Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 06, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page 11 Winnipeg free press monday october 6, 2008 View from the West and beyond comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. M. Ca Winnipeg repress. Com a 11 j Asper Alta. You get a sense of Canadas critical water problems looking at the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Ricefield South of Here. It is shr Velling like a grape in sunlight. The glaciers Retreat is just another indication that our climate is changing and getting warmer. The fight Over How much humans contributed to that change has obscured an important Issue water shortages threaten to Pinch our Economy and pit provinces against each other. We can no longer take our extensive water supplies for granted says an environment Canada report titled a Federal perspective on water Quality issues. The Canadian press obtained the 21 Page draft report last month under the Access to information act. The report forecasts droughts in the Prairies and groundwater shortages in British Columbia and the great lakes st. Lawrence River Basin. Lake Superior the largest of the great lakes fell to its lowest level on record last september. Sounds like serious stuff. But few politicians have mentioned the Issue in the Federal election Campaign. In a sense thatus Par for the course for both liberals and conservatives in Ottawa. The tories promised a National water strategy in last Falls throne speech but so far critics say they a vent delivered. Both liberals and conservatives were tardy about publishing annual reports required by Law that show How water supplies Are used and maintained. In August the last assessment posted on environment Canadas website was from 2005 06. As Well As the Brandon Sun Points out in a cogent editorial Ottawa is not exactly forthcoming in informing us about water matters. The Sun says the environment Canada report warning about a water crisis was drafted in december 2007, but was Only made available last month because the Canadian press demanded it. Earlier this year says the paper a major report from natural resources Canada was subtly posted in an obscure Section of the departments website late on a Friday afternoon. The quiet publication of the report says the Sun came despite years of research the input of More than 100 experts and amazingly the hiring of a Public relations firm at a Cost of $ 50,000 to plan the documents Public release. A health Canada report human health in a changing climate a Canadian assessment of vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity was supposed to be released in the Spring but the government did not make it Public until july 31 again through quiet posting on a departmental website. It is a matter of dire urgency that the Public be apprised of climate change concerns and that governments act on them said Colin sos Kolne of the University of Alberta one of the contributors to the report. At the time he was quoted in August he had yet to receive a hard copy of the report. The environment Canada report made Public through the efforts of the Canadian press says climate change and a growing population Are draining our resources of water. Canada has a fifth of the worlds Supply of fresh water but Only seven per cent of it is renewable. Most of it comes from ice age glaciers like the Athabasca or underground aquifers. But Federal government data on groundwater reserves says the report is sparse and often inadequate. The United states has spent More than a decade mapping its underground water reserves. Canada shares aquifers with America but our Lack of data places Canada at a strategic disadvantage for bilateral negotiations with the u. S. Canadians have been Adamant that we not sell water to America but demands for it could increase substantially if supplies South of the Border continue to dwindle. We could be bombarded with pleas from our Best Friend and trading partner. Already Daniel Klimchuk in a report for the Frontier Centre of Public policy has argued Manitoba could earn $ 1.33 billion us a year by simply exporting one per cent of its water to the u. S. In a new Book dry Spring Chris Wood says the u. S. Is headed for hard dry times. The Colorado once one of North americans great Rivers is much diminished. Major u. S. Aquifers May be exhausted in the next 25 years. Mexico City is sinking As its 20 million residents Lap up the water below it. At the same time Canada is not treating its water appropriately. A Spring report in the Canadian medical association journal said 1,760 communities in Canada had a boil water advisory in effect including 679 in Ontario and 530 in b. C. Manitoba had 59 communities in this category in mid March including Anola which had been under a drinking water warning for nearly eight years. The environment Canada report says the Federal government should take a More Handson role in managing the nations water which is now largely done by provinces. But Many Ottawa politicians dont seem to be interested. Meanwhile the Athabasca Glacier continues to shrink. Tom Ford is managing editor of the issues network. Tom Ford thirsting for a water strategy Canada is not doing enough to protect 20 per cent of the worlds fresh water Stuart Leavenworth / the associated press archives Low water on the Colorado River in the grand Canyon in Arizona the Colorado once one of North americans great Rivers is much diminished. I f i had a Nickel for every time some pundit has opined about Barack Obama and the dreaded Bradley effect i could Rescue Wall Street. How Many of those Sakkers really know about the Bradley effect 1.0, the original Back in 1982, when Tom Bradley the