The number of Canadians living with and surviving cancer has reached 1.5 million, according to new data that reveals that the number of people in Canada with cancer is increasing.
The data, released Tuesday by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS), contains cancer prevalence figures looking back over the last 25 years — the first of its kind in Canada to provide this kind of long-term prevalence snapshot.
A decade ago, it was estimated that one million Canadians were living with the disease, but Canada’s aging and growing population as well as advances in medicine and research helping more people to be diagnosed and survive has resulted in higher prevalence of cancer in Canada, according to the report.
That is both good and bad news when it comes to cancer occurrences in Canada, says Dr. Janet Dancey, a medical oncologist and director of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group.
“The fact is that as we live longer and longer, the chances of having cancer appear to go up, despite our best efforts and despite our best understanding,” she said.
“We also have many effective treatments, and that is actually how this particular publication, with its information on prevalence, can actually help highlight how many people live well beyond their cancer diagnosis. And I think it’s actually a very hopeful message.”
The report was developed by the Canadian Cancer Statistics Advisory Committee in collaboration with CCS, Statistics Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Dancey says it will help provide an important look at trends in cancer occurrences over a long period of time that show how well the country is doing when it comes to preventing, detecting and treating this disease and how well people with cancer are doing over time.
For example, the report found that 60 per cent of the 1.5 million people living in Canada who have been diagnosed with cancer in the last 25 years were diagnosed between five and 25 years ago.
This means a high number of people are living long-term after a cancer diagnosis, says Jennifer Gillis, senior manager of surveillance for the Canadian Cancer Society.
“This really highlights not only the improvements in survival, but also cancer’s long-term toll on our health-care system and the need to advance research to improve prevention, but also quality of life for people who have been diagnosed with cancer.”
For Harjeet Kaur, the disease started as persistent fevers that wouldn’t go away.
It was the spring of 2019, and the then-32-year-old had only recently emigrated to Canada from India and was otherwise healthy and looking forward to building a life in a new country with her husband.
Harjeet Kaur.
Submitted photo
But after many weeks of fevers, Kaur knew something wasn’t right. She started experiencing extreme chills and unexplained swelling in different parts of her body and then blacked out one day in her bathroom.
It took numerous visits to her family physician and countless hours in hospital emergency rooms — where she was repeatedly told it was probably just a virus or infection that would run its course — until finally she was admitted to a hospital in Edmonton for testing.
Two months and many scopes and scans later, she finally got the diagnosis: Kaur had a very rare type of blood cancer that had already progressed to Stage 4. And she was told she needed to start chemotherapy immediately.
“Honestly, I never thought that it would be the word ‘big C.’ I thought it might be some kind of infection or something, but I never thought that it would be cancer, Stage 4,” she said.
Her husband, brother and mother were equally incredulous.
“We still could not get that thing in our mind that, OK, is it seriously cancer? Because until now we could not diagnose anything and now all of a sudden it’s Stage 4.”
The diagnosis was only the beginning of the nightmare Kaur was to endure.
A side effect of her treatment caused her to permanently lose sight in one eye, and she also developed an autoimmune disease, which complicated her treatment.
A side effect of Harjeet Kaur’s cancer treatment caused her to permanently lose sight in one eye.
Submitted photo.
Eventually, she had to get a stem-cell transplant, which carries a significant risk of serious complications, including a 15 per cent chance she would not survive.
COVID-19 lockdowns further complicated her treatment and meant she had to isolate in the hospital alone for 32 days while undergoing treatments that were so painful, Kaur says she couldn’t speak.
“I was not sure if I would come back,” she said.
“The only thing which kept me going was my family and my friends and the strength that I input in myself after all this — that I need to get out of this. I need to go back to my family. I need to get up. I need to do this. But it took a lot from me.”
It has been a long road to recovery that Kaur says she is still on, but a recent scan showed no evidence of disease. However, she is still living with the aftermath of the disease and the treatments, including early menopause and her lost eyesight.
Kaur now wants to be a voice for other cancer patients and to let them know it’s important to advocate for themselves through their cancer journeys.
Submitted photo.
But she now wants to be a voice for other cancer patients and to let them know it’s important to advocate for themselves through their cancer journeys.
Tuesday’s cancer statistics report shows Kaur’s survival story is more common among the one in 24 Canadians now living with cancer. But it also highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic and Canada’s stretched health-care system is having significant impacts on cancer patients, which shows the need for more investments in health care in Canada, Gillis said.
Without more support, Canada’s health system will be under-resourced to keep up with the growing number of Canadians impacted by cancer, she said.
“That’s why the Canadian Cancer Society actually is advocating for all levels of government to work together to come and help create a health-care system that is resilient and can meet the evolving needs of people throughout their cancer experience,” Gillis said.
“There are many different ways that individuals go through their cancer experience. So, these results and the findings of this report can help us start to understand who may need these supportive services throughout their cancer journey.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
