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Time of India
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
SGPC asks Indian govt to protect Sikh scriptures in Iran and Israel
1 2 Amritsar: A day after TOI took up the issue of safety of the 'saroop' of Guru Granth Sahib and concerns of the Sikh community in conflict-ridden Iran, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Thursday appealed to the Centre to ensure safety of Sikh religious scriptures in Iran and Israel. "Act without delay to ensure the protection of gurdwaras and the sacred saroops of Guru Granth Sahib in both the nations, given the ongoing war-like situation between Iran and Israel," SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said in his appeal to the Centre. The SGPC president also asked members of the Sikh community residing in Iran and Israel to remain in contact with the local authorities and relevant officials to support efforts in safeguarding gurdwaras and the sacred saroops. He said the SGPC was monitoring the situation and expects the central govt to respond with urgency and sensitivity. Lajpal Singh, the former vice-president of the Tehran-based Bhai Ganga Singh Sabha Gurdwara Management Committee, and Singh Chandok, a former resident of Tehran, expressed concern over the security of four 'saroops' currently placed in the 'sukhasan' of the gurdwara. They urged the Indian embassy in Tehran to provide a room in the embassy premises for the Sikh holy scriptures. Lajpal Singh, said that in the past, the gurdwara management had moved 20 'saroops' including 16 'bridh' (elderly) 'saroop', to India. In Iran, social activist and educationist Dr N A Soufi visited the Bhai Ganga Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Tehran on Thursday. He interacted with the caretakers and assured them of all possible support. Soufi, who resides near the gurdwara, said he visited the premises and found everything to be in order. "I interacted with an Iranian gardener, Abbas, and caretaker Harjit Singh. The building is safe and the Sikh holy scriptures are also secure within the premises," Soufi said. Abbas, who was left behind after members of the Gurdwara management committee relocated to safer areas, confirmed that the gurdwara has not suffered any damage. He said that he continues to maintain the premises, keeping them clean, ensuring the plants are well-watered, and attending to other essential upkeep tasks. Harjit Singh, who originally hails from Hoshiarpur and is also currently staying at the gurdwara, confirmed that the 'saroop' of Guru Granth Sahib was safe, and the gurdwara building remains unharmed. "There is no panic here," said he. Tehran Gurdwara Safe: Caretaker Social activist and educationist Dr N A Soufi visits Bhai Ganga Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Tehran, says the building is safe and Sikh holy scriptures secure Caretaker confirms that the 'saroop' of Guru Granth Sahib is safe and the gurdwara building remains unharmed Soufi feels situation in Iran is not as bad as portrayed by media, says just a small percentage of people have left Tehran, with majority still in the capital MSID:: 121953530 413 |
Winnipeg Free Press
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Repping the Maple Leaf
A historic number of Manitobans will compete for Team Canada in Germany this summer. Six of the province's student athletes were named to the final roster that will represent Canada at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games. Every two years, thousands of student athletes from over 150 countries compete for medals in 18 sports. Earlier this month, U SPORTS announced five University of Manitoba Bisons — Dawson Mann, Jordan Soufi, Lara Denbow, Daxx Turner and coach Gee-ef Nkwonta — were selected. BROOK JONES/FREE PRESS U of M triple-jumper Daxx Turner will represent Canada at the World Univesity Games this summer in Germany. Winnipegger William Boyle, who attends the University of New Brunswick, was also named to the team and will compete in the 3000-metre steeplechase. For five of the six Manitobans, it's their first national team appointment. 'To actually see these people get to live out their dream that they've had for so long doing this sport is cool,' said Nkwonta, former U SPORTS Assistant Coach of the Year. 'For some of them that I've been coaching since they started doing track, it's pretty cool that they get to experience this and I get to experience it with them as well.' For Soufi, who will compete in the 200-metre and 4×100-metre relay pool for Team Canada, it's not the first time he's been in this position, after previously attending the Pan American U20 Championships in 2019. However, it's still a special moment for Soufi, who says qualifying caught him a little bit by surprise. 'I'm primarily a 100-metre runner, and I rarely run the 200, so I expected myself to qualify for the World University Games for the 100,' said Soufi. Even though he doesn't always consider himself a 200-metre runner, Soufi found himself running a personal best by half a second with a time of 21.19 seconds at the Canadian Olympic Trials in 2024. This season, Soufi also broke his own record in the 60-metre dash with a time of 6.64 seconds, earning a silver medal at the U SPORTS National Championships in Windsor in March and setting a new U of M Bisons team record. Now, training will look a little different for the athlete in the coming weeks, who will focus on special endurance — set distances at high intensity and over longer time periods. This training often includes running longer distances to help maintain proper form and running under fatigue, simulating the 200-metre. 'I'm excited about the whole experience,' said Soufi. 