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nationalnewswatch.com
Chrystia Freeland, a Nazi’s granddaughter, confirmed Russophobe?
calgary.citynews.ca
This just seems like a step towards privatizing healthcare in Alberta. Also with the pivot to giving a religious based organization the power over people’s healthcare that just means certain types of care will not be provided, from abortions to transgender health. I knew things were going to get worse in this province (don’t get me started on the power bills) but seeing it still strikes fear. Some people are saying this goes against the charter and therefore the feds can get involved, but will they? I don’t think so. ::: spoiler article transcript The province has taken the operation of a northern Alberta hospital away from Alberta Health Services and turned it over to a private, Catholic healthcare provider. Premier Danielle Smith reportedly told this to a group of people at a United Conservative Party (UCP) town hall event in Drayton Valley earlier this month. “We need Alberta Health Services (AHS) to focus on delivering the best care in the 106 faciliities they operate for us. They have been distracted trying to run everything else, so we’re taking away all their excuses,” she said in a video of the event circulating on social media. “I can tell you also that we’re prepared to take away their authority to operate hospitals as well.” Smith’s comments were first reported by Great West Media. She goes on to say a transfer of power has already taken place in the northern Alberta hamlet of La Crête — Covenant Health now runs that hospital. “Covenant Health has never closed down rural hospitals. Why is it that Covenant Health is able to keep operating rooms and hospitals open 24 hours a day but AHS can’t?” Smith said. “And it may well be that we just need different operators in the smaller communities so that we can get back to delivering that level of care. “We’re very open-minded about that — I want to give AHS every opportunity to succeed but do know that our number one is making sure that you get your healthcare close to home.” The video shows the premier’s comments being met with applause. Covenant Health already operates hospitals in Edmonton, Banff, Bonnyville, Camrose, Castor, Killam, and Vegreville as well as several continuing care facilities throughout the province. In a statement to CityNews, a Covenant Health spokesperson says it is a faith-based provider that runs under agreements which acknowledge their “right to operate according to our own ethics and beliefs.” The healthcare provider is not funded to provide Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), it adds. This comes days after news a first-of-its-kind private urgent care clinic was being proposed in Airdrie. Alberta gave One Health Associate Medical $85,000 in tax money to come up with a business plan. **‘No evidence’ to support Smith’s claims, advocacy group says** Healthcare advocacy group Friends of Medicare is slamming the premier’s comments, saying there is “no evidence” to support her claims about Covenant Health’s track record versus AHS.’ The groups says the decision to take power away from AHS is about politics, not care. “Using Alberta Health Services as a scapegoat for our government’s own failings in health care is an age-old strategy here in Alberta, but Danielle Smith has turned it into a political obsession designed to rally her base against our public health care,” Chris Gallaway executive director of Friends of Medicare, said in a statement. “The fact our Premier is making such a major announcement about our health care system at a party membership meeting in Drayton Valley, instead of to the public, highlights how her agenda in health care is about politics, not meeting the health needs of Albertans.” Advocates have long been calling for improvements to the province’s healthcare system amid concerns about short staffing and compromised care. The premier’s office denies those claims. “Alberta’s government has been clear that we expect to see better results from Alberta Health Services, especially when it comes to providing acute care services in rural and remote communities – where we’ve seen an increasing number of temporary or long-lasting closures of emergency departments,” it said in a statement to CityNews. “We’ve raised these concerns with AHS and have asked them to develop strategies to address them.” Alberta NDP leader, Naheed Nenshi, said in a post to X, Smith wants a healthcare system ruled by “competition and fear.” “This is bizarre, and it’s not going to work,” he wrote, in part. “Systems that are based on fear will inevitably collapse and those incentives don’t work in public service delivery.” Nenshi also highlighted the failures of the UCP’s last attempt at privatizing parts of the healthcare system when it transferred lab services to DynaLIFE in December 2022. That **contract was ultimately ended** about a year after it first began due to long delays and wait times, which were acknowledged by Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange. The province says it want to support and empower the “incredible” frontline healthcare workers to continue giving excellent care. Alberta first announced in November its plans to **decentralize AHS** almost 14 years. The plan was to create one provincial healthcare system with specialized areas of focus by dividing AHS into four separate organizations: primary care, acute care, continuing care, and mental health and addictions. :::
www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk
