Many Women in Canada's Pension and Retirement System Are FallingThrough the Cracks

By NEIL SCOTT, Postmedia News

A disproportionate number of women are falling through the many cracks in Canada's pension and retirement system, delegates at a conference in Regina were told Thursday.

Barb Byers, a vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) as well as former president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, said major reforms are needed to the pension system to benefit both men and women.

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Canadian Residential Care Facilities Statistics

The term "residential care facilities" refers to facilities with four beds or more that are funded, licensed or approved by provincial/territorial departments of health and/or social services. This report focuses on homes for the aged, facilities for persons with mental disorders and other facilities which provide health or social care. Facilities for the aged include homes for the aged, nursing homes, lodges for senior citizens and rest homes. Certain facilities such as apartments or other homes for seniors not providing any level of care were not included. Facilities for persons with mental disorders include facilities for the psychiatrically disabled, developmentally delayed, emotionally-disturbed children and centres for those with drug/alcohol problems. Some psychiatric institutions are included here. Other residential care facilities include those for persons with physical disabilities, for delinquents, for transients and facilities that do not fit in any of the other categories.

History Note
The survey data were published unadjusted for non-response for the period from the 1984/1985 fiscal year to the 1993/1994 fiscal year. This new publication includes data adjusted for non-response for all fiscal years since 1984/1985, except 1994/1995 and 1995/1996, for which no publishable data are available. CANSIM data include correction for non-response for all years. To maintain comparability with published data, few changes were made in the historical data for the period from 1984/1985 to 1993/1994. However, a number of homes for the aged that had erroneously been included with residential care facilities in Alberta were removed from the data for all periods.

CANSIM data
Free access to the data is provided through a special CANSIM interface. The CANSIM tables can be linked directly from three different locations in the HTML product:
Tables section:
• Related CANSIM tables
• Individual tables, in the Source
Related products section:
• Selected CANSIM tables from Statistics Canada

Doctors back 'right to die'

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By KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette

Euthanasia is already a reality in Quebec hospitals, the president of the federation of Quebec medical specialists, told a National Assembly committee yesterday.

Doctors know when death is "imminent and inevitable," Gaétan Barrette explained.

But doctors are aware they can be charged with murder if they administer a "palliative sedative" before a patient is on his or her last breath.

Geoffrey Kelley, chairman of the committee, explained that MNAs will hear about 30 expert witnesses on "dying with dignity" to prepare a paper for a travelling public consultation this fall.

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Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia in Canada

from Executive Summary:

Rising Tide: the Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society is the final report of an Alzheimer Society project funded by Pfizer Canada, Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Rx&D. The purpose of the report was to:

* Estimate the health and economic burden of dementia in Canada over the next 30 years;
* Analyze the possible effects of intervention scenarios upon this burden;
* Demonstrate how the proposed interventions could affect the health and economic impacts of dementia in Canada;
* Review policy options;
* Make recommendations on how to address the issue.

The Findings of Rising Tide
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Gender-Based Analysis of Elder Abuse

The Public Health Agency of Canada has a new Elder Abuse E-bulletin, a quarterly e-newsletter for those interested in addressing and preventing the abuse of older adults in Canada. This e-bulletin is produced by PHAC, as part of its role under the Federal Elder Abuse Initiative (FEAI), in an effort to facilitate and enhance knowledge sharing among key stakeholders on the progress and achievements of PHAC's elder abuse activities*. It is also an opportunity to highlight other initiatives, recognizing the multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary nature of a public health approach, which includes consideration of prevention, detection and intervention strategies and their impacts on the determinants of health.

The first edition includes information on gender-based analysis of elder abuse, updates from Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments,resource information, and research. The next edition will be published in February 2010.

For more information on the Government of Canada’s elder abuse initiatives, visit seniors.gc.ca or call 1-800-O-Canada (1-800-622-6232). For people using a teletypewriter device (TTY), call 1-800-926-9105.
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