'Whether that would be going through the ceremony, exploring the area in Germany, getting to meet athletes, getting acclimatized to the environment, and also the competition itself, the high-level competition.' Turner, a triple jump specialist, also brought home a silver medal at the recent U SPORTS National Championships. He has an impressive record from his time at U of M so far, earning his first U SPORTS gold medal with a 15.82-metre school record-breaking jump at the 2024 nationals, going undefeated in the Canada West Championships in four seasons as a Bison, and earning silver in the triple jump with a leap of 16.14 metres at the Olympic trials last summer, which set a new provincial record. 'I've kind of been on the cusp of a national team about every year since I was 17,' said Turner. 'To fulfill a dream, especially for a younger self, definitely makes a lot of work feel very worthwhile.' While the national team selection marked a high point for Turner, he admitted that winter seasons can be tough for him and that he wasn't able to train as intensely as he had hoped during the indoor season. 'I had to focus on my mental health a little bit more,' said Turner. 'Couldn't quite attack the track quite like I had hoped, but was still able to get some stuff done, and still managed to perform for the university at a relatively high level, at a level I was happy with for sure come championship season.' Going into worlds, Turner says he will be focused on a calm and level-headed approach. 'As much as this is a really huge and exciting opportunity, trying not to let that change who I am as an athlete,' he said. Nkwonta has a similar mindset for his athletes going into the competition. 'I think I just have to treat it the same way that I would any other meet,' said Nkwonta. 'Mentioning to them that there's nothing to lose at this point. Like, all you're doing is just enjoying the experience and doing what you've practiced.' Denbow and Mann are the other two Bisons making their debut on the national team, both heading into the competition fresh off recent U SPORTS gold medal wins. 'I'm very honoured,' said Denbow. 'I've been working towards this goal for a lot of years now. I've been involved in track and field from a young age, with multiple national championships under my belt, and I'm very honoured to be finally making a national team.' Denbow took home gold at nationals in Windsor in the high jump, becoming the back-to-back champion in the event she will be competing in at worlds. Mann, who won the 600-metre event and earned bronze with the 4×400-metre team at nationals this year, will be competing in the 800-metre and 4×400-metre relay pool at the World University Games. 'It's a cool opportunity that we all get to share,' said Mann. 'It shows the strength of the talent within Manitoba and within the U of M program as well.' Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The Sanford native also won the Canadian Track & Field League Championships in the 800-metre last summer and, in his final season as a Bison this year, became the first athlete in over 30 years to run in all three relays. 'I definitely got to know people on the team super well through my years on the team,' said Mann. 'And just really thankful for all those memories and the travelling and the competing. It was a great part of my track career and my life.' Going forward, Mann hopes to continue running and competing for as long as he can, with his sights set on making the 2028 Olympic team. The 2025 Games will be held in five cities in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of Germany from July 16-27.
Montreal Gazette
12-05-2025
- Health
- Montreal Gazette
Hanes: Family doctor recruitment in Quebec has improved. And now the bad news ...
There's good news and bad news about the recruitment of new family doctors in Quebec. First, the positive: the Canadian Resident Matching Service results came out late last month and out of 1,741 new medical school graduates placed in family medicine across the country, a record 484 found spots in Quebec. That's more than the 458 matched last year and the 441 the year before. A total of 943 residents — including specialists — will begin the final stages of their training in Quebec as of July 1, out of more than 3,000 across Canada. That means a newly minted cohort of soon-to-be family doctors is preparing to help care for the 1.5 million Quebecers who aren't assigned to either a physician or a clinic. The less good news is that there could have been more. A further 69 residencies in family medicine in Quebec remain vacant after the annual matching process, out of 94 across Canada. Dr. Ghassen Soufi, president of the Fédération des médecins résident(e)s du Québec (FMRQ), said he believes this was foreseen during the planning process. 'The way that they structured the positions was going to lead to empty positions in family medicine,' he said. 'So the fact that there are empty positions at the end of the match in family medicine isn't necessarily reflective of the fact people are not interested in family medicine — quite the opposite, in fact, because this year we've had the most number of people choose that specialty.' Nevertheless, the 69 unfilled spots this year are added to the 70 family medicine residencies that remained vacant last year. Over the past dozen or so years, empty residencies amount to over 700 doctors missing in action on the front lines of health care, amid an estimated shortage in Quebec of 2,000 physicians. Still, Soufi is looking at this year's match results as a glass half full. 'Overall, the picture that we see is very positive. It's the most resident physicians that are going to be entering residency on July 1 ever. It's around 940 new resident physicians (including specialists) and over half of those — so 484 — will be going into family medicine,' he said. 'Both of those numbers are significant increases from before, owing to multiple factors. But one of the biggest is that the cohorts of medical students are increasing in size, so it's leading down the pipeline to an increase in resident physicians.' The bad news is that any progress could be in peril. The government of Premier François Legault is piling new restrictions on top of old ones. It recently adopted a law to force all new medical school graduates to work five years in the public system or face stiff penalties. It is also picking a fight with all doctors by imposing a new compensation model through legislation instead of negotiation that will tie part of their pay to performance indicators. Bill 83 has the reasonable goal of ensuring the doctors the Quebec government invests in training serve in the public system. But Dr. Chakib Setti, president of the Association des jeunes médecins du Québec (AJMQ), said the law fails to address the real reasons doctors quit the public system in the first place. 