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Bản tin tiếng Anh - Canada now

Chủ đề trong 'Canada' bởi luongvec, 17/10/2003.

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  1. MrDickcutter

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    Tệ tham nhũng ở Canada cũng cần được xử lý!
    Airbus probe''s tab at least $6.4-million, papers reveal
    OTTAWA ?" The RCMP spent more than $2.6-million on its eight-year Airbus investigation that concluded without any charges being laid, a document shows.The figure, obtained through the Access to Information Act, means that Ottawa spent at least $6.4-million on the Airbus affair, more than six times the $1-million the case had been expected to cost.
    The hefty price tag also provides further evidence that the matter was deemed a priority by the Liberal government after it took office in 1993.
    Supporters of former prime minister Brian Mulroney have long argued that the Liberal government was bent on destroying his reputation and that of his Progressive Conservative government.
    The $2.6-million RCMP bill, associated with such items as investigators'' pay and travel, does not include police costs on the Airbus case from January, 1995, to March, 1997.
    In March, 1997, the RCMP completed its investigation into a leak that prompted Ottawa to settle a libel case launched by Mr. Mulroney.
    The RCMP figure also excludes the $2-million that Ottawa paid to Mr. Mulroney in an out-of-court settlement after the federal government conceded it libelled him in a 1995 letter to Swiss justice officials.
    Mr. Mulroney sued the government after a Canadian official requested assistance in an RCMP investigation into alleged improper payments associated with Air Canada''s purchase of 34 aircraft from Airbus Industrie in 1988.
    And the RCMP figure, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, does not include more than $1.8-million that Ottawa spent from September, 1996, to March 31, 1999, on lawyers, legal experts, communications consultants, an arbitrator and office costs.
    Farah Mohamed, a spokeswoman for Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, whose responsibilities include the RCMP, said she could not comment on the value of the broader costs associated with the Airbus investigation.
    But Ms. Mohamed said the federal police force must conduct full investigations. "It''s incumbent upon the RCMP to fully discharge their responsibilities to investigate," she said. "It''s in the best interests of Canadians that investigations are thorough."
    The RCMP had not previously put a price tag on its Airbus investigation.
    An RCMP spokesman could not be reached for comment, but the federal police force had said that its Airbus investigators simply followed normal operating procedures in pursuing allegations of fraud.
    Police have said they ended the eight-year international probe when they ran out of leads.
    Although the government apologized to Mr. Mulroney and said there was no basis for alleging he had been involved in criminal activity, the RCMP had dedicated as many as eight investigators to the probe.
    Mounties laid fraud charges in October, 2002, against Eurocopter Canada Ltd. and two Germans, Kurt Pfleiderer and Heinz Pluckthun.
    Those charges related to the 1986 sale of helicopters to the Canadian Coast Guard.

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    Một số thành viên trong đảng liberal có liên quan trong đường dây buôn bán ma tuý....
    Vancouver and Victoria ?" The RCMP raided two ministerial offices in the B.C. Legislature as a result of information gathered during a 20-month investigation into massive drug deals involving an exchange of B.C. marijuana for U.S. cocaine, police say.
    The Mounties and Victoria police arrested nine people earlier this month who were alleged to be part of an organized-crime ring dealing in drugs, RCMP Sergeant John Ward said yesterday.
    Three were from Toronto and the rest were from Vancouver and Victoria.
    In the course of their investigation, police discovered information of possible criminal activity touching on aides of top ministers in the British Columbia cabinet, Sgt. Ward said.
    The new information, combined with information directly linked to the investigation of the organized-crime and drug ring, was enough to justify a search of the legislative offices, he said.
    The two ministerial aides at the centre of the controversy are David Basi, a ministerial assistant and friend of Finance Minister Gary Collins, and Robert Virk, a ministerial assistant to Transportation Minister Ju***h Reid. As assistants, their offices are part of the ministerial suite of offices in the legislature.
    Mr. Basi''s appointment was rescinded shortly after the raid. Mr. Virk was suspended with pay.
    Mr. Basi has worked for the provincial government for several years, but is better known in political circles for his work as an organizer in B.C. for Paul Martin during the leadership campaign.
    Mr. Virk, a friend of Mr. Basi, worked for the B.C. Liberal Party before it formed the government in 2001 and then took an appointment as a ministerial assistant.
    Mr. Basi, in a statement distributed to Victoria media yesterday, said he has done nothing wrong.
    He said he has co-operated fully with police.
    In Victoria, Mr. Collins said that he supported the firing of his ministerial assistant.
    Sgt. Ward repeatedly said he could not comment on the raids at the legislature, which are part of a continuing investigation. Police raids were also carried out at Mr. Basi''s home, an accounting firm in Victoria and a government lobbying firm called Pilot House Public Affairs Group Inc. Police also carried out searches in Vancouver and Toronto in connection with their investigation of the drug ring.
    The ministers were not the target of the investigation, Sgt. Ward said.
    B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who is on vacation outside the country, told reporters in a phone call that he did not plan to return home early to deal with the crisis. A special prosecutor has been available to assist police investigators since Dec. 11, the Attorney-General''s Ministry said yesterday.
    The special prosecutor, Vancouver lawyer William Berardino, will decide whether charges will be laid and will conduct the prosecution if the charges go to court, ministry spokesman Geoff Gaul said.
    Sgt. Ward said the police work revealed the growing problems for society associated with the illegal drug trade and organized crime.
    The illegal drug trade in B.C., which he estimated at $6-billion, is at "critical mass," Sgt. Ward said.
    . Murders, beatings, extortion and gang warfare are occurring at a level never seen before in B.C., he said.
    "Organized crime has stretched into every corner of B.C. and onto most city streets."
    Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill said a B.C. Supreme Court judge approved the search warrants for the legislature and the Speaker of the House gave the go-ahead Saturday night. About 20 Victoria police officers helped with Sunday''s raid.
    The boxes containing seized documents have been sealed, and any documents deemed privileged B.C. cabinet papers will be respected, Chief Battershill said.
    Police also assured the business community that the confidentiality of any documents seized from ministry files would be protected.
    Police began "actively" investigating 10 months ago, Chief Battershill said. It will likely take several more months to examine the material seized on Sunday and for the findings to be presented to a special prosecutor, he said.
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  3. MrDickcutter

    MrDickcutter Thành viên mới

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    Lại một vụ gian lận tài chính của NFLd.
    Newfoundland and Labrador facing cash crunch

    By DARREN YOURK
    Globe and Mail Update
    An independent external review of Newfoundland and Labrador''s financial situation has found the province is facing a financial crisis.
    Minister of Finance Loyola Sullivan said Monday that the PricewaterhouseCoopers review shows the new Progressive Conservative government inherited a financial mess from the Roger Grimes-led Liberals that will prevent it from meeting the fiscal targets it outlined in the province''s 2003 budget.
    ?oGovernment has inherited a serious financial situation which is not going to disappear overnight,? Mr. Sullivan said. ?oThe time has come to address the situation, and the government will do just that. Securing the financial situation of the province is the No. 1 challenge we must face.
    ?oIn order for government to have the financial resources to ensure that services and programs are available for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, we must address this situation."
    Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams and the Conservatives swept to victory in October, ending 15 years of Liberal government in the province.
    The Premier is scheduled to deliver a television address on the report Monday night.
    PricewaterhouseCoopers found the projected deficit target of $665.9-million is now $827.2-million. The consulting firm has also advised that if government does not implement significant expen***ure management measures the province faces annual deficits in excess of $1-billion.
    ?oThis is a very high deficit for any provincial government, particularly extraordinary for a smaller province like Newfoundland and Labrador,? Mr. Sullivan said. ?oHaving a deficit means government is not taking in sufficient funds to pay for day-to-day activities. It is the same as individuals having to borrow to buy groceries and furnace oil or to pay the telephone and electric bills. It is not sound financial management.?
    The report, entitled Directions, Choices and Tough Choices, says the au***or projects the province''s debt will reach $11.6-billion at the end of the current fiscal year and grow to $15.8-billion by the end of 2007-08 if no corrective action is taken.
    ?oJust 11 years ago, the people of the province were responsible for $6-billion dollars of debt,? Mr. Sullivan said. ?oIf we continue on the current course, the people of the province will owe $15.8-billion ?" almost three times what we owed in 1992-93. This equates to over $30,000 for every man, woman, and child in the province.?
    The review also found that the province''s budget cannot be balanced by 2007-08 with revenue growth alone ?" a promise made in the Liberal''s 2003 budget speech.
    ?oPricewaterhouseCoopers has stated this is not possible,? Mr. Sullivan said. ?oIn fact, based on the report, we cannot even come close to eliminating the cash component of the deficit through revenue growth alone.
    ?o...The consultants have painted an accurate picture of the province''s financial situation, and simply put, it cannot continue.?
    Anna Thistle, the opposition finance critic, accused the government of using the au*** for its own political purposes.

