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Montreal, News

Nurse-in draws crowd to support public breastfeeding

by Kyla Mandel on

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Alice Walker
Alice Walker

On January 5, Shannon Smith, mother of three, was told she was not allowed to breastfeed in Orchestra, a children’s store in the Complexe Les-Ailes on St. Catherine Street. In response, Genevieve Coulombe organized a “nurse-in” in front of the store on January 19th.

Smith was given no explanation as to why she was not allowed to breastfeed in Orchestra; she was simply told repeatedly in French that it was not allowed by a store clerk. Smith replied: “that’s incorrect. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives me the right to breastfeed where I like.”

“I left in tears. I was very upset. I think that was really humiliating and I should not have been treated that way and in front of everyone in the store, in front of my children,” Smith said. “I have three kids and I’ve breastfed them all and I’ve never had an issue like this. It’s shocking to me in this day and age that we still have this ridiculous behaviour.”

The first thing Smith did was to share her experience online through Twitter and Facebook. “But you only have 140 characters on Twitter, so you don’t really get to tell the whole story and everybody had lots of questions,” Smith said. She then decided to create a blog  called “breastfortheweary.com” to share the entire experience.

“I only really expected like 30 people, people I mostly knew, to care enough to read my blog … but it spread like wildfire,” Smith said.     In reaction to this event, Genevieve Coulombe—a complete stranger at the time to Smith—created a Facebook event entitled Allaite-In (or “Nurse-In,” in English) for January 19, to which 173 people clicked “attending.” The idea was to breastfeed to raise awareness of a mother’s right to breastfeed anywhere, at anytime.

In a speech given to introduce the event on January 19, Coulombe said that the path to awareness “starts with the education of the general public and especially with the education of the new moms who don’t know all their rights.”

Myriam Baril-Boisclair, whose son is eight and a half months old, attended the event after hearing about it on Radio-Canada. She believes it’s important to have the right to nurse her child everywhere.

“It’s not because I like to do it, it’s because I have to do it. When he’s hungry I have to do something,” Baril-Boisclair said.

Well over 50 mothers showed up to breastfeed. Not only mothers attended the nurse-in. Fathers came along as well to support their wives.

On January 10, Smith recieved an apology from Orchestra and on the Facebook event Coulombe wrote that “the water ran under the bridge. The store apologized to the mother. We are at peace with this store!” In a gesture of good will, Orchestra handed out goody-bags to the mothers attending the event, and the Complexe designated an area for strollers to be kept safely.

Smith hopes that raising awareness about this issue informs people that “breastfeeding is normal behaviour, protected by law,” she said, and that “if you break the law there are consequences.” More importantly Smith hopes that the nurse-in will show mothers and mothers-to-be, “that they don’t have to ask permission to breastfeed … that they don’t have to be ‘discrete.'”

In response to the nurse-in, the Canadian Breastfeeding Protection Petition has been created by Infant Feeding Action Coalition Canada and INFACT Quebec. This petition aims to get 100,000 signatures to deliver directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking “for action on improving breastfeeding support for mothers and babies across Canada.”

News

Andrew Cohen says U.S.-Canada cultures converging

by Jimmy Lou on

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Anna Katycheva

Last Tuesday, Andrew Cohen­—one of Canada’s preeminent non-fiction writers and a McGill alum—delivered the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada’s 18th annual J.R. Mallory Lecture in Canadian Studies, discussing Canada’s cultural convergences with the United States.

Although things have changed over the years, Cohen said that many Canadians today still want to distinguish themselves from “belligerent, pompous” Americans. According to Cohen, medical care, poutine, and a fervent love for hockey have been badges of a distinctly Canadian identity. “But,” he said, “take away health care and other cherished identities, and what’s left for us, and between us?”

Cohen pointed to four subjects on which Canada and the U.S. have become indistinguishable: obesity, frugality, criminality, and multiculturalism. Although Canada once considered itself more fit than its southern neighbour, statistics show increasing obesity rates for both adults and children. In 2005, Canada was the fifth-most overweight nation in the world, while the U.S. was number one. But in a more recent poll, the U.S. has a 66 per cent obesity rate, compared to 60 per cent in Canada.

