WestIslandGazette.com, The Gazette’s “hyper-local” website serving West Island and western off-island communities, officially launches today. Page A2 in today’s paper has an article from editor-in-chief Andrew Phillips discussing the new site.
The site is pretty well unchanged since last time I mentioned it, except it has fewer bugs and more updated stories. (No changes based on Craig Silverman’s comments, for example.)
Phillips’s article also mentions upcoming changes to the editorial page, which will reduce space given to editorials and increase space given to letters to the editor (a change I think most people will welcome). There will also be more web-only opinion content, and Phillips’s blog, which I mentioned last week. The changes all go live on Monday.
I am very happy to see you have now included West Island news on your web. I also like the idea that we can now use your web to post announcements for our church activities. To-day is my first opportunity view your page and will keep you posted.
Re- Should Quebec government pay for Marchildon’s surgery? ; At the very least the government should calculate the cost of the Sugarbaker procedure, including the neccesary postoperative chemotherapy, and contribute this amount to the Marchildon family. Absolutely no time should be wasted with time consuming and needless bureaucratic decision making by people who have no medical background with which to make these judgements. Three well qualified physicians have recommended this as the only hope for remission, in addition to a physician at the sugerbaker clinic in the United States. Without this treatment Ella Marchildon has virtually no chance for survival, with it she has a 75% 10 year survival rate. A proposal for a physician in Quebec who has never performed the procedure to attempt the sugery is not a solution, especially if the neccesary postoperative chemotherapy would not be given. Half measures will not cut it in this situation. Health care should not be run like a business, certainly not when a persons life is a stake. I am so disgusted and frustrated with government bureaucrats who play God with other peoplles lives, with no thought as to how their actions affect others. To be sure if this was someone in their family the outcome would be swift and effective. Also, as an Anglo in Quebec I can’t help but wonder if a Francophone would receive a different verdict. Whether people realize it or not their are more than two tiers in our health care system. Their is one for the rich and one for the poor, and one for the French and one for all the rest. I feel confident in making this assertion as I have worked as a nurse in the system since 1989, in addition I have a son with autism who receives very little in terms of treatment from the public sector. As a family we have had to seek out and pay for private services at great expense. My advice to the Marchildon’s, don’t wait for the government to make a decision your life depends on this. Do whatever you have to do to have the surgery, take out a loan, remortgage your house, downsize, the community will rally around you, and the government can be dealt with in court when you are recovering. Don’t look back, go for it! Nancy Boyle