'If you had a good system, you wouldn't have to tie down doctors so they can't leave,' Setti said. 'If you have calamitous working conditions, if you have catastrophic working conditions, what will happen? Everyone will want to leave and then you'll have to construct a sort of prison and block everyone from leaving.' Quebec has struggled to attract family doctors for a number of years because it imposes onerous requirements that exist nowhere else in Canada. These include having to get a special permit, known as Plans régionaux d'effectifs médicaux, or PREMs, that limits where they can practise. Family physicians in Quebec also have to pitch in a certain number of hours per week at long-term care homes, birthing centres, emergency rooms or with assisted dying — extra duties known as Activités médicales particulières. This is another only-in-Quebec hallmark. Doctors are also fed up with being vilified by the government while simultaneously leaned on heavily to make up for shortages of other resources in public health care. These long-running irritants have fuelled an exodus, with medical students choosing other specialties instead, family doctors moving to other provinces, physicians moving to the parallel private system, and older practitioners retiring. Despite the FMRQ, AJMQ and other groups pleading with the government to abolish PREMs and offer incentives to make family medicine more enticing, successive governments have only tinkered. Introduced to distribute doctors evenly across Quebec, the PREM system has far outlived its usefulness, especially amid a physician shortage. There are myriad anecdotal examples of how PREMs actually hinder doctor recruitment, Setti said. He recalled a couple 'who started practising who had PREMs in separate places. One was in Quebec City, the other was in Laval. Unfortunately they couldn't get a permit for both of them to practise in the same region. Do you know what happened? They left Quebec and went to Ontario. 'We've lost a lot of doctors like that. Which is too bad, because whether they both practise in Laval or they both practise in Quebec City, it shouldn't matter — there are lots of patients to see.' This year, 235 of 603 PREMs for brand new doctors and those who want to transfer regions were untaken after the annual application process (as of April 29, according to the latest Health Ministry data). 'If we get rid of this, not only will the doctors from Quebec stay, others will come,' said Setti. 'There are doctors who want to come from other provinces. We have many examples of doctors who wanted to come but unfortunately never came because they couldn't get the permit to practise in the region they wanted.' It's also a symptom of a much bigger problem — and one that is about to get much worse with the coercive aspects of Bill 83 and the government throwing down the gauntlet with the new remuneration model. Setti said at least 32 practising doctors have withdrawn from the AJMQ because they are planning to leave Quebec over the latest measures. And he warned it could also have a trickle-down effect on next year's residency recruitment period. 'The results of next year will be much worse. Because this year it was too late. The students were already in the application process and Bill 83 came after the match (began). But if you look back this time next year, you're going to see hemorrhaging. Not only will we not succeed in attracting, you'll see that we won't be able to keep the doctors that we have,' Setti said. 'Soon, the only way to keep doctors in Quebec will be to attach them with a leash and take away their diplomas.' Soufi at the FMRQ also has concerns about how Bill 83 will loom over next year's Canadian Resident Matching Service results. The federation holds that it is 'discriminatory' to put the burden of propping up public health care mainly on the shoulders of young doctors. But the law not only requires new doctors to practise in the public system for five years after graduation — which the 'overwhelming majority' already do, Soufi said — it also contains clauses that would obligate them to stay in Quebec. 'We're very fearful of that because the match, for example, is a pan-Canadian organization and the way that medical education is structured and delivered in Canada is pan-Canadian. We have students that come here to study and sometimes they stay, sometimes they leave. We have our own students, our own residents, who get training elsewhere and come back,' Soufi said. 'We think there's a lot of richness to going to train elsewhere and coming back, following this movement of trainees, because we do have a pan-Canadian system, there are expertises that are only available here that people come and get, and vice versa with elsewhere in Canada.' Indeed, according to the Canadian Resident Matching Service, 28 of 1,980 doctors who trained in other provinces found residencies in Quebec for 2025. Meanwhile, 424 of 1,006 Quebec-trained medical students were matched to a residency elsewhere in Canada for both family medicine and other specialties. The majority of Quebec medical school grads — 582 — found family medicine or specialized residencies within the province. And if the new dispositions of Bill 83 are applied next year? 'It's never been done in any jurisdiction in North America — this idea of tying education, or the attainment of education, to the obligation to practise in a specific place where you did that education,' Soufi said. 'We think that's a very slippery slope, very dangerous. And we hope that the government doesn't move forward and start applying that.'