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  4. MrDickcutter

    MrDickcutter Thành viên mới

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    Six Toronto police officers face corruption charges

    By DARREN YOURK
    Globe and Mail Update

    Charges have been laid against six veteran Toronto police officers in the wake of a massive 2ẵ-year RCMP investigation into corruption on the force.
    Staff-Sergeant John Schertzer, Detective Constable Steven Correia and Constables Raymond Pollard, Joseph Miched, Ned Maodus and Richard Benoit have been charged with more than 20 offences, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, perjury, extortion, assault causing bodily harm and theft over $5,000.
    õ?oAs I stand here today with the news that five serving officers and one retired officer are now facing charges I am deeply saddened and disappointed,õ? Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino said Wednesday. õ?oWithout doubt, this whole situation is quite regrettable.õ?
    The officers, five of whom are still active on the force, were members of the Police Service''s central drug squad. They turned themselves in at Toronto Police headquarters Wednesday morning and are scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon. All have been suspended with pay while they await trial.
    Constable Maodus, a 15-year member of the force, was arrested Monday by the Toronto Police Service Professional Standards Special Task Force and charged with possession of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy for the purpose of trafficking.
    Four other officers õ?" Greg Forestall, John Reid, Jason Kondo and Mike Turnbull õ?" were named as unindicted co-conspirators Wednesday. The officers have not been charged with a criminal offence but will be placed on restricted duties.
    Wednesday''s arrests mark the culmination of an internal Toronto Police Services investigation that began in 1999 with allegations of thefts of relatively small amounts of money from the force''s so-called "fink fund," used by officers to pay their informants.
    That investigation led in the fall of 2000 to dozens of criminal and Police Act charges, virtually all of them abruptly dropped in February last year, with the only case that proceeded to court, and involving two officers from another squad, resulting in jury acquittals.
    In August, 2001, Chief Fantino asked the RCMP to oversee a separate independent investigation into the allegations that members of the drug squad were beating and stealing from suspects.
    Chief Superintendent John Neily, who led the RCMP investigation, said the evidence in case pointed squarely at a small group of officers who chose to get involved in criminal activity while trying to obstruct justice.
    The charged officers are alleged to have falsified notes and internal police records, given false testimony, sworn to false affidavits to obtain search warrants and failed to account for evidence they seized.
    õ?oPolice officers are not above the law,õ? Chief Supt. Neily said. õ?oIt never has been, and never will be, acceptable for police to engage in criminal activity or take the law in to their own hands. There is no excuse.õ?
    õ?o...The special task force mandate challenged us to follow the truth, The truth has led us to where we are today.õ?
    Chief Fantino that while Wednesday''s news was troubling, it must not take away from the public''s trust in the good work that the vast majority of officers in the Toronto Police Service do every day.
    õ?oWe must maintain our faith in the system,õ? Chief Fantino said. õ?oI do today as I always have in the past. I can however tell you that the allegations are isolated and confined. The investigation has been independent, extremely exhaustive and most definitely thorough.õ?
    õ?o...Although I would have preferred a different outcome, I know that the public interest has been well served.õ?

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  5. MrDickcutter

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    Theo các bạn nghĩ chúng ta có nên tham gia vào hệ thống phòng thủ tên lửa của Mỹ không??