In terms of spending habits, Cohen said that “although [the idea that Americans spend more than Canadians] is true to a certain degree, [as Canadians] we are no longer frugal.” National debt continues to rise in Canada. Canada’s national household debt was a record $1.41 trillion in 2009 and has continued to climb. In addition, Canada’s income distribution gap is expanding, with the richest one per cent holding 34 per cent of the wealth.

Traditionally, Canadians have thought their country safer than the U.S., Cohen said. Granted, this is still true. But the American crime rate has dropped to levels that haven’t been seen since the 1960s. Also, capital punishment in the U.S. has become more moderate in the last 10 years. Not only have many states abolished capital punishment, but the states that still use it are issuing increasingly low numbers of death sentences. California, for instance, has not ordered one in five years, and Texas—notorious for executing criminals—only issued 17 in 2010, compared to 400 in 2000.

Chris Espamer, a U1 politcal science student from the U.S., said he sees a clear distinction between the two neighbouring nations.

“I think that Canada has some good traits from both American and European culture. They seem to be less obsessed about military strength, and are less corrupt politically in general.”

People often believe that Canada is more tolerant towards immigrants than the U.S.. Cohen suggested, however, that “the pot is no longer melting” and that the U.S. has become much more accomodating to its minorities.

Cohen also mentioned the cooperative relationship that has persisted over time between U.S. and Canada. Despite some disagreements, the two nations have generally worked in political, economic, and social harmony.

 “It was a very informative [lecture], and I was surprised at some of the differences,” said Kateryna Sherysheva, a U1 political science and international development student.

“This lecture has made me think deeper about the issue and reconsider different sides,” said Sherysheva.

Montreal, News

Montreal experiences six attacks on various Jewish establishments

by Andrew Miller on

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There has recently been a series of six rock-throwing attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools in Montreal.

Targeted in the attacks were the Beth Rambam, Tifereth, Beth Zion, and Beth Davis synagogues and Academie Yavne in Côte St.-Luc; the Dorshei Emet synagogue in Hampstead; and Congregation Shaare Zedek in Notre-Dame-de-Grace.

Côte St.-Luc has a vibrant Jewish community. Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Synagogue said in an interview with the National Post that, among North American cities, this area of Montreal has the highest percentage of Jews living together in predominantly middle-to-upper-middle-class neighbourhoods.

According to Rabbi Steinmet: “A guy came sometime Saturday night and threw a rock at a set of second story windows, above the doors. And he threw a rock and broke a hole in a window and cracked it. It was just one rock. But this has now happened to six different Jewish institutions in Montreal. It’s a pathetic attack. It’s a cowardly attack. But it is a direct attack.”

A spokesman from the Montreal Police Department noted that authorities currently “have no suspects. This was serious and we will look at all events in the same area. These attacks could be related, since the same type of ammo was used.”

An expert detective has been assigned to the investigation.

There have been other assaults against Jewish areas of worship in the past: firebombings of the library at United Talmud Torah School in 2004 and a firebombing of the Jewish community centre in Snowdon in 2007.

Calling last weekend to report the attack, a Holocaust survivor said that she was devastated to see acts of hatred following her from her past all the way to Montreal.

On Monday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said that the attacks were, “hateful and systematic acts” that “represent an attack on an entire religious community.”

Science & Technology

Study: Canadians mistaken about how healthy they are

by Anand Berry on

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Alice Walker

A recent report on the health of Canadians commissioned by the CBC highlights some unpleasant truths about the country’s perception of health and wellness.

Among the key findings of the report was the revelation that while 77 per cent of those surveyed believe that they generally live a healthy lifestyle, eat healthier than the average Canadian, and maintain a healthy weight, 51 per cent of them are overweight or obese.

The report, titled Canada Weighs In, is part of the CBC’s ongoing Live Right Now campaign, which aims to motivate Canadians to live healthier.