Black mayor of los Angeles whom polls put ahead of his rival for California governor right up to voting Day lost by barely 52,000 votes out of 7.5 million cast the Bradley effect has come to mean this voters lie to pollsters about Black candidates and enough of them lie to create a huge Gap Between poll results and election results. The Bradley effect asserts that when americans finally get into the voting Booth and see the Black candidates name on the ballot they flinch. But is that really All that happened in 1982? Bradley was a University of California los Angeles graduate a former cop and City Council member and he regarded himself not As a Black politician but As a politician who happened to be Black. Philip Depoian worked with Bradley for about three decades and he told me that Bradley is was probably the most integrated mindset Ive Ever come across he never looked at anybody from an ethnic Point of View. When a student visiting City Hall in 1979 asked the mayor whether l. A. Voters had gotten a Black Gerald Ford rather than a Black John Kennedy Bradley replied ism not a Black this or a Black that. Ism just Tom Bradley. Head been mayor for nine years when he ran for governor blowing away the Competition in the democratic primary and cruising toward becoming the nations first elected Black governor. Six weeks before the election Bradley was 14 Points ahead. Three weeks before the election his opponents Campaign manager declared that a hidden anti Lack vote could make a difference of five Points its just a fact of life. If people Are going to vote that Way they Are certainly not going to announce it for a Survey taker. A week later Bradley is Lead had dropped to seven Points. Below Bradley is name on the California ballot was proposition 15, requiring the registering of handguns. On election Day proposition 15 flushed out voters in Rural precincts places where politicians did not Campaign and pollsters did not poll. And As Long As they were in the Booth Why not also vote against that Black big City mayor who was just the kind of Liberal Whord love to take their guns away but it a snot guns alone that Sank Bradley two White democrats also running for statewide office won by double digits. Ism inclined to think the Bradley effect was born earlier during Bradley is 1969 run for mayor. Incumbent Sam Yor Tyus race baiting Campaign accused the sex land lieutenant of being the puppet of Black militants and White radicals. Three Days before the election the los Angeles times poll had Bradley 15 Points ahead. On election Day he lost 45 per cent to Yor Tyus 55 per cent. Has anything changed for the election thatus about to test the Bradley effect 2.0? Bradley the grandson of slaves barely acknowledged race in his political life. The half White Obama with his quips about not looking like All those other presidents on the Dollar Bills has confronted race forthrightly and tried to put it behind him and us. Also in 1982, Depoian said voters would look at Bradley and Tell themselves i did not like the Colour of his tie that Day on the to news. Whatever in their hearts they could justify for not voting for a Black Man they found. Today people Tell pollsters outright that they wont vote for a Black candidate. In pennsylvanians democratic primary one voter in six said race influenced his vote. The blogs Are awash in racist bile not All of it Anonymous. An associated press Yahoo poll found that 40 per cent of White americans have some negative attitudes toward Blacks. The a Story quoted John Clouse in an Ohio Coffee shop with his friends saying Flat out we still dont like Black people. This is Progress sure at least to Depoian. When someone admits i cant vote for him because hers not of my ethnic group a thatus Progress because candidates know How to handle it he said. And More important they know How to poll for it. Are we better off with this Devil we know rather than a Devil we dont i called Charles Henry who teaches african american studies at the University of California Berkeley. In 1983, he was the first to measure the Bradley effect. Yes perceptions of race Are changing but still for Obama now As for Tom Bradley then Henry calculates that it will take a double digit Lead to feel confident come election Day. It grieves me to say so but he May be right. Good polls dont change bad attitudes. If America 2008 a snot changed much from California 1982, by next year pundits will be calling it the Obama effect. Patt Morrison is a los Angeles times columnist and Host of a daily Public affairs show on los Angeles Public radio. Election tests America for Colour blindness by Patt Morrison i was saddened to read or. Adrian fines commentary demand versus conscience sept. 21 regarding the Case of the late Samuel Golubchyk whom doctors wanted to remove from life support without his consent and against the Adamant objections of his family. I was struck by the number of errors of fact and More disturbing by fines remarkable conviction that medical personnel should be the final arbiters of what lives Are Worth continuing and which should be ended. He claims the facts were not in dispute then misstates the facts and neglects to note that there was More than one medical expert nor just a cleric who disputed the conclusions of the doctors seeking the death of Golubchyk. As a neurologist i and All those who read the Chart or my affidavit and the affidavit of an ice expert know that or. Golubchyk was not As Fine states suffering primarily from Multi stroke dementia nor was he dying. Golubchyk had impaired cognitive function due to head trauma years earlier and subsequent brain surgery which destroyed parts of his brain that enable speech. More importantly