    Participation in missile shield not a done deal

    By ALLISON DUNFIELD
    Globe and Mail Update

    Defence Minister David Pratt says although Canada is launching negotiations with the United States regarding a controversial U.S. missile defence shield, it doesn''t mean Ottawa intends to sign on.
    "It''s an expression of goodwill in terms of good-faith negotiations. It''s a desire to have more access to detailed information about the security architecture of the ballistic missile defence system, and it''s nothing more than that," Mr. Pratt said Thursday in Ottawa.
    "It''s not a road that we''re proceeding down from which we cannot turn and come back. We take our responsibilities in terms of protection of Canadians very seriously. We want to engage in serious and constructive discussions with the Americans."
    Sources told The Globe and Mail this week that the Canadian and U.S. governments will begin formal negotiations soon through an exchange of letters between Mr. Pratt and U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
    Prime Minister Paul Martin is also likely to discuss the ballistic missile defence (BMD) plan with U.S. President George W. Bush next week at the Summit of the Americas in Mexico.
    The multibillion-dollar plan would mean missiles would be placed at ground and sea bases to shoot down incoming missiles from rogue states.
    Canada is not likely to decide before a spring election whether to sign on to the plan, but government sources indicated this week that Ottawa is "inching toward the inevitable."
    Mr. Pratt said moving ahead will mean taking a closer look at details.
    "The next step would be the signing of a letter of intent, which would allow us further access to detailed U.S. security information," Mr. Pratt said.
    He said things should move forward "in the next little while" but wouldn''t say if the letter could be signed and delivered before Mr. Martin meets Mr. Bush in Mexico.
    MP John Godfrey, who has expressed reservations about BMD in the past, told CBC Newsworld on Thursday that while he favours of an exchange of information with Washington, he wants to see Canada retain some autonomy in the way the program is implemented.
    "There are three tests as to whether we enter any kind of deal with the Americans," Mr. Godfrey said.
    "Test 1 is, do we have some effective role or influence ?" we''re not just passive, we actually have some determination of how things go? Test 2 ?" does it significantly and demonstrably increase the security of Canadians? And thirdly, we absolutely have to draw the bottom line at anything that leads to the weaponization of space."
    NDP Leader Jack Layton held a news conference Thursday to voice his concerns about the program.
    He said Canada should say no to participation in a U.S. missile defence program that is "a profoundly dangerous idea."
    Mr. Layton said the proposed system won''t work, would be frighteningly expensive and destabilize the international situation.

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    XIn chia buồn với các bác ở Saskatchewan nhá!!!
    Sales tax hike urged *****pport education
    By LUMA MUHTADIE
    Globe and Mail Update

    A review of Saskatchewan''s education funding formula recommends increasing sales tax in the province to 7 from 6 per cent and expanding the tax to cover restaurant meals and snack foods.
    The recommendations were made Thursday by Ray Boughen, who led the province''s Commission on Financing Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education, created last May to review education funding and recommend options for change. He presented a 154-page final report Thursday at a news conference in Regina.
    In the report, Mr. Boughen says the money raised by the proposed tax hike would be put toward reducing the soaring education portion of property taxes.
    Saskatchewan residents pay the highest education property tax in Canada. Last year, residents paid 58 per cent, compared with a national average of 31 per cent.
    Mr. Boughen is calling on the provincial government to increase its 40-per-cent share of education funding to 70 per cent by 2009. About 60 per cent of education funding is currently being levied from property taxes.
    ?oThere is currently too much onus on the property tax to fund education,? Mr. Boughen told globeandmail.com on Thursday.
    He said the tax base becomes much larger if you look at sales tax rather than property tax. ?oAnd it''s fairer,? he added.
    ?oAll people pay sales tax and you choose to buy an item or not, so you choose to pay the sales tax or not,? he said.
    A poll conducted by the commission and released last November revealed education was second only to health care in importance among public expen***ures in the province.
    More than 80 per cent of the survey''s respondents said education is a responsibility that they should pay for, while 48 per cent said they would increase the sales tax if there were a need to increase the province''s share of education costs.
    The report also recommended that the province limit the ability of school boards and municipalities to increase mill rates for three years to enable tax payers to enjoy the benefits of reduced property tax.
    The recommendations were the result of months of research, dozens of public consultation and meetings with school boards and business, agriculture and natural resources groups across the province.
    ?oNow it''s in the government''s hands and it''s up to them to do what they will with it,? Mr. Boroughs said.

