Latest news with #Price
Hamilton Spectator
11 hours ago
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
Son of woman who inspired assisted dying law chooses to die on his own terms
OTTAWA - Price Carter is planning to die this summer. The 68-year-old has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He knows it will take his life eventually; before it does, he intends to die on his own terms with his family at his side. 'I was told at the outset, 'This is palliative care, there is no cure for this.' So that made it easy,' he said in an interview from his home in Kelowna, B.C. Carter said he's always known that medical assistance in dying would be an option 'that I would exercise if I could, if needed to.' He has that option, in large part, because of his mother. Kay Carter's name is on the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that gave Canadians the right to choose a medically assisted death just over a decade ago. Price has finished a first assessment and said he expects the second assessment deeming him eligible for the procedure to be completed this week. He spoke openly and calmly about his final days and his decision to end his life. 'I'm at peace with this, I truly am, and I would have been years ago,' he said. It's been nearly a year since he first started experiencing symptoms and got a diagnosis. Until a couple of months ago, he said, he was swimming and rowing. He and his wife Danielle went golfing recently, playing best ball. 'She dragged me down that course,' he said with a laugh. But his energy is starting to fade. He knows how he wants the next step to unfold. It was more than 15 years ago that Price, along with his sisters Marie and Lee and his brother-in-law Hollis, surreptitiously made their way to Switzerland to be with their mother on her final day. The 89-year-old was living with spinal stenosis and chose to go to a non-profit facility that provided medically assisted death. She became the 10th Canadian to do so. At the time, assisted death was illegal in Canada. Kay Carter wrote a letter explaining her decision and her family helped draft a list of about 150 people to send it to after she died. She couldn't tell them her plans in advance because of the risk that Canadian authorities would try to stop her from going to Switzerland, or prosecute the family members who helped her. When she got to the Dignitas facility, she finalized the paperwork, settled in a bed and chased down the barbiturate that would stop her heart with Swiss chocolate. 'When she died, she just gently folded back,' Price said. After a few minutes, one of the attendants from the facility walked over to the door, 'and the curtains billow out, and she says, 'There, her spirit is free,'' he said. 'If I was writing the movie, I wouldn't change that.' He said the memory makes him cry today, though not from sadness. The cancer, and the treatment, have made him emotional — the experience itself was beautiful. 'I wish for my children that they can see my death like I did my mom's,' he said. He said wants his wife, Danielle, and his kids to be there. His children — Lane, Grayson and Jenna — live in Ontario. They're all busy, he said, so when the time is right he'll try to find a date that works for everyone. For now, he's doing a lot of reading. 'I'm just gonna keep hanging on, day by day, and enjoying my Danielle.' The Carter family had a long road after Kay's death in January 2010. Her eldest daughter Lee was the driving force behind taking the case to the Supreme Court, which issued a unanimous decision in early 2015 that struck down sections of the Criminal Code that made it illegal to help someone end their life. In 2016, the federal government passed legislation that created the country's regime for medical assistance in dying and made it legal for people whose deaths were 'reasonably foreseeable' to apply for an assessment. After a 2019 ruling in the Quebec Superior Court found it was unconstitutional to restrict assisted dying to people whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable, the Liberal government updated the law in 2021. That update included a controversial clause that would allow people suffering solely from a mental disorder to be considered eligible for an assisted death. The proposed change caused widespread worry among provinces and some mental health professionals, and has now been delayed until March 2027. In the meantime, Health Canada has been studying what Canadians think of allowing people to ask for medical assistance in dying through an advance request. Advance requests would allow people with Alzheimer's, dementia, or other degenerative conditions to make the application and decide when they'd like to end their lives. Price Carter said that change 'is such a simple thing to do.' 'We're excluding a huge number of Canadians from a MAID option because they may have dementia and they won't be able to make that decision in three or four or two years. How frightening, how anxiety-inducing that would be,' he said. He admitted to feeling frustrated at the pace of change, though he said he knows his 'laissez-faire' attitude toward death is uncommon. Helen Long, the president of Dying With Dignity Canada, said numerous federal consultations have shown there's broad support for advance requests dating back to 2016. 'We're continuing to advocate and ask our new government … to make advance requests legal for Canadians,' she said. Quebec has passed legislation to allow people with serious and incurable illnesses to apply for a medically assisted death in the event that they become incapacitated through an advance request. Marjorie Michel, who was recently named health minister in Prime Minister Mark Carney's new government, said in an interview that it's a question of balance. 'It's so personal for people, and I think in some provinces they are not there yet,' she said. But when asked if the government plans to allow advance requests, she deferred to her colleague in the Justice Department. A spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Michel would be best positioned to respond. Health Canada is set to release a report with the key findings from its consultations on the matter this spring. Medical assistance in dying is becoming more common in Canada. In 2023, the latest year for which national statistics are available, 19,660 people applied for the procedure and just over 15,300 people were approved. More than 95 per cent of those were people whose deaths were considered reasonably foreseeable. Price Carter said he wants to talk about his condition because he wants Canadians to talk about death, as uncomfortable as it is. 'The more conversations we can spawn around kitchen tables, the better,' he said. 'We're all going to die. It's part of the condition of living. And yet we do ignore this, to our peril.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. 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Winnipeg Free Press
