What's in the news: Nov. 26 -- QC sees rise in STDs and campaign rhetoric

A round-up of Canadian health news, from coast to coast to coast and beyond, for Wednesday, November 26.

QUEBEC ELECTION UPDATE: The Montreal Gazette's Hubert Bauch wasn't terribly impressed by the discussion of healthcare in Tuesday night's debate. "On health, which Quebecers tend to cite as the issue of greatest concern in this election," he wrote, "[Parti Québécois leader Pauline] Marois and [Liberal Premier Jean] Charest sparred over who had done the most harm to the system while in power, with Charest citing the cuts to health budgets and mass buyouts of doctors and nurses under the PQ and Marois accusing the premier of failing to keep his election promise of five years ago to repair the system and dramatically cut waiting times." The ADQ's leader, Mario Dumont, was criticized by his two opponents for his support of greater private-sector participation in the public healthcare system. [Montreal Gazette]

A law firm has launched a class action suit against the governments of Canada, Alberta and Saskatchewan and some regional health authorities over the syringe-sharing scandals recently unearthed in several medical clinics and hospitals. [Merchant Law Group] "Cockroaches come in groups," the lawyer Tony Merchant told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. "If these mistakes are known to have happened in Alberta, Winnipeg, and the five districts in Saskatchewan... my worry for the nation is that it could be happening across the country." [Saskatoon StarPhoenix]

Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are all becoming more common among Quebec youth, a new government public health study found. Some people claim the government's decision to move sex education in schools to an integrated model, without a dedicated teacher, is responsible, but a Ministry of Health official said the rise can be explained by better and wider testing. [Montreal Gazette]

Carleton University's student government voted to cancel an annual campaign to fundraise for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation after a student claimed -- incorrectly -- that CF affects only white people and mostly men. In fact, CF affects both genders roughly at the same rate, and is found mostly in people with Caucausian backgrounds, which means that it is most common in whites as well as Israelis, Arabs and South Asians. The motion to withdraw the student government's support from the fundraiser, which was moved, ironically, by the science faculty representative, passed by a vote of 17 to two on Monday. [CTV.ca News] The story elicited a particularly snarky editorial from the National Post. "Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low... Members of the Students' Association at Carleton University have disgraced themselves and their school." [National Post]

Dr Bonita Porter, the chief coroner of Ontario, was named one of Canada's top 100 women by the Women's Executive Network this year. "I refer back to something my mother said to me at a young age, that it's okay to question someone in authority if you have a sense that something is not right," she told The Globe and Mail. [Globe and Mail]

New Brunswick union members held a protest outside the legislative assembly, accompanied by the leader of the provincial NDP, to express their displeasure with what they call the increasing privatization of the province's healthcare system with talk of the implementation of new public-private partnerships. [Fredericton Daily Gleaner]

Steven Fletcher, a Conservative MP from Manitoba and minister of state for democratic reform, is appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada to get permission to sue the government of Manitoba for limiting his disability compensation to $3,000 a month. Mr Fletcher was paralyzed from the neck down when his car hit a moose 12 years ago. [Canadian Press] A new book released in September, What Do You Do If You Don't Die?, by Linda McIntosh, tells the story of Mr Fletcher's accident and subsequent entry into politics. [Heartland Associates]

Colin Son interviewed me for Medscape. We talked about Canadian and American health policy, blogging and Parkhurst's new web ventures. [Medscape]

The deadline to nominate physicians for the Canadian Medical Association's 2009 awards is November 30. [CMA News]

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