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Canada Standard
5 days ago
- Health
- Canada Standard
and so is our commitment to human rights
The British Columbia Supreme Court has begun hearing a long-awaited constitutional challenge to the province's Mental Health Act. The case, nearly a decade in the making, is now drawing greater attention in the wake of the tragedy at the Filipino Lapu Lapu Day street festival earlier this year that left 11 people dead in Vancouver. The event has shaken many in the community, leaving behind grief and fear. Furthermore, in light of reports that the person accused of the crime was under Mental Health Act supervision, difficult questions arise. The pain is real, and any conversation about mental health must begin with compassion for all of those affected. Read more: Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada's election At the same time, it's important to ensure this moment of reckoning leads to thoughtful dialogue, not reactive policy. Unfortunately, much of the public discourse has become mired in fear and misinformation, creating a false and dangerous choice: that Canada must sacrifice individual rights in order to protect public safety. As a legal scholar in equality rights and public interest litigation, I don't believe Canadians have to choose. A mental health system that respects Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms can also promote safety. The case currently before the B.C. Supreme Court was initiated by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), a national human rights organization led by people with disabilities. The group is fighting provisions in the province's Mental Health Act that strip patients of any right to choose their own health care, or to appoint a loved one to make health care decisions on their behalf. The CCD's motto - "Nothing about us without us" - reflects a longstanding commitment to ensuring that people most affected by policies and systems have a voice in shaping them. This litigation will amplify the voices of people who underwent psychiatric treatment without consent and to shine a light on the deep and lasting harms they have suffered. Let's be clear about what this Charter challenge actually seeks and what it doesn't. It doesn't aim to eliminate involuntary hospitalization. It does not change who can be detained, how long they can be held or the legal criteria for involuntary admission. What it does seek is something far more modest and humane: to ensure that when psychiatric care is forced, it is delivered with dignity, oversight and the involvement of trusted supporters in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. One of the key reforms that CCD has long advocated for is the right for people to name a family member or friend to be involved in treatment decisions. Far from undermining care, this kind of involvement can help bridge the gap between medical necessity and personal dignity. It's a safeguard that respects patients' values and builds trust, which the current system desperately lacks. And yes, it could even enhance public safety. Reports suggest that a family member of the man accused in the Lapu Lapu mass murders in April was concerned about his deteriorating mental health and had reached out for help just before the tragedy occurred. A more responsive system with the embedded involvement of trusted decision-makers might have made a difference. Read more: Fraudulent crowdfunding after the Lapu Lapu tragedy highlights the need for vigilance and oversight British Columbia is currently an outlier in Canada. It's the only province where people detained under mental health laws are automatically deemed to consent to any treatment authorized by the facility - regardless of their actual wishes or capacity. There's no right to name a substitute decision-maker, no ability to appeal a treatment decision, no independent oversight, and treatment is often imposed through isolation, physical restraints or security force. Advocates have been calling for change for decades. But in the wake of the Lapu Lapu attack, some politicians are proposing not a more compassionate or rights-respecting approach, but harsher, more coercive powers over people with mental health issues. That would be a mistake. The current system, which experts have long said is inconsistent with human rights, did nothing to prevent this tragedy. Violating the rights of people in crisis did not and will not keep the public safer. B.C. Premier David Eby has acknowledged the shortcomings in the current system, but has said that engaging in law reform while litigation is undergoing would pose a risk. Instead, he says it's better to wait to hear what the court decides before changing the law. That logic is arguably akin to a citizen saying it's risky to stop driving at a speed they know is over the lawful limit until they're pulled over. Waiting for the courts to force change wastes precious time, and public resources, that could be better spent on designing a new, Charter-compliant mental health system in collaboration with experts, service providers, families and people with lived experiences. Meanwhile, substantial public funds are being spent on government lawyers to fight a legal battle defending a regime that is clearly unconstitutional and fails both patients and public safety. That money would be far better spent consulting with experts, families and people with lived experiences and developing legislation that upholds constitutional rights and keeps communities safe. The time for delay is over. The B.C. government must act now to rewrite the Mental Health Act in order to protect the public and respect Charter rights.
Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Rs300 billion set aside for law and order maintenance
The Punjab government has allocated Rs300 billion for law and order in its budget for the fiscal year 202526. The announcement marks one of the largest-ever investments in internal security in the province's history, with emphasis on technology-driven policing, prison reform and the establishment of specialised crime-fighting institutions. More than Rs200 billion of the total allocation has been reserved for non-development expenditures, primarily covering operational costs and salaries for police across Punjab. Meanwhile, over Rs10 billion will be spent on development schemes in the police, prisons and Rescue 1122 sectors. A highlight of this year's budget is the establishment of the Crime Control Department (CCD) tasked with investigating heinous and organised crimes across the province. The CCD will be headquartered in Lahore and will receive a total Rs6.54 billion. This includes Rs3.24 billion under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the construction of its state-of-the-art headquarters and investigative facilities, while another Rs3.3 billion is earmarked for staffing, logistics and operations. The government has rolled out a plan to upgrade police infrastructure, with Rs600 million allocated for the renovation and modernisation of police stations across all districts. Additionally, Rs734.7 million has been allocated to bolster the Police Training School in Rawalpindi, while the Specialised Protection Unit (SPU) headquarters in Lahore will receive Rs797.2 million. To improve crowd control and tactical response capabilities, Rs382 million has been approved for the establishment of an Anti-Riot Headquarters in Lahore. Meanwhile, construction of new administrative facilities and residences is under way, including Rs450 million for the DPO office and residence in Murree, Rs350 million for investigation offices in Mandi Bahauddin and Rs280 million for officers' residences in Lahore. Emergency services under Rescue 1122 are set for expansion, with Rs508 million allocated for current and new initiatives. The Emergency Services Academy in Lahore will undergo a Rs352 million upgrade to improve training capacity, while two new rescue stations will be developed in Gujrat's Mangowali and Kathala Chowk areas at a cost of Rs291.8 million. Furthermore, Rs50 million will support Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTS) in rural areas, aiming to bridge emergency response gaps in under-served regions of Punjab. The government plans to significantly invest in the surveillance and command-and-control systems through its Smart Safe Cities and Tehsil Project. The Lahore Safe City initiative will be revamped with Rs1.2 billion to install high-resolution cameras and AI-based threat detection tools. To complete Smart Safe Cities in 19 additional districts, Rs2.54 billion has been earmarked, while Rs5.8 billion will fund the CM's Tehsil Project, which brings surveillance infrastructure to high-crime divisions across the province. The flagship Lahore Prisons Complex will receive Rs6 billion for construction of a modern correctional facility featuring vocational training, rehabilitation programmes and high-security zones. Another Rs4.8 billion will go toward building a new district jail in Sialkot with a capacity of 1,500 inmates. For ongoing prison infrastructure improvements, Rs674.5 million has been allocated for staff accommodations and inmate reintegration initiatives. Additional funds include Rs65.6 million for the expansion of Child Protection Units in eight districts and Rs1.17 billion for establishing inter-provincial joint checkpoints at key locations like Attock and Bhakkar to counter crime and smuggling across the provincial border.
Express Tribune
05-06-2025
- Express Tribune
Hafizabad gang-rape prime suspect killed in encounter
A key suspect in a gang-rape case was killed in an alleged police encounter near Jorian in the Mangat Uncha area, while three of his accomplices managed to flee, according to officials from the Crime Control Department (CCD). The CCD stated that the operation was conducted based on intelligence reports about the presence of suspects linked to a recent gang-rape incident. During the raid, the suspects reportedly opened fire on law enforcement officers from inside a building. Police retaliated in self-defence, and during the exchange of gunfire, one suspect, identified as Khawar, was fatally shotallegedly by bullets fired by his own accomplices during the crossfire. The remaining three suspects escaped and are currently being sought in an ongoing manhunt. Police sources revealed that Khawar, along with his associates Ikraam Mangat, Laeeq and Chand, had allegedly abducted a husband and wife at gunpoint and subjected them to sexual assault. The suspects reportedly forced the couple to engage in intercourse while filming the incident. The video was later shared online, sparking widespread outrage. The incident prompted swift action from District Police Officer (DPO) Atif Nazir, who ordered an immediate investigation and crackdown on the accused. Authorities confirmed that efforts are underway to apprehend the remaining suspects and that further legal proceedings will follow. Earlier on Wednesday, the female complainant in a gang-rape case that took place in Mangat Uncha on April 25, recorded her statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before Civil Judge and Area Magistrate Ali Naqi Tipu, detailing the events involving abduction and assault. Over a month after the incident of gang-rape and forced sexual abuse, police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 3. The incident involved three armed men who allegedly gang-raped a woman in front of her husband at gunpoint, while one of the suspects recorded the assault on video. The case gained renewed urgency after the explicit footage surfaced on social media.
