Help Generations help kids generationsfoundation.com 514-933-8585 NoveMber 2013 www.theseniortimes.com vol. XXviii N o 2 REMEMBERING “ What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.” INSIDE Canadian shipman remembers p. 5 Peace builders p. 10 WW I memorabilia p. 20 André Picard PLEASE JOIN US Le Salon Mieux-Vivre 50+ A HEALTHIER Palais des congrès de Montréal November 16-17 CARE SYSTEM facebook.com/theseniortimes Free Service Senior Housing Assistance Senior Home Search Made Easy Call us! activiva.ca 514.441.3518 KRISZTINA PRAGAI FULL TIME Real Estate Broker since 2001 514-231-5742 www.KrisztinaPragai.ca Photo: Drew Pinsonneault PROPRIO DIRECT Happy birthday to Miss Jilly, who turns 2 this month. For a stress free transaction... CALL ME! 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Please call first to arrange an appointment. Immediate payment available for most purchases. Happy Hanukah to all our loyal clients 1117 Ste. Catherine W., Suite 700, Montreal 514-289-9796 www.carsleys.com 2 THE SENIOR TIMES November 2013 www.theseniortimes.com Health-care focus should switch to prevention, Picard says Irwin Block economy, especially when the econ- omy is ailing. … It’s a redistributive André Picard’s romance with jour- social program as well as a health- nalism began as an extracurricular insurance plan.” affair. On the weakness side, he asserts While studying administration in that the focus on acute medical care the mid-1980s at the University of rather than enhancing social wel- Ottawa, he developed a passion for fare programs and preventing health writing as a music reviewer for the problems has been “politically ex- student newspaper, The Fulcrum. pedient, but a costly mistake and Instead of becoming an accoun- missed opportunity.” tant or business executive, Picard We can be “a little smarter and get earned a second degree in journal- more bang for the buck” by spending ism. As a top graduating student at more on prevention, he observes. Carleton University, he was snapped Improvements in education, child up by The Globe and Mail, where he care and housing have a major im- has worked for more than a quarter- pact on human health and he agrees century. Quebec has been “a little smarter” Posted to the Montreal bureau, he with such programs as pharma-care, shifted from political to health re- free dental care for children up to porting with a national focus and Photo: Peter Ford / Pinpoint National age 10, and $7-a-day child care. in the process acquired an interna- “Quebec is really good on the so- tional reputation for excellence. “Social justice has to be important, but we can’t be cial, but spends a little less on health Picard is not satisfied with merely spendthrift. We have to think about the money part.” care, and has a very bureaucratic factual and in-depth reporting and medical system.” analysis. ~ André Picard With the increasing cost of publicly Those who worked alongside him funded health care and a steadily got to know a colleague/competitor where he pieced together the story view of the history, strength and weak- aging society, Picard expects private who would not make do with “he- behind the 1980s scandal. More than nesses of health care in Canada, written and insurance-funded care will have said-she-said” journalism, a slice of 1,200 people had contracted AIDS for the Conference Board of Canada. a greater role. colour and some background. from tainted blood in what is said to Picard’s guiding thread is “to em- “The objections we have toward His work as one of North America’s have been the worst health-care di- brace social justice without aban- private care are way too dogmatic. top health journalists reflects his per- saster in Canadian history, much of doning fiscal prudence.” Every country that has universal sonality: Behind the placid exterior it centred in Montreal. “I tend to be a pragmatist. Social health care has a mixture of private lies an inquisitive, perceptive and in- “That was a sprawling story. I wrote justice has to be important, but we and public care. dustrious scribe for whom the work about it for many years, so I thought can’t be spendthrift. We have to “The discussion we should have is only begins with the official story. it needed to be brought together in think about the money part. Maybe what’s the right mix, where is it most Philippe Couillard, the health pol- one coherent story,” Picard said in an that’s the accountant in me.” appropriate? icy adviser-turned-Quebec Liberal interview. Picard writes that Canadians are About 23.2 million Canadians have Party leader, said of Picard at a sym- Juggling his day job, a busy public getting “more care, faster and better” private health insurance, covering posium last year: “André, in my view, speaking schedule, and family life— and that the $200 billion Canadians drugs, various diagnostic services, is the most thoughtful and certainly he is married to Gazette reporter spend annually on health care ($140 and supplementary health care such often courageous public writer we Michelle Lalonde and they have two billion is from the public treasury) as private rooms. have on the health care sector in our teenage daughters—Picard followed is “good medicine for the country’s Continued on page 4 country.” up with a 118-page study of The New Passion and commitment are what Face of Charity in Canada for the At- drove Picard to write the first of sev- kinson Foundation and Critical Care: eral books, such as The Gift of Death: Canadian Nurses Speak for Change Confronting Canada’s Tainted Blood (HarperCollins, 2000). Tragedy (Harper & Collins, 1995), Picard’s latest is a comprehensive re- Alexandrine Véronique Sébastien Annie Josiane Ivanie Godin Blouin, ap. Hébert, ap. Tremblay, ap. Bouchard, ap. Martel-Viau, ap. Fortin, ap. A Christmas Carol Pointe-Claire (South West One) Upper Canada Playhouse T 514.695.2098 Festival of Lights Dec. 7, $99 NEED A Pierrefonds (Pierrefonds medical Centre) The Texas Tenors Christmas Show T 514.684.8460 #218 HEARING Turning Stone Hudson 3 days, 2 nights (Hudson Medicentre) Dec. 10-12 Our Casino Trips 2014 T 514.695.2098 AID? 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