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Canadian science showed its superior ability with viruses long before COVID19.

The National Microbiology Laboratory opened in Winnipeg in 1998, providing a Level 4 (highest) microbiological containment facility. Heinz Feldman, a researcher studying hemorrhagic fevers, joined the new lab. His critical observation that lab mice did not get sick even when exposed to Ebola virus meant that a vaccine for Ebola was possible.

But the world had not yet had an Ebola outbreak and Canadian researchers had trouble getting government funding in the early 2000's.

Nevertheless by 2004 the Winnipeg lab showed that they had a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in lab mice. In 2005 they published a study showing that the vaccine totally protected monkeys against Ebola.

But greater funding was needed to get the vaccine through clinical trials and to devise commercial production methods.

Canada sought help from corporations in the US and signed an agreement with BioProtection Systems Inc., later called NewLink Genetics, to get the vaccine commercialized. Nothing happened and by 2010 funding the Canadian work was at risk. A contract scientist, Judie Alimonti, kept it alive by personal devotion. Canada's National Research Council developed methods for commercial production of the vaccine.

In 2014 Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in west Africa. The political winds changed. Canada donated 800 doses of vaccine to those affected by the outbreak. In the midst of the outbreak Merck bought NewLink for US$ 50 million. Canada's government had put $120 million into the Ebola project.

Canadian science developed the Ebola vaccine that saved thousands of lives in west Africa. Our scientific capability with viruses was globally superior despite being handicapped by political and commercial viewpoints. We need that superior science again now with COVID19 and probably will again in the future.

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 18 March 2020 11:55

KFLA announces first cases of COVID-19

On Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health at KFL&A Public Health confirmed that there are three positive cases of COVID-19 in the KFL&A area.

Two females, 44 and 62 years of age, and one male 48 years of age, all with recent travel history to Spain, Barbados, and the United Kingdom have tested positive for COVID-19. Two of the individuals were seen and assessed at the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Hotel Dieu Hospital, while the third affected individual was assessed at a local hospital. 

All individuals are recovering at home and have been put on self-isolation and are being monitored by KFL&A Public Health.

To protect the health of the public and prevent community spread, KFL&A Public Health is investigating and following up with close contacts.

“I would like to thank our front-line teams for their timely and effective response in taking immediate precautions to ensure these patients are being safely and appropriately cared for and that patients, staff and the community are well protected,” said Dr. Kieran Moore. “Given the spread of this virus globally, over the last few weeks, a case in KFL&A was anticipated and pre-emptive measures were in place for exactly this type of situation. In this case, the health care system worked as intended and through coordinated efforts with our partners, the risk to KFL&A residents remains low.” 

KFL&A Public Health is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Ministry of Health, Public Health Ontario and other local health care providers to monitor the situation and protect the community.

KFL&A Public Health did not disclose where the three patients reside. They could live in Kingston, Frontenac or Lennox and Addington Counties’.

Published in General Interest

Canadas ice stock teams won gold and silver medals at the Ice Stock World Championships that wrapped up this weekend in Regen, Germany. The mens team captured gold with a 20 win - 2 loss record in the 12 team field, going an undefeated 11-0 on the second day of competition. With the gold medal, the men are promoted to Group A at the 2022 World Championships.

The womens team won silver with a 10 win - 2 loss record in their 7 team field and improved on the bronzes that they received in the last two world championships.

This is the most successful world championships ever for Canada said Karl Hammer Jr., President of the South Frontenac Stocksport Club. I was proud to represent and to have five other local athletes competing at that level is an incredible feat given that we resurrected the club just six years ago.

Canada sent a delegation of 13 athletes and coaches to compete in team and individual competitions. Highlights of the results:

Mens Team Gold Medal and World Champions B Group including South Frontenac residents Paul Blais, Karl Hammer Jr. and Mike Osborne

Womens Team Silver Medal B Group including South Frontenac residents Kathy Frenette and Jennifer McNeely

Womens Distance Throwing In this event the goal is to slide the stock as far down the ice as possible and it was a womens event for the first time ever. Jennifer Mayrl of Barrie qualified for the finals in the 30 athlete field and finished 10th overall with a throw of 90 metres.

