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Quebec
New legal woes for
anti-tax ex-MD
STUKELY-SUD —
Tax time is coming up fast, but one former Quebec doctor
definitely won't be filing. An arrest warrant was issued
early last month for Ghislaine Lanctôt, 66, for
refusing to pay income tax since 1995. Ms Lanctot, who
last year informed the provincial Attorney General's
office she prefers to known by the name, lost her medical
licence in 1997 for her anti-vaccination publication
The Medical Mafia. She also refuses to use a driver's
licence or health card. "Those are for the sheep," she
said. "NO RELATIONSHIP PRESENTLY EXISTS BETWEEN THE
LANCTOT, GHISLAINE CORPORATION AND THE HUMAN BEING,
WITH A BODY, A SOUL AND A SPIRIT," was her response
to the warrant. "It's a very unusual case," a government
prosecutor told La Voix de l'Est.
New
Brunswick
MDs in French-English
unrest
FREDERICTON —
The release of New Brunswick's long anticipated four-year
health plan has ruffled some feathers across the province.
One of the 100-plus proposals — to cut the province's
eight health authorities down to just two, divided along
French-English lines — has reignited old linguistic
tensions, leading to an opposition filibuster in the
legislature. Another ongoing linguistic issue, the government's
elimination of the early French immersion program, has
prompted four doctors, including the province's only
pediatric urologist, to threaten to leave the province.
Nova
Scotia
Private clinic deal
draws fire
HALIFAX —
Taking a page directly from Quebec's book, Nova Scotia
has contracted OR space from a private orthopedic clinic
to handle its day surgery backlog. And, just as happened
last year when Quebec announced a similar deal in Montreal,
Nova Scotia government officials are facing harsh criticism.
NDP leader Darrell Dexter told the Canadian Press, "The
result is that they're taking money out of the public
system and putting it into a private facility." Health
Minister Christ D'Entremont defended the $1 million,
500-surgery agreement on the grounds that wait lists
must be dealt with urgently.
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Prince
Edward Island
Trial drug too pricey:
patients
CHARLOTTETOWN
— Some PEI clinical trial participants have
been left out in the cold — literally. Halifax
dermatologist Barrie Ross tested a rheumatoid arthritis
drug called anakinra to treat a very rare disease known
as familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome, a genetic
disorder that causes patients to "feel like they're
freezing from the inside out," reported CBC News. But
now that the trial is over — a big success, by
the way — the nine afflicted patients can't afford
the $15,000-per-year medication. The government is "looking
into the issue."
Newfoundland
Tobacco laws lag
behind: MDs
ST JOHN'S —
With Yukon's late March legislation, Newfoundland and
Labrador became the only Canadian province that hasn't
banned tobacco retail display advertising, also called
"power walls." The province's failure to curb that type
of advertising, despite promises from multiple ministers
of health, has provoked the ire of the province's medical
association and other physicians' groups.
The
North
Vinnie the Virus
strikes Nunavut
IQALUIT, NU —
He's tough, he's ugly, he's dangerous and he "resembles
a diseased tennis ball wearing aviator goggles." That's
how Nunatsiaq News recently described Vinnie
the Virus, the new cartoon character designed by Nunavut
public health officials to raise public awareness of
antibiotic resistance. Vinnie's message: "Not all bugs
need drugs." In a potentially damning twist, however,
NRM has identified a similar-looking character
by the exact same name already in existence, created
by a British HIV/AIDS charity named MAD About Art.
Compiled by Sam Solomon
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