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This blind man has been fighting for years to get ‘talking prescriptions’ at his local pharmacy
Dean Steacy has been fighting for five years to get his local Rexall drugstore to adopt “talking prescription label” technology.
The Gatineau, Que., man has been blind for 17 years, and takes insulin and up to 10 pills daily for diabetes and related conditions.
He sometimes has to rely on others to help him manage his medications. The lack of independence “kind of takes away part of your dignity,” he told Go Public.
And, because he can’t see his prescriptions, he’s always at risk of taking too much, too little, or even the wrong medications. An insulin mistake, Steacy says, can have grave consequences.
“If I take too much of that, or not enough of it, I can go into diabetic shock or hypoglycemia.”
He says it’s also a struggle to make sure he gets and can reorder the right medication.
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That’s where ScripTalk comes in, a technology that uses a radio frequency chip attached to the bottom of a prescription bottle. It has the same information as a prescription label, including dosage, instructions, warnings and the number of refills, which can be read aloud by a reader or smartphone.
It has been available in Canada since 2010.
Steacy has been lobbying Rexall to adopt the technology since 2017.
Though he was repeatedly assured the chain was considering his request, Rexall didn’t make any progress for five years. By June, Rexall had informed ScripTalk it would not be adopting its technology after all, which Steacy heard about through his involvement in an advocacy group for people with sight loss.
After Go Public got involved, Rexall changed its position, saying in a statement its handling of Steacy’s request “fell short” of its standards and vowing to renew its efforts. Read the full story here.
Mourning Halloween tragedy in Seoul
(Ahn Young-joon/The Associated Press)
A mourner weeps on Monday as she pays tribute at a memorial altar to the victims of a crowd surge that left more than 150 people dead at Halloween festivities on Saturday night in Seoul, South Korea. Read more on this story here.
In brief
Some key organizers of the protests that snarled Ottawa for weeks will appear at the public inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act this week. Several of the organizers on the witness list face criminal charges related to their involvement in the protest, including Tamara Lich and Pat King. Keith Wilson, a lawyer representing a number of key convoy organizers, said before the inquiry began that his clients are eager to talk about the protest. “They’re hoping it will become apparent, which many already know, that there was no need to invoke the Emergencies Act,” he said. Testimony is expected to begin with two of the first organizers to get involved with planning the protest: Chris Barber and Brigitte Belton. Read the full story here.
CBC News: The House9:49Breaking down the third week of the Emergencies Act inquiry
The Ontario government will table legislation Monday to prevent a strike by education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Earlier on Sunday, CUPE gave the required five days’ notice for job action, positioning 55,000 workers — including educational assistants, custodians and early childhood educators — to go on full strike as soon as Friday. The government and education workers returned to the bargaining table Sunday afternoon, but Education Minister Stephen Lecce issued a statement Sunday night saying the union is sticking to its position. “Because CUPE refuses to withdraw their intent to strike, in order to avoid shutting down classes we will have no other choice but to introduce legislation tomorrow [Monday], which will ensure that students remain in class to catch up on their learning,” Lecce said in the statement. Read more on this story here.
More than 60 per cent of U.S. jurisdictions have an election-denier on the ballot this fall. In pivotal swing states, that could result in election-deniers running elections. In Arizona, it’s Mark Finchem, who was in Washington during the Jan. 6 insurrection. A member of the Oath Keepers militia, he introduced a bill this year — 597 days after the last election — to cancel Joe Biden’s 2020 win. In Pennsylvania, it’s the candidate appointed by a governor who was also there on Jan. 6, and who led Donald Trump’s efforts to invalidate the results in his state. Those are among the people running as Republican candidates to become secretary of state, a state’s chief elections official. The coming days will determine whether the candidates win office, which depends on outcomes of the Nov. 8 midterm elections. If the polls are accurate, some of these people — maybe even most — will win, along with more mainstream Republicans in Ohio and Georgia. Read more here.
Twenty years after first winning the Brazilian presidency, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro Sunday in a tight contest. With more than 99 per cent of the votes tallied in the presidential run-off vote, Lula had 50.9 per cent and Bolsonaro 49.1 per cent, with election authorities saying Lula’s victory was certain. Leftist Lula was imprisoned in 2018 in a corruption scandal, which opened the door for the conservative Bolsonaro to gain power in the last presidential vote. Read more on Brazil’s election here.
Maybe you haven’t heard the name Shawn Desman in a while. The 40-year-old R&B crooner behind hits like Electric, Shook and Get Ready — known to some as Canada’s answer to Justin Timberlake in the early and mid-2000s, an energetic performer and dancer with a smooth, sexy sound — hasn’t released an album since 2013. His life and luck changed this summer when his label urged him to download TikTok. He’d been riding the high of performing at Drake’s OVO All Canadian North Stars show in July, a reunion concert in Toronto that featured the most popular artists from the heyday of Canadian R&B and hip-hop. Over 64,000 followers later, Desman is making music again, performing to sold-out crowds — and he’s found a new generation of fans to sing with. A matured generation of Canadian artists who came up during the early and mid-2000s — an era without major social media megaphones and digital music streaming services — are now turning to those platforms to stage a comeback. “Social media and streaming has totally changed the game,” Desman said. Read more on this story here.
Now here’s some good news to start your Monday: It all began with a trip to the grocery store and a little curiosity for Dawson City, Yukon, resident Andrew Timms. “I just got some heads from the general store. Like you know those green spiky heads on the top of pineapples,” Timms said. “I rooted those, and then a year and a half later, they started to poke out little red spiky flowers.” Timms believes he’s the first person in Dawson City to successfully grow his own pineapple plants. He said he only used organic-based fertilizer and water to feed his budding tropical fruits — it seemed to be all that they needed. “They started off small. Then they started to get ‘huger,'” he said. Read more here.
Opinion: Danielle Smith has a big idea to clean up oil and gas wells. It’s all kinds of messy
Alberta’s new premier wants to give companies royalty breaks to do something they’re already required to do, writes economist Andrew Leach. Read the column here.
First Person: I’m a witch, I’m not evil and I’m not your Halloween costume
“Every Halloween we have the witch talk. A witch is not a costume,” says Susanne McCrea, a Winnipeg-based writer and activist who practices witchcraft. Read the column here.
Front Burner: Lessons from the Cuban missile crisis
Sixty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world the closest it’s ever been to a full-scale nuclear war. The story that’s often told about those 13 days is one of American might triumphing over the USSR — but that’s not what really happened.
The true story of that crisis is actually about a relationship between two men who decided to secretly work together to avert a global disaster.
While we’re certainly not in another Cuban missile crisis today, experts believe this is the closest the U.S. and Russia have come to a nuclear conflict since that time. So today, we’re going to tell the story of those 13 days in 1962, and look at whether they may hold lessons for today.
Our guest is Andrew Cohen, a professor at the University of Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication, and the author of several books including Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours that Made History.
Front Burner28:18Lessons from the Cuban missile crisis
Today in history: October 31
1977: The James Bay land claims agreement, regarded as Canada’s first modern treaty with Indigenous people, becomes law. In exchange for their territorial interests, the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec received $225 million, hunting and fishing rights, and substantial self-government. The agreement paved the way for the James Bay Hydroelectric Project.
1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated. Gandhi was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards as she left her home in New Delhi. The attack was revenge for an Indian army raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar — the key religious site of Sikhism.
1999: The final curtain falls on the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera after 4,226 performances over 10 years, which made it the longest-running musical in Canadian theatre history.
2002: The Supreme Court of Canada rules 5-4 to grant penitentiary inmates the right to vote in federal elections.