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    MrDickcutter Thành viên mới

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    Ottawa not ready for emergency, documents show

    Canadian Press
    Ottawa ?" Throughout the massive summer power blackout, the federal government relied on a master emergency plan dating from the Cold War that was "badly in need of revision."
    Newly disclosed memos reveal the musty manual, confusion about the seriousness of the power outage and subsequent communication breakdowns were just some of the shortcomings during the mid-August power failure that left most of Ontario ?" and much of the rest of northeastern North America ?" in the dark.
    The internal documents are among almost 1,500 pages of records on the blackout obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
    Some 50 million people in Canada and eight U.S. states were affected by the failure that originated in Ohio on Aug. 14 and rapidly triggered a series of power shutdowns.
    Since electrical generation and distribution fall under provincial jurisdiction, Ontario took the lead in tackling the emergency. However, the federal government was responsible for providing support to the province during the crisis.
    The Government Emergency Book is supposed to serve as a blueprint for co-ordinating a federal response to calamities, but has lagged woefully behind the times, notes a memo by an analyst with the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness, known as OCIPEP.
    "The (book) was prepared during the Cold War era to provide for civil support to military mobilization in the event of a Soviet incursion across the Elb River in Germany or other types of nuclear or ''national emergency'' of the Cold War sort," the analyst wrote.
    "It is badly in need of revision to reflect the new realities of events that can occur in North America including cyber-attacks, terrorism-related incidents, and cascading critical infrastructure failures resulting from a power outage."
    The analyst argued that drafting a plan to handle the crash of key utilities "would seem to be a priority for OCIPEP as well as the (federal government)."
    OCIPEP has since been rolled into the new Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Department created by Prime Minster Paul Martin''s government.
    Emergency agency spokesman Max London insisted in an interview that the outdated manual did not hamper the federal response to the blackout. But London added that he didn''t disagree with the need to update the book and said the process is under way.

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  8. luongvec

    luongvec Thành viên mới

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    Tiền học phí tăng quá cao cho năm học mới tại trường Đại học Simon Fraser University. Hic hic hic...kiểu này sinh viên bỏ học hết, hay là làm quả biểu tình như sinh viên Quebec nhẩy? Nhung Nguyen một sinh viên Việtnam nói về tiền học phí : Tôi chỉ phải trả 1400$ cho học kỳ đầu tiên khi bắt đầu theo học tại SFU bốn năm trước, và bây giờ phải trả khoảng 2300$ mỗi học kỳ.
    SFU plans stiff fee hike
    Budget shortfall means students face increase of at least 20 per cent

    dy McLellan
    The Province; with a file from Lena Sin
    Wednesday, January 14, 2004
    Simon Fraser University students are facing tuition-fee hikes of 20 to 35 per cent for the coming school year as the university grapples with a $15-million budget shortfall.
    A tuition increase of 20 per cent would put SFU above the national average for university fees. A 35-per-cent hike would make the university''s fees among the highest in the country, second only to Nova Scotia institutions.
    "The university is striving to make up the $15-million deficit," said Pat Hibbitts, vice-president of finance and administration at SFU. "We are just in the consultation stage.
    "We think it''s a bunch of terrible choices we have to make. Not one choice is a good thing, but we recognize it''s going to be necessary."
    Hibbitts said SFU can cut its total operating budget, which could affect faculty and department budgets, increase tuition fees, reduce student scholarships and bursaries or a combination of all three.
    "I don''t know where this will end up -- I don''t have a magic crystal ball. But I do think it will end up with a combination of all three options," she said.
    The university''s board of governors will make its decision at the end of March.
    Chris Giacomantonio, university relations officer for the Simon Fraser Student Society, said tuition fees jumped by 30 per cent in each of the past two years and students can''t afford another increase.
    "Students will be paying more for less next year, no matter what. That''s guaranteed," he said. "Students can''t shoulder the entire burden of the provincial government''s cuts to post-secondary education."
    Scott Takeda, a fourth-year SFU biology student, said tuition increases might make a bachelor''s degree more valuable, since only those who are really serious about university would be willing to pay the premium.
    "I think if too many people get an education, it waters it down a bit, and maybe it just makes the more determined people get degrees and then there''s more jobs out there for the people who do go through with it," he said. "Because right now, if you have a degree it really doesn''t mean anything."
    But third-year integrated-biology student Lisa Alexander said she''s already working three part-time jobs to pay for her full-time course load, and has a student loan on top of that.
    "I''m certainly not very impressed, especially because they haven''t really increased the student loans maximum," she said. "Which makes it pretty difficult for people like me who are paying for their own education."
    Third-year math student Evgeniy Lebed said another increase would be "pretty ridiculous."
    "I know a lot of friends who are international students, and they''re just not going to be able to study, they''re just going to have to leave," Lebed said. "It''s pretty tight for me, too."
    Nhung Nguyen, a fourth-year communications student, said she paid about $1,400 per semester when she started at SFU about four years ago and now has to pay about $2,300 each semester.
    The University of Victoria has also proposed a tuition increase of 28 per cent for September, following increases of close to 30 per cent in each of the past two years.
    "Cumulatively, tuition has more than doubled for students in the past two years," said Scott Payne, director of services for the UVic Students Society. "It''s just impossible."
    The University of B.C., along with many of B.C.''s post-secondary institutions, has not yet begun its budget process for the coming year.
    Summer McFadyen, B.C. chairwoman for the Canadian Federation of Students, said students expect most institutions will increase tuition again this year to cover their operating costs. The federation has planned a day of action Feb. 4 to protest the continuing tuition increases in the province and to demand a return to the 2001 tuition fees.
    "We don''t have to convince anyone this is an important issue," McFadyen said. "People are totally frustrated with their [the B.C. government''s] actions."
    According to statistics compiled by the federation, tuition fees have already increased by an average of 59 per cent at B.C. universities, and 70 per cent at colleges, in the past two years.
    Okanagan University College is considering an increase of about 20 per cent in September, which will bring the basic tuition cost to $3,888 a year. In 2001/2002, students paid $1,406.
    Được luongvec sửa chữa / chuyển vào 06:26 ngày 15/01/2004
  9. MrDickcutter

    MrDickcutter Thành viên mới

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    Hệ thống y tế của Canada đã yếu kém và thiếu bác sỹ rồi lại còn bị những vụ như thế này nữa chứ, thật là...
    Montreal hospital recalls patients

    More than 2,000 patients at a Montreal children''s hospital are being recalled for testing after the hospital discovered that an HIV-positive surgeon performed their operations.
    Officials at the Sainte-Justine Hospital said Thursday that they were sending letters to all 2,614 of the physician''s patients, informing them of the situation and asking them to come forward for blood testing.
    "The safety of the children must be the most important consideration in all this," Khiem Dao, the hospital''s director-general, said at a press conference in Montreal.
    However, hospital officials say they are confident there is minimal risk to the patients--some of whom are now adults.
    "We believe that the risk is extremely low, " said Dr. Lucie Poitras, the hospital''s director of professional services.
    She said a thorough investigation of other such cases turned up only two other incidents--one in France and one in Spain--of patients becoming infected through their HIV-positive doctors.
    The HIV-positive doctor performed the operations over a 13-year-period, between 1990 and 2003 ?" on about 200 patients a year, Dr. Poitras said. About 10,000 operations each year are performed at Sainte-Justine.
    Hospital officials said they were only made aware of the doctor''s illness on Jan. 9 of this year.
    They said they were not releasing the physician''s name for reasons of confidentiality. "The doctor is no longer at the hospital and isn''t practising elsewhere," said Dr. Poitras.
    She said the hospital''s administration wasn''t initially made aware of the doctor''s illness.
    "There were certain people who were aware of it. This information wasn''t available to the hospital''s administration. This information remained confidential."
    The doctor told his immediate supervisor in 1991 that he had the virus and a committee was formed to determine what kind of medical work he could do, she said. Dr. Poitras said U.S. guidelines that existed at the time were followed.
    But after 1996 the hospital doesn''t have any written followups on the doctor''s situation.
    There was no legal obligation for the doctor to disclose his con***ion to hospital and there still isn''t one that forces doctors to disclose such an illness, Dr. Poitras said.
    She said hospital administrators went through the records carefully and are confident that they have correctly identified which patients may be at risk.
    "We have the names of each and every one of those patients, because this is a serious investigation and we don''t want to take any chances," she said in French.
    Letters have already been sent out to 700 patients and a call centre has been set up at the hospital.
    Dr. Brian Cornelson of Toronto''s St. Michael''s Hospital, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Toronto''s department of family medicine, told globeandmail.com that Sainte-Justine Hospital was engaging in a necessary public relations exercise by informing the public of the illness.
    "I''m certainly not critical of Sainte-Justine for doing this. What they''re doing is a public relations necessity...what I think they''re doing is behaving very responsibly in today''s atmosphere."
    But he added that the danger to the surgeon''s patients was "a very, very small potential risk--if the surgeon''s glove was punctured and he bled into an open wound."
    The possibility of that happening is remote, he said.
    Dr. Cornelson said today''s medical professionals take many precautions to protect themselves and their patients from infectious diseases. The only type of surgeon who might have a slightly higher risk of puncture wounds are orthopedic surgeons who are doing procedures such as hip replacements, he said.
    A spokesman for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network said he had not heard of a case in Canada before where this many patients were recalled for HIV testing.
    Patients have been recalled for testing in other circumstances, such as contaminated medical equipment, said Richard Elliott, the network''s director of legal research and policy.
    Mr. Elliott also agreed that the risk to patients was small.
    Kim Thomas, director of programs for the Canadian AIDS Society, said that the recall of the more than 2,000 patients "seems to be a really extreme response to the situation."
    She said it may cause unnecessary fear among the doctor''s former patients, and it may cause people to fear health care workers who may be HIV positive.
    ( Được trích từ Globlemail)
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  10. MrDickcutter

