Alberta
Alberta leads the country in eliminating surgery backlog
Surgery volumes exceed pre-pandemic levels
Alberta is now exceeding 100 per cent capacity for surgical volumes and is leading the country in eliminating the COVID-19 surgical backlog.
While all provinces delayed surgeries during the pandemic, Alberta delayed fewer surgeries than other provinces. For example, in the second wave, five to 10 per cent of surgeries were delayed in Alberta compared with between 30 and 60 per cent of surgeries postponed in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.
“As the pandemic recedes, Alberta’s government will be pushing as hard as we can to ensure that any delayed surgeries are completed as fast as possible. Thanks to the incredible dedication of surgical teams in AHS and at chartered surgical facilities, we are getting closer and closer to that goal.”
Through its surgical recovery plan, Alberta expects to recover faster than many other provinces.
The surgical recovery plan is now integrated into the Alberta Surgical Initiative, which will provide all Albertans the surgeries they need within recommended wait times. The initiative is improving and standardizing the entire surgical system from the time patients seek advice from their family doctor, to when they are referred to a specialist, to their surgery and rehabilitation.
“By carefully reducing the number of surgeries being performed in response to the pandemic, we were able to increase capacity in our intensive care units and ensure people with COVID-19 who needed ICU care could receive it. Now, we are able to focus on our surgical recovery plan. I am so proud of our teams who continue to work hard to ensure Albertans have high-quality care.”
Quick facts
- Throughout the 2020-21 fiscal year, surgical teams were able to support surgical activity at about 92 per cent of pre-COVID levels, with more than 268,000 surgeries completed compared with approximately 290,000 in the previous fiscal year.
- About 40,000 surgeries were delayed in Alberta over the past 16 months:
- 25,000 surgeries were delayed in the first wave in the spring of 2020. All delayed surgeries from the first wave have been completed.
- 5,000 surgeries were delayed in the second wave during fall 2020 and early winter 2021. Another 10,000 surgeries were delayed in the third wave beginning in April 2021.
- 95 per cent, approximately 12,000, of these surgeries have been rebooked.
- No emergency or urgent surgeries were delayed or postponed during the pandemic.
- Most cancer surgeries continued during Alberta’s pandemic response.
Alberta
Alberta Conservatives looking to pass resolution protecting ‘female spaces’ from male intrusion
From LifeSiteNews
LifeSiteNews was able to look at a copy of a resolution from the Calgary-Lougheed CA, that will be discussed at the AGM, which states that the UCP “believes females deserve and require the safety, privacy, and dignity of spaces and categories reserved solely for them and their young children.”
Members of Alberta’s ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) are looking to bring forth a resolution that calls on the government to introduce a law that would protect “female spaces” for biological females and their children.
The UCP under Premier Danielle Smith will be holding their Annual General Meeting (AGM) this year from November 1 to 2, at which multiple local Constituency Associations (CAs) will bring forth resolutions to be voted on. While non-binding, resolutions often do lead to laws being passed in the future.
LifeSiteNews was able to look at a copy of a resolution from the Calgary-Lougheed CA, that will be discussed at the AGM, which states that the UCP “believes females deserve and require the safety, privacy, and dignity of spaces and categories reserved solely for them and their young children.”
“Women’s washrooms, changerooms, shelters, and other female spaces are places where women are the most vulnerable physically and psychologically,” it adds.
The resolution explains that men being present in women’s spaces is a safety issue that poses a real danger to women and young girls.
As it stands now, there have been countless examples of biological men being allowed to enter women’s spaces, both in Calgary and in other cities in the province and outside the province.
The UCP under Smith looks to focus on bringing forth laws focusing on parental rights, as well as protecting Albertans’ general rights, come the fall.
LifeSiteNews recently reported on how a forthcoming piece of legislation planned to be introduced by the UCP includes a provision that would cement parental rights as a “God-given right,” with the goal being to prevent government overreach into how parents raise their kids.
