Statistics Canada reports retail sales up 0.9% at $66.4B in July

HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes “indescribable” pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

Jennifer Brady completed her MAID application in June. She has lymphedema in her legs, a condition in which tissues swell from the accumulation of fluids normally drained through the body’s lymphatic system.

In an interview Thursday, the 46-year-old mother of two said she has intense daily pain, skin infections that resemble a sunburn intensified “1,000 times,” and blood infections that exhaust her to the point “you feel like you’re dying.”

However, Brady said that after she received treatment in Japan in 2022 — at her own expense — her swelling decreased, particularly in her right leg, and some symptoms were relieved. She said she believes that if she can receive the funds to pay for more surgery, her condition can improve — as will her desire to remain alive.

The possibility that her health can improve is what led to her MAID request being denied.

In a letter sent to Health Minister Michelle Thompson on July 7, Dr. Gord Gubitz, the clinical lead of Nova Scotia’s MAID program, said his team is rejecting Brady’s application because her condition is not considered “irremediable.”

“It seems reasonable to me that if an assessment (and surgery, if clinically indicated) … could help to reduce Brady’s suffering and obviate the need to consider MAID, this option should be explored. Your office can make this happen,” Gubitz wrote to Thompson.

After telling her story to CBC this week, Brady said she has received online support from people offering encouragement and financial help. However, she said she still needs the health minister to authorize funding for treatment she cannot get in the province.

On Wednesday, Thompson told reporters, “I will not make a commitment to do that,” and then added, “If that individual will work with the department and reach out, perhaps there is another path forward.” The minister refused detailed comment, citing an ongoing court case and privacy law.

In Brady’s case before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court launched over two years ago, she took issue with the province’s decision to deny her funding for out-of-country care, arguing it was unreasonable and unfair.

In legal briefs, government lawyers argued Brady failed to receive a referral for the treatment. The lawyers said she was on a wait-list to see a Nova Scotia plastic surgeon and became “frustrated.”

Brady’s January 2024 affidavit responding to the lawyers said that given her physical deterioration, the plastic surgeon’s years-long waiting time and his lack of expertise in her illness, “the department created standards that were functionally impossible to meet.”

On Thursday, Brady said she found the minister’s latest comments frustrating and “somewhat disingenuous,” adding that they left her wondering whether Thompson had personally reviewed her case.

She said that even if she wins in court and is awarded about $60,000 in costs related to her 2022 treatment in Japan, the years of legal battles, the continuing pain and her deteriorating mental health have led to her decision that MAID is the best option. “It was after a winter where I could barely get out of bed and when I did, I just didn’t want to be here.”

Brady spends at least five hours daily in a full body massage machine that helps move fluid in her legs to reduce swelling. “I mean, what’s the point honestly? I’m in that machine and the machine itself is so uncomfortable.”

Applying for MAID “definitely isn’t a strategic move,” she said. “That’s not my plan A. I want to live. I want to be here for my kids. I love my job.”

“I want the option (of MAID) to be there. But if I were given the treatment today (for lymphedema) I would definitely take it,” she said.

Brady, a dietitian and professor at Acadia University’s faculty of nutrition, said she is also suffering from depression, a condition for which she’s been unable to take medicines as they tend to increase the swelling in her legs.

Her lymphedema developed after a hysterectomy to treat her cervical cancer in 2019. She said she was informed in 2021 that local surgical options weren’t available to her, which led her to Dr. Joshua Vortenbosch, an expert in lymphedema at McGill University. However, she was denied funding for the surgery in Montreal. The rejection led her to do research, and to her 2022 trip for surgery in Japan.

In Japan, she received lymphovenous anastomosis, a procedure in which a surgeon connects lymph vessels in the limbs to nearby veins to bypass damaged areas and restore the flow of lymph fluids.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax.

VANCOUVER – A day before the official start, British Columbia’s election campaign sees B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau speaking to municipal leaders, while NDP Leader David Eby is gearing up to get his campaign bus rolling.

Eby spoke to local politicians yesterday at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, as they presented a laundry list of concerns for the provincial government at the meeting, from homelessness to the overdose crisis and more support funding.

Eby’s speech to the municipal leaders focused on his recent announcement to implement plans to introduce involuntary care of people struggling with mental health and addiction issues.

He says several city governments have already indicated they are on board with having a “secure site” to house and treat severely mentally ill and drug addicted people.

The decriminalization of possession of small quantities of hard drugs and open drug use in public areas is expected to be a major issue in the Oct. 19 election, which officially starts Saturday.

Rustad, who has been highly critical of safe supply and decriminalization initiatives, says he supports involuntary care, including for children.

Of the three party leaders, only Furstenau has run in a provincial election for the premier’s job.

