 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Stigma of mental illness clouds MAID expansion, patient and psychiatrist say | | |  | Graeme Bayliss, an advocate for medical assistance in dying (MAID) for people with mental illness, says he finds the possibility of an assisted suicide comforting. (Submitted by Graeme Bayliss) | | | WARNING: This story includes discussion of suicidal thoughts
Canadians suffering from debilitating mental illness cannot yet legally qualify for medical assistance in dying (MAID), unlike almost all others with severe illnesses — a restriction some advocates feel is rooted in stigma.
Eligibility for MAID was set to expand in March to include people with mental illness. But on Monday, Health Minister Mark Holland accepted the majority recommendations of a parliamentary committee that warned Canada's health system is not ready to allow MAID for people with only a mental illness because there's too much work to do before the legislation was set to expand.
Graeme Bayliss, 34, wants the right, at some point, of a doctor-assisted death. He has lived with depression and obsessive compulsive disorder since his teens and says he is currently managing. But he says he finds the possibility of MAID comforting, and makes him more willing to try new treatments and medications should he face tough times again.
"It can be very disappointing when a new treatment or a new method fails," Bayliss said in an interview. "You're taking the risk of another failure, which itself could be discouraging, which itself could lead you toward suicidal thoughts."
As a MAID advocate, Bayliss says he also considers it safer for someone to receive medical assistance in dying than to be traumatized following an attempted suicide or to have family members come across a body unexpectedly.
"People get sort of lumped in together as having mental illnesses in a way that you wouldn't lump people in together who had physical illnesses," Bayliss said.
Dr. Derryck Smith, a clinical professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, asks why people with mental illness are treated separately from those with physical illness when it comes to MAID.
Currently, someone can request MAID if their death is "reasonably foreseeable" under what's known as Track 1, or if they suffer from a "grievous and irremediable condition," Track 2. Neither track includes mental illness.
If the legislation were to expand, doctors expect sufficiently mentally ill patients would be covered under Track 2.
"We don't have a special category for stroke victims or kidney disease or cancer or anything like that," Smith said. "We have a special group for mental illness. And that, to me, is the evidence of the ongoing stigma that psychiatric patients face." | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | Seniors aged 72 and older are eligible as of today to register for Canada's national dental care plan, but dentists still can't sign up for the program — even though they're supposed to start taking patients in just a few months. "I know there'll be a lot of questions around providers. Those details are in the final stages of being negotiated," Health Minister Mark Holland told reporters Wednesday. "We're ready imminently to be able to share information with all providers, with all dentists." It's still not clear how dentists, hygienists and denturists will register for the program, how the billing process will work and how much they'll be paid for their services. The $13-billion national dental plan is expected eventually to provide dental care to approximately nine million uninsured Canadians by 2025. Read the full story here.
The head of Canada's spy agency and other senior intelligence officials are set to testify today as the inquiry probing allegations of foreign election interference continues to wrestle with the question of how much sensitive information — if any — it can share with the public. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) director David Vigneault is set to appear before the inquiry this morning. He's expected to be questioned about discussing secret intelligence in public. On Wednesday, one of his predecessors, former CSIS chief Richard Fadden, said Canada should be more transparent about national security intelligence. "Things are classified more than they need to be," he said. "The culture, the workload and the tradition in agencies, I think, is to tend towards overprotection." The commission will also hear today from two other senior officials who handle intelligence: Alia Tayyeb, deputy chief of signals intelligence at the Communications Security Establishment, and Dan Rogers, the deputy national security and intelligence adviser based out of the Privy Council Office. Read the full story here.
Alberta will prohibit hormonal treatment, puberty blockers and gender affirming surgery for children 15 years and younger, Premier Danielle Smith announced Wednesday in a video posted to social media. Smith said the policy bans all children under 17 from having top and bottom surgery, though bottom surgery is already limited to adults. Teens aged 16 and 17 can start hormone therapy as long as they have permission from their parents, a physician and a psychologist. Alberta parents will need to give permission before a student aged 15 and under can use a name or pronoun at school other than what they were given at birth, Smith said. Students who are 16 or 17 won't require permission but schools will need to let their parents know first. More detail is coming at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. Read the full story here.
As the federal government's popular Canada Greener Homes grant program comes to a close, the energy audit industry could crumble with businesses across the country warning of mass layoffs in the months ahead. The federal government has signalled the end of the program, which provides up to $5,000 toward energy efficiency upgrades such as insulation, windows and heat pumps. New applications are expected to close by the end of March, but an official timeline is unknown. Business is temporarily booming for companies across the country that conduct the required home energy audits, as homeowners try to secure the grant funding before it dries up. Stephen Farrell cancelled all vacations for his staff at VerdaTech Energy Management. Currently, the company completes about 600 assessments a month in Alberta and B.C., although he predicts that will plunge to one or two per month once the federal program ends. "We've just increased the number of energy advisers across Canada dramatically. Millions and millions and millions of dollars was spent training new energy advisors," he said. "I would suggest we can lose about 70 per cent of them. They'll go out of the industry." Read more here.
While browsing the goods at a Value Village store in Toronto, Evan Boyce spotted something he didn't expect: A used vase for sale with a Value Village price tag of $8.99. Then he realized the original price tag was still on — and to buy it at a Dollarama store would have cost only $3. "Three times what it would have cost brand new …It's pretty ridiculous, right? Just kind of feels like a rip off to be honest," said Boyce. For years, many Canadians have relied on Value Village to buy used goods for cheaper than other retailers. It's one of the biggest and most popular thrift store chains in the country. Now some customers are accusing the company of massive markups on their items. Shoppers have also recently called out the pricing practices of Goodwill and Salvation Army. These non-profit organizations compete with Value Village, which is a for-profit business owned by parent company Savers Value Village. U.S. private equity firm Ares Management is a majority shareholder, and helped take the company public last year. Read the full story here.
Now here's some good news to start your Thursday: A Winnipeg duct cleaner found an unexpected hidden treasure in the ducts last week. An employee from Duct Stories was cleaning an air duct inside a home last Thursday when he found an old Quik can that contained wrapped bank notes totalling $5,000. "This is the craziest thing we have found while working for the last three years," said Earl Masanque, who owns Duct Stories. It was the first time Masanque's business found such a treasure in the ducts. He posted a video on the company's Facebook and Instagram accounts, which immediately went viral. Read the story here or watch it here. | | | FIRST PERSON | My dad's funeral in the Philippines showed me it's OK to party the pain away | After his father's sudden death while on vacation in the Philippines, Jim Agapito rushed to his funeral. But when he arrived from Canada, he was thrown into an unfamiliar world where his sombre understanding of mourning was replaced by superstition and festivities. Read his column here. | | | | | | | CBC PODCASTS | CBC News launches seven local podcasts across Canada |  | CBC is launching seven podcasts spotlighting and celebrating the diverse local communities and answering listeners' questions from coast to coast. Audiences are invited to join CBC journalists and hosts on an adventure to explore and learn something new, valuable and authentic about their communities.
Get connected to Edmonton, Ottawa, Vancouver Island and Calgary each week with their This Is podcast. Meet the people behind the essential, sometimes random, and occasionally infuriating stories shaping your community every week.
Learn more about Montreal, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island each week with their Good Question podcast. Every week, this podcast will answer your questions about your community. Nothing too big, too small, or too weird.
Find these podcasts on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. | | | | | | |  | Is $10 daycare in trouble? | | Canada’s affordable child-care program is extremely popular — but as it expands, it’s facing growing pains. Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: February 1 | | | 1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is formed in the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and the Dominion Police.
1946: Norwegian politician Trygve Lie is elected the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after living in exile in France for nearly 15 years.
2003: The space shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere more than 60,000 metres over Texas, killing the crew of five men and two women. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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