London Veterans Village Unveiling: A New Chapter for Supporting Veterans
Situated at 774 Western Counties Road in London, Ontario, within the grounds of St. Joseph's Health Care London's Parkwood Institute this will be the fourth Veterans' Village developed by Homes For Heroes Foundation. Upon completion, the Veterans' Village will include 25 tiny homes, a resource center, offices for case managers, community gardens, and a recreational area, all designed to promote peer support. Each fully furnished 300-square-foot home is tailored to meet the specific needs of the Veteran residents.
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Toronto Star
25 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Gaza doesn't need empty statements. It needs food, dignity, justice and action — now
By Izzeldin Abuelaish Contributor Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian-Canadian medical doctor was born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip and is an author and professor emeritus, clinical public health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. The images of Gaza tell us everything we need to know: charred children, weeping mothers clutching lifeless infants, fathers burying their children in plastic bags and entire families erased in a single airstrike have been shown repeatedly alongside the long lines of thirsty and hungry people waiting for what will never come. What more must Gaza show for the world to act? It's what countless experts, and a UN special committee have named a genocide. And it's happening in real time, livestreamed on the internet. The world knows and the response from the international community has failed a moral test.
Global News
15 hours ago
- Global News
Addressing fear, hesitancy in the Mennonite community amid Alberta's measles outbreak
Quelling the spread of measles involves immunization campaigns and public health protocols, but Tina Meggison says it also requires sitting down and having an open and honest conversation. That's what she's working to do within the Low German-speaking Mennonite community in Alberta. Meggison has more than a decade of professional — and a lifetime of personal — experience under her belt. Her team of community health representatives with Primary Care Alberta has seen a 25 per cent increase in demand for their services, which include accompanying patients to doctor's appointments and interpreting and answering questions in Low German, since the onset of an outbreak in March. That's about 350 calls per month on average, compared to 285 before the contagious disease spread to 1,656 people in the province. 1:57 More measles cases in Alberta than U.S. Meggison said the rise of people reaching out to the provincial health agency shows an interest to engage in the health-care system, which historically has not always been the case. Story continues below advertisement The next step is taking that outstretched hand and placing knowledge into it. 'We can invite our families to start thinking from a different lens, or see things through a different lens, and maybe start to answer those questions.' Measles in Alberta Health-care hesitancy is rooted in fear for many Low German-speaking Mennonites. Meggison would know. She remembers a public health nurse rolling into her Mexican hometown of Durango on horse-and-buggy with a cooler of vaccines. The nurse told Meggison's mother to line up her 12 children in the yard, asked for their ages, and immunized them, without explanation. 'She didn't know what had been given to her kids. She didn't have the language skills to ask the questions,' Meggison said about her mother, whose primary language was Low German. Her family moved from Durango to Ontario when she was four years old, returned to Mexico more than a decade later, and then to Alberta in 2001. She started accompanying her mother to medical appointments and interpreting for her at 16 years old. 'Unbeknownst to me at that time, I was training for this work,' Meggison said, speaking from Lethbridge, near the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When she started this line of work in an official capacity, she estimates the Low German Mennonite population in Alberta was 15,000. Story continues below advertisement That's since grown to approximately 25,000 to 30,000, based on her organization's last tally. But she says given the transient nature of the population, it's likely an underestimate. 1:59 Learning about Low German Mennonites Many came from Mexico to work the land in Canada. They migrated to Ontario and Manitoba, and from there some made their way to Alberta. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The government had offered religious and educational autonomy in exchange for agricultural labour in the 1870s. But that freedom never materialized, leading some to mistrust and question the government's authority, said Margarita Penner, a newcomer and Low German Mennonite family liaison with Barons-Eureka-Warner Family and Community Support Services based in Taber. Penner said Mennonites settled all over Alberta – from La Crete in the north to 40 Mile County in the south, on the border of Montana. Story continues below advertisement Community health representatives dedicated to the Low German-speaking Mennonite community are currently only based in southern Alberta, with two full-timers based in Taber; Meggison in Lethbridge; and a roster of casuals. The demand has been so high that they boosted their availability from five to seven days a week. And now, Primary Care Alberta is hiring two more in the south, a third in the central health zone, and a fourth in the north. Southern Alberta has 945 measles cases while the north zone has 534, and central has 108. There, 68 per cent of kids had one dose and 56 per cent had two doses of the measles vaccine by age two in 2024, according to the province's figures for southern Alberta. Local breakdowns for the age group show 40 per cent two-dose measles vaccine coverage in Lethbridge, 29 per cent in Taber, and 71 per cent in Medicine Hat. Dr. Joan Robinson, a pediatric infectious diseases physician in Edmonton, said the rest of the province is not much better off. Alberta has an average immunization of 80 per cent with one dose, and 68 per cent with two doses for two-year-olds. Robinson says Alberta's low vaccination rates are due to myriad of factors, including a broader mistrust in the health-care system and a public shift towards misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says people began getting information on immunizations on social media, rather than from medical experts, and began believing that vaccines are harmful. Story continues below advertisement She also says it would be helpful if the Alberta government debunked this belief. Though Edmonton and Calgary have lower case counts than the rest of the province, she points to particular areas within the urban cities that are not much better. 'The highest immunization rate in the whole province is barely over 80 per cent in Provost. It means that every community that measles is introduced into, there's a reasonable chance of more cases,' Robinson said. 'In order to prevent measles, we really do need community immunization rates as high as 95 per cent.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In order to prevent measles, we really do need community immunization rates as high as 95 per cent." Run and hide Meggison said health education starts with identifying misinformation that heightens deeply entrenched fear. She holds focus groups for Low German communities that open the door to seemingly simple, yet controversy-riddled topics, such as, what is measles? What are its long-term consequences? What is in the vaccine that prevents it? 'If you don't know what it is you're preventing … then what is the motivation to prevent it?' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "If you don't know what it is you're preventing … then what is the motivation to prevent it?" This is all done in Low German because many members of the community don't fluently speak or understand English, and don't read or write, making it challenging to access credible information, Meggison said. Story continues below advertisement She shows them places they can source accurate facts, such as a YouTube channel where she hosts videos in Low German on health topics, with some gaining more than 1,000 views. Proudly, she recalls seeing a lightbulb go off for one woman who described an epiphany in one of her recent groups. 'She said, 'I can make decisions for my family, and it doesn't have to be public knowledge. I can make these decisions and not share it with my family members if they ask and I can just say that's my business,'' Meggison said, and described other women nodded in response to this passionate declaration, which strays far from their community's everybody-knows-everything way of life. 'You could see that there was a sense of freedom that came out of that group.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You could see that there was a sense of freedom that came out of that group." Her hope is that conversation will spread within the tight-knit community. 1:47 Saskatoon Mennonite church takes renewable energy approach Needle is neutral Alberta's health-care system has translation services, but the challenge is Low German is not common outside of the community. It holds shared cultural significance, which makes interpretation hard to come by and word choice paramount. Story continues below advertisement Nely Penner, a community health representative in Taber, said the word 'vaccine' was an obvious roadblock to upping measles immunization in southern Alberta. 'When I think of the word vaccine in German, I just think of the history of immunization in Mexico,' Penner, who grew up in a Low German community in Mexico's northern Chihuahua region, said. Though Penner never personally experienced 'vaccine nurses' like Meggison did, similar stories were passed down from her parents and grandparents. 'People didn't understand what they were getting. It was fear-based. People would run and hide to not get these vaccines.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "People didn't understand what they were getting. It was fear-based. People would run and hide to not get these vaccines." To mitigate the negative connotation, she suggested Alberta health providers use the word needle instead. 'Needle is just more neutral,' Penner said. Little changes like this can have a big impact in facilitating a health space that feels safer, acknowledges and validates feelings of mistrust, Penner said. 'When you're getting information, especially sensitive information, you want to be able to trust that person. And so that's such a huge part of what we do.'
Vancouver Sun
15 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Merit expands skin-care offering with first facial cleanser
The news: Merit launches first face cleanser. What you should know: Merit has expanded its Great Skin collection with its first facial cleanser. Dubbed the Great Skin Double Cleanse, the bi-phase formula features a liquid-to-foam texture. 'Great Skin Double Cleanse is a prime example of the Merit philosophy on skin care — that skin care can be work, but having Great Skin doesn't have to be,' says Aila Morin, chief marketing officer (and Canadian) at Merit. 'It's a multi-tasking formula that combines the power of a makeup remover and a cleanser to remove makeup and SPF, with the added benefit of gentle exfoliation, to leave skin feeling soft and smooth. It takes what is normally a two-step process and simplifies it, without sacrificing on efficacy or results.' Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Summarizing the new product as 'two-in-one, effective and comfortable,' Morin notes the product addition has been a longtime coming for the It-girl beauty brand. 'Cleanser is a product that often gets overlooked, but we feel it's the most important step to set you up for great skin, so it's always been on our road map,' she notes. 'When we launched our first skin-care product, Great Skin Serum, in 2021, double cleansing was the norm in skin care. As a brand built on simplifying routines, that multi-step process didn't feel true to us — so we took our time to develop a formula that actually made cleansing easier.' The bi-phase product features ingredients such as oat-derived surfactants, gluconolactone (a polyhydroxy acid), plant humectants, and a lightweight emollient to gently cleanse, exfoliate and soothe skin. With products like the brand's fan-favourite Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick (so good!), Flush Balm blush and awesome beauty bundles already among many beauty fans' favourites, we won't be surprised to see this new cleanser finding fast fans. The price: $44. The retailer: .