>One of the most notable examples of JNF’s greenwashing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their historical homeland is the [infamous Canada Park](https://www.fredaguttman.com/?p=949), stretching over seven square kilometers. The area on which the park is now situated was captured and illegally occupied […] in the aftermath of the 1967 war. Under the orders of general Yitzhak Rabin, over ten thousand Palestinians were expelled from their land and their villages were demolished. In 1972, Bernard Bloomfield of Montréal and president of JNF Canada spearheaded a campaign, with the help of Canadian politicians, notably prime minister Diefenbaker, to establish what would become Canada Park. The campaign raised over fifteen million dollars. > >This example is merely one of the egregious […] land grabs, actively supported by JNF Canada with their [Middle Eastern] counterparts in the JNF-KKL and financed by tax-exempt charitable donations. Palestinians, members of IJV and our allies have conducted [several campaigns](http://www.stopthejnf.ca) to denounce JNF Canada’s complicity in […] apartheid, colonization and violence against the Palestinian people. Thanks to those efforts the CRA audited the JNF, forcing them to promise to stop funding projects that were directly linked to the [IOF]. JNF Canada funded several projects for the [Zionist] military, air and naval bases and even issued a check directly to [Zionism’s] Ministry of Defense. > >Despite all their promises to the CRA, CBC investigative reporter Evan Dyer reported that the [JNF Canada continued to fund projects directly benefiting the [IOF]](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jnf-charity-donations-1.4949072) in violation of the CRA guidelines for a charitable organization. This reporting relied on the research provided by [IJV’s Stop the JNF campaign](http://www.stopthejnf.ca)! None of this would have been possible without the amazing work of the members and the staff of IJV Canada. We continue to apply the pressure to make sure that the CRA follows through on revoking JNF Canada’s charitable status. Make a donation today to help IJV continue this important campaign. > >Recently, in its ruling on July 19th, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) [ruled in favor of what Palestinians have been saying for decades](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/icj-israel-occupation-ruling-1.7266424): the […] occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — including Canada Park and other JNF Canada projects — are illegal under international law. The ICJ also ruled that to honour their obligations under international law, all states must take concrete steps to ensure that they sever all ties that would make them complicit in […] occupation, colonization and apartheid. > >Dear supporter, revoking the JNF Canada’s charitable status is the first step, but certainly not the last. Over 200 [Zionist] charities transfer about a quarter of a billion dollars to [Zionism’s régime] each year. One of those charities is [Mizrachi Canada](https://www.ijvcanada.org/?p=20456), which has been using the same loophole as JNF Canada to ensure the funneling of tax exempt donations towards illegal […] endeavors and violence against Palestinians. IJV will continue to work hard to ensure that no more Canadian charitable donations are used to fund [war] crimes.
toronto.ctvnews.ca
In the span of three hours, Toronto was hit by three thunderstorms, bringing a record amount of rain that caused massive flooding across the city, according to a senior meteorologist with Environment Canada. "July is typically the second rainiest, second wettest month. Well we had 25 per cent more rain in three hours than we'd have normally in the whole month of July with all the thunderstorms and systems that moved through," Meteorologist Dave Phillips said in an interview with CP24 Tuesday afternoon.
Living with your parents. Living with your ex. Giving up basic needs like food and clothing. These are just some of the sacrifices Canadians say they've been making to pay rent amid the surging prices and decreased availability marking Canada's rental housing crisis. Demand for rentals is outpacing supply across the country. A recent CBC News analysis of more than 1,000 neighbourhoods across Canada's largest cities found that less than one per cent of rentals are both vacant and affordable for the majority of Canadian renters. Meanwhile, over half of Canadian renters are spending more than the recommended 30 per cent of their income on rent, according to a recent survey. "I think it's sickening," Karen Charmbury, a single mom living in Kingston, Ont., told CBC News. Charmbury, 47, has to make sacrifices because 100 per cent of her income goes to her rent.
www.workers.org
>An emergency situation has arisen. Both Kalicum and Nyx have officially been charged by Vancouver police with having possessed drugs for the purpose of trafficking under Section 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This will result in a minimum of two years in prison if the prosecution proves that they intended to traffic drugs. The decision to charge Nyx and Kalicum came as a surprise to one of their lawyers, Stephanie Dickson, because the two were providing a humane service to the community in preventing overdose deaths. > >**DULF’s compassion club** > >The Drug User Liberation Front managed to gather up a vast supply of pure heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines from the “Dark Web” — internet sites hidden from the normal web — and had it tested for purity. The drugs that were tainted were destroyed, and the drugs that were pure (or close to it) were distributed for free. The fact that these drugs were free prompts the question: What kind of drug trafficker gives away their entire supply for free and with no questions asked? > >The model the Front was using is called the “compassion club” model. What is a compassion club? It is a facility or organization that makes pure legal or illegal drugs for recreational use available. In this case, the Vancouver compassion club supplied heroin, coke and meth. > >The history of compassion clubs goes back to the 1980s and early 1990s, when so-called “buyers’ clubs” were founded in New York, California, Florida, Texas and other states in order to distribute legal or experimental medications to treat the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The big difference between a buyers’ club and a compassion club is that the drugs from a compassion club are, notably, free. > >DULF’s original plan was to acquire medical-grade diacetylmorphine — using this drug in this instance and not heroin to make clear the division between an illicitly acquired street drug and a medication being used to prevent overdose or death. Yet Health Canada, Canada’s department of health and health policy, refused to grant them access to 100% pure medical graded diacetylmorphine. Even with that as a barrier, DULF still went ahead and distributed drugs to save the lives of chaotic drug users, whose lives were at risk because of contaminants in their usual drug supply. (Emphasis original.)
The most unsettling disclosure in a tale replete with shocking revelations is the ability of a billionaire to summon the police and level criminal charges against their adversaries. 