Eby took over the job from former premier John Horgan almost two years ago, while Rustad was acclaimed as the leader of the B.C. Conservatives last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – The British Columbia provincial election campaign is expected to officially kick off Saturday, but party leaders have been vying for votes for months in the lead up to the Oct. 19 fixed election day.

Here’s a look at some of the issues that are expected to be front and centre over the next month and what the political parties have said about them so far.

Health Care

B.C. Conservatives promise significant changes to the system, including sending people outside the province for care, expanding private clinics, and providing compensation for workers who lost their jobs for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The NDP defends its management of the health file, pointing to a new contract with doctors, adding 250,000 nursing hours and 835 new family doctors. Leader David Eby says for the first time in more than 20 years, fewer British Columbians are looking for a family doctor than the year previous. In the days leading up to the election campaign, the government signed an agreement with Ottawa that would see the province get an estimated $195 million to cover diabetes medication and hormone therapy, if a new federal PharmaCare bill becomes law.

The Greens want to establish community health centres in each of B.C.’s ridings to replace the current network of urgent and primary care centres,

Crime

A series of high-profile crimes involving repeat offenders has pushed the issue of public safety into the spotlight, as residents and businesses look for answers to what they say is a rapidly deteriorating situation.

Researchers and police say statistics show most crimes are down in B.C., but that hasn’t quelled the voices calling for more to be done on bail reform, enforcement of regulations and other changes to the justice system.

B.C. Conservatives are promising to increase funding to police, applying “zero tolerance” for violent, repeat offenders and appointing judges that prioritize victims’ rights.

The NDP, meanwhile, says the province has among the lowest violent crime rates against children and seniors in Canada, and pledges to invest in what it calls solutions to root causes of criminal activity such as drug and mental health treatment, support programs, health care and housing.

The BC Greens have said they’ll fund a “continuum of response” to mental health, substance use, and other complex social issues, with a focus on prevention and community-led responses. The party also says it will draft a Community Safety and Policing Act and improve officer training to “shift police culture.”

Housing

The NDP government has attempted to lower the province’s sky-high housing costs and increase supply through a range of initiatives including putting limits on short-term rentals, launching a $500 million fund for non-profits to buy rental properties, and passing legislation requiring communities to allow multi-unit housing on lots previously zoned for single-family homes.

The B.C. Conservatives say they’ll get housing costs under control by promoting the development of new housing supply “while cracking down on illegal money laundering that has inflated prices and facilitated criminal activity.”

The Green housing plan includes $1.5 billion for a non-profit housing fund and the introduction of vacancy control to cap rent increases between tenancies.

Toxic drugs

The province’s drug toxicity crisis has killed more than 15,000 people since the B.C. government declared a public health emergency in 2016.

The NDP dialed back its drug decriminalization policy earlier this year, narrowing places where people can possess small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use. More recently, leader David Eby said a re-elected NDP would open facilities to treat people involuntarily if they have concurrent mental health and addiction issues.

It’s similar to a plan that was announced by B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad days earlier. Rustad has promised involuntary care for “those at serious risk due to addiction, including youth and adults, to keep the most vulnerable safe” and says he’ll build secure treatment facilities.

Sonia Furstenau, leader of the BC Greens, says both men are walking “off every reactionary cliff” and that the province needs more investment in prevention and addressing the root causes of what’s happening in communities. She says people need secure housing, a basic constitutional right to safety, and access to health and mental health services and treatment.

Economy

British Columbia’s finance minister announced earlier this month that the deficit this fiscal year will be $1.1-billion higher than originally forecast, coming in at nearly $9 billion.

The news comes as one business leader said many British Columbians are experiencing their own “personal recession.”

Katrine Conroy defended her party’s budget as finance minister, saying it’s not the right time to balance the budget when the government needs to provide services and support those struggling over a lack of affordability.

John Rustad’s Conservatives are promising to cut “wasteful spending” and remove “useless and redundant regulations” to support small businesses.

Leaders

This is David Eby’s first election as premier and party leader. He was acclaimed as leader of the New Democrats in 2022, after the only other candidate in the race was disqualified.

John Rustad went from relative obscurity as an ousted BC United MLA to the Leader of the B.C. Conservatives. The party gained more notoriety after the BC United suspended its election campaign but Rustad is largely untested as a leader.

He faced criticism in the lead-up to the campaign for some of his party’s candidates, which include a suspended doctor who was removed after repeatedly saying COVID-19 vaccines were more dangerous than the illness, and a candidate who was replaced after sharing social media content about the “5G Genocide.”

BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was first elected as MLA in the Cowichan Valley in 2017, and has been the leader of the BC Greens since 2020.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024