11 hours ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Son of woman who inspired assisted dying law chooses to die on his own terms
OTTAWA – Price Carter is planning to die this summer. The 68-year-old has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He knows it will take his life eventually; before it does, he intends to die on his own terms with his family at his side. 'I was told at the outset, 'This is palliative care, there is no cure for this.' So that made it easy,' he said in an interview from his home in Kelowna, B.C. Carter said he's always known that medical assistance in dying would be an option 'that I would exercise if I could, if needed to.' He has that option, in large part, because of his mother. Kay Carter's name is on the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that gave Canadians the right to choose a medically assisted death just over a decade ago. Price has finished a first assessment and said he expects the second assessment deeming him eligible for the procedure to be completed this week. He spoke openly and calmly about his final days and his decision to end his life. 'I'm at peace with this, I truly am, and I would have been years ago,' he said. It's been nearly a year since he first started experiencing symptoms and got a diagnosis. Until a couple of months ago, he said, he was swimming and rowing. He and his wife Danielle went golfing recently, playing best ball. 'She dragged me down that course,' he said with a laugh. But his energy is starting to fade. He knows how he wants the next step to unfold. It was more than 15 years ago that Price, along with his sisters Marie and Lee and his brother-in-law Hollis, surreptitiously made their way to Switzerland to be with their mother on her final day. The 89-year-old was living with spinal stenosis and chose to go to a non-profit facility that provided medically assisted death. She became the 10th Canadian to do so. At the time, assisted death was illegal in Canada. Kay Carter wrote a letter explaining her decision and her family helped draft a list of about 150 people to send it to after she died. She couldn't tell them her plans in advance because of the risk that Canadian authorities would try to stop her from going to Switzerland, or prosecute the family members who helped her. When she got to the Dignitas facility, she finalized the paperwork, settled in a bed and chased down the barbiturate that would stop her heart with Swiss chocolate. 'When she died, she just gently folded back,' Price said. After a few minutes, one of the attendants from the facility walked over to the door, 'and the curtains billow out, and she says, 'There, her spirit is free,'' he said. 'If I was writing the movie, I wouldn't change that.' He said the memory makes him cry today, though not from sadness. The cancer, and the treatment, have made him emotional — the experience itself was beautiful. 'I wish for my children that they can see my death like I did my mom's,' he said. He said wants his wife, Danielle, and his kids to be there. His children — Lane, Grayson and Jenna — live in Ontario. They're all busy, he said, so when the time is right he'll try to find a date that works for everyone. For now, he's doing a lot of reading. 'I'm just gonna keep hanging on, day by day, and enjoying my Danielle.' The Carter family had a long road after Kay's death in January 2010. Her eldest daughter Lee was the driving force behind taking the case to the Supreme Court, which issued a unanimous decision in early 2015 that struck down sections of the Criminal Code that made it illegal to help someone end their life. In 2016, the federal government passed legislation that created the country's regime for medical assistance in dying and made it legal for people whose deaths were 'reasonably foreseeable' to apply for an assessment. After a 2019 ruling in the Quebec Superior Court found it was unconstitutional to restrict assisted dying to people whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable, the Liberal government updated the law in 2021. That update included a controversial clause that would allow people suffering solely from a mental disorder to be considered eligible for an assisted death. The proposed change caused widespread worry among provinces and some mental health professionals, and has now been delayed until March 2027. In the meantime, Health Canada has been studying what Canadians think of allowing people to ask for medical assistance in dying through an advance request. Advance requests would allow people with Alzheimer's, dementia, or other degenerative conditions to make the application and decide when they'd like to end their lives. Price Carter said that change 'is such a simple thing to do.' 'We're excluding a huge number of Canadians from a MAID option because they may have dementia and they won't be able to make that decision in three or four or two years. How frightening, how anxiety-inducing that would be,' he said. He admitted to feeling frustrated at the pace of change, though he said he knows his 'laissez-faire' attitude toward death is uncommon. Helen Long, the president of Dying With Dignity Canada, said numerous federal consultations have shown there's broad support for advance requests dating back to 2016. 'We're continuing to advocate and ask our new government … to make advance requests legal for Canadians,' she said. Quebec has passed legislation to allow people with serious and incurable illnesses to apply for a medically assisted death in the event that they become incapacitated through an advance request. Marjorie Michel, who was recently named health minister in Prime Minister Mark Carney's new government, said in an interview that it's a question of balance. 'It's so personal for people, and I think in some provinces they are not there yet,' she said. But when asked if the government plans to allow advance requests, she deferred to her colleague in the Justice Department. A spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Michel would be best positioned to respond. Health Canada is set to release a report with the key findings from its consultations on the matter this spring. Medical assistance in dying is becoming more common in Canada. In 2023, the latest year for which national statistics are available, 19,660 people applied for the procedure and just over 15,300 people were approved. Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. More than 95 per cent of those were people whose deaths were considered reasonably foreseeable. Price Carter said he wants to talk about his condition because he wants Canadians to talk about death, as uncomfortable as it is. 'The more conversations we can spawn around kitchen tables, the better,' he said. 'We're all going to die. It's part of the condition of living. And yet we do ignore this, to our peril.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025.
