Time, maturