The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
How about a bit more about George Hees, one of the most amazing and unlikely Members of Parliament Canada has had? Hees was a hero in the Second World War, and really should have been a dead hero. An officer, he volunteered to lead a group into battle when all their officers were killed. Leading the group with his pistol in his belt, he was shot by a German sniper, with the bullet hitting and cocking his pistol, ending up in his elbow. He passed out, was rescued by medics, and eventually sent home. What luck! MPs before George were thought of as stuffed shirts, but Hees showed he was much different, fun-loving and really a wild guy Ð but far from a mental lightweight. He toiled in opposition from his reelection in 1965 to being appointed Veterans Affairs Minister by Mulroney in 1984 (not counting his absence from Joe Clark's cabinet in 1979, which caused him an open dislike for Clark). George served well from 1984-1988 and did a lot for his fellow veterans. Living until the age of 86, George Hees received several honours from the Queen and Parliament after his career. * * * It is unusual for a private member's bill to get anywhere in Parliament, much less become law. One that hopefully will is Kildonan MP Joy Smith's Human Trafficking Bill, which as of this writing has passed second reading in the House with the support of all parties except the Bloc. The bill provides for a five-year minimum sentence for those convicted of trafficking children. Apparently the Bloc opposes any minimum sentences for any crime, which is strange considering the offense is rampant in Quebec. Joy told me that this crime was was far more common than we realize and was everywhere in Canada, with the criminals preying on a wide range of children. The Bloc has been 'blocking' the delivery of this bill to the Justice Committee and is hoping to prevent it becoming law. I wonder what Quebeckers think of that. Other private member's bills, especially those from the NDP, will go nowhere even in our fractured Parliament. Jim Maloway, the Transcona NDP MP, hopes to gain some recognition for his proposal to put into law compensation for airline delays, overbooking and cancellations, etc. Airlines are totally opposed, and really, with their perilous financial situation, this bill should go nowhere, as it will. * * * The plethora of never-ending health studies continues. Two huge studies on prostate cancer were released in March with conflicting and unhelpful results. One in the US, of 76,000 men, concluded that the PSA testing did not save lives. Another in Europe, of 162,000, found a very minor reduction in deaths, but not enough to prove that the controversial screening is useful. In fact, they concluded that the screening puts more men at risk of getting treatment they do not need. The studies will go on for 13 more years, and researchers predict that more than 186,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease this year. They claim that what is really needed is a better way to tell which prostate cancers need to be treated and which should be left alone. Two studies on women are very interesting to say the least. One involving 140,000 out of Pittsburgh, claims that mothers who breastfeed their children have a better chance of living longer and healthier lives than those who don't. It found that when the women are in their 60s and older, they are less likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. These findings will certainly assist the arguments of breastfeeding groups. A second and much smaller study dealt with morning sickness in pregnant women. Strangely, it found that children born of women with morning sickness have higher IQs when they get older. But the study was partly funded by the drug company in Quebec that makes the only morning sickness drug approved in Canada. It only involved 121 women over a five-year period from 1998, and showed only a minor difference in the children's IQs. How about a final study that makes more sense? It is a conclusion from more than a hundred studies that all women who smoke and even those exposed to secondhand smoke are at a greater risk of breast cancer in middle age. Not a surprise to health professionals, and another nail in the coffin of the tobacco industry. Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
