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Alberta

Tranquility and Transformation – ATMA Journey Centre Expands to Costa Rica

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ATMA Journey Centre

 

From advocacy to relief, the Calgary-based ATMA Journey Centre has had a busy few months. Published on March 8th through Newswire, ATMA announced international expansion, opening a second location for administering legal psychedelic-assisted therapies and other plant medicines in Costa Rica. Thus allowing for the migration and commonality of experiences to be shared with their community across borders. 

The new facility, named “Azul Journey Centre” will be situated in an oceanfront property along the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. This location offers the ability to legally administer certain plant medicines that are unavailable to Canadians, such as Ayahuasca, Ibogaine and Huachuma (San Pedro cactus), as well as more common psychedelics and healing modalities. One can only imagine the healing properties of being situated close to the ocean in Costa Rica could offer on their own, let alone a retreat-style therapeutic adventure.

ATMA Journey Centre

A view of the oceanfront from ATMA Azul Journey Center in Costa Rica. (CNW Group/ATMA Journey Centers Inc)

Noted in the press release, Co-CEO of ATMA, Vu Tran is quoted on his thoughts about the new Costa Rica facility,

“Azul Journey Center in Costa Rica marks the next step of our plans to develop a network of international Journey Centers which will allow us to provide safe and comprehensive access to clients seeking mental health and wellness services that are currently unavailable in Canada.”

As a community grows, so do resources and education. Evident from the team at ATMA Journey Centre and the SYNTAC Institute here in Calgary, since their first patient was exempted and administered psychedelic-assisted therapy on January 1st, they have received hundreds of applications for a Section 56 Exemption.

Noted in the release, Co-CEO of ATMA David Harder expresses his thoughts on their continued work for both the scientific researchers and prospective patients seeking a Section 56 Exemption for alternative care with entheogens:

“…we have received hundreds of applications from Canadians across the country seeking our assistance for them to obtain a Section 56 Exemption. They are desperately seeking support with a range of difficult and debilitating mental health conditions, and Health Canada is simply not keeping pace with the demand or the need that Canadians have for help.”

Recently, ATMA Journey Centre announced the opening of their Calgary-based facility, a 5,000 square foot private wellness centre approximately 2 hours outside of both Calgary and Edmonton. Aptly named “Creekside Journey Centre”, will provide clients with an opportunity to experience a range of healing and transformational modalities as part of multi-day experiences, ceremonies, and retreats.

ATMA Journey Centre

ATMA Creekside Journey Center in Alberta, Canada’s first psychedelic therapy wellness center (CNW Group/ATMA Journey Centers Inc)

Noted in the February press release, Mr. Harder states that the transformational events that could occur with a client ingesting psychedelics and deep-diving inward are far better suited in a home-style environment rather than a professional health clinic or psychiatric hospital, to which arguably most people with comparable experiences would agree.

“Our philosophy is that these deep inner medicine sessions are not best suited in a clinical appointment where only a few hours are allotted in the midst of a busy day and lifestyle.”

They’re not done yet. Set for May 11th, 2021, the event management company “Catalyst Presents” is hosting the world’s largest online psychedelic conference in the world. The event brings together researchers, mental health practitioners, regulators and an array of thought leaders in the space. 

Speaking at the event will be renowned psychedelic researchers and top scholars in the scientific community involved in this new form of treatment. The event will host noted speakers such as Paul Stamets, Dr. Rick Doblin, Dr. Julie Holland, Dr. David E. Nichols and ATMA’s very own Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ravi Bains. 

In association with the Canadian Psychedelic Association, the Catalyst Summit 2021 will offer both avid researchers and strangers an opportunity to understand where we are in this realm. Learn more by visiting the conference website here

If you would like to learn more ATMA Journey Centre Inc, their work to offer alternative treatments to treat mental health in Canada and to follow their international growth, check out their website or via their social media below.

 

ATMA Journey Centre LinkedIn

ATMA Journey Centre Facebook

ATMA Journey Centre Instagram

 

 

For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary

Alberta

Alberta judge sides with LGBT activists, allows ‘gender transitions’ for kids to continue

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘I think the court was in error,’ Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said. ‘There will be irreparable harm to children who get sterilized.’

LGBT activists have won an injunction that prevents the Alberta government from restricting “gender transitions” for children.

On June 27, Alberta King’s Court Justice Allison Kuntz granted a temporary injunction against legislation that prohibited minors under the age of 16 from undergoing irreversible sex-change surgeries or taking puberty blockers.

“The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice that they are already subjected to,” Kuntz claimed in her judgment.

Kuntz further said that the legislation poses serious Charter issues which need to be worked through in court before the legislation could be enforced. Court dates for the arguments have yet to be set.

READ: Support for traditional family values surges in Alberta

Alberta’s new legislation, which was passed in December, amends the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

The legislation would also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 years of age and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Just days after the legislation was passed, an LGBT activist group called Egale Canada, along with many other LGBT organizations, filed an injunction to block the bill.

In her ruling, Kuntz argued that Alberta’s legislation “will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth.”

However, the province of Alberta argued that these damages are speculative and the process of gender-transitioning children is not supported by scientific evidence.

“I think the court was in error,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on her Saturday radio show. “That’s part of the reason why we’re taking it to court. The court had said there will be irreparable harm if the law goes ahead. I feel the reverse. I feel there will be irreparable harm to children who get sterilized at the age of 10 years old – and so we want those kids to have their day in court.”

