Health
Opioid Treatments Expand Across Central Alberta
Officials with Alberta health Services have announced their opioid treatments are expanding across central Alberta. They have shared the following news release outlining those details.
Story by Shelley Rattray
Opioid dependency treatment has been expanded to nine communities throughout Central Alberta.
Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) Rural Opioid Dependency Program has improved access to opioid replacement therapy in Camrose, Drayton Valley, Olds, Ponoka, Rocky Mountain House, Stettler, Sylvan Lake, Wainwright and Wetaskiwin.
“Thanks to the use of video-conferencing technology we are able to provide Albertans with access to programming that normally wouldn’t be possible,” says Dr. Nathaniel Day, Medical Lead for the Rural Opioid Dependency Program.
“It can be difficult to access opioid replacement therapy outside of larger urban centres,” he adds, “however we are able to help eliminate barriers to care by providing video-conferencing sessions between physicians and patients in remote areas.”
The program began accepting patients in April and has the capacity to assist approximately 300 patients.
“Opioid dependency is a growing issue, and we are continuously is working to increase access and availability of substitution treatment,” says Dwight Hunks, Executive Director, Addiction and Mental Health, Central Zone. “This program will help Albertans receive the care they need in their own community. It will help save lives.
“One of the best approaches to treat fentanyl and other opioid addictions is substitution maintenance therapy in addition to counselling and other social support services,” adds Hunks. “This program will help Albertans receive the care they need, closer to home.”
The program was established following the Government of Alberta’s commitment to provide $3 million over three years to expand Opioid Dependency Treatment and increase access to treatment services and counselling across the province.
Since 2016, AHS has also opened a new clinic in Cardston in southwest Alberta, and a satellite clinic in Fort McMurray. More recently, an Opioid Dependency Program launched in Grande Prairie this spring.
Currently, there are now 16 clinics that treat opioid dependency across Alberta. Five of the 16 clinics are provincially funded and delivered by AHS and provide a full range of counselling and support services. A full listing of the clinics can be found on the College of Physicians and Surgeons website.
For more information about Opioid Dependency, please visit www.ahs.ca or call Health Link at 811.
Health
News RFK Jr.’s vaccine committee to vote on ending Hepatitis B shot recommendation for newborns
From LifeSiteNews
The goal is to examine whether vaccines on the recommended schedule are contributing to the rise in allergies, autoimmune diseases, and other conditions such as autism.
Vaccine advisors to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plan to vote on ending the recommendation of the Hepatitis B shot for infants and discuss other changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.
The federal advisers, selected by RFK Jr., will meet on Thursday and Friday to review the childhood vaccination schedule, according to a report from The Washington Post. The goal is to examine whether vaccines on the recommended schedule are contributing to the rise in allergies, autoimmune diseases, and other conditions such as autism.
The vaccine panel, headed by Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and critic of the COVID shots, plans to vote on ending the Hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for infants within 24 hours of birth. The panel will decide whether to delay the first dose to a later time.
Critics of the very early administration of the first Hepatitis B vaccine dose argue that it represents an unnecessary risk, as the vast majority of children are not at risk of infection.
The vaccine committee makes recommendations to the CDC director on the vaccine schedule. Directors have typically adopted the panel’s recommendations, compelling insurers to cover certain vaccines. These recommendations also provide a guideline for most pediatricians and medical organizations.
READ: Florida moving to be first state to end all childhood vaccine mandates
“We’re looking at what may be causing some of the long-term changes we’re seeing in population data in children, specifically things such as asthma and eczema and other autoimmune diseases,” Milhoan told The Washington Post.
“What we’re trying to do is figure out if there are factors within vaccines,” he added.
He said that the committee is examining the potential dangers of using aluminum as an adjuvant, an ingredient meant to trigger an immune response strong enough for the body to develop antibodies and protect the person from the disease.
RFK Jr.’s panel has been heavily criticized by establishment health organizations and the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma officials have said that removing aluminum from vaccines and replacing it with another adjuvant would cost billions of dollars and take years.
The CDC recently revised its website on the issue of autism and vaccines, now stating, “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” The CDC had previously held that there was definitely no link between vaccines and autism. The change was made at the direct order of RFK Jr.
The McCullough Foundation, founded by famous cardiologist and COVID response critic Dr. Peter McCullough, goes even further in its critique of childhood vaccines. In a recent extensive report, the authors analyzed 12 studies comparing routinely vaccinated with unvaccinated children. According to the report, all of these studies showed “superior overall health outcomes among the unvaccinated, including significantly lower risks of chronic medical problems and neuropsychiatric disorders such as ASD [Autism spectrum disorder].”
Health
23,000+ Canadians died waiting for health care in one year as Liberals pushed euthanasia
From LifeSiteNews
Tens of thousands of Canadians have died while on waitlists in recent years, according to new data. Meanwhile, euthanasia now accounts for five percent of all deaths in Canada.
Over 23,000 Canadians have died while on waitlists for medical care as Liberals focused on euthanasia expansions.
According to government figures published on November 26 by Canadian think tank SecondStreet.org, 23,746 patients died on government waiting lists for health care between April 2024 and March 2025.
“What’s really sad is that behind many of these figures are stories of patients suffering during their final years – grandparents who dealt with chronic pain while waiting for hip operations, people leaving children behind as they die waiting for heart operations, so much suffering,” SecondStreet.org President Colin Craig explained.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. If we copied better-performing European public health systems, we could greatly reduce patient suffering,” he continued.
According to the data, collected through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, there has been a three percent increase of deaths while on waitlists compared to last year. The number is likely much higher, as the reports did not include figures from Alberta and some parts of Manitoba.
Data further revealed that 100,876 Canadians have died while waiting for care since 2018, thanks to increased wait times and insufficient staffing.
“It’s interesting that governments will regularly inspect restaurants and report publicly if there’s a minor problem such as a missing paper towel holder,” Craig noted. “Meanwhile, no government reports publicly on patients dying on waiting lists. It’s quite hypocritical.”
At the same time, the Liberal government has worked to expand euthanasia 13-fold since it was legalized, making it the fastest growing euthanasia program in the world. Meanwhile, Health Canada has released a series of studies on advance requests for assisted suicide.
As LifeSiteNews reported earlier this week, so-called “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) is responsible for five percent of all deaths in Canada in 2024.
At the same time, internal documents from Ontario doctors in 2024 that revealed Canadians are choosing euthanasia because of poverty and loneliness, not as a result of an alleged terminal illness.
Currently, wait times to receive genuine health care in Canada have increased to an average of 27.7 weeks, leading some Canadians to despair and opt for assisted suicide instead of waiting for medical aid. At the same time, sick and elderly Canadians who have refused to end their lives have reported being called “selfish” by their providers.
In one case, an Ontario doctor revealed that a middle-aged worker, whose ankle and back injuries had left him unable to work, felt that the government’s insufficient support was “leaving (him) with no choice but to pursue” euthanasia.
Other cases included an obese woman who described herself as a “useless body taking up space,” which one doctor argued met the requirements for assisted suicide because obesity is “a medical condition which is indeed grievous and irremediable.”
The most recent reports show that euthanasia is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.
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