Boston Globe
31-05-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
George Smith, Nobel laureate who created a digital eye, dies at 95
Their work helped build 'the foundation to our modern information society,' Gunnar Oquist, the Nobel academy's secretary-general, said when it was announced that Mr. Smith and Boyle would share the 2009 prize for physics. (They split the award with Charles K. Kao, who was recognized for work that resulted in the development of fiber-optic cables.) Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Mr. Smith and Boyle had been trying to create better memory storage for computers when the idea for the CCD arose. They thought the photoelectric effect — which Albert Einstein had explained, an explanation that won him a 1921 Nobel Prize — might offer a solution. Advertisement The photoelectric phenomenon occurs when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a metal surface, dislodging electrons from atoms and causing a current to flow through the metal. The device that Mr. Smith and Boyle created employs rows of tiny capacitors to store and transfer the electrical charge — essentially capturing light — and uses the information to construct an image. Advertisement It took them an hour, they later said, to come up with the concept and design. They wrote up the idea in a 1970 paper and filed a patent for it, which was registered in 1974. One of the great advantages of the device is that it distinguishes, measures and records almost every photon of light, making it possible to take far more precise and detailed photographs, particularly of intergalactic bodies, than had been possible with film. 'The challenge when designing an image sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, or pixels, in a short time,' the Nobel committee said, adding that the two men's invention had 'transformed photography, as sight could now be captured electronically instead of on film.' Mr. Smith and Boyle's Nobel win was not without controversy. Michael F. Tompsett and Eugene I. Gordon, scientists who also worked at Bell Laboratories, claimed that they should receive at least equal credit for developing the CCD, as they were the ones who had demonstrated its implications for imaging. Mr. Smith and Boyle, they said, had set out to create a memory circuit, not a digital imaging device. A 1978 article in The New York Times would seem to back up that claim, at least in part, noting that Tompsett had patented technology that made it possible to build a video camera small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand. But that was four years after Mr. Smith and Boyle had patented their device, which is often credited with laying the groundwork for Tompsett's research. Advertisement Shortly after being awarded the Nobel, Mr. Smith told The Chronicle Herald, a Canadian newspaper, that he had 'documentation' that disproved Tompsett and Gordon's claims, adding that 'what they are saying is not at all logical.' George Elwood Smith was born May 10, 1930, in White Plains, New York, the eldest of four children of George and Lillian (Voorhies) Smith. His father, an insurance underwriter, was unhappy at work, and because of his job-hopping the family was constantly on the move. In a 2001 interview with the Engineering and Technology History Wiki website, Mr. Smith said that he grew up in seven states and attended nine elementary schools and five high schools. Following high school, he joined the Navy; he served for four years, partly during the Korean War, as an aerographer's mate, or weather forecaster. He went on to study mathematics, first at the University of Miami and then at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1955. He married Janet Carson the same year. He studied physics at the University of Chicago and received a doctorate in 1959, with a three-page dissertation on the electronic properties of semimetals. (At the time, it was the shortest doctoral dissertation in the history of the University of Chicago; still, it was accepted for publication in Physical Review, a prestigious scientific journal.) After graduating, Mr. Smith accepted a job in the research division of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, where he remained until he retired in 1986. Mr. Smith held 30 patents, including the one for the CCD, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The invention of the CCD brought him many awards in addition to the Nobel, including the Stuart Ballantine Medal from the Franklin Institute and the Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering. He also helped found Electron Device Letters, a publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Advertisement Mr. Smith was an avid sailor, a passion he shared with his wife; after he was hired by Bell Laboratories, they bought a 19-foot sailboat, which they used on weekends. Janet Smith died in 1975, and two years later he began a relationship