Mens Distance Throwing Mike Osborne of South Frontenac finished 8th in the B Group field.

Mens Team Target Shooting Team member Paul Blais of South Frontenac finished 5th in the world for his performance in the third element.

South Frontenac resident, Tyler MacComish competed in Team Target Shooting and finished 43rd in individual target shooting.

During Congress meetings held last week, the International Federation of Icestocksport confirmed that Canada will host the 2021 America Cup. That competition is held in the summer months with competitors from across North and South America. By changing the sliding plates on the stock, the sport is playable on asphalt, concrete or similar surfaces. The location of that event is to be determined but the Canadian Federations first choice is the South Frontenac Stocksport Club who are anticipating construction of international-standard lanes later this year, a first in North America

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 19 February 2020 12:53

No, Randy, there was no consensus

On Monday, Randy Hillier decided that it is his obligation, as an independent politician, to speak out by publishing a statement called “Ending the occupation, the Indian Act, and Hypocrisy”

In it, he said nothing about the Wet’suwet’en and the legal status of their claim, but instead talked about how their supporters across the country are responsible for tearing down free speech, distorting our education system, and denigrating the hard-working people who built this country by calling them settlers.

He said a lot of things in his statement. You can read it in full at Randyhillier.com. I disagree with the way he characterises people in it. Instead of engaging with people he disagrees with, he resorts to insults. But that is not why I am responding here.

I will limit this response to one line in his statement. This one:

“My ancestors and the history of Canada demonstrates beyond any doubt that consensus, not conquest, was the relationship between the European settlers and the native Canadians.” 

This is not only untrue, it is dangerous. It denies the reality of residential schools, the establishment of the reserve system, the Indian Act, and all of the genocidal policies of governments, churches and other institutions that persisted in this country for hundreds of years and are the reason why reconciliation is such an important concept in our times.

The idea that “consensus not conquest” characterises the relationship between settlers and Indigenous people in Canada is false. The only consensus was among the settlers, the first nations experienced something else entirely.

Reconciliation is a long-term enterprise. Contrary to what has been written in some newspapers, this national crisis over an isolated piece of land in Northern BC, and all that has happened because of it across the country in recent weeks, is not the end of reconciliation, it is but one moment in a process that cannot be bound by a timeline. It will be done when it is done, and no sooner. If anything, we are learning how hard and time consuming it is going to be.

Randy’s missive is also part of that process, I believe.

It puts a voice to what many people are thinking, and provides an opportunity for a vigorous response.

Published in Editorials

Dear Frontenac News and readers,

Please allow me to respond to the July 24th editorial “One take on the shortage of primary care physicians” by Dr. Emma Cronk. Being a rural family physician myself, I applaud Dr. Cronk’s achievements, concern for her community, and desire to serve the health care needs of her rural community. I am concerned, however, that her years south of the border have led to a careless disregard for facts and a tendency to blame foreigners for our complicated domestic issues.

Dr. Cronk’s letter might lead people to believe that students from Saudi Arabia and other countries are taking up spots in medical schools and/or family medicine programs that would otherwise go to Canadians, but the data simply do not support that. I consulted the publicly available 2018 Canadian Medical Education Statistics produced by The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada to gather information on how many international students are attending Canadian medical schools at the undergraduate level and the post-graduate residency program or fellowship level. The document is 161 pages long, but I’ll share a few interesting facts I discovered.

First, let me address the undergraduate (= medical school) situation. Of the 2,872 new medical students throughout Canada in 2018, only 9 of those students (=0.3%) were not Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Three of those students came from the USA, and six came from elsewhere. Those spots were not “held” for foreign students … they competed for them. Of the 13,635 Canadian students (citizens and permanent residents) who applied for spots in a Canadian medical school in 2018, 19% were admitted. Only 3.4% of the 294 foreign students who applied for spots in Canadian medical schools were admitted. Of all the foreign students currently attending a medical school in Canada as an undergraduate (i.e. as a medical student) there is only one single student from Saudi Arabia here on a student visa. The country most represented in terms of foreign students attending Canadian medical schools on student visas is actually France, with a total of nine students.

Second, let me address the issue of foreign students and international medical graduates (IMGs) at the post-graduate or residency level. It is certainly true that some residency programs reserve spots for IMGs. Among the 1,466 trainees who began a family medicine residency program in 2017, 238 (16.2%) had earned their medical degree outside Canada, just as Dr. Cronk did. It is important to note that 49% of all post-graduate trainees in residency programs or fellowships are actually Canadian citizens or permanent residents who earned their medical degree outside of Canada, and are now returning to complete their training and hopefully practice in Canada. Looking at family medicine programs in particular, only 18 of the 3,514 family medicine trainees (0.5%) in 2018 were not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

The IMGs I trained with in the Queen’s University Family Medicine program were all Canadians, or married to a Canadian, and all planning to practice in Canada. Moreover, acceptance into the family medicine residency program as an IMG is conditional upon signing a “Return of Service” commitment, in which the IMG resident promises to practice in an Ontario for at least five years after completion of their training. They do not take their training and run back to some other country to practice.

Yes, in 2017 there were 1,561 doctors from other countries who came to Canada on student visas for post-graduate training, but they come here to train in specialties such as thoracic surgery (62.5% of trainees), neonatology (56.3%), pediatric general surgery (50%), cardiac surgery (48.6%), and critical care / ICU (45.2%) – not family medicine (0.5%). Yes, in some cases the medical schools receive money from other countries to fund the specialty training of international students. These international funds help to subsidize the cost of training for Canadian students. How is that a bad thing? I think it’s great!

Looking at the actual numbers of international students in medical schools and these various residency training programs, I fail to see how this practice of training international students contributes to the shortage of family doctors in rural areas. I could go on for another few pages about numerous other factors that do contribute to the shortage of family doctors in rural areas, but I will not. I just hope that I have to some extent dispelled the notion that international students are to blame.

To Dr. Cronk, I share your frustrations about our shortage of rural family doctors, and I appreciate how much it pains you that you are not able to step in and fill that need for your community. It is indeed a tragedy that Dr. Cronk is currently unable to live and serve in our area. Perhaps Dr. Cronk’s experience could inform future policy to prioritize excellent candidates who have their heart set on rural family practice.

Sincerely,

Sabra Gibbens MD, CCFP

Family Physician in Verona

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 10:52

Shining Waters re-surfaces

After being passed over during the most recent federal budget, the Shining Waters rail proposal, linking Toronto and Ottawa with stations in Peterborough, Tweed, Sharbot Lake, and Smiths Falls along the way, has new life.

Mariam Monsef, MP for Peterborough and Minister for Gender Equality and International Development, announced on Tuesday (June 25) that the federal government and the Canada Infrastructure Bank are committing $71.1 million in new funding to complete planning activities over two years to advance the VIA rail proposal.

The announcement was made at the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, which is housed in the former Peterborough passenger rail station. A similar announcement was made in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, as the proposed Toronto to Ottawa rail line has been paired with a Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City line that would travel on the north side of the St. Lawrence River through Trois Rivieres.

A map that was printed along with article in the Globe and Mail that broke the news about the funding includes stations in Tweed and Sharbot Lake.

“This project would bring significant economic growth to our community and the affected regions along the corridor,” Monsef said.

The work that is slated to be done using this injection of funds includes consultation with stakeholders and indigenous communities, an examination of the required land and track acquisition, and the completion of the technical, financial, and commercial analysis that is required for a final investment decision.

Monsef added that this new expenditure is a step along a process towards bringing the new rail line to fruition but said “this train has yet to leave the station, but this is the furthest we have ever come on the idea of a passenger train.”

The project itself will cost about $4 billion to complete, $6 billion if the rail cars are fully electric. One of the potential outcomes of the $71 injection of federal dollars is to create enough certainty about the viability of the rail service for it to attract private investment dollars

In the Globe and Mail article, the section of the proposed line that runs between Ottawa and Peterborough is said to “involve reviving a long-abandoned rail line that has since been converted to a recreational trail”.

The advantage of using the trail is that it is simple to acquire, whereas the section between Peterborough and Toronto will require the purchase of an existing Canadian Pacific Rail line.

Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith received a heads up from VIA rail’s communication department about the announcement early this week, and brought the information to a meeting of Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday afternoon.

“This is the first communication I have received from VIA since just after the federal budget came out in April , when it looked like the project did not have much momentum,” Smith said. “That seems to have changed.”

The announcement of funding for rail in Eastern Ontario and Quebec comes about on the second business day after the start of a long summer of election campaigning. The House of Commons rose last week, not to return until after the election.

The Frontenac News has received an unconfirmed report that VIA rail has already looked at locations for a station in the vicinity of Sharbot Lake, and is considering ducking just south of the village rather than following the former rail line which would rumble within metres of the Sharbot Lake Family Health team, the Sharbot Lake beach and the Central Frontenac township office.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

The Green Party is the first national party to name a candidate to attempt to unseat 5-time incumbent Conservative Lanark Frontenac Kingston MP, Scott Reid, in the coming federal election.

The candidate is Stephen Kotze, who operates In Balance, an accounting company specialising in small business and not-for profit corporations out of his home in the tiny hamlet of Elphin. He has a long history in social and environmental activism.

Kotze was one of three Lanark County residents vying for the nomination, and won the nomination in the first round of counting the ranked ballots, at a meeting last Thursday (April 11), at McMartin House in Perth.

The other nominees were Doug Barr, a Tay Valley Township musician and advocate of sustainable living, and Kelvin Hodges, a resident of Perth who owns and runs a solar energy and storage business.

In a telephone interview this week, Kotze said that the other two candidates gave very strong presentations at the meeting.

“They were both very good candidates. I did not feel that confident coming into the vote.”

Kotze was born in South Africa, where his parents were prominent anti-apartheid activists. He moved to Europe when he was a young man and eventually made his way to The Farm, an intentional community in Tennessee.

With his wife Rosemary, he moved to the Elphin-McDonald’s Corners area in the early 1980’s to work at Plenty Canada. The Kotzes worked on a project in Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa, in the mid 1980’s.

In 1994, Stephen became a Canadian citizen. He worked at the Canadian Environmental Network in the mid 1990’s, eventually serving as the Executive Director. He established In Balance in 1998. The Kotzes have 7 children and two grandchildren.

In a telephone interview this week, he said that the Green Party is ready to take a larger role in Canadian politics.

“[Party leader] Elizabeth May has done an incredible job, but she can’t do it all on her own. We need more Green Party members in parliament to help influence policy.”

As to his motivation to seek the party nomination this time around, he pointed to the urgency surrounding climate change.

“We are in a crisis, people realise that and they also realise that our leaders are not responding appropriately,” he said. “The Liberals are floundering. Trudeau has signed the Paris accord, saying thathe takes climate change seriously, but not really, in my opinion, doing very much.”

As a long-time Lanark County resident, Kotze is certainly aware of how entrenched the Conservative Party is in the riding, but sees an opening this time around.

“There are a lot of people who don’t support the Conservatives in this riding, and I want to give them a voice. Scott Reid does a good job representing his constituency but not representing all of the people in this riding. It’s time to get people into power who will represent the broader public.”

He also argues that the greening of the Canadian economy does not mean the end to economic prosperity.

“As Greens, we don’t want our economy to lose jobs just because we are getting rid of fossil fuels. We are interested in maintaining a strong economy. There are things we can do that are concrete and are based in reality. Other countries have led the way in this area, and we need to make changes in order to catch up.”

(Editor’s note – Stephen Kotze provides accounting services for the Frontenac News)

Published in Lanark County

Nikon ambassador Michelle Valberg was supposed to give a talk at GREC Saturday night, showing off her wildlife photographs.

However, with the weather calling for freezing rain and a flight scheduled for 6am to photograph Canada’s reindeer herd, Valberg had to beg off.

Luckily, the guy responsible for (almost) bringing her to Sharbot Lake has also taken quite a few wildlife photos, and it’s likely the insights he brought to the genre exceeded what a pure photographer might have had.

Gray Merriam, PhD, Dsc, Professor Emeritus, Landscape Ecologist, knows a thing or two about critters and the way they interact with their environment, and the audience didn’t seem to mind him filling in at the last minute.

“I used to do ecological research and live only 18 kilometers from Sharbot Lake,” he said.

Merriam’s lecture featured four photo shoots — polar bears in ‘Bear Town’ near Churchill, Manitoba, grizzly bears in Knight Inlet, B.C., ‘spirit’ bears in the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C. and painted hunting dogs in Botswana, Africa.

He began with polar bears.

“There are polar bear alert signs in the area,” he said. “A boulder covered in snow and a polar bear look quite similar but stepping on one gets very different results.”

He said the bears come ashore when the sea ice melts and they’re stuck there until it reforms, with very little to eat, so photographers have to load into a specialized ‘bear buggy’ to mingle with them.

“The time between the ice melting and reforming is getting longer and there’s not much food for the bears except seaweed,” he said. “It has very little nutritive value, except for something to chew on.”

He also had several shots of arctic foxes.

“They’re about the size of a large housecat,” he said. “The red foxes are moving north and are about twice the size of the arctic foxes.

“They prey on them.”

Next came the grizzlies of Knight Island.

“They’re having litters of three and four, which is the best indication that they’re doing well,” he said.

He said that “their ability to catch fish varies greatly” and the ones that are really good at it tend to eat only the “best parts — the roe and brains.” The bears that aren’t that good at fishing scoop up what’s left and drag them off into the woods.

“In this way they fertilize the forest,” he said.

Then came the highlight of the lecture — the Kermode bears, or spirit bears.

“These bears only exist on two islands,” he said. “They’re actually black bears with a genetic difference in that there’s no pigment in their hair.

“They’re not albinos as they do have pigment in their eyes.

“We were very lucky. Lots of people go there and never see a spirit bear. We got our fair share.”

Merriam finished up his talk with photos of the painted dogs of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

“They have various patterns,” he said. “No two are ever alike.

“They’re about the size of a German shepherd, but with no body fat because they run all day, every day.”

He showed pictures of pups nipping at adults’ lips to make them regurgitate food for the pups as well as a number of other species in the area including leopards, crocodiles, lions, a serval, hippos, a bush baby and elephants.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

Fifty years from now, on Canada Day, South Frontenac residents will gather at Centennial Park in Harrowsmith to dig up a piece of their past.

Actually, what they’ll be digging up is a squat metal cylinder. And in that cylinder will be messages and memorabilia from 50 years in the past, ie 2017.

Yes, the cylinder is a time capsule, the brainchild of Amanda Pantrey, a summer student the South Frontenac Rec department.

“This is just my little idea to celebrate Canada 150,” she said. “It will be buried in Centennial Park, which was built for Canada’s 100th birthday.

“The capsule is being buried for Canada’s 150th birthday and it will be opened on Canada’s 200th birthday.”

The capsule itself was constructed by D. M. Welding in Inverary. The official deadline for submissions is Dec. 21 but it won’t be sealed until after something from the New Year’s Eve celebration is added.

And while they haven’t quite finished inventorying everything that’s going into the capsule, Pantrey said the idea is to show “what life was like in South Frontenac in 2017 and how much pride we have in our community.”

For example, she said, the rec committees have each submitted something, as did the 150 Road Rally and other events such as the Battersea Pumpkin Festival (of which Pantrey is the chair). Mayor Ron Vandewal is writing a letter to his counterpart in 2067 and each of the schools combined to send a special greeting.

“Students at each of the six elementary schools formed a letter in the word ‘Canada,’” she said. “Then we got an aerial drone to photograph it.

“Then, the high school spelled out ‘150.’

“It’s really cool.”

Even South Frontenac Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth is getting in on the act.

“What we have here is a map of the various districts showing the first curbside garbage pickup routes,” Segsworth said. “And we have plastic bag tags, which were the first ones we used.

“Each district had a different coloured plastic tag and we had to change the colours every year because the tags were only good for the year they were issued.

“Who knows what they’ll be doing with their waste in 2067?”

Pantrey said her job was relatively easy because the community rallied around the project.

“People are in good spirits about it,” she said.

She said she really hasn’t had time to think about when the capsule is opened or even what she might personally put in it.

“I think I may put in my turkey (hunting) tag from this year,” she said. “The one I didn’t fill.”

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 13 December 2017 12:10

Canada 150 Finale

Canada 150 Finale

 

Canada’s Sesquicentennial is drawing to a close and the people of Central Frontenac should congratulate themselves for having staged a great year. We have marked the occasion with some truly memorable projects.

 

Each of our community institutions has come through with something special - a heritage video at Parham Fair, special demonstrations by the Arden Fire Department, a Trail day at the Railway Heritage Park in Sharbot Lake and commemorative public benches where we can enjoy our beautiful surroundings. The area’s churches held special services (indoors and out) and supported community events such as the Giving Thanks Dinner. The lake associations got into the act with flotillas on Kennebec, Horseshoe and Long Lakes and tree planting projects on Eagle Lake and Sharbot. And the Frontenac Heritage Festival had a distinctly 150 flavour this year. The Recreation committees made a special contribution to the year with a host of programs in Arden, a fantastic Canada Day in Sharbot Lake and a great Canada 150 float in the Parham Santa Claus parade.

 

Credit for some of the best projects has to go to the individuals who inspired them – Diane Lake’s 150 stories of 150 women, Virgil Garrett’s goal of 150 (now over 200) visitors to his grandfather clocks, Janet Gutowski’s display of 150 quilts and Jim MacPherson and friends with 150 Canadian songs on quiet evenings in the Oso Park. This one grew into a great evening of Canadian music at GREC – Covering Canada – with profits going to the school music program.

 

Rural Frontenac Community Services, The Child Centre, supported a focus on youth by partnering with Shabot Obaadjiwan and North Frontenac Little Theatre, in the first case for the Strawberry Moon Festival and the second for a picnic and workshop in the park. The Little Theatre also provided a great next-to-last Canada 150 event with this year’s fall production of Sunshine Sketches of Our Little Town - a delightful retrospective of our community and the wonderful things that happen in it especially those in celebration of our nation’s 150th Birthday.

 

The Legions started the year with a New Years Day levee in the Arden branch and will end it with a New Years Eve ball to be held in the Sharbot Lake branch. This final event of the year will be a traditional New Year’s Eve party with food, dancing, decorations and door prizes. It is jointly sponsored by the Legion branch and by the District #3 Rec committee. Profits will be divided between the two groups – the Legion share going to meals for shut-ins and the Rec Committee share to the rink project. One special activity will be a draw for the Canada 150 quilt shown in the picture. A few tickets are still available for the dance. They can be purchased at Gray’s Grocery or either Legion Branch. Quilt tickets can be purchased by calling Rosemarie Bowick at 613 279-3341.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
With the participation of the Government of Canada