Ebola epidemic sweeping across Alberta

Since a male Alberta resident returned home from overseas several weeks ago, 273 people have died from ebola disease and thousands more are believed to be infected. Other provinces are refusing entry to anyone from Alberta. The initial case (‘Case X) flew home maskless from Europe while asymptomatic. Case X fell ill and was diagnosed with ebo…

A divided city?

Harry Shannon Just over 20 years ago, the Ontario government created a new City of Hamilton by amalgamating what had previously been the city with surrounding towns. At the time it was highly controversial. One town, Dundas, held a plebiscite (an unofficial vote) on the issue. About half the electorate voted - far more than typically turn out f…

Failure to sample can be dangerous to your health

Harry Shannon Background: Municipalities in Ontario held elections last week. A couple of days before, the Hamilton Spectator published a letter complaining that an opinion poll reporting on the race for Mayor was useless. I responded and the letter was in the print edition a few days later. Below is the letter I sent; there were some minor edi…