Rational Radical

The next few headlines/details should cause you concern and I hope should remind you never to blindly trust those in power, be it of a company, hospital, just-ass system, government office, etc.  But in response to a couple of requests, I’m going to reverse the formatting so that stories are in regular print and my comments are italicized:

Report: Hospital infections on the rise

Toronto’s SARS crisis and Quebec’s C. difficile nightmare drew political attention — and additional funding — to the problem of hospital-acquired infections.  But despite that, rates of these infections continued to rise in the years immediately following the outbreaks, a new study reveals.  Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — known as MRSA — more than doubled in the period from 1999 to 2005, said the study, which was based on a survey of Canadian hospitals with more 80 or more patient beds. Clostridium difficile infections also rose over that period and the number of hospitals reporting new cases of infection with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus climbed 77 per cent over the period.

“Despite the two major communicable diseases — SARS and C. difficile — despite the emphasis by the Canadian Public Safety Institute on safer health care, despite all those things, our institutional approaches to infection control have changed remarkably little,” said Dr. Andrew Simor, head of microbiology at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Simor was not involved in the study. “And the outcomes, as a result, have gone in the wrong direction.”

And of course we can’t forget Listeria:

Emails a window on listeria outbreak — Candid missives sent by Maple Leaf boss show company slow to recognize threat

The first Friday in August, as a listeria outbreak quietly brewed at Maple Leaf’s Bartor Rd. plant in North York, company president Michael McCain was issuing a “belt tightening” call to arms.  With dismal financial results in the first two quarters, cost cutting and a hiring freeze were top priorities. Project Braveheart – a plan to save money by cutting discretionary spending – was firmly in place.

In his regular Friday email to thousands of his employees, McCain shared details of his week, projects underway and upcoming challenges. Missing from his chatty email on Friday, Aug. 1, was any reference to internal test results from the Bartor Rd. processing plant that would soon emerge as ground zero of Canada’s listeria outbreak. Through a series of company emails and an exclusive interview with the Star and CBC, a picture emerges of how McCain and his company were at first slow to recognize the threat that would become Canada’s worst contaminated meat outbreak, claiming at least 20 lives and sickening hundreds.

And then there’s Durham’s just-ass system, which causes many innocent people to rot in jail awaiting a bail hearing, while hardcore evil criminals get off free because the poor babies had to wait too long for a trial, often due to their own manufactured, strategic delays:

Judge slams bail hearing delays in Durham — Systemic problems in courts are reason he dismissed 2007 assault charges

Deep systemic problems in Durham Region courts mean prisoners routinely face unreasonable delays while awaiting bail hearings, a judge ruled as he dismissed charges against a man facing domestic assault charges. In his written reasons, Justice Joseph De Filippis, of the Ontario Court of Justice, quoted from a justice of the peace, who said that the crowded bail court docket in Durham “staggers human endurance.”

De Filippis ruled that a clogged court system meant Daniel Jevons, 60, of Oakville spent far too long in custody awaiting a bail hearing after being arrested in August 2007. Under the Criminal Code, accused people must appear before a judicial officer within 24 hours and have a bail hearing within three days thereafter, unless they consent to a delay. Jevons was held in jail for eight days before his bail hearing. Jevons, who had no criminal record, was charged with being unlawfully in a dwelling and criminal harassment for an alleged incident with a former girlfriend.

And finally, in contrast to my recent story about the 8 year-old American who murdered his father, in Canada we have this crap.  Namely, a sadistic, psychopathic killer at 14 is no different from a sadistic psychopathic killer at 18.  But the courts may think otherwise:

Young murderer awaits adult fate — Sadistic killing at 14 may yet land youth offender in prison 

On April 1, 2003, Justin Morton’s sadistic homicidal fantasies were horrifically played out when he used his own belt to strangle classmate Eric Levack in a wooded area near their Heart Lake Secondary School in Brampton. Now, more than 5 1/2 years later, the legal system is deciding what to do with the first person convicted of first-degree murder under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act. Morton, now 20, will appear Thursday in a Brampton court, where legal arguments will be made as to whether he should remain at Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville or be transferred to an adult facility.

At 14, Morton murdered Levack, also 14, on the very day Canada’s new youth law was enacted. He lured his victim to the forest under the pretense of a game of trust, testing if his classmate could trust him to tighten a belt around his neck. He told at least five classmates that he intended to murder Levack. Afterward, he returned to art class and later turned himself in.

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