North Wales Live
12 hours ago
- Automotive
- North Wales Live
The mysterious loss of historic road feature that helped change North Wales forever
Still standing proud, if slightly neglected, are 82 stone monoliths along the route of a road that marked the birth of modern North Wales. Thomas Telford's A5 trunk road was a masterpiece of engineering crowned by the the world's first major suspension bridge linking Anglesey and Gwynedd. While the bridge's 200th anniversary will be celebrated in style, if belatedly, next year, the fate of other road elements have faded into genteel obscurity. Among them are its silent sentinels, the stone markers which counted off the 243 miles between London and Holyhead. Less charismatic than bridges, staging inns or tollhouses, they were nevertheless vital components of a modernised transport system that suddenly made the UK a much smaller place. In North Wales, an exhaustive study by a retired college lecturer has confirmed that 82 Telford milestones are still standing today. There's just one problem: there should be 83. The mystery of the missing milestone has taxed the patience of 76-year-old John Price. Having spend six-years researching Telford's North Wales milestones, he's been left frustrated by the absence of one that should be standing in Holyhead, Anglesey. 'This stone can't have just vanished,' he said. 'It weighs over 250lb and measures about 6ft long. These historic markers, placed during Thomas Telford's construction of the London to Holyhead road, are protected by law and serve as tangible reminders of our rich past.' Prior to retirement Mr Price, from Glan Conwy, was chief design engineer at Quinton Hazel Automotive in Mochdre. Before that he was senior lecturer in computing technology at Coleg Menai Bangor. Both specialisms were harnessed in his pursuit of Telford's A5 milestones and others across North Wales. It began when he spotted Milestone No. 45 in Betws-y-Coed, Conwy. Was it the only one left, he wondered. Using old Victorian Ordnance Survey map and cross-referencing known sites with Google Earth and Google Maps, he initially established that most milestones on the region's roads had 'poor survival rates'. There were two exceptions – the A545 Menai Bridge to Beaumaris road, where all five milestones are still present, and Telford's A5 road. As many were hidden behind hedges and shrubbery, some foot slogging was needed to confirm their existence. 'It wasn't difficult to find them,' said Mr Price. 'They're all a mile apart, so once you've found one....' One A5 milestone remained elusive. This was Milestone No. 2, whose inscription read, 'Holyhead 2 Bangor 23'. As its name suggests, it was the second on the route from Holyhead harbour – point zero was midway along the Irish Mail Jetty where mail was once transferred to ships under armed guard. Stepping back one mile from here, Milestone No. 1 can be found on London Road. The next one should be near Penrhos beach, except it isn't. Instead the space is occupied by the giant footprint created by Rio Tinto's Anglesey Aluminium plant, built around 1970. 'Its location, estimated from the 1888-1913 OS map, places it where the buildings were erected,' said Mr Price. 'The last person to have seen it may have been a JCB driver. "Yet it's is highly unlikely the stone was simply discarded - someone must know what happened to it. Does anyone remember seeing the milestone being moved or removed? 'Perhaps it stills exist somewhere nearby – in storage, on private land or in someone's garden? Do any former Anglesey Aluminium workers, contractors, or former Anglesey Council employees recall what may have happened to the milestone during construction?' Anyone who can help Mr Price complete his quest, and so preserve an important element of the region's heritage, can contact him via email on TelfordMilestones@ A clue to what might have happened can be found in a Denbighshire pub. Mounted on the wall near the entrance is what Mr Price and others suspect is the original cast iron plate from a milestone. A replacement plate has since been fitted to the milestone itself. 'You can see the damage, where the stone was broken to insert a pry bar behind the cast iron plate for removal,' said Mr Price. 