The multiplatform initiative came up during the development of the CBC’s new Village on a Diet program, a primetime show which follows residents of a British Columbia town as they collectively try to lose weight while being helped by a team of experts.

“We saw an opportunity to do a broader project than just a TV show —one that all Canadians would benefit from,” said Jeff Keay, head of media relations for the CBC. “The facts are shocking—today’s generation may well live shorter lifespans than their parents’ generation.”

The campaign is similar to the CBC’s 2008 environmental initiative, the One Million Acts of Green challenge, which was sponsored by The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

Treading topics including food and nutrition, sleep, and visiting health professionals, the survey explores motivations for making or not making healthy choices.

Most respondents cited lack of time as justification for why they aren’t healthier, with 37 per cent reporting not enough time to make meals, 42 per cent reporting not enough time to get vigorous exercise regularly and 36 per cent noting not enough time to sleep. About half of those surveyed also reported feeling overwhelmed by all the information available about healthy eating.

When asked how to make sense of a myriad of differing sources on health, Katherine Gray-Donald, an associate professor in McGill’s School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, recommended sticking to reliable sources.

“[Dependable sources] may seem dull as they do not jump on every shred of evidence, but wait until facts are well established,” Gray-Donald said in an email to the Tribune. “In Canada, our straightforward resource is the Canadian Food Guide for Healthy Living, [which] has been updated and is a good interactive program.”

Where to find information on healthy living was a survey topic that yielded differing views between adults and youth. Adults consulted health professionals, magazines, and online health sites more often than anything else in the past year, while youth depended on friends and family members, TV, and health professionals.

Youth also differed in their responses to questions on smoking, with smoking being far less common among younger age brackets, and in their responses to exercise, with youth being much more likely to exercise regularly.

The report seems to have had quite an impact on Canadians who have come across it, according to Dave Scholz, the executive vice-president of Leger Marketing, which conducted the sampling.

“I have received a number of emails from respondents and people who wish they could have been respondents about the study and [commented] on the CBC poll — adding their stories to the mix,” he said in an email. “It has certainly resonated with Canadians.”

Science & Technology

For ICU patients, private rooms help cut infection rates

by Theo Meyer on

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Panoramio.com

Being admitted to a private room in a hospital’s intensive care unit can dramatically decrease the likelihood of a patient contracting an infection, a recent McGill study suggests.

About one in three patients admitted to hospital ICUs contract some sort of infection, which increases the length of the average hospital stay by eight to nine days. In the United States, this is estimated to cost health care providers $3.5 billion each year.

But putting patients in private rooms, rather than in shared rooms with curtain partitions, can cut the rate of infection by certain types of bacteria in half.

“There are three types of bacteria that are really at the focus of infection control efforts: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile and vancomycin-resistant enterococci,” said Dana Teltsch, a McGill PhD candidate who was the study’s lead author. “For the three of them combined, the reduction was 54 per cent, and this is a very serious reduction.”

Teltsch’s study, published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine, detected decreases in 12 types of bacteria, six of which were large enough to be statistically significant. While other studies have investigated the effect of making rooms private, Teltch said, hers compared a greater variety of bacteria, with more conclusive results.

To conduct the study, Teltsch compared data from the Montreal General Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital over a period of five years during which the Montreal General Hospital carried out renovations that made all ICU rooms private. The Royal Victoria Hospital, however, had a mixture of shared and private rooms in its ICU.

“The two populations are, by and large, comparable in the severity of illness,” said Dr. Peter Goldberg, the director of adult critical care at the McGill University Health Centre and a co-author of the study. This similarity made the two hospitals ideal for purposes of comparison.

Because both hospitals are part of the MUHC, Teltsch said, they also followed the same infection-control management and other practices, enabling her to hone in on one variable: the types of rooms.

In the time since Teltsch’s data set was collected, the Royal Victoria Hospital has switched to private rooms in its ICU as well, Goldberg said. That makes the two centres exceptions among Montreal hospitals, however, most of which still use shared rooms.

“Hospitals with a mix of private and shared rooms still confine patients with infections to individual rooms,” Goldberg said. But it can take doctors up to 72 hours after a patient is admitted to determine whether or not he has an infection.

