canada

Harper Shuns Democracy, Activists Decide to Cover Costs

- Adam Clare

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper hates the environment while he continues to stifle democracy in Canada. Clearly, Harper is not good, which begs the question as to why he’s mentioned on a site about good news.

In the context that is Harper’s Canada, activists have to be more creative than usual. The conservatives are stifling debate by not inviting the official opposition to attend the United Nations’ major climate change meeting next month in Bali, Indonesia. As a result, Canadian activists are trying to continue what the current Canadian government dislikes: discussions on climate change. So it is good that the Canadian people actively care about the environment.

A coalition of Canada’s top environmental groups is offering a hand to jilted opposition MPs who want to attend key climate-change talks in Bali, Indonesia.

Environment critics from the three opposition parties were told earlier this week that they would no longer be welcome in the official Canadian delegation attending the United Nations meeting next month.

The government has traditionally allowed opposition MPs, and even non-governmental groups and industry representatives, to tag along to such high-profile summits. The critics were invited to the last major UN climate meeting in Kenya a year ago.

Talking on the Phone is Healthy

- Adam Clare

A recent study that set out to lower the risk of heart disease and strokes in people predisposed to have them by talking to them over the phone. The patients received health “report cards” letting them know how they’re doing. Based on the report cards a kinesiologist would talk to the patient about their health. The results appear to be positive!

Andrew Lister, one of the study’s authors and chair of the gerontology department at Simon Fraser University, said the study was also meant to act a model for a community-based health-care program that could be implemented at a fairly low cost to lower a population’s heart and stroke risks.

The intervention consisted of a health report card that was sent to the participants and their family doctors. This included a profile of risks such as high cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diabetes and smoking status. Physical activity, body mass index, waist circumference, nutrition status, stress level and health confidence were also factored in.

The other component of the intervention was a telephone discussion between a lifestyle counsellor — trained as a kinesiologist and well-versed in cardiovascular disease prevention — and the participants. Two kinesiologists performed all 611 interventions.

“Two people did it all, one full-time and one part-time,” Lister told CBCNews.ca on Friday. “You could reach a lot of people if you were doing this on a continual basis.”

This Magazine

- Adam Clare

This Magazine is an excellent Canadian publication that simply states that “everything is political” which is something that I entirely agree with. They recently added Things Are Good to their blogroll, so I thought it was perfect opportunity to draw attention to this great Canadian magazine (sorry all you non-canucks, you can skip this post).

The This Magazine Blog is a must read if you’re at all interested in Canada. They cover almost everything from “media navel-gazing” to human rights.

Keep up the good work all those working at This Magazine!

Trouble for Tumors

- Adam Clare

A British Columbia team of researchers have discovered that a gene, HACE1, can greatly limit the growth of tumors. This is promising research because HACE1 can influence many kinds of cancerous tumors.

Scientists at the BC Cancer Agency have discovered a gene they believe can suppress the growth of tumours for a wide variety of cancers – a discovery that could lead to new treatments.

Generic HIV Drugs to Start Production

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

After much bureaucratic silliness, a generic pharmaceutical company can now begin production of a drug that helps people suffering from HIV/AIDs. Rwanda had to notify of their intention of importing the drug then get approval for the drug to even be manufactured (that’s the simple version). The point is that soon in Rwanda people will be better treated.

Rwanda plans to import 260,000 packs of TriAvir from Canada. The drug is a fixed-dose combination of widely used anti-AIDS drugs lamivudine, zidovudine and nevirapine. The generic product is manufactured in Canada by Apotex Inc.

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