New Brunswick Abortion Rights

Fortunately, I haven't had to make the decision about whether abortion would be the right option for me. I have thought about abortion enough to know that every person should have the right to choose whether to carry a child inside their body or not. I believe this is a private, personal, medical issue. I don't believe the embryo is a life. It has the potential for life, but please don't make me talk about how sex is not always for procreation (What happens to the potential for life in the case of a blowjob?)

In Canada, necessary medical procedures are paid for by medicare. So my taxes pay for medical procedures of all types for all people and I don't get to decide if those people are worthy of those procedures, or what procedures should be covered. What makes people think abortion is the exception to this? Get your face out of others private, personal, medical decisions!

Here's how abortion is handled in New Brunswick. The following is excerpted from CBC [bolds mine]:

A law professor at the University of New Brunswick says it's almost impossible for women in the province to receive a medicare-funded abortion under current legislation, and that could be easily changed.

Jula Hughes, who participated in the Silent No More: Speak Out For Choice panel discussion at UNB Fredericton Wednesday evening, said the process New Brunswick women must go through to get an abortion takes too long.
...
Right now, the New Brunswick government doesn't pay for abortions past the 12th week of pregnancy. Hughes said meeting the criteria to qualify, and then getting an appointment, usually takes several weeks.
...
Abortion is the only medical procedure in New Brunswick that requires a second opinion before it can be performed, she said.
...
Because there are only two doctors in the province who perform abortions, women who get the two approvals wait another four to six weeks for the actual operation, said Hughes, who noted a lot of women don't discover their unwanted pregnancies until around the sixth week.

Hughes said changes could easily be made to a provincial regulation to reduce wait times for women.

"Specifically, we need to get rid of the schedule that makes abortions non-funded except in those very limited circumstances," she said, referring to Schedule 2(a.1) of Regulation 84-20 of the Medical Services Payment Act.

The two-doctor certification and the limitation on where government-funded abortions can be performed are stipulated in the schedule.

Hughes said the changes to the act could be made through caucus, without going through the legislature.

"It could be done by next Thursday, if the politicians were so inclined."

So, this medical procedure is only available for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, most people don't know they're pregnant until the 6th week, then they have to get 2 doctor's approvals (can you say waiting times? It can take 4 weeks to get in and see the doctor, if you even have one. If you don't have a doctor, and you don't have an emergency, you're screwed) and then wait for 1 of the 2 doctor's who can perform the procedure to have time to fit you in. I don't see how it's possible to get it done before 12 weeks! Talk about setting up the system for failure.

There is another option - "Women can also go to a private abortion clinic in Fredericton and pay up to $750 for the procedure." There's a good chance most people don't have this kind of money sitting around under the mattress. Of course, this also brings up the two-tier health-care system, where rich people pay for health-care and poor people die waiting, but that's not the topic of this post. The point is that the people who need this procedure are most likely unable to access it, and unable to change the system. Who is looking out for the teenagers, the abused, the homeless, the students who are the future generation? It is up to the middle-class people with the fairly cushy jobs to ensure that the system works for everyone. I don't want my rights to be slowly eroded, starting with the people who aren't heard. I want my society to look after our children, our disabled and our sick.

When I read this, I thought "here's a way I can make a difference. I'm going to call someone." Next I thought "Who do I call?" This brings to light that I really don't know much about how our provincial government works. Caucus and legislature? Huh??? So, you can start looking forward to elementary school level overviews of our government system.


Note: I used the words people and person throughout this post instead of women and woman on purpose. It was a little weird at first but guess what! Women are people!

Seal Hunt Rant

I want to respond to a comment I received on my Newfoundland post. Here's the entire comment:

Anonymous said...

It's too bad that Canada still allows the annual clubbing of baby seals for their fur. The Humane Society of the U.S. and Humane Society International is currently in Newfoundland to report on this cruel hunt.

www.protectseals.org

~Tyler

April 2, 2007 11:33 AM

The seal hunt is highly regulated and monitored by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. It does not allow clubbing of baby seals. It allows killing seals that have lost their 'whitecoat" (baby fur), which happens at about 14 days. Most seals are killed when they are 25 days to 3 months old.

And I have to disagree with the words "cruel hunt". What makes this hunt cruel, as opposed to other (deer, moose, duck, pheasant) hunting? Beef and chicken slaughterhouses? Fishing and allowing the fish to suffocate to death? Humans hunt and kill all kinds of animals for food and for the fur. I just love it when people call hunting cruel and then go to the grocery store to buy meat that is all sanitarily wrapped in white and clear plastic with a pad absorbing all the blood, so it doesn't look too gory. Where do they think that meat is coming from? I hope they never end up in a situation where they need to obtain their own food. Even the idiots on Survivor can kill rats and fish. I guess hunger is a good teacher.

The animal rights groups use pictures that are inflammatory, even if they know those pictures are misleading. For instance you will often see pictures of whitecoat seals being killed. This has been illegal since 1987. The International Fund for Animal Welfare released a video that shows extreme cruelty during the 1996 sealing season. The methods on the video are illegal and charges were laid in that case. Here's a link to a pdf the International Fund for Animal Welfare has produced, if you'd like to see the opposing view. Be warned, it contains cute white baby seals, and carcasses of seals that have been skinned. http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/dimages/custom/2_Publications/Seals/sealsandsealing2005.pdf

The Fisheries and Oceans Canada website has some good info. The following is an excerpt:

Myth #1: The Canadian government allows sealers to kill whitecoat seals.

Reality: The image of the whitecoat harp seal is used prominently by seal hunt opponents. This image gives the false impression that vulnerable seal pups are targeted by sealers during the commercial hunt.

The hunting of harp seal pups (whitecoats) and hooded seal pups (bluebacks) is illegal – and has been since 1987. Marine Mammal Regulations prohibit the trade, sale or barter of the fur of these pups. The seals that are hunted are self-reliant, independent animals.

---

Myth #2: Seals are being skinned alive.

Reality: A 2002 independent veterinarians’ report published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal and numerous reports mentioned by the Malouf Commission (1987) indicate that this is not true.

Sometimes a seal may appear to be moving after it has been killed; however seals have a swimming reflex that is active – even after death. This reflex gives the false impression that the animal is still alive when it is clearly dead – similar to the reflex in chickens.

---

Myth #3: The club – or hakapik – is a barbaric and inhumane tool that has no place in today’s world.

Reality: Hunting methods were studied by the Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing in Canada and it found that the clubbing of seals, when properly performed, is at least as humane as, and often more humane than, the killing methods used in commercial slaughterhouses, which are accepted by the majority of the public.

A 2002 report published in the Canadian Veterinary Journal found that the club or hakapik is an efficient tool designed to kill the animal quickly and humanely.

Sealers in the Magdalen Islands (Gulf of St. Lawrence) and on Quebec's Lower North Shore, where about 25% of the hunt occurs, use both rifles and hakapiks while sealers on the ice floes on the Front (in the waters east of Newfoundland), where 75% of the hunt occurs, primarily use rifles.

---

Myth #4: The Canadian government is allowing sealers to kill thousands of seals to help with the recovery of cod stocks.

Reality: Several factors have contributed to the lack of recovery of Atlantic cod stocks, such as fishing effort, poor growth and physical condition of the fish, and environmental changes.

In addition, there are many uncertainties in the estimates of the amount of fish consumed by seals. The commercial quota is established on sound conservation principles, not an attempt to assist in the recovery of groundfish stocks.

---

Myth #5: The hunt is unsustainable and is endangering the harp seal population.

Reality: Since the 1960s, environmental groups have been saying the seal hunt is unsustainable. In fact, the harp seal population is healthy and abundant. A 2004 survey estimated the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population at approximately 5.8 million animals, nearly triple what it was in the 1970s.

DFO sets quotas at levels that ensure the health and abundance of seal herds. In no way are seals - and harp seals in particular – an “endangered species”.

Transportation to Newfoundland

This would be so cool:

A St. John's MP persuaded fellow parliamentarians to support consideration of a
fixed link that would connect northern Newfoundland to the Canadian
mainland.
"I think it would be good for national unity as well," St. John's
East MP Norm Doyle told the House of Commons during a Tuesday night debate.

Of course they are thinking of the economic reasons, but I'm thinking of the touristy reasons.

Last summer I traveled to Newfoundland for the first time and it was awesome. Thankfully I slept through the 6-7 hour ferry trip. We camped in Gros Morne National park and it was beautiful. So much wildlife and the scenery was amazing. Would you like to see some pictures? Here ya go:


















And, of course, the requisite moose and beaver:

Global Warming - do you believe?

A headline from CBC states "Almost 4 out of 5 Canadians believe in global warming: poll".

...
In Alberta, 69 per cent of respondents said they believed in global warming, while in Quebec, the number soared to 83 per cent.
...
The online survey of about 3,600 people found many Canadians — 30 per cent — believed global warming was the top issue for politicians to address, almost as many as the 31 per cent of Canadians who put health care as the top priority.
...
Only 12 per cent of those surveyed viewed global warming as "junk science" and only two per cent believed global warming isn't happening at all.

This headline caught my eye because it makes global warming sound like a religion, 4 out 5 believe in global warming. I don't think global warming is a matter of faith. Either the ozone layer has a hole in it, or it doesn't. Either the ice caps are melting faster, or they're not.

Fortunately, we can measure these things. We don't have to just pick a random opinion to believe in.

Update:
Also found this at the CBC [bolds mine]:

While former U.S. vice-president Al Gore was in Washington on Wednesday, speaking about the need for action on world climate change, one of his disciples was in Saint John spreading the same message to high school students.

Peter Corbyn, a Fredericton-based professional engineer who was the only Atlantic Canadian out of 500 people trained by Gore as a "Global Warming Messenger," told students at St. Malachy's High School "we dump about 25 million tonnes a day of carbon dioxide into the oceans."

Disciples!?!

Congrats to Peter Corbyn for "spreading the word" in our corner of the world.

More Cellphone Service Rant

Looks like when the CBC says "most Canadians", they really mean people who live in the big provinces with money (from the CRTC, bolds mine ):

By March 14, 2007 Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and the mobility division of TELUS Communications Inc. will be required to provide WNP to their customers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Québec. This means that customers in any of these provinces will be able to switch to any service provider in that province (wireline or wireless) and keep their phone number.

Throughout Canada, all wireless carriers will, by the same date, be required to release a phone number to another carrier (port-out customers) and by no later than September 12, 2007, to accept a phone number from another carrier (port-in customers).

Looks like us poor folk in Atlantic Canada are just chopped liver.

Ultra-violence in Halifax

Halifax is "the big city" in Atlantic Canada, and I have a brother who lives there. He personally knows people who have been "swarmed", very nice people who've had to spend time in the hospital recovering. It's just too reminiscent of "A Clockwork Orange" for a region that is supposed to have the friendliest people.

The CBC is doing an indepth series on crime in the Halifax region. It could be interesting. Here's an excerpt from the comments:

Halifax is a violent city and it is simply not safe to be in certain areas of downtown at night. I lived in Montreal for 12 years and visit there frequently and never felt the fear you sense here at night. The disturbing thing here is the random nature of the violence; this is not gangs attacking gangs but rather groups of hooligans attacking innocent people randomly because they may happen to walk in front of the City Library after 10:00 PM.

Congrats to NB Power!

NB Power has announced a plan to buy power from an Alberta company that has promised to build New Brunswick's first wind farm on the Kent Hills in Albert County.

It may be a small, slow step but at least it's a start.