“In that 72 hours, you may have come into contact with many people: staff, other patients,” Goldberg said. “By putting a patient straightaway into a private room, you have essentially put them in isolation, so that they don’t have the ability to transmit.”

Teltsch’s study may encourage more hospitals to abandon shared ICU rooms, but that may also fuel a rise in costs for hospitals. In addition to the cost of renovations, Goldberg said, hospitals may need to hire more nurses in order to monitor patients in individual rooms, rather than a single shared one.

Separate rooms may also change doctors’ and nurses’ practices in the ICU, Goldberg added. If  patients are treated in separate rooms, he said, nurses may be more inclined to wash their hands as they move from patient to patient.

“Private rooms are not only barriers [to infection],” Goldberg said. “They are also instigators of different behaviours.”

Montreal, News

Influenza outbreak in Montreal worries area hospitals

by Kirsten Williams on

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An influenza and gastroenteritis outbreak has stretched Montreal emergency rooms to 150 per cent capacity. According to the Montreal Health Agency, the worst hit hospitals are the Lakeshore, Royal Victoria, Montreal General, and the Santa Cabrini.  

“Flu outbreaks are predictable, and what we are seeing this post-holiday is no different than what we see mid-winter,” said Harley Eisman of the McGill University Health Centre. “The issue this year is things started earlier in December. This is causing overcrowding in our Pediatric ER.”  

The Montreal Public Health Protections Department is assuring the population that this is not a strain of the H1N1 pandemic but merely the standard seasonal flu that proves especially dangerous for high-risk patients such as seniors and infants. “Far and away, most patients we are seeing have mild illness and are sent home with common sense instructions: use a fever reducer for comfort, drink fluids, and rest,” Eisman said. “Apple juice and chicken soup recommendations. The public should not panic, nor should they be phobic about fevers.”

In an effort to deal with overcrowded waiting rooms, Pierre-Le Gardeur hospital will close its doors to visitors this weekend. Meanwhile the Jewish General Hospital is launching a one visitor per patient precaution initiative in an effort to limit the spread of infection.

As private health clinics start to feel the burden, Health Minister Yves Bolduc is evaluating a proposal to establish a network of seasonal flu vaccine clinics, similar to those opened during the H1N1 outbreak.

Science & Technology

Music can be your aeroplane, study says

by Todd Chan on

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Those who experience euphoria when listening to their favourite music could be achieving the same pleasure as that which comes from good food, sex, or drugs, a McGill study has found.

In a first in the field, neuroscience researchers at McGill have discovered a connection between the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical known for its rewarding “feel-good” effects, and its musically triggered release. The team, led by neuroscientist Robert Zatorre, found that music is physiologically linked to providing rewards, highlighting the importance of music to individual well-being.

Dopamine release has previously been linked with activities one finds pleasurable or rewarding. Drugs like cocaine are addictive due to their manipulation of the dopamine release system, but music can provide a similar high with none of the destructive health effects. Music was found to elevate dopamine release up to nine per cent, which is slightly higher than the effects of food.

Valorie Salimpoor, the lead investigator for the study at the Montreal Neurological Institute, said music is a “cognitive reward that we can have access to at any time,” and  one that “works on the same regions associated with other addictive substances.”

“Music makes people happy, and this feeling has been linked to other feelings of intense euphoria, like cocaine,” Salimpoor said. Adding that behaviours that are around for this long usually are biologically adaptive, necessary for survival, or evolutionarily significant.

While music may not be essential to survival as a species, it’s a “cognitive and intellectual reward,” Salimpoor said.

“It seems as if our thinking centres are tapping into these reward centres,” she added. “It is just the way you perceive it that makes it pleasurable.”

Is music addictive? Salimpoor doesn’t have a definitive answer, but said, “If it feels good … if dopamine is released, the brain tells you to ‘make sure it happens again.'”

News

In pivotal week for South Sudan, experts discuss future

by Jimmy Lou on

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Matt Essert
Matt Essert

 On Thursday evening, a group of experts debated the possibility of an independent South Sudan on a panel discussion in the Lev Bukhman Room of the Shatner Building.

South Sudan, after six years of democratic self-governance, is seeking to gain its full independence from the rest of Sudan through a referendum held last week. However, the post-independence future for South Sudan remains enigmatic. Should the referendum pass, it’s unclear whether it would be a turning point for South Sudan, or simply an exacerbation of tensions with its neighbours like North Sudan.

At the discussion, the speakers seemed rather optimistic about South Sudan’s future. While fully recognizing the difficulties that lie ahead, they said that Sudan’s potential for progress and stability is significant.

In response to the title of the panel discussion, “An Independent Sudan in 2011,” Douglas Proudfoot, the director of Canada’s Sudan Task Force noted that “the title kind of misses the point … the real issue isn’t whether there is going to be an independent South Sudan or not. The real issue is how do we maintain peace and stability and an environment in which development can take place in Sudan in 2011 and the years that follow.”

Proudfoot later pointed out that Sudan currently has one of the worst Human Development Index scores and highest percentages of maternity deaths in the world. Moreover, Sudan seems to rely wholly on the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations for health care. According to Proudfoot, it’s an unsustainable strategy that needs to be dealt with through increased medical facility funding and more training for medical practitioners. Proudfoot claimed that, with ongoing corruption and political instability, though, the chances of the money being used for these purposes seem slim.

Kyle Matthews, the lead researcher at the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies, pointed to the lack of adequate security and police forces in South Sudan. Matthews cited the town of Juba, where families have been repeatedly  raided, raped, and murdered. The hostage crisis in December is further evidence of Sudan’s instability. The speakers also invoked the possibility that Sudan could relapse into civil war, which would have global consequences.

Despite these problems, though, Proudfoot remained optimistic. He emphasized that South Sudan’s goals don’t implement policies carefully. If there is little resistance to South Sudan’s policies, progress will eventually be made when South Sudan’s government become more mature and stabilized. During this referendum, there has been a considerably lower level of violence than there was during the 2010 election.

While there have been many concerns about oil revenue sharing with North Sudan, Proudfoot said that these challenges could actually force the two regions to work together.

Marie-Joelle Zahar, associate professor of political science and research director for the Francophone Research Network on Peace Operations at the University of Montreal, agreed, saying that despite the country’s past, Sudan can still make substantial progress by learning from  previous mistakes and dedicating more effort to the improvement of civilian education and social institutions.

When asked whether the country will be recognized internationally, Proudfoot did not hesitate to answer “yes”, pointing to the legitimate processes—a comprehensive peace agreement, U.N. approval, and an official referendum—which South Sudan is undergoing to become a country.

McGill, News

New conservative student news source launched Monday

by Sean Wood on

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The year in campus media took perhaps its most interesting turn last Monday with the launch of the Prince Arthur Herald, a new online conservative student newspaper based at McGill.

The website’s political positions, which tend to be libertarian, are articulated in a 25-point Statement of Principles.

 “Our paper supports freedom of the individual, individual choice, and the free market as the most efficient [economic system] and the [one] that respects human dignity the highest [for] the organization of society,” said Editor-in-Chief Brendan Steven, U1 history.

Steven added, however, that the website, which so far has published exclusively opinion pieces, will encourage dialogue, both between different types of conservatives and  more generally between conservatives and liberals. Though most of its 17 columnists have backgrounds in international and domestic politics, there will also be columns on sports, culture, and the pro-life movement.  While many  columnists will have typical conservative leanings of one sort or another, among them are Zach Paikin, who is a former president of the Young Liberals of Canada, and Grace Khare, a board member of Queer McGill.

“Our hope is to engender voices that previously didn’t have a place in campus debate,” Steven said.

The Herald is undeniably a response to the McGill Daily, most explicitly with its formulation of a Statement of Principles, which is one of the Daily’s hallmarks.  Both Daily Coordinating Editor Emilio Comay del Junco and Steven acknowledged the two sources’ opposition.

