All posts by Paige Parsons

Pot by Post

Access-to-information story
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Demand for Canada Post’s services may be in decline, but a database obtained through an access to information request shows the postal service gets frequent use by Canadians mailing marijuana to every corner of the country.

The database, which compiles all of the illegal goods seized by Canada Post in 2011 and 2012, shows that marijuana is far and away the most common item seized.

Canada Post refused to be interviewed about the released data and their methods for detecting the presence of illegal goods in the mail.

“For security reasons, we unfortunately cannot provide details on these. It only serves those who aim to fraud the postal system,” a Canada Post representative said in an email.

Const. Marc Soucy of the Ottawa Police Services says that though Canada Post employs its own investigators who deal with illicit items discovered in the mail, if a seizure yields the discovery of something criminal, local police are alerted.

“Any illegal substance in any quantity is investigated,” Soucy said.

The quantities of marijuana seized in the two years that the database covers range from a single gram to as much as 36 kilograms. Despite Soucy’s statement that all discoveries of marijuana are investigated, there is a significant online community that seems to be unconcerned about the risk of using Canada Post as a courier for the drug. A simple Google search for mail-order marijuana in Canada returns dozens of results that promise to deliver quickly and discreetly by mail.

Bud Buddy is a set up that advertises itself on its website as “Canada’s original and best mail-order marijuana service”. The website claims “So far, Canadian police have had higher priorities than going after us” and “We have never had a customer suffer a legal problem due to ordering from us”.

The mail service’s website assures customers that it vacuum seals its products to prevent the telling odour from giving away the contents and that the packages it ships via Xpresspost are discreet and blend in with regular mail. Bud Buddy even provides customers with a guarantee of a one-time free replacement if an order doesn’t arrive. Interestingly, the guarantee is not offered and an extra shipping fee is charged to customers in Canada’s three northern territories. The website says that shipments to Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut are at a much higher risk of being lost and stolen.

To avoid detection and theft, senders sometimes attempt creative packaging, the efforts of which are described in the Canada Post database. An entry for an October 2012 seizure of a package destined for Inukjuak, Quebec reads “Homestyles Coffee Brewer original box – inside water reservoir was a substance appearing to be cannabis wrapped in plastic wrap”. In May 2012, officials recorded finding Whitehorse-bound marijuana tucked inside an unused diaper.

The detection of illegal marijuana moving through Canada’s postal system has the potential to get a lot more complicated in the coming weeks. As of March 31, Health Canada will require anyone with a prescription for medical marijuana to purchase their dosage from a licensed dispenser and to have it delivered by post, as storefront and retail distribution centres will be disallowed. It will be interesting to see if the flood of legal marijuana into the mail service will prove to be a boon for those who Canada Post fears are working to fraud the system.

Access to Information Requests

Correspondence

Relevant pages

1. The information I used for my story is a previously released request from Canada Post. It is the hard copy of a database that lists all of the illegal things Canada Post seized from the mail in 2011 and 2012.

2. I received the information from Canada Post, a federal crown corporation.

3. This information was helpful because it showed that marijuana is by far the most commonly discovered illegal substance in the mail. The problem was that I only had access to a hard copy, so there was no way for me to sort the information. This is a shame both because I lacked the accuracy that would have come with being able to speak to the actual numbers and because being able to sort for date and location could have provided some rather useful insights.

New initiative to slow staggering rate of cancer deaths in Nunavut

Database Assignment
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SOURCE: Statistics Canada
ANALYSIS: Paige Parsons

When cancer strikes, it doesn’t discriminate by race, region or creed. But when it kills? For Inuit people living in Nunavut, the disease is more deadly than it is for Canadians in any other part of the country.

A December 2013 Statistics Canada report shows cancer death rates in Nunavut are 380.5 per 100,000—that’s more than twice as much as the Canadian average of 166.4 cancer deaths per 100,000. Rates of cancer incidence in Nunavut are also higher than the national average, but not enough to account for the staggering difference in deaths caused by the disease. The vast majority of Nunavut’s population identify as being Inuit.

For an Inuit person like Beatrice Bernhardt, a cancer diagnosis is often viewed as a death sentence.

“My knees buckled because I was not expecting such news over the phone. I had to grab my desk and make myself stand up and try to be strong because I had to rush back to my staff meeting,” Bernhardt said, describing her diagnosis of breast cancer five years ago.