his death was clearly not imminent in fall 2007. The evidence suggested rather that he was recovering from a lung infection and had pretty much returned to his Baseline cognitive condition although he could not be weaned from the ventilator fast enough to suit his ice doctors. Doctors at Grace Hospital who claimed that the patient had minimal brain function a term repeatedly cited in the Media did not disclose to the court that Golubchyk was awake and at times even visually tracked people As documented repeatedly by doctors and nurses in the Chart. Nor did they bother to have a neurologist evaluate the patient themselves do a Standard neurologic examination or even rudimentary tests such As a brain wave test eeg or it scan before deciding that this disabled second world War veterans life was of no Worth. It was just this sort of unilateral decision that was later decried by prof. Jocelyn Downie a National expert in Canadian health care Law and policy who characterized the doctors actions in this Case As without Legal precedent and dangerous. Golubchyk lived his whole life in Canada. At 16 years old he volunteered to fight in Europe against the nazis. Even on the Battlefield he stayed True to his beliefs never once eating non Kosher food. He chose to live in Winnipeg because he found a Job there that would not require him to work on saturday his Sabbath. He was steadfast in his Observance of jewish Law. He would never have consented to allow doctors to end his life against his religious beliefs nor would he have dreamt i suspect that such actions would be countenanced in a Western democracy. Golub Chukes family was informed that the ice doctors without consent would be abruptly ending their fathers life by removing him from a ventilator stopping All feedings and giving him narcotics. Fine Calls this palliative care they dared to Challenge the medical professionals a tribute to their respect for jewish religious Law and for the Sanctity of human life even a medically compromised one. These doctors decided to serve As judge jury and dare i say executioner of their unilateral decision reportedly moving up the Date and time of their planned termination of his life when they Learned that the family was going to seek an injunction. Fine claims that gangrene set in multiple surgeries were needed and that these resulted in kidney damage. These assertions warrant investigation As they suggest a condition far worse than the skin breakdown the doctors admitted had developed under their watch a condition that is consistent with professional neglect. Fines Lack of knowledge of the Basic medical facts in this Case Are compounded by his Cavalier assertion that there is a significant division of opinion on end of life issues within jewish orthodoxy based apparently on his having done a Google search. I can speak with some More direct knowledge Here. I recently participated in a new York academic conference in september on precisely that topic and in an August seminar in Jerusalem both of which included a discussion of the Golubchyk Case. With More than two decades of experience in jewish medical ethics i can assure Fine and readers that no orthodox jewish authority would have agreed to Active euthanasia of the sort proposed by the doctors in this Case. Indeed i discussed the Case with numerous scholars and rabbinic authorities and the Case was also discussed with leading Christian scholars and All were aghast at what was being proposed by these doctors. The Relief of pain and suffering is a major concern in jewish and Christian approaches to end of life care. However pain was apparently not a major Issue in this Case. Otherwise How could one explain the Lack of significant pain medication being Given to the patient while on of the doctors claimed publicly that to Debride the bedsores was torture the absence of pain management for the patient raises the question As to whether the doctor simply Felt tortured by having to comply with the court order. While neither i nor the ice expert who submitted affidavits on behalf of Guluchuk were permitted to examine the patient an expert witness flown in by the defendants months afterwards concluded that Golubchyk was awake albeit in a minimally conscious state. The doctors were thus undeniably seeking to put to death a Man who was awake and who would never have consented to this act. Even More disturbing than fines multiple errors though is his astounding assertion that his conscience and the conscience of his like minded colleagues should Trump the consciences and religious convictions of patients and their families and indeed the conscience of those medical professionals who obeyed the Rule of Law and kept Golubchyk alive professionals whom Fine portrayed As cowards. Apparently Fine will accept Only fines conscience and perhaps that of like minded colleagues As the arbiter of who shall live and who shall die. While in retirement he castigates those who sought to heal and he urges colleagues to ignore a court order and take matters into their own hands. The sort of hubris inherent in such pronouncements is unfortunately not uncommon in modern Medicine Many of whose practitioners worship the new religion of futile care theory. We would do Well to recall that the approaches most memorable manifestation when doctors were legally authorized to assume the right to decide who shall live and who shall die was in the 1930s, in Germany. Or. Leon Zacharowicz a new York neurologist is a co founder of an International seminar series on jewish medical ethics and was a pro Bono medical expert for the Golubchyk family. By Leon Zacharowicz the deadly hubris of doctors a 11_ oct 06 08_ Grey. Ind a11 10/ 5/ 08 4 32 31 pm ;