I have written about Hélène Campbell twicerecently. She is a 20-year-old Ottawa woman who was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. It was decided that she would need a double lung transplant, and, while waiting for new lungs, she launched a successful campaign to increase organ donation – while gaining support from such people as Justin Bieber and Don Cherry, and appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
On Good Friday, just as hope was fading, she received new lungs. Despite a few setbacks, she has been doing quite well and is currently out of the hospital – which is happy news in the McLeod household.
Now, for all her work for organ donation, Ms. Campbell has received a Diamond Jubilee Medal, awarded to her by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She is a most worthy recipient, I would say.
(And just to maintain my libertarian bona fides, yes, I do support – tentatively – the sale of organs to address our shortage of donors.)
In a quest to prove Sarah Palin right, doctors at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital have taken to the courts to ask that they be allowed to take a man who may or may not be in a vegetative state off of life support, despite the wishes of the family. Currently, the case is before the Supreme Court of Canada: [click to continue…]
Quebec has been awash in demonstrations, protests and riots for the past few months – none of which have anything to do with the NHL playoffs. Students are protesting proposed post-secondary tuition increases that would make the lowest tuition rates in Canada, well, still the lowest tuition rates in Canada. The proposed tuition increases aren’t the only cause of the protests, but they are the rallying point, as the students see these increases as contravening the promises of the Quiet Revolution.
From where I sit, there is little sympathy for the students’ cause among Canadians outside of Quebec. Recently, Margaret Wente articulated many of the objections to the protests in the Globe and Mail: [click to continue…]
Nova Scotia is not exactly a beacon of freedom these days. Now we have a report of a high school student suspended for wearing a t-shirt that expresses his faith. The shirt reads, Life is wasted without Jesus.
A rather benign, if contentious, message, the student, William Swiminer, is unwilling to back down. He is scheduled to return to school on Monday, and plans to wear the t-shirt again.
Now, you might be thinking that this silly suspension is the result of a blanket policy banning any religious clothing (not that that’d be constitutional). At the very least, you could think that Mr. Swiminer, while having his rights violated, at least received procedural fairness, being treated the same as any other t-shirt sporting believer would.
You’d be wrong. The school board, in fact, is proud of the arbitrary nature of their rules: [click to continue…]
If this story is correct, Nova Scotians should be deeply, deeply embarrassed by their government:
A transgender man in Nova Scotia has filed a human rights complaint after he was handed a $3,400 bill for a hysterectomy that he claims was medically necessary.
…
“The gynecologist said I had two options to deal with the symptoms I was having. The first would be to take birth control to raise my estrogen levels but she ruled that out as an option because I take testosterone. I’m a man. And the second option was the abdominal hysterectomy, which was her suggestion.”
In October 2010, MacDonald went to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and had the operation.
He said after he woke up, his doctor gave him a bill for $3,400. He said he was stunned.
…
A week later, MacDonald said he discovered that MSI considered his operation sexual reassignment surgery.
“Once I got back home, I ended up having to take the staples out myself because no one could guarantee that the followup care would be covered as well,” he said.
I happily told the agent all about Seth, and what an idiot he was, and how he once got his younger brother to jump out of a second-storey window onto a snow bank. The agent wrote everything down. I wondered aloud if Seth might be a communist, but the agent shook his head non-committally.
At Blinded Trials (probably my favourite sub-blog here at the League), Rose has a post up titled, Why male circumcision is (sometimes) morally kosher. I could not disagree more (keeping in mind that we’re talking about routine infant circumcision – grown ups can do what they want). However, I don’t have the stomach to get into the weeds of that comment section (circumicison discussions always get nasty), however, I did write a series of posts on circumcision last year, so I’ll just offer those – they can be found here, here and here.
National Post‘s Jonathan Kay has some interesting thoughts on the Derb and The Talk:
This is not ordinary racism. It is more interesting and antique than that: explicitly racialist in substance, but also ornamented with editorial grace notes and exhortations to humane acts of tokenism. One is reminded of, say, old-fashioned British types putting up their slide show from a safari in South Africa, or a charity trip to an inner-city school.
As with Derbyshire’s racism, his homophobia is leavened by a tortured intellectual effort to reconcile (a) his old-fashioned revulsion and fear at black and gay collective sub-cultures; with (b) the modern, liberal, earnestly felt reflex to treat each person as an individual.
With Rick Santorum out, the Mitt Romney nomination is even more of a done deal. It seems to me that Romeny has left everyone feeling a little underwhelmed, so…
Yes. This was just an excuse to post the video. I think I’ll be listening to a lot of Sloan, today.
Friday brought great news. Hélène Campbell (whom I wrote about in January) received a double lung transplant. She had been waiting for such a transplant for months and, recently, it had been reported that before the surgery, her lungs were functioning at only 20%. She still has a long way to go, but within a day or two she was responsive and able to communicate (though not speak).
Hélène’s story is more than just the story of a young woman waiting for a transplant. She decided raise awareness about organ donation, and her efforts not only dramatically increased the number of organ donations in Ontario, but also got the attention of Justin Bieber, led to a surprise appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and resulted in Hélène Campbell Day here in Ottawa.
Hélène’s surgery has been big news and her picture has been on TV a lot. Each time she appears, my almost-four-year-old daughter turns to my wife and says, with glee, Mommy, it’s your friend! She has new lungs!
We’re all very happy for Hélène, and hope she recovers quickly.
Living in Ottawa, Jonathan McLeod is a Fellow with the Canadian Council for Democracy, and an editor and contributor for the CCD's blog, the Commons. He can also be found writing about civil rights at Examiner.com, or popping up at The Mark, The Politic or Apt613. Follow him on Twitter, connect on Google+,
Around the League
Mindless Diversions: Weekend! ~ May. 25. 2012. ~ Well, this weekend, I am going on my first leave-the-house vacati... Read More
Jubilee: Gruesome Twosome ~ May. 24. 2012. ~
Something about this strikes me as less than entirely Presidenti... Read More
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The League of Ordinary Gentlemen: On the Eve of #LeagueFest 2012 ~ May. 24. 2012. ~ So the time has finally come. A dozen or so Gentlemen and spouses... Read More
Living in Ottawa, Jonathan McLeod is a Fellow with the Canadian Council for Democracy, and an editor and contributor for the CCD's blog, 