Also reported by LifeSiteNews is another bill from the UCP that would make it so parents will have to specifically opt their children into sexual education lessons rather than opt them out.
It is expected that the UCP government in Alberta will even being introducing a new “Bill of Rights” this fall. The bill contains a slew of pro-freedom proposals, including, as reported by LifeSiteNews, enshrining the “right to life” into law, including from “conception, gestation in the womb.”
The bill also includes a section that guarantees each citizen has the “right” to medical “informed consent” as well as the “right” to “refuse vaccinations.”
Earlier this year, Smith announced strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
Alberta
Trudeau-appointed judge sentences Freedom Convoy-inspired protesters to 6 years in prison
From LifeSiteNews
Justice David Labrenz sentenced Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert, who were charged with mischief and weapons offenses during the 2022 Freedom Convoy-inspired border blockade in Alberta.
A Trudeau-appointed judge serving in an Alberta court has sentenced two men linked to the 2022 Freedom Convoy-inspired border blockade protest in Coutts, Alberta, to six years in prison.
On September 9, Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice David Labrenz sentenced Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert, who were convicted of mischief and weapons offenses stemming from the Coutts border blockade, to six years in prison.
“Stay strong, live free, spread love – not war,” Olienick declared before being sentenced.
“I’ve gained a stronger understanding into what divine destiny awaits me,” he added. “I will continue to help others spreading truth, happiness and joy. Unifying people together by using love as my solemn weapon.”
Labrenz, who was appointed to the Alberta bench by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2018, sentenced Olienick to six years but gave Carbert an additional six months, putting his sentence at six and a half years. However, neither man is expected to serve their full sentence, as both were issued four years of credit for time already served. Both are also prohibited from owning firearms for life, and are required to provide a DNA sample.
Both men have been jailed since February 2022 when they were charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the protest in Coutts, which ran parallel to but was not officially affiliated with, the Freedom Convoy taking place in Ottawa.
Earlier in August, they were finally acquitted of the conspiracy to commit murder charge, but were still found guilty of the lesser charges of unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose and mischief over $5,000. Olienick was also found guilty of unlawful possession of an explosive device.
At the time, police said they had discovered firearms, 36,000 rounds of ammunition, and industrial explosives at Olienick’s home. However, the guns were legally obtained and the ammunition was typical of those used by rural Albertans. Similarly, Olienick explained that the explosives were used for mining gravel.
The men were arrested alongside Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin, with the latter two pleading guilty to lesser charges to avoid trial. At the time, the “Coutts Four” were painted as dangerous terrorists and their arrest was used as justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government, which allowed it to use draconian measures to end both the Coutts blockade and the much larger Freedom Convoy occurring thousands of kilometers away in Ottawa.
Under the EA, the Trudeau government froze the bank accounts of Canadians who donated to the protest. Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23 after the protesters had been cleared out. At the time, seven of Canada’s 10 provinces opposed Trudeau’s use of the EA.
Since then, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Trudeau was “not justified” in invoking the Emergencies Act, a decision which the federal government is appealing.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, Labrenz’s decision follows a recommendation from the Crown prosecutor for each of the men to serve nine years in prison.
Many Canadians online are condemning the ruling, arguing that the men are being treated in a way that is comparable to political prisoners in communist countries.
“Unbelievable. They made an example out of them. Canada is gone as we know it,” one user lamented.
Others questioned why the two Alberta men were denied bail for two years while dangerous criminals are allowed to roam free under the Trudeau government’s “catch and release” policy.
“Meanwhile, a guy out on parole for assault (and 60+ other “police interactions”) cut off one man’s head and another’s hand in broad daylight in downtown Vancouver…” one commented.
Indeed, this policy has put many Canadians in danger, as was the case last month when a Brampton man charged with sexually assaulting a 3-year-old was reportedly out on bail for an October 2022 incident in which he was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon.
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