READ: Canadian doctors claim ‘Charter right’ to mutilate gender-confused children in Alberta

Overwhelming evidence shows that persons who undergo so-called “gender transitioning” procedures are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given such irreversible surgeries. In addition to catering to a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, trans surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, and infertility.

Meanwhile, a recent study on the side effects of “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who have undergone them in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movements in the weeks and months that followed, among many other negative side effects.

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Alberta

Why the West’s separatists could be just as big a threat as Quebec’s

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By Mark Milke

It is a mistake to dismiss the movement as too small

In light of the poor showing by separatist candidates in recent Alberta byelections, pundits and politicians will be tempted to again dismiss threats of western separatism as over-hyped, and too tiny to be taken seriously, just as they did before and after the April 28 federal election.

Much of the initial skepticism came after former Leader of the Opposition Preston Manning authored a column arguing that some in central Canada never see western populism coming. He cited separatist sympathies as the newest example.

In response, (non-central Canadian!) Jamie Sarkonak argued that, based upon Alberta’s landlocked reality and poll numbers (37 per cent Alberta support for the “idea” of separation with 25 per cent when asked if a referendum were held “today”), western separation was a “fantasy” that “shouldn’t be taken seriously.” The Globe and Mail’s Andrew Coyne, noting similar polling, opined that “Mr. Manning does not offer much evidence for his thesis that ‘support for Western secession is growing.’”

Prime Minister Mark Carney labelled Manning’s column “dramatic.” Toronto Star columnist David Olive was condescending. Alberta is “giving me a headache,” he wrote. He argued the federal government’s financing of “a $34.2-billion expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline (TMX)” as a reason Albertans should be grateful. If not, wrote Olive, perhaps it was time for Albertans to “wave goodbye” to Canada.

As a non-separatist, born-and-bred British Columbian, who has also spent a considerable part of his life in Alberta, I can offer this advice: Downplaying western frustrations — and the poll numbers — is a mistake.

One reason is because support for western separation in at least two provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, is nearing where separatist sentiment was in Quebec in the 1970s.

In our new study comparing recent poll numbers from four firms (Angus Reid InstituteInnovative Research GroupLeger, and Mainstreet Research), the range of support in recent months for separation from Canada in some fashion is as follows, from low to high: Manitoba (6 per cent to 12 per cent); B.C. (nine per cent to 20 per cent); Saskatchewan (20 per cent to 33 per cent) and Alberta (18 per cent to 36.5 per cent). Quebec support for separation was in a narrow band between 27 per cent and 30 per cent.

What such polling shows is that, at least at the high end, support for separating from Canada is now higher in Saskatchewan and Alberta than in Quebec.

Another, even more revealing comparison is how western separatist sentiment now is nearing actual Quebec votes for separatism or separatist parties back five decades ago. The separatist Parti Québécois won the 1976 Quebec election with just over 41 per cent of the vote. In the 1980 Quebec referendum on separation, “only” 40 per cent voted for sovereignty association with Canada (a form of separation, loosely defined). Those percentages were eclipsed by 1995, when separation/sovereignty association side came much closer to winning with 49.4 per cent of the vote.

Given that current western support for separation clocks in at as much as 33 per cent in Saskatchewan and 36.5 per cent in Alberta, it begs this question: What if the high-end polling numbers for western separatism are a floor and not a ceiling for potential separatist sentiment?

One reason why western support for separation may yet spike is because of the Quebec separatist dynamic itself and its impact on attitudes in other parts of Canada. It is instructive to recall in 1992 that British Columbians opposed a package of constitutional amendments, the Charlottetown Accord, in a referendum, in greater proportion (68.3 per cent) than did Albertans (60.2 per cent) or Quebecers (56.7 per cent).

Much of B.C.’s opposition (much like in other provinces) was driven by proposals for special status for Quebec. It’s exactly why I voted against that accord.

Today, with Prime Minister Carney promising a virtual veto to any province over pipelines — and with Quebec politicians already saying “non” — separatist support on the Prairies may become further inflamed. And I can almost guarantee that any whiff of new favours for Quebec will likely drive anti-Ottawa and perhaps pro-separatist sentiment in British Columbia.

There is one other difference between historic Quebec separatist sentiment and what exists now in a province like Alberta: Alberta is wealthy and a “have” province while Quebec is relatively poor and a have-not. Some Albertans will be tempted to vote for separation because they feel the province could leave and be even more prosperous; Quebec separatist voters have to ask who would pay their bills.

This dynamic again became obvious, pre-election, when I talked with one Alberta CEO who said that five years ago, separatist talk was all fringe. In contrast, he recounted how at a recent dinner with 20 CEOs, 18 were now willing to vote for separation. They were more than frustrated with how the federal government had been chasing away energy investment and killing projects since 2015, and had long memories that dated back to the National Energy Program.

(For the record, they view the federal purchase of TMX as a defensive move in response to its original owner, Kinder Morgan, who was about to kill the project because of federal and B.C. opposition. They also remember all the other pipelines opposed/killed by the Justin Trudeau government.)

Should Canadians outside the West dismiss western separatist sentiment? You could do that. But it’s akin to the famous Clint Eastwood question: Do you feel lucky?

Mark Milke is president and founder of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy and co-author, along with Ven Venkatachalam, of Separatist Sentiment: Polling comparisons in the West and Quebec.

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