'The plates were inset into the stones to make them more difficult to remove. Steel pegs or nails secured the plates, likely driven into lead-sleeved holes.' There's no suggestion, he added, that the pub is aware of the plate's provenance. The A5 milestones were designed by Telford himself and made from limestone quarried from near Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey. This was the same source for some of the stone used for both bridges across the Menai Strait as well as Admiralty Arch on Salt Island, Holyhead. Recognising their historical importance, some years ago the Welsh Government undertook work to preserve the A5 milestones. Hence some cast iron plates displaying place names and distances are not originals – nor indeed are the milestones themselves. Somehow, said Mr Price, Holyhead's Milestone No. 2 was overlooked by the restoration project. 'Maybe Grade 11 listed protection was not in force when the aluminium plant was being constructed?' he sighed. As well as vandalism, Telford's milestones have faced two other less obvious threats. Over the years, some have shrunk in height. Extensive road resurfacing over two centuries has seen the ground rise around them, making them now appear much smaller. An exception is No. 27 at Tal-y-Bont near Bangor, still standing 4.5ft above ground level. Another insidious threat has been the adoption of modern machinery by farmers and highways managers. Years of roadworks, and grass and hedge cutting, has seen many milestones slowly whittled away by accidental contact. Almost too late for protection is a damaged milestone on the A470 by the Waterloo Bridge in Betws-y-Coed. Having been hacked away, and now missing its inscription, it cuts a forlorn figure by the roadside. To prevent further damage, Mr Price suggests two solutions. One involves setting small coloured squares into adjacent kerbs or road gutters – this would clearly indicate the locations of milestones absorbed by shrubbery. The other is more drastic: concreting a square metre or so around vegetation-obscured stones. This should leave advancing hedge-cutter operators in little doubt of their presence. 'Historic milestones are protected by law,' said Mr Price. 'But ways of preventing them from becoming damaged by machinery and roadworks are clearly lacking.' Better preserved are perhaps the least celebrated examples of Telford's A5 ingenuity. Along the route are 300 alcoves – roadside recesses used for storing road repair materials such as stones, gravel and grit. The grit was also available to spread on snow and ice during severe weather - particularly relevant in places like the Nant Ffrancon Pass, where some good examples can be seen. The alcoves are usually 16ft long and are either rectangular or semi-circular. Mr Price said they were sited with typical exactness. 'They were located on the side of the road that gave them maximum sunlight, thus keeping the gravel drier and less likely to get frozen,' he said. Having taken a deep dive into the A5's engineering, infrastructure and logistics, he remains in awe of its achievement and robustness. To document his findings, he's compiled a database of A5 milestones. It was recently published online, an excellent resource for anyone with an interest in local history. You can find it here. In its introduction, he wrote: 'To support the mail service from London to Holyhead, a journey that took 27 hours, teams of four horses were changed at approximately every 12 miles. 'The mail coaches in particular travelled not only by day but also in the dark of night, aided only by oil lamps affixed to the coaches, and in all weathers; nothing could be allowed to delay the mail, which was the basis of all distant communication in those days." He continued: 'The system was so well-organised and efficient that as a mail coach approached a toll gate its post-horn was sounded. Toll-keepers who delayed the mail by failing to open the gate promptly were fined. 'Stagecoach travel was fraught with danger – not only from tragic accidents but also deliberate acts of sabotage, such as tree branches or farm gates placed in the road to trip the horses. Vandalism is not just a modern day occurrence.' As well as mail coaches, passing the milestones would have been horse riders, horse-drawn carriages and scores of people on foot. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Mr Price added: "It is not hard to imagine today, as we pass these mostly highly visible milestones as we travel on the A5, the passengers in the stagecoaches glancing at the milestones as they ticked off the miles on what was said by many to be a very tedious journey."
