 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Melatonin not a magic pill for kids' sleep, pediatricians say | | |  | While pediatricians say it's tempting for parents to help their child's sleep by giving melatonin, the situation is complex and could cause side effects such as bad dreams and aggression. (Natalia Belay/Shutterstock) | | | New research says it's becoming "exceedingly common" for children and teens in the U.S. to take melatonin supplements for sleep, a trend some Canadian pediatricians are watching with caution in this country.
At SickKids in Toronto, sleep medicine physician Reshma Amin said they're definitely seeing more use of melatonin in children from young preschoolers to teens.
"It's not just a benign medication," Amin said in an interview. "By the time patients come to see us … [they] are desperate. They are tired. They're frustrated and they just want their child to sleep so that they also can get a good night's sleep. And so what they're hoping for is a magic pill to make their child fall asleep."
But experts say it's not a magic pill.
One of Amin's concerns is that Health Canada regulates melatonin for use in sleep disruption in adults only, meaning all use in kids and teens is off label at a prescriber's discretion. It's also not regulated in the same way as a prescription or over-the-counter product like a fever reducer.
"Although the packaging might say three milligrams of melatonin, we know from even a Canadian study that was done a few years ago that the dosing will have a huge amount of variability," she said.
Wendy Hall, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia's nursing school, said she knows it's not realistic to tell parents to throw it out because "they swear by it."
But she offered advice about its use, including not giving it immediately before bed (the body secretes it about two hours before bedtime) and only giving the lowest dose possible that's effective. The side effects include bad dreams and aggression. "Keep it locked up. Don't let children get access to it unless you're giving it to them," she said.
| | | | | Winter wonderland Calgary edition | | |  | (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press) | | | | Carl Evans hits a tee shot on the Shaganappi Point golf course in Calgary on Tuesday. While snow hit much of the country this week, above-average temperatures and a lack of snow allowed some golf courses in Calgary to open for play. Read more about Calgary's golf courses here. See our winter in Canada photo gallery here. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | The number of Canadian spies with permission to break the law is rising, according to an internal memorandum. The memo, marked secret, provides a glimpse into a murky world of how operatives can ignore normal rules with prior approval. Under current legislation, people working with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) who are "acting in good faith" can obtain "limited justification" to "commit acts or omissions that would otherwise constitute offences," said a memorandum to Canada's public safety minister. That limited justification can be granted to agents, contractors or intelligence assets, legal analysts said. These otherwise-illegal activities "may be committed, or directed to be committed, as part of the Service's information and intelligence collection duties and functions," said the November 2022 memo obtained under access to information legislation. Though data on the number of agents allowed to commit crimes was redacted from these records, the memo said the number of people with this special clearance is rising. The reason for the increase was redacted. Read more, including CSIS's response, here.
Math and reading scores of Canadian students continue to decline steeply, matching a global trend, according to a new study. The state of global education was given a bleak appraisal in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which is the first study to examine the academic progress of 15-year-old students in dozens of countries during the pandemic. Released Tuesday, it finds the average international math score fell by the equivalent of 15 points compared to 2018 scores, while reading scores fell 10 points. The study found Canada's overall math scores declined 15 points. According to PISA, that means Canada's math score dropped by an equivalent of three-quarters of a year of learning. During that same time period, reading scores of Canadian students dropped by 13 points and science by three. Read more here.
A Conservative member of Parliament is introducing a private member's bill that would designate December as "Christian Heritage Month." Marilyn Gladu, the MP for the Ontario riding of Sarnia–Lambton, introduced Bill C-369, the Christian Heritage Month Act, to the House of Commons on Tuesday. The bill lands as the Conservatives press a petition campaign against a Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) paper that described statutory holidays marking Christian religious dates as discriminatory. "Canada is a country that celebrates all faiths," Gladu told the House. "It's only fair and right that we would have a Christian heritage month since there's [19.3] million Christians in Canada, according to the last census. And what better month to pick than December?" Gladu noted that members of other faiths in Canada, including Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Jews, have their own heritage months. Gladu used her spot in the Commons lottery for private members' bills for a pensions protection bill. That means C-369 is unlikely to be called for debate or come up for a vote. Read more, including a quarrel in the House of Commons about Christmas, here.
Hamas-led militants and assailants raped women and carried out other heinous acts of sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, according to the testimonies of survivors, witnesses, first responders and forensics investigators. Although police have arrested and detained hundreds of suspects, linking them to specific crimes will be challenging as a result. "All the women who were murdered and may have suffered sexual violence cannot tell us," Hila Neubach, director of legal affairs at the Association for Rape Crisis Centres in Israel, told Reuters. "Witnesses perhaps too did not survive." Images and videos, in some cases captured by the militants' own cameras, emerged in real time as the attack unfolded and now help demonstrate the extent of that brutality. "[This] is one of the most documented atrocities in history," said Cochav Elkayam-Levy, head of Israel's Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women. She's part of a team of international law and human rights experts who have been gathering evidence and testimonies to inform international bodies on the crimes perpetrated against women that day. WARNING: The article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Now here's some good(bye) news to start your Wednesday: Christine Sinclair's Canadian career is over, but her impact will be felt for generations. At Sinclair's last game for her country on Tuesday night, a friendly against Australia in Vancouver, Canada won as 48,112 fans — the largest for a women's soccer friendly in Canadian history — looked on. Sinclair played for her country 331 times over more than 23 years and her 190 international goals are the most for any soccer player in history. She scored her first on March 4, 2000, when she was 16 and her last on July 5, 2022, when she was 39. In between, she scored against 40 different countries. She didn't score against Australia, but Canada's only goal came after Sinclair leapt into the air to head on a corner kick, earning her one last meaningful touch. When Sinclair sat down with the CBC Sports before the game, she was asked how she'd like to be remembered. "A proud Canadian," she said, "that gave their all." Read about Sinclair's final game here. | | | FIRST PERSON | I got a vasectomy due to climate grief. Now, I'm compelled to let go of my backup plan | Darryl Whetter got a vasectomy in his 30s because he worried about climate change. But seeing the worsening climate, he decided in his 50s to take a step further. Read the first-person piece here. | | | | | | |  | Will Purdue's opioid settlement be overturned? | | A multi-billion-dollar settlement with the maker of OxyContin could be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Why are victims of the opioid crisis split on whether the deal should stand? Listen to today's episode | | | Today in history: Dec. 6 | | | 1907: The first recorded flight in Canada takes place when Thomas Selfridge rises about 51 metres into the air in a kite designed by Alexander Graham Bell.
1917: Much of Halifax is destroyed after the French munitions ship Mont Blanc explodes in Halifax harbour.
1921: Agnes Macphail, a 30-year-old teacher, becomes Canada's first female member of Parliament.
1989: A 25-year-old man goes on a shooting rampage at the University of Montreal, killing 14 women and wounding 13 others. | | | (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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