Potato cultivation expands as prices riseA rally is set to be held this week, with advocates in the community hoping to save downtown Kitchener’s Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site. This comes following the on Nov. 18, pushing to ban sites within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres, along with the future creation of any new locations. Those bans would also include the , including one in Guelph and Kitchener’s location at 150 Duke Street West. “It’s key to remember that there is no substitute for a consumption and treatment service. It just doesn’t exist,” says Michael Parkinson, with the , which previously has said these closures will only compound the ongoing problems. Related: The currently shows that zero deaths have been reported at the site since it was first opened back in 2019. It also goes into details on overdose numbers, with figures showing 1,040 overdoses have been reported in that time, but 100 per cent of those have been reversed. “What’s on the line here is, not just preventing overdoses, all of the on-site services that are provided by a CTS, but all of the external referrals numbering in tens of thousands – all of the impacts on the neighbourhoods,” said Parkinson. He goes on to say the current bill would also have further stemming implications, not just for those directly tied to the CTS site, but also for those who need other services across the community. “Even drug-checking services are under threat by this legislation,” said Parkinson. “It’s impossible to provide good public health support when supervised consumption sites and drug checking services are eliminated.” Parkinson says the most perplexing part of the situation has been the clear lack of support for defunding the downtown Kitchener location, with groups fighting for the future of the site across Waterloo Region. “Two motions from the City of Kitchener, a motion from the region of Waterloo urging the province to reverse course, letters from faith groups, the Downtown Advisory Committee in support, the daycare across the street in support, labour groups, health, medical, social service providers, students from the universities. It is a long, long list.” Kitchener Centre MPP, Aislinn Clancy, also spoke at Queen’s Park following the initial tabling of the bill, sharing the same sentiments as Parkinson and pushing for the future of the sites. “I’ve talked to the people who work there and I’ve talked to the people who use the sites,” said Clancy. “They tell me that this saves their lives and the data says that.” Come on out Waterloo region! It matters, now more than ever. Find us on several platforms, share everywhere. The rally to save the CTS site is set to be held in correlation with the region’s Strategic Planning and Budget public input meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 27, with the rally set to be held between 6 and 8 p.m. “Coming out on Wednesday to witness the proceedings is a really great step,” said Parkinson. “It’s free, it’s friendly, and it matters a lot.”
Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• Outrage and snark boiled over at the news of the in-plain-sight murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO last week. Shock and ashamed glee that someone had finally taken action took over our annual anger at the uniquely American ritual of open enrollment — the yearly process of deciding which health care plan puts us at the least risk of potential financial, emotional and bodily disaster. There is rarely an upside to wrapping up open enrollment and sending in the paperwork, and there is often a feeling of having been the victim of an elaborate scam. I am a tall, able-bodied white guy with a college degree, and tend to benefit from my status as someone who fits in, and I still feel like the health insurers somehow got me again every time I make my choice and hit the send button. I started a new job last summer, and I spent hours in June comparing deductibles, out of pocket maximums, formularies, coinsurance (?), limitations and exceptions, all to figure out what plan to buy. Spoiler alert — Affordable Care Act plans were not the answer. It’s open enrollment again, and my wife and I are performing the annual Rubik’s cube of risk — what to do about health insurance. Our coffee table is covered with clipboards and piles of paper, my laptop opens to too many spreadsheets that try to make sense of it all: Monthly premium? In network/out of network? Would that actually cover everything in a bad year, or would they unveil hidden rules that deny the expensive stuff? Does the Apex plan cover the doctor I like, or should we go with Select or Peak because those are larger networks? Bronze has a higher deductible, Silver has 20% coinsurance. Is there one number we can distill this all down to so we can do a reasonable comparison? Are you bored yet? Enraged? We are both. Our government is supposedly one of laws made for the people, by the people. How did we get here, America, and how can we be proud of the way we manage health care? The game is rigged — I’m not supposed to understand the coverage and, worse, I am supposed to be a little scared and second-guess my decision every year. If our health insurance system is a house we live in all year, it’s time we recognize that the walls