1) Ontario expediting process for U.S. doctors, nurses to work in province

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Allison Jones, June 5, 2025

Doctors and nurses licensed in the United States will soon be able to more easily practise in Ontario, under changes announced today by the minister of health.

Sylvia Jones says the move will increase the number of health-care professionals working in the province.

The province is enabling qualified U.S.-licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses to start working in Ontario health settings before they register with the regulatory college.

They will be allowed to work for up to six months while seeking registration with either the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario or the College of Nurses of Ontario.

Doctors and nurses would still have to go through he usual immigration processes, and to qualify they must be licensed in their home jurisdiction with no history of misconduct or incompetence.

The government previously expedited the process for physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and medical laboratory technologists registered in other jurisdictions in Canada to work in Ontario while going through the registration process.

2) Infant born prematurely dies in southwestern Ontario after measles infection

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Ireland, June 5, 2025

An infant born prematurely and infected with measles has died in southwestern Ontario, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said Thursday. 

The baby was infected with the virus before birth from their mother, who was not vaccinated, he said. 

“While measles may have been a contributing factor in both the premature birth and death, the infant also faced other serious medical complications unrelated to the virus,” Moore said in a statement. 

“Out of respect for the family’s privacy, no further personal or medical details will be shared,” he said. 

This is the first death reported in Ontario’s measles outbreak, which began in October with a travel-related case in New Brunswick. 

Dr. Ninh Tran, medical officer of health at Southwestern Public Health, said the death is “devastating news for the community” and offered “heartfelt thoughts to the family.”

“This event underscores the seriousness of measles in pregnant individuals, as it can cause low birth weight for the baby, preterm birth, and miscarriage,” Tran said in a statement. 

Immunocompromised people are especially vulnerable to severe complications from measles including pneumonia and brain swelling, he said.   

Moore called death from measles “rare,” but noted that measles “poses a serious risk” to people who have not been immunized with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.  

“I urge everyone, but especially those who may become pregnant, to ensure they have received two doses of the MMR vaccine, which will protect both a parent and baby,” he said. 

“This vaccine has been safely used for over 50 years and is highly effective. Two doses provide nearly 100 per cent protection.”

News of the death came as Public Health Ontario released its latest measles case count. 

As of June 3, there were 121 more measles cases reported than the previous week, the agency’s report said. 

That pushed the total number of cases past 2,000, with 2,009 people infected with measles since last fall.   

“The continued increase in the number of outbreak cases and geographic spread is predominantly due to ongoing exposures and transmission among individuals who have not been immunized,” the Public Health Ontario report said. 

Southwestern Ontario has been hardest-hit with 725 cases, including 21 new cases since last week. 

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

3) Health minister says forced addictions treatment lacks evidence, feds won’t intervene

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Sarah Ritchie, June 3, 2025

Minister of Health Marjorie Michel rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, June 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel says there’s no evidence that forcing people into addictions treatment works — but she won’t weigh in on whether provinces should pursue involuntary treatment.

“I will tell you that I think every single Canadian has the right to get treated,” she said.

“I won’t tell you that to force them to be treated is a way to solve the problem. I don’t think for now we would have any kind of scientific evidence on this practice.”

Alberta has introduced sweeping legislation to allow family members, health care workers or police to apply to have someone ordered into treatment for addiction.

Under that legislation, people using substances who are thought to pose a risk to themselves or others could be forced into a secure treatment facility for up to three months.

In British Columbia, where the opioid crisis has been particularly deadly, the provincial government recently opened a 10-unit facility at a pretrial centre to treat people at the jail who have both serious brain injuries and addiction issues. The government also wants to add more facilities at jails across the province.

B.C. officials said they are trying to provide help for people who are unable to ask for help, and prevent them from spending time in segregation as they wait for a bed to open up.

Ontario announced last month that it plans to study how it can introduce involuntary treatment to the correctional system and plans to hear from people with lived experience and experts. The Ontario government has said it’s looking to B.C. as a potential model.

The proposed changes have been opposed by advocates who say governments should focus instead on expanding access to voluntary treatment.

Michel said she won’t comment on the provinces’ plans for now.

“I will sit down and see results, because I think we need to work closely together, but mostly we need scientific evidence,” she said in an interview outside the House of Commons.

A 2023 review published in the Canadian Journal of Addiction found there was “a lack of high-quality evidence to support or refute involuntary treatment” for substance use disorder. The study concluded that more research is needed.

The Canadian Association of Mental Health in British Columbia said existing evidence shows that forcing people into treatment actually increases the risk that they will die of drug poisoning after being released.

Kora Debeck, a professor of substance use and drug policy at Simon Fraser University’s school of public policy, said that’s one of the reasons involuntary treatment is considered high-risk.

“I think there really is magical thinking about addiction treatment, and this thinking that if we can just get people into treatment, the suffering will go away and people will get better,” she said.

Debeck said that addiction is a “chronic relapsing condition” and people need supports around them to get better.

“I am really disappointed that so many governments seem to be moving away from a public health oriented approach to substance use and drug policy,” she said, arguing that harm reduction policies have not failed.

She said the combined effects of the opioid crisis and the housing crisis have created a horrible situation that has people calling on their governments to do something different. More than 50,000 people died of opioid toxicity in Canada between 2016 and 2024.

“The supply of drugs is so toxic, it’s so contaminated … and so what we’re seeing very viscerally on the street is a level of suffering that we just haven’t seen before,” Debeck said.

In a statement, the president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Mental Health said that before they introduce involuntary treatment policies, governments should do a comprehensive review of the voluntary system.

“Many people want help but are unable to access timely, high-quality, voluntary care,” said Sarah Downey.

The statement also said long-standing gaps in mental health and addictions care must be addressed and called for “bold, collaborative leadership” from the federal government.

In their federal election platform, the Liberals promised to add $500 million to the emergency treatment fund to address the overdose crisis, and to “invest in deeply affordable housing, supportive housing and shelters” as a means of improving health care.

Michel was elected on April 28 in Papineau, the riding that had been represented by former prime minister Justin Trudeau for 17 years. She is a first-time cabinet minister.

But she is no stranger to Parliament Hill. She served as Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff since 2021 and before that served as chief of staff to two cabinet ministers.

She said she understands the criticism of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision not to name a minister of mental health and addictions, a role that existed in Trudeau’s government.

“But you have a mental health minister, because I can tell you, I am the health minister and the mental health minister,” she said, adding that mental health will be one of her “top priorities.”

She pointed out that Carney has talked about his desire to boost Canada’s productivity rate and said making improvements to mental health care is part of the solution.

“If you are not taking care of health and mental health, you won’t get it, because people will get sick,” she said.

4)Exercise boosts survival rates in colon cancer patients, study shows

Courtesy Barrie360.com and The Associated Press

By Carla K. Johnson, June 1, 2025

A three-year exercise program improved survival in colon cancer patients and kept disease at bay, a first-of-its-kind international experiment showed.

With the benefits rivaling some drugs, experts said cancer centers and insurance plans should consider making exercise coaching a new standard of care for colon cancer survivors. Until then, patients can increase their physical activity after treatment, knowing they are doing their part to prevent cancer from coming back.

“It’s an extremely exciting study,” said Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn’t involved in the research. It’s the first randomized controlled trial to show how exercise can help cancer survivors, Meyerhardt said.

Prior evidence was based on comparing active people with sedentary people, a type of study that can’t prove cause and effect. The new study — conducted in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States — compared people who were randomly selected for an exercise program with those who instead received an educational booklet.

“This is about as high a quality of evidence as you can get,” said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “I love this study because it’s something I’ve been promoting but with less strong evidence for a long time.”

The findings were featured Sunday at ASCO’s annual meeting in Chicago and published by the New England Journal of Medicine. Academic research groups in Canada, Australia and the U.K. funded the work.

Researchers followed 889 patients with treatable colon cancer who had completed chemotherapy. Half were given information promoting fitness and nutrition. The others worked with a coach, meeting every two weeks for a year, then monthly for the next two years.

Coaches helped participants find ways to increase their physical activity. Many people, including Terri Swain-Collins, chose to walk for about 45 minutes several times a week.

“This is something I could do for myself to make me feel better,” said Swain-Collins, 62, of Kingston, Ontario. Regular contact with a friendly coach kept her motivated and accountable, she said. “I wouldn’t want to go there and say, ‘I didn’t do anything,’ so I was always doing stuff and making sure I got it done.”

After eight years, the people in the structured exercise program not only became more active than those in the control group but also had 28% fewer cancers and 37% fewer deaths from any cause. There were more muscle strains and other similar problems in the exercise group.

“When we saw the results, we were just astounded,” said study co-author Dr. Christopher Booth, a cancer doctor at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario.

Exercise programs can be offered for several thousand dollars per patient, Booth said, “a remarkably affordable intervention that will make people feel better, have fewer cancer recurrences and help them live longer.”

Researchers collected blood from participants and will look for clues tying exercise to cancer prevention, whether through insulin processing or building up the immune system or something else.

Swain-Collins’ coaching program ended, but she is still exercising. She listens to music while she walks in the countryside near her home.

That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun and when there’s a social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta. The new evidence will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated.

“Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in survival,” Courneya said.

5) Son of woman who inspired assisted dying law chooses to die on his own terms

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Sarah Ritchie, May 31, 2025

Price Carter is planning to die this summer.

The 68-year-old has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He knows it will take his life eventually; before it does, he intends to die on his own terms with his family at his side.

“I was told at the outset, ‘This is palliative care, there is no cure for this.’ So that made it easy,” he said in an interview from his home in Kelowna, B.C.