    MrDickcutter Thành viên mới

    Tham gia ngày:
    13/11/2003
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    Parents protest ban on sale of eggs and sperm
    (Globe and Mail Update )

    Shane Kraemer is an Ottawa hotel lobby with a toy cell phone on his ear, repeating ''hello? hello?''
    He grabs his father Ingo''s real cell phone and puts it to his other ear. His mother Jennifer calls him "Shaney bear" and holds his favourite hot rod car.
    His parents say there''s a good chance Shane, a rambunctious two-year-old, wouldn''t be here today if the federal government''s controversial human reproductive technology bill to ban the sale of human sperm, eggs and embryos, was law.
    The Toronto toddler is a test tube baby. Ms. Kraemer, a 44-year-old human resources executive, and her husband, an engineering consultant, tried several times unsuccessfully to conceive using donor eggs and in-vitro infertilization (IVF). She suffered one miscarriage before Shane was born.
    "We went through seven years of hell to get him," she said.
    Infertility experts say the federal government''s human reproductive technology legislation, which will ban human cloning and include regulations on stem-cell research goes too far in banning the sale of eggs, human sperm.
    "It''s the difference between being a family and not being a family," said Mr. Kraemer, 48.
    On Wednesday, they will be joining other couples who have relied on fertility treatments such as egg donors, sperm donors and surrogate mothers to have children to protest the bill at a Senate hearing on the legislation. The parents plan to take their children to the Senate hearing.
    Beverly Hanck, executive director of the Montreal-based Infertility Awareness Association of Canada, said the bill''s characterization of current fertility treatments as "commercializing" reproductive technology is wrong.
    Currently, women can sell one cycle of their eggs for between $2,500 to $3,500 while men are typically paid $70 for one sample of sperm. Women generally have to spend 56 hours in a clinic for the procedure, said Ms. Kraemer. Couples in Canada typically pay surrogate mothers $18,000.
    Critics of the legislation such as Ms. Hanck say that infertile couples will have fewer and fewer options if donors aren''t paid.
    "There are 500,000 people in Canada who are infertile," she said. "This is a flawed bill. We''d rather see it amended."
    The House of Commons has already approved Bill C-6 and it only needs the Senate''s approval to make it law.
    The Senate committee plans to end its hearings in a few weeks, which would leave time to get final approval in the Senate before Prime Minister Paul Martin calls an election, which is expected in April.
    The long-delayed bill would allow stem cell research on human embryos and ban human cloning in Canada. The federal government appointed a royal commission on reproductive technologies in 1989.
    The debate over stem cell research on human embryos pits the promise of medical breakthroughs against opponents who view it as an assault on the sanctity of human life.
    The Roman Catholic Church and anti-abortion politicians oppose the bill''s provision allowing research on embryos left over from fertility treatments.
    Ms. Hanck said the issue of assisted reproduction has been overshadowed by the debate involving embryonic stem-cell research.
    The bill prohibits the sale of sperm and ova and makes commercial surrogacy illegal. Surrogate mothers can, however, be reimbursed for expenses and loss of work-related income.
    The bill would also create the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency of Canada to monitor clinics that deal with in vitro fertilizations and fertility. The agency would be involved in licensing, protecting the health of those undergoing fertility procedures, and in the collection of data.

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