly disproportionate, given that a young person might fire a paintball gun at a house as part of a game. In any event, the Liberal government repealed this particular mandatory minimum sentence, along with several others, after the appeal was heard. The first offence, robbery committed with a restricted or prohibited firearm, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The second, robbery with an ordinary firearm, carried a mandatory minimum sentence of four years at the time the appeal was heard, but this minimum sentence has since been repealed.

Canadian rugby sevens player Bianca Farella, right, is tackled during her team's 14-12 loss to the United States on Thursday at the Sydney Sevens tournament in Sydney, Australia. (Matt King/Getty Images - image credit)The Canadian women's rugby sevens team suffered losses to the United States and Great Britain on Thursday to open the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series stop in Sydney, Australia. WATCH | Women's World Rugby Sevens Series Sydney: Canada vs. Great Britain:The Americans continued to apply offensive pressure throughout the opening half, moving the ball quickly across the field. WATCH | Men's World Rugby Sevens Series Sydney: Canada vs. Argentina:Great Britian led Canada 14-0 at halftime following tries from Jade Shekells and Heather Cowell. Grace Crompton added to Great Britain's lead before Apps scored a try for Canada late in the second half.

And when Carlisle played, the now-Pacers coach always cherished the minutes Hall of Famer Bill Walton played with him and the Boston backups. “I was the guy that would come in and really be that coach out on the floor,” McMillan recalled. Ultimately, you have to understand a guy’s situation and how they fare in their minutes. I honestly view those minutes even more important than my starter minutes because those guys aren’t just set in what their careers are going to be.”These rotations don’t work everywhere. “You have to have good players, like really good players off the bench, if you can play with only one starter.

In total, 25 adults between 19 and 49 were exposed to two hours of both filtered air and air contaminated with diesel exhaust. Participants received a functional MRI scan before and after each treatment, enabling researchers to monitor each subject’s brain activity. “The findings are not surprising to me, given the tremendous amount of observational research that already exists,” she said. “We reviewed 1,858 articles related to the health harms of traffic-related air pollution,” Green said, referencing a 2022 report she helped review. “Air pollution is just now another one of those things that people should be thinking about.”Joanna Chiu is a B.C.-based staff reporter for the Star.

The Alberta government is on the attack after a second CBC story has been published regarding the Premier's office interfering with crown prosecutors around cases related to the Coutts protest last winter. The Alberta government is on the attack after a second CBC story has been published regarding the Premier's office interfering with crown prosecutors around cases related to the Coutts protest last winter. “The Premier calls on the CBC to retract its outrageous story and, further, that the CBC and the Official Opposition apologize." According to the CBC exclusive report, multiple sources told the outlet the Premier pressured the justice minister's office to get rid of COVID charges. Alberta's NDP responded to the Premier's statement Wednesday, saying because the allegations are coming from within the government, there must be an independent investigation into the matter.

First Reading is a daily newsletter keeping you posted on the travails of Canadian politicos, all curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET (and 9:30 a ...

Now, a Canadian organization is behind an unprecedented use of modelling that has illustrated the disturbing cost of those narratives. The Cost of COVID-19 misinformation Between March and November 2021, misinformation contributed to vaccine hesitancy for an estimated 2.35 million Canadians, according to modelling by the Council of Canadian Academies. The model looked at whether people believed that COVID-19 was a hoax or thought that perceived vaccine harms had been “covered up,” according to the best available polling data. Using a baseline model of real data regarding vaccination levels, case counts, deaths, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions, researchers were able to estimate the impact of misinformation. They show us that misinformation has real-life consequences,” Angus told the Star.

Marked on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) is a powerful reminder there’s nothing like the past to help humanity better tackle the present and address the future. When it comes to the Holocaust, awareness is woefully lacking among many Canadians, especially the young. Admittedly, given its sheer scope and size, understanding the Holocaust, on one level, is extremely difficult. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Each year, like grains of sand emptying from the top half of an hourglass, the number of Holocaust survivors and witnesses continues to diminish.

It extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles), making it the world’s second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world’s longest bi-national land border. Various Indigenous peoples inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years before European colonization. As a highly developed country, Canada has the seventeenth-highest nominal per-capita income globally as well as the thirteenth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index. Its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks.

2012Did actor Michael Clarke Duncan, famous for his role in the 1999 movie "The Green Mile," die? News of his death went viral again in 2023 after a clickbait website (likely from Pakistan) reposted an undated obituary for the actor that appears to have been stolen from a Canadian news website. The article (archived here) was published by a website named "DarsaalPakistan" (using the deceptive domain name bbcnewsz.com) on January 25, 2023, under the title "'Green Mile' Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Dies At 54." It opened:Hulking and prolific actor Actor Michael Clarke Duncan, shown here at the 2010 BET Awards in Los Angeles, died Monday after suffering a heart attack, his fiancee said. According to WHOIS data, the domain name for the website bbcnewz.com was registered anonymously on January 3, 2023:Domain: bbcnewsz.com Registrar: NameCheap, Inc.

VANCOUVER—Investigators at a former residential school in British Columbia say they have found another 66 potential graves at a site near the Williams Lake First Nation during the latest phase of an investigation that made 93 such discoveries a year ago. Wednesday’s news conference detailed the latest discovery of potential graves across Canada in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a Saskatchewan First Nation said it had found about 2,000 “anomalies” using ground-penetrating radar that could be the graves of children who attended a residential school in Lebret. The discovery of potential graves of Indigenous children across Canada began in May 2021, when more than 200 such sites were discovered. At the time Indigenous leaders said other such schools across Canada should also be searching for potential graves.

Postmedia is shaking up its editorial leadership at its newspapers across the Prairies. Motley had been vice-president editorial, west region, as well as editor-in-chief of both the Calgary Herald and Sun since 2016-17. Reporting to Motley in Calgary will be deputy editor Monica Zurowski, managing editor Dave Breakenridge in Edmonton, managing editor Ashley Trask in Saskatoon and managing editor Mark Hamm in Winnipeg. He also oversaw Alberta’s weekly community papers for a time in his role of vice-president editorial, west region. Postmedia also recently stopped printing Monday editions of the Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Montreal Gazette and the Sun and the Province in Vancouver.