Carter said he’s always known that medical assistance in dying would be an option “that I would exercise if I could, if needed to.”

He has that option, in large part, because of his mother.

Kay Carter’s name is on the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that gave Canadians the right to choose a medically assisted death just over a decade ago.

Price has finished a first assessment and said he expects the second assessment deeming him eligible for the procedure to be completed this week. He spoke openly and calmly about his final days and his decision to end his life.

“I’m at peace with this, I truly am, and I would have been years ago,” he said.

It’s been nearly a year since he first started experiencing symptoms and got a diagnosis. Until a couple of months ago, he said, he was swimming and rowing. He and his wife Danielle went golfing recently, playing best ball.

“She dragged me down that course,” he said with a laugh.

But his energy is starting to fade. He knows how he wants the next step to unfold.

It was more than 15 years ago that Price, along with his sisters Marie and Lee and his brother-in-law Hollis, surreptitiously made their way to Switzerland to be with their mother on her final day.

The 89-year-old was living with spinal stenosis and chose to go to a non-profit facility that provided medically assisted death. She became the 10th Canadian to do so.

At the time, assisted death was illegal in Canada.

Kay Carter wrote a letter explaining her decision and her family helped draft a list of about 150 people to send it to after she died. She couldn’t tell them her plans in advance because of the risk that Canadian authorities would try to stop her from going to Switzerland, or prosecute the family members who helped her.

When she got to the Dignitas facility, she finalized the paperwork, settled in a bed and chased down the barbiturate that would stop her heart with Swiss chocolate.

“When she died, she just gently folded back,” Price said.

After a few minutes, one of the attendants from the facility walked over to the door, “and the curtains billow out, and she says, ‘There, her spirit is free,'” he said.

“If I was writing the movie, I wouldn’t change that.”

He said the memory makes him cry today, though not from sadness. The cancer, and the treatment, have made him emotional — the experience itself was beautiful.

“I wish for my children that they can see my death like I did my mom’s,” he said. He said wants his wife, Danielle, and his kids to be there. 

His children — Lane, Grayson and Jenna — live in Ontario. They’re all busy, he said, so when the time is right he’ll try to find a date that works for everyone.

For now, he’s doing a lot of reading.

“I’m just gonna keep hanging on, day by day, and enjoying my Danielle.”

The Carter family had a long road after Kay’s death in January 2010.

Her eldest daughter Lee was the driving force behind taking the case to the Supreme Court, which issued a unanimous decision in early 2015 that struck down sections of the Criminal Code that made it illegal to help someone end their life.

In 2016, the federal government passed legislation that created the country’s regime for medical assistance in dying and made it legal for people whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable” to apply for an assessment.

After a 2019 ruling in the Quebec Superior Court found it was unconstitutional to restrict assisted dying to people whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable, the Liberal government updated the law in 2021.

That update included a controversial clause that would allow people suffering solely from a mental disorder to be considered eligible for an assisted death. The proposed change caused widespread worry among provinces and some mental health professionals, and has now been delayed until March 2027.

In the meantime, Health Canada has been studying what Canadians think of allowing people to ask for medical assistance in dying through an advance request.

Advance requests would allow people with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other degenerative conditions to make the application and decide when they’d like to end their lives.

Price Carter said that change “is such a simple thing to do.”

“We’re excluding a huge number of Canadians from a MAID option because they may have dementia and they won’t be able to make that decision in three or four or two years. How frightening, how anxiety-inducing that would be,” he said.

He admitted to feeling frustrated at the pace of change, though he said he knows his “laissez-faire” attitude toward death is uncommon.

Helen Long, the president of Dying With Dignity Canada, said numerous federal consultations have shown there’s broad support for advance requests dating back to 2016.

“We’re continuing to advocate and ask our new government … to make advance requests legal for Canadians,” she said.

Quebec has passed legislation to allow people with serious and incurable illnesses to apply for a medically assisted death in the event that they become incapacitated through an advance request. 

Marjorie Michel, who was recently named health minister in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new government, said in an interview that it’s a question of balance.

“It’s so personal for people, and I think in some provinces they are not there yet,” she said.

But when asked if the government plans to allow advance requests, she deferred to her colleague in the Justice Department. A spokesperson for Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Michel would be best positioned to respond.

Health Canada is set to release a report with the key findings from its consultations on the matter this spring.

Medical assistance in dying is becoming more common in Canada. In 2023, the latest year for which national statistics are available, 19,660 people applied for the procedure and just over 15,300 people were approved.

More than 95 per cent of those were people whose deaths were considered reasonably foreseeable.

Price Carter said he wants to talk about his condition because he wants Canadians to talk about death, as uncomfortable as it is.

“The more conversations we can spawn around kitchen tables, the better,” he said.

“We’re all going to die. It’s part of the condition of living. And yet we do ignore this, to our peril.”