“Obviously, we do take political positions that [the Herald] disagrees with, and they think there is a general conception that it is a response to the Daily,” del Junco said.

Though del Junco acknowledged a difference of opinion, he indicated that it was important to have a plurality of voices in campus media.

“In some ways it’s kind of unfortunate that it comes out as an opposition because I think there is a lot of space … for that kind of expression to happen,” he said.

The idea for the newspaper was born last semester, and Herald President Kevin Pidgeon, U2 history, began to build the site in December.

Their costs, so far, have been negligible. One of the advantages of the online-only format, they said, was that the students involved could easily foot the bill. For now, the editors and columnists are willing to work without payment. Though they plan to expand their operation in the future, the website will operate on low costs, so it will not have to run advertisements. Pidgeon explained that this was a way to establish an independent image for the Herald.

“One of the absolute classic condemnations of the right is, ‘You’re a mouthpiece for big business,’ and in some cases it’s absolutely true. But our aim is to do absolutely nothing of that sort,” Pidgeon said.

Though the Herald is based at McGill and is primarily staffed by McGill students, the newspaper wants to be read and written by students across Canada.

“Canada, at the end of the day, has elected a Conservative government; a lot of voters vote on conservative political principles,” Steven said. “Clearly in the broader political community there is a place for conservative values, so why not at university?”  

Pidgeon and Steven said that they planned to offer “24/7” coverage, a feature which they claimed distinguishes them from other campus media outlets.  The team of columnists and editors aim to put out between five and six articles a day.   

They have no plans to move to other media yet, but they have considered moving to print in the distant future.

Steven was not shy about his ambitions.

“We want to be Canada’s and McGill’s premier student news source,” he said.

McGill, News

City councillor donates own body

by Maria Flores on

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Former City Councillor Michael Fainstat donated his body to McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in a program that gives students hands-on experience with real bodies. Fainstat, who died at 87 on December 29, was known for his many contributions to the community and decided to make his body the last one.

The Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry have a cadaver-donation program, where over 50 dead bodies are collected each year for purposes of study. A memorial is held every year to give thanks to the family members and friends of those who have donated their bodies.

“It’s a hands-on adventure for [students] for sure. They know what a body looks like in three dimensions, [and] computerized anatomy programs are great, but they’re still not  hands-on,” said Professor Sandra Miller, chair of the anatomy department. “When a human needs surgery you cannot look at it at a distance in a screen, you’ve got to have your hands in [it]. That’s what surgery is.”

When a body is received, it’s properly treated and stored at McGill’s morgue for at least six months until students use it in next fall’s classes.

“Each group of students gets their brand new group of individuals who have died the previous year,” Miller said. “And all over the world where our students go, because of our hands-on experience, they go into the operating room with great confidence.”

The program coordinators reach out to donors by simple word of mouth. Interested individuals complete the required paperwork and carry a card in their wallets stating their interest in donating their body to McGill.

“We need the whole body and the ones that we receive are generally elderly,” said Miller, who explained that most cadavers received die of old age or certain pathologies like Parkinson or cancer, which are acceptable for the program.

“These conditions are not a problem at all,” she said. “In fact, they are quite handy because students see pathologies or pacemakers in these organs and different repair mechanisms in the body. These are learning tools.”

At the end of each academic year, the majority of the bodies are cremated and deposited on a special site at the Mount-Royal Cemetery, where the university has a plaque designated for the program.

“If they are really good, we keep those for exam purposes, and they can last anywhere from five to 10 years, but normally the vast majority are cremated,” said Miller.

On January 9, a commemorative ceremony was held for Fainstat despite the absence of a body. A spokesperson of the Blythe Bernier Funeral House explained that Fainstat’s friends and family members were pleased with the event.

“It is not a happy moment but the ceremony ran smoothly,” said a spokesperson.

Other well-known Montreal figures have participated in the cadaver-donor program in the past, among them a former director of the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“It’s great that he’s done that, but he’s not the only celebrity to have donated his body. There have been a few over the years,” Miller said. “Every single donor is appreciated. Every body is highly valued.”

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