Inuit cancer survivor Beatrice Bernhardt speaks about what it's like to be diagnosed with the disease. PHOTO: Paige Parsons
Inuit cancer survivor Beatrice Bernhardt speaks about what it’s like to be diagnosed with the disease. PHOTO: Paige Parsons

Bernhardt is Inuit and is originally from Kugluktuk, a remote community in Nunavut. She now lives in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She says the fear of cancer she experienced is common among Inuit people, largely because of a lack of knowledge about the disease and limited access to healthcare, which is compounded by misunderstanding between Inuit people and healthcare providers.

Bernhardt’s diagnosis came by phone, which she says was crushing and also infuriating.

“Right after the diagnosis, I phoned the doctor at the health centre. I was very angry with him because he’s right in the community and he did not even have the courtesy and the respect to call me in and tell it to me face to face and I said I would very much like, for you doctor, not to do this to anybody again,” said Bernhardt.

Bernhardt is now cancer free, but she says cultural and geographical challenges make regaining health much more challenging for Inuit living in remote communities than it is for populations that have easier access to healthcare and family and support systems while undergoing treatments.

It seems that work to close that gap in quality of care has finally begun. This week Canadian Partnership Against Cancer launched a $10.2 million initiative to improve cancer control amongst Inuit, First Nation and Metis populations in Canada. The funding will be dispersed amongst nine different jurisdictions across Canada, with the aim of improving the understanding and quality of treatment for Aboriginal Canadians who live in rural and isolated communities. The launch is sandwiched between two other announcements—the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer published an Inuit cancer control baseline health report last week and the Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada organization is expected to release a Inuit Languages Cancer Glossary early next week.

Terry Audla, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami—the elected national body that speaks for Inuit people across Canada—says cancer is the second leading cause of death for Inuit people and that the initiative will help address a population health crisis.

“Inuit who once lived in unity with nature, and were leaders with vibrant health, are now experiencing the adverse effects of rapid lifestyle changes on their physical and mental health,” Audla said.

Audla noted the importance of changing perceptions of cancer by encouraging greater awareness and optimism.

“Early diagnosis is needed in our communities and for people to understand that once they have been diagnosed there is help and they will survive,” Audla said.

Twenty-five years of fixing broken hearts: the evolution of infant cardiac transplants in Canadaa

Whatever-Happened-To? Assignment
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Hearts. Everybody has one. But not everyone is born with one that works.

Twenty-five years ago Dr. Wilbert Keon performed Canada’s first infant heart transplant, marking the beginning of an evolution in the procedure and accompanying treatment that gives Canadian babies born with serious heart problems a chance at a life they wouldn’t otherwise have.

Mandy Johnson works with Children’s Heart Network, a Vancouver-based support group for families of children with heart conditions. She remembers the announcement of the first transplant and what it meant for her clients who previously would have had to travel to the U.S. for the surgery.

“For the families it’s huge. They’re dealing with a medical system they don’t understand and a very, very sick child,” said Johnson. “And, at the time, when they came back it was all so new, all the transplant care had to be coordinated as well. It was very challenging in those early days.”

After the first one in 1989, transplants began happening regularly in Toronto and then in Edmonton. In October 2013, the B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver announced the opening of a cardiac transplant program, which means Johnson’s B.C. clients can now stay even closer to home.

Anything that helps make the experience easier is welcomed. Unlike adults or older children, infants under nine-months can receive heart transplants that are incompatible with their blood type and their body is much less likely to reject the heart because they haven’t built-up antibodies yet. However, Dr. Anne Dipchand, head of the cardiac transplant program at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, says infants are at a higher risk of dying while waiting for or during the surgery.

Once they have the heart, infant survival rates are high compared to older recipients. But even that creates new challenges, such as side effects from anti-rejection drugs and delayed development.

“Long ago when you were worried about keeping them alive, that wasn’t necessarily the focus. But now lots more of them are surviving and we have to find ways to address things that are more important for quality of life,” Dipchand said.

It is a problem Kelsey Anderson is grateful to have. Her son Grayson was only two-days-old when he was put at the top of the heart transplant list. The Calgary family watched their new baby struggle to survive for almost seven months. Then, at 1:30 a.m. on April 2, 2013, the phone rang. Anderson says the transplant couldn’t have come at a better time.

“He really was going downhill and probably wouldn’t have made it another week,” said Anderson.

Her son was rushed to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton to get the transplant. When Anderson saw Grayson after the surgery, the new heart was already making a difference.

“He was always blue before he got his heart and when we first saw him he was pink for the first time.”

Before the month was over, Grayson was out of the hospital and living at home. Almost a year later his prognosis is good: according to the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Foundation international statistics, over 50 per cent of babies are alive 19 years after their heart transplant.