are crumbling and the roof is coming down. This is no way to live and the reality of the American health insurance mess is nothing to be proud of. I’m not asking for reform, to dither in the details and chip away at the corners, I am asking to tear the building down and build something we can actually live in. I would gladly have a clean deduction on my paycheck if I could go to the clinic when I want, see the doctor I want, and not have to spend hours every year agonizing about health insurance plans and live in fear that I’ve made a bad decision. I have a simple solution to consider: Write a law that says that health insurers have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and members. Require that insurers have to take the client’s well-being as their first priority. Let them make money, as long as the systems they create benefit the insureds. Better yet, take them out of the picture entirely, we don’t need for-profit insurers in between us and our doctors and nurse practitioners, our therapists and nurses, our imaging technicians and kind receptionists. My health care should be between me and my doctor, period. Steve Young-Burns lives in Minneapolis.Game-changing holiday gifts for building fires, printing photos, watching birds and more
Atlassian CEO Cannon-Brookes sells $2.19 million in stockIt's amazing what a bit of political clout can do. Black Friday Sale Subscribe Now! Login or signup to continue reading All articles from our website & app The digital version of Today's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox Interactive Crosswords, Sudoku and Trivia All articles from the other regional websites in your area Continue On a Friday, six-month-old Alexis McCann was a citizen of nowhere . She and her parents were stuck interminably in a hotel room in Bogota, Colombia. You could feel the desperation in the room. On Saturday, the baby was a citizen of Australia. And on the following Monday, she had a passport and an exit route home. Senator David Pocock was the man with the clout who made the difference. He saw the story in The Canberra Times and moved into political top gear. His staff bombarded the home and foreign affairs departments with phone calls. "It was pretty simple," Senator Pocock said. "We saw you guys covering it and it didn't seem right, a Canberran stuck over there, wanting support, wanting to come home." So strong was the bombardment from the Pocock office that the citizenship was cleared on the Saturday, the very next day. Now citizen Alexis is home in Canberra. She was born on October 11 to a surrogate mother in the South American country, but the immigration people in Canberra were slow to grant her the right Australian papers. Until Senator Pocock got involved. "We are forever grateful to The Canberra Times and to David Pocock," Alexis' mother, Melinda McCann, said. She and her wife Gail went to Colombia for a surrogate mother after two attempts at having a child via surrogacy through a friend failed in Australia. Melinda McCann said they had been trying for a baby for nine years. Senator David Pocock helped Gail and Melinda McCann with their baby Alexis who were stranded in Colombia. Picture by Keegan Carroll Now they're all back, they are also grateful for the health service in Canberra. The family GP, Shree Vaka, in Wanniassa, got Alexis an urgent appointment at the Paediatric Hub in Bruce. "They altered her formula and medication, and now she's a completely different baby. She's so much better," the mother said. There were glitches after the passport was given to Alexis because of the quick work of the Australian embassy in Bogota. And it hasn't been cheap. The cost of the surrogacy via the IVF clinic in Colombia was $88,000 (compared to $160,000 in the United States, for example). The sperm donor was via an American company. And the family had to fly back to Australia with a transit in Chile - which needed a transit visa. They missed the flight they had paid for and the new flights cost a total of $11,000. Melinda McCann praised the Chilean diplomats in Canberra for their efforts, but the time differences prevented the initial flights from being made. She is a force to be reckoned with. In despair, she decided that publicity might jolt the bureaucracy into action after what she perceived as perpetual delay in Home Affairs. She said she was constantly referred to the website and told that the process normally took five months. In the final stages, she was liaising with Chilean diplomats in Canberra who were liaising with the Chilean foreign office in Santiago de Chile. Either way, it eventually worked. There is a sting in the tail: Melinda McCann has made a formal complaint to the Human Rights Commission alleging that the Home Affairs department breached her family's human rights by not dealing with a matter of urgency as a matter of urgency. Melinda McCann is a woman to be reckoned with. Alexis is unaware of the fuss. It should be said that Senator Pocock and his staff worked quietly, behind the scenes. They turned down publicity when it was being done. "It shouldn't take local members having to do that but that's why I'm here. I view my job as working for Canberrans," he said. Share Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email Copy Steve Evans Reporter Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues." Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues." 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SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Seahawks were struggling a week ago, coming off their bye having lost five of their last six games. That included a gut-punch overtime defeat at home against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 3. The outlook for the last-place Seahawks (5-5) was beginning to look grim. They suddenly have renewed optimism this week after an uplifting victory over the San Francisco 49ers that snapped a six-game losing streak against their arch-rival that dated to 2021. Seattle will play the first-place Arizona Cardinals (6-4) on Sunday for a share of the NFC West lead. How quickly things change in the NFL. “We’ve earned the opportunity to be fighting for the lead in the division going into the home stretch,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “So that’s the way we’re treating it. It’s very much like a playoff mindset for us at this point.” The win over the 49ers, which was capped by a 13-yard touchdown run by quarterback Geno Smith with 18 seconds left, put the Seahawks in a much better place mentally than they’d been in over the previous six weeks. They're hoping it's just the start of something even bigger. “It can just spark something that you’ve been looking for this whole year,” wide receiver DK Metcalf said. “I know we started off very hot with the first three games, but, you know, when adversity hit, it’s all about how you respond. I think we responded the right way, and it’s going to carry us throughout the rest of the season.” While the Seahawks are feeling better this week, the Cardinals have plenty of reason to feel optimistic, too. After starting the season 2-4, Arizona has won four straight to put itself in first place in the NFC West. The Cardinals have a defense that is making big strides under the leadership of veteran safety Budda Baker and a top-five running game behind the dual threat of running back James Conner, who has 697 yards rushing, and quarterback Kyler Murray, who seems to be hitting his stride in his sixth NFL season. Murray has 2,058 yards passing with 12 touchdowns, and has rushed for 371 yards and four scores. Second-year head coach Jonathan Gannon has been impressed with Murray’s improved decision-making as Murray has thrown just three interceptions through 10 games. “There’s times that he probably wants to try to thread it a little bit, but understands when to pick and choose his spots,” Gannon said. “I think he’s done a phenomenal job with that and there are a lot of times throughout the game where you could say we like to put it in the quarterback’s hands, and you trust him to make the right decision for that point in the game.” Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba will see a familiar face on the other sideline Sunday in rookie Marvin Harrison Jr., who was Smith-Njigba’s college teammate at Ohio State in 2021 and 2022. The pair each caught three touchdowns in the Buckeyes’ wild win over Utah in the 2022 Rose Bowl, with Smith-Njigba having 347 yards receiving on what was a 573-passing yard day for C.J. Stroud, now the quarterback of the Houston Texans. “Late his freshman year, he really just stood out,” Smith-Njigba said of Harrison. “You could just see the growth and kind of who he is becoming. ... He’s passed a lot of people’s expectations, of course, but I knew he was going to be elite later on freshman year.” Murray is coming off one of the best games of his career after completing 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown against the Jets two weeks ago. He also ran for 21 yards and two TDs. Murray currently ranks No. 3 in the NFL in quarterback rating behind Cincinnati's Joe Burrow and Baltimore's Lamar Jackson. That has put him in the MVP conversation, particularly since Arizona has won four straight games. “I don’t play the game for the validation of others," Murray said. "But as a player, of course, sometimes the recognition and the words being said feel good. But it doesn’t satisfy me.” The most surprising part of Arizona’s four-game winning streak is the rapid improvement of the defense, which has allowed just 9 and 6 points, respectively, over the past two games. No touchdowns have been allowed – just five field goals. It’s just the second time over the past 30 years that the franchise has allowed 10 points or less over back-to-back games. Baker, a Bellevue native and former University of Washington football star, is the unquestioned leader of the bunch – he already has 100 tackles over 10 games - but the team also has a strong core of linebackers in Kyzir White, Mack Wilson and Zaven Collins. Metcalf and Baker have gone up against each other many times before, most famously when Metcalf ran Baker down on an interception return in 2020. “You really can’t prepare for a guy like that because his engine never stops,” Metcalf said. “He’s always going to be around the ball. He’s always going to affect the game with just his play effort and play style. ... Just got to try to minimize his playmaking ability as much as we can on offense.” AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Phoenix, Arizona, contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl