Feb 1, 2013

How bad science sells bad drugs to kids by Robert Whitaker • If we want to understand how our society may end up deluded about the merits of psychiatric medications, we can look at the research published by Robert Gibbons, Director of the Center for Health Statistics at the University of Chicago, on antidepressants and their use in children and adolescents....

Feb 1, 2013

by Reimar Kroecher • The Gateway Joint Review panel has come to town and left again. I was one of the hundreds of official interveners allowed to deliver a 10-minute talk. It was the only “public” hearing I have ever attended that was not public! With heavy police presence everywhere, the public was not allowed into the speakers’ room. The only way for...

Feb 1, 2013

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs In my inaugural column in this magazine almost eight years ago I wrote a story called “The media life cycle of the wonder drug story.” It’s time for an update. That article concerned the drug Herceptin (trastuzumab), which is prescribed to women who have been treated for...

Open letter to the natural health community, the Canadian public, CHFA board and members, retailers, manufacturers, by authors who request anonymity due to concerns they have about Health Canada or NHPD’s vengeance. If the natural health industry continues along the current path allowing Health Canada to apply the synthetic pharmaceutical type regulations to...

Feb 1, 2013

Scientists critique the corruption of science by special interests • Although impartiality is fundamental to science, scientific inquiry itself has always been vulnerable to manipulation by, or attack from, vested interests. The oil industry underminded climate change science, the tobacco industry denied the cancer connection, and so on – all the way back...

Feb 1, 2013

Renewal in times of loss by Michael Meade • To be alive at this time means to be exposed to the raw forces of nature as well as the rough edges of culture. The world is awash with profound problems and puzzling changes and beset with seemingly endless conflicts. It is a time of great uncertainty and surprising changes that include extreme weather patterns as...

Feb 1, 2013

by Geoff Olson • Years ago I read a fantasy short story – I’ve long since forgotten the author’s name – that begins with the death of a worker on an assembly line. The man’s fatal heart attack leaves his wife to grieve alone in an empty bed. Then late one night at the factory, after all the workers have left for home, there is movement at the...

Feb 1, 2013

by Thomas King • Thomas King is one of Canada’s premier Native public intellectuals. For the past 50 years, he has worked as an activist for Native causes. He has also taught Native literature and history at universities in the US and Canada. He is the bestselling author of five novels, including Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water, two...

Feb 1, 2013

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • Last year ended on a sad note, with the accidental drowning death of Rebecca Tarbotton in Mexico, at 39 years of age. Becky was the inspirational executive director of San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network, but her roots were in British Columbia. In an October speech, she eloquently recalled her early days in the...

Feb 1, 2013

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • When the hog-tied, naked bodies of three eight-year-old boy scouts were discovered at the bottom of a ditch in 1993 it didn’t take long for local authorities in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, to find their men. Three working class teenage boys – one whose diary revealed a lurid interest in Satanism –...

Feb 1, 2013

La Dolce Vita article by Alastair Gregor • February is one of the coldest months of the year in Canada, but it could get plenty hot inside on Valentine’s Day, February 14. Build onto the day gradually, starting with the most important meal of the day – breakfast – when we Break-our-Fast of the night. Eating breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, which is...

Feb 1, 2013

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young • How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout to be in your service is the trick. – Joseph Campbell In my book, Growing Into Soul: The Next Step in Human Evolution, the focus is on how we can transcend the limitations of ego and move into a more soulful way of being. I like to...

Feb 1, 2013

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot • For North America’s early colonists, the introduction of wheat, rye, oats, peas, cabbage and other vegetable crops was critical to their survival. In the 1850s, the US government recognized that feeding an expanding continent required a diversification of food seeds and seeds were sourced by way of horticultural seed...