The limited number of infant heart transplants in Canada means agencies are unable to report exact recent numbers as it can be identifying. However, the Trillium Gift of Life Network reports that from 2003 to 2013, there were 89 heart transplants performed on patients aged five and under in Ontario. There are currently eight patients under the age of 18 waiting for a heart transplant in Ontario.

 

 

Documentation

“1989: New Heart for Newborn Baby”

Click the image for link to video.
Click the image for link to video.

1. This is a CBC video report from September 1989, documenting Wesley Behm, the first Canadian infant to receive a heart transplant, leaving the hospital only a few weeks after the surgery.

2. I found it in my general search for events that happened in 1989. I am interested in health stories, so I Googled ‘health’, ‘Ottawa’ and ‘1989’ and this showed up on one of the results pages.

3. It was helpful because it gave me my general story idea and also the names of the original key actors and institutions where I started my research into what happened and how it the story developed since the original event.

“Pray for Baby Grayson”

Click here for link to Facebook page.

1. This is a Facebook page documenting the experience of a Calgary baby named Grayson Anderson who received a heart transplant last year. It is run by his family, who started it as an online venue during Grayson’s seven months of waiting to recieve a transplant. They have continued to update it with reports about Grayson’s progress and current health.

2. I found this while looking for families who had recently been through the experience of having an infant who received a heart transplant. I Googled “2013” and “Baby heart transplant Canada” and this came up in the search results.

3. This page was helpful because I was able to identify a person who had the exact experience I wanted to include in my story. It was great that it was a social media site because I was able to reach out to Grayson’s mom, who got back to me and agreed to an interview the next day.

Shoppers Drug Mart riding high as Loblaw merger nears

Business Assignment
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Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart is enjoying steady profits in anticipation of the Competition Bureau approving its merger with the Loblaw grocery chain.

In the third quarter of 2013, Shoppers reported a two per cent increase in gross profit, compared to the same time period in 2012. The merger was proposed in July 2013, near the end of the second quarter, and was approved by shareholders in September.

Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, says the company’s slightly inflated profits can be attributed to a combination of riding out the wave of positive anticipation of the merger with it simply being a good time to be in the pharmacy business.

Shoppers Drug Mart MD&A 3Q (Text)
“It’s probably accelerated in order to make them look more attractive, but one of the great things about drug stores is the demographics of the population are working for them,” Middleton said, speaking about the company’s better than expected returns.

Shoppers’ one notable loss during the third quarter was a one per cent decrease in their net earnings compared to the same quarter in 2012. The company’s 2013 third quarter Management’s Discussion and Analysis attributes the loss to restructuring costs. Middleton says ‘restructuring costs’ could be anything, including preparations for the merger.

The planned combination of Shoppers and Loblaw, which Middleton says was in part born out of fear of the entry of American chains like Target into Canada, will result in a retail product that is formidable, particularly for small, community convenience stores. Middleton says he suspects that efforts to stock Shoppers’ shelves with President’s Choice (Loblaw’s popular food brand) snacks, beverages and other basic groceries will be regionally focussed. For example, Shoppers Drug Marts in areas where there aren’t large Loblaw stores will carry more Loblaw stock in order to compete with nearby convenience stores.

“The retail sector is moving more and more to analyse local trading areas, rather than just deciding what everyone offers on a national basis,” Middleton said.

Shoppers Drug Mart has already waded into diversifying its retail side—and has been rewarded for it. The Management’s Discussion and Analysis notes that the store is making more money from front-of-store sales than from the pharmacy.

Middleton says the acquisition of a drug store by a grocery chain is reflective of a change in Canada’s population demographic shift. Canada’s aging population means visits to the drug store have become a more regular occurrence.

“With an older population where they have to refill prescriptions more frequently, it can become more of a regular place to visit, with the advantage that as you walk to the back of the store to get prescriptions, you walk past all this other stuff that you might normally have to go to a local convenience store for or to buy them at the grocery store,” Middleton said.

Middleton says the model is indicative of what could become a trend. He predicts the Rexall drug store chain will be snapped up in a similar deal sometime within the next year.

Though major changes and effects on structure and finance will not really be evident until after the merger has gone through, Middleton says that there is probably a lot of collaboration already happening between Shoppers and Loblaw in anticipation of the merger.

“Usually what happens when you get takeovers like this, you get a lot of rethinking about what are the back-offers and capabilities they need, what kind of staffing, and all that will be going on right now, but all that will be behind the scenes until such time as it’s formally approved,” Middleton said.

Whether or not the Competition Bureau approves the merger should be announced soon, as it was anticipated to happen around the same time as the release of Shoppers Drug Mart’s annual report, which is slated for early February.