with Janet Murphy, a teacher who also loved sailing. Murphy died in 2020. In addition to Lanning, Mr. Smith is survived by two other children, Leslie Collins and Carson Smith; five grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Laura Hordeski and Nancy Bell. His brother, Stephen, died in 2015. When Mr. Smith retired, he and Murphy bought a 31-foot Southern Cross sailboat that they called Apogee and left their home in New Jersey to circumnavigate the world. Apart from a few short visits, they did not return to the United States until 2003. During those 17 years, they crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice and sailed through the Panama Canal. They explored the Galápagos Islands for a month and then sailed to Tahiti and the Cook Islands. They spent seven years sailing around New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and then traveled to Indonesia, Thailand, across the Indian Ocean and through the Red and Mediterranean seas. As Mr. Smith told Soundings, an online sailing publication, in 2009, 'I wanted to go sailing long before I got into physics.' This article originally appeared in
Wales Online
31-05-2025
- Health
- Wales Online
Four key signs of ‘dementia' in dogs affecting one in three pets
Four key signs of 'dementia' in dogs affecting one in three pets While there is no cure for this progressive condition, there are therapies available to help improve your pet's quality of life. Dogs can experience something called canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which is similar to dementia (Image: Getty ) Experts have shared four key signs of 'dementia' in dogs that is thought to affects around a third of pooches by the age of 11. These symptoms could mean your pet has canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome, a condition related to the ageing of a dog's brain. Also known as CCD or CDS, this condition is often compared to dementia or Alzheimer's in humans. It leads to changes in awareness, deficits in learning and memory, and decreased responsiveness to stimuli. According to experts at Pet MD, the symptoms of CCD often start mild and get progressively worse, similar to the effects of dementia. They said: 'Although the initial symptoms of the disorder are mild, they gradually worsen over time, beyond what can be expected with normal ageing. 'These pets experience 'cognitive decline', which is the slow decrease in the brain's ability to perform normal tasks. In fact, clinical signs of cognitive dysfunction syndrome are found in nearly one in three dogs over the age of 11, and by the age of 16, nearly all dogs display at least one sign.' While there is no cure for CCD, there are therapies available to ensure your pet has the best quality of life possible. Therefore, getting diagnosed sooner rather than later is important. Pet MD listed four of the 'most common' symptoms of dementia in dogs. These are: Disorientation/confusion Changes in behaviour Anxiety/restlessness/impaired memory Changes in sleep cycle Disorientation or confusion caused by CCD might translate as getting stuck going around objects, not recognising familiar people or pets, staring blankly at walls, and pacing. Whereas changes in behaviour can be spotted in extreme irritability, decreased desire to play, excessive licking, lack of self-grooming, or loss of appetite. Anxiety, restlessness and an impaired memory could lead to seeming disregard for previously learned training or house rules, your pet being slow to learn new tasks, an inability to follow familiar routes, and faecal and urinary soiling in the home. Signs of changes in sleep cycle can include night waking, night vocalisation, and night pacing. If you think your dog is displaying signs of CCD you should speak to your vet. Charity PDSA says: 'Contact your vet if you've noticed changes in your dog's behaviour because symptoms of cognitive dysfunction usually get worse with time.' The exact causes of CCD are not known, but it is thought many of the same changes that cause problems as people age are likely to also cause problems as our pets age. How to care for a dog with CCD 'Dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome require lifelong therapy and support,' Pet MD says. 'While there is no cure, there are several things that you can do at home to help your dog's cognitive functions.' Article continues below These include: Maintaining a healthy and stimulating environment including daily routine of exercise, play and mental stimulation Maintaining a strict routine Making your home more accessible and safer Night lights can help your senior dog navigate in the dark Potty pads near doors give your pup a place to go if they can't make it until you come home or wake up Orthopaedic foam beds (with washable covers) can make sleep more comfortable Your vet may also recommend medication and behavioural therapy, a special, balanced diet, supplements and anti-anxiety tablets.
