Gardening expert Donna Balzer had her eyes opened to native plants when a group of tourists she was travelling with discovered Canada’s humble foxtail and fell in love with it. Credit: donnabalzer.com Spring is coming. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that…
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Home and community care services can improve health and reduce costs, yet governments often fail to recognize their importance. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus the deep-seated challenges facing older Canadians. We’ve witnessed policy gaps in health care…
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Licensed practical nurse Anita Dickson speaks with authority and knowledge about public and private seniors care in British Columbia and she works hard to make change. The high COVID-19 infection rate, heavy death toll and traumatic stories coming out…
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Nishika Jardine, the first woman to become veterans ombudsman, plans to help veterans, particularly Aboriginal veterans, be heard. It was a fine, warm summer day in 2010 when Nishika Jardine, at the time a lieutenant-colonel, relinquished command of the…
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Burd Sisler, a Second World War veteran and career customs officer, has been retired longer than he worked. Burd Sisler has seen it all. Sometimes in duplicate. He was born during the First World War and served in the…
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Residents have different rights across the country, so why are those rights routinely violated? COVID-19 has highlighted the challenges in facilities that care for the infirm elderly and officials “have much to consider to shore up the cracks in…
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Simon Coakeley had the perfect combination of passion and experience to lead Federal Retirees. Now he’s moving on to the Canadian Bar Association. Simon Coakeley, it seems, is not very good at retiring. After leaving a 30-year federal public…
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Bernice and John Klassen moved from the suburbs to a townhome-style condo in downtown Ottawa. They say if they didn’t have a cottage, they could easily live without a car. Back in his suburban homeowner days, John Klassen had…
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The Canadian narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic has quickly become focused on the country’s failure to protect its older adult population. With an overwhelming 81 per cent of COVID-19-related deaths occurring in long-term care homes (LTCH) during the first…
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New Brunswick, British Columbia and Saskatchewan all had provincial elections this autumn. Here’s how they protected their voters and their democracies. A snap election, over the shortest possible period, during a global pandemic. It sounds like a recipe for…
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Veterans Affairs Canada must make sure all veterans are accounted for in its research. The genesis and evolution of government policies and programs is shrouded in mystery for most Canadians. Policies and programs can be implemented for political reasons,…
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How does the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affect pension indexation and what impacts can we expect to see in the long term? Every year, indexation is applied to members’ and survivors’ pensions. The indexation amount is calculated by using the…
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