New Indian Express
14 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Steps taken for smooth Fair Price shop services in Andhra Pradesh
VIJAYAWADA: With all the arrangements completed for the resumption of ration distribution through Fair Price Shops (FPS) across the State from June 1, the traditional public distribution model is set to make a comeback and end the reign of the Mobile Dispensing Units (MDUs). The Civil Supplies Department has conducted successful trial runs and service camps to ensure dealers and infrastructure are fully equipped. Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar, accompanied by Commissioner Saurabh Gaur, inspected the trial run and reviewed preparedness for the rollout. This strategic shift follows growing dissatisfaction with the MDU system due to irregular deliveries, technical glitches, and significant operational costs, nearly Rs 385 crore annually. Beneficiaries often faced difficulties locating MDU vehicles, resulting in missed rations and inconvenience, particularly in rural and low-connectivity areas. The reinstated FPS model is designed to be more accessible and accountable. Ration shops will now operate daily, including Sundays, from 8 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 8 pm, with distribution scheduled between the 1st and 15th of each month. To enhance convenience and equity, the government has arranged for doorstep delivery of rations between June 1 and 5 to senior citizens above 65 years, persons with disabilities, and elderly couples. Beneficiaries who have relocated to other areas can avail themselves of rations from any FPS under the portability system.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Shoal Creek flooding a north Austin park this week actually wasn't a bad thing; here's why
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Shoal Creek flooded on Wednesday evening when Austin was hit by severe storms that brought damaging winds, large hail, and localized flooding to an approximately 10-mile stretch of town. During the storm, part of Beverly Sheffield Northwest District Park was overtaken by floodwaters from nearby Shoal Creek. But that's not a bad thing; it's actually decades-old flood mitigation plans at work. NWS survey team confirms long-track microburst hit Austin metro According to the city of Austin, Beverly Sheffield Northwest District Park serves a 'dual purpose.' 'During dry weather, the area is a district park. During wet weather, the area holds stormwater to reduce flood risk to properties along Shoal Creek,' the city's website explained. When there's heavy rainfall, once the creek's flow hits a certain threshold, water will enter the park near the tennis courts. As water levels rise in the creek, they rise in the park, and as the amount of water in the creek decreases, the water in the park starts draining through two outflow pipes. One is near the duck pond and the other is near the south parking lot by the baseball field, per the city's website. Austin created a warning system after 1981 Memorial Day flood, here's how it works The dam and detention pond at Beverly Sheffield Northwest District Park were built in 1986 following what Henry Price, a supervising engineer with the Austin Watershed Department, called a devastating flood on Memorial Day in 1981. He explained how the park's flood mitigation works. 'If we were just going to make it simple, after a response to a storm event, you know, the spillway starts engaging when we have about 4,000 cubic feet per second of flow in the creek. And so when you think about a cubic foot per second, if you thought about a basketball, and you had 4,000 basketballs flowing down Shoal Creek every second, that's when water would start coming into the park,' Price explained. 'And we anticipate that that happens, you know, like during the 10-year event, or there's a 10% chance that that happens every year.' That detention pond captures and holds water that would otherwise stay in Shoal Creek and likely flood homes and other structures immediately downstream of the park, Price explained. Price said the park sometimes suffers as a result of mitigating flooding, but the trade-off is that residential areas nearby are spared. 'We had a pretty significant flooding event in 2015 on Memorial Day,' Price said. 'Water came into the park, similar to what we saw this week. There were some of the park facilities that were damaged, but it was pretty minor, and the Parks Department was able to kind of get the park back up online relatively soon after that, but it did help spare the downstream neighborhood [from] having water in their houses and things like that.' 'Wall of water': A look back at catastrophic Memorial Day floods in Austin As far as any damage from this week's flash flooding, Price said the city and the watershed department are still assessing the direct impacts. Ivey Kaiser, executive director of the Shoal Creek Conservancy, said via email that conservancy staff are also still patrolling the creek and assessing the damage. Shoal Creek Conservancy is also hosting volunteer opportunities for anyone wanting to help with cleanup efforts. The city's website notes that the dam and detention pond need 'heavy maintenance' and modernization. Price said that's simply because of its age. 'It's been almost 40 years since the city constructed it, as with any type of civil work project asset, like a road or, you know, storm drain pipe or a sewer pipe, we have to maintain and update those from time to time to make sure that they're as effective as they were when they were first constructed,' he said. Price also talked about an ongoing project that the Watershed department is coordinating with some other city departments to modernize the pond and 'harden the infrastructure [and] address some ongoing issues that we've been having there.' According to the city's website, that project includes the following: Adding overtopping protection to the top of the embankment Repairing erosion that has occurred on the creek side of the embankment Removal of woody vegetation on the embankment Protecting the embankment from erosive foot traffic within the park Reinstalling drainage behind the retaining walls Sealing cracks and joints within all retaining walls Reestablishing positive drainage near the tennis courts Reestablishing positive drainage near the duck pond This story came from a ReportIt story tip. Send your own story ideas to reportit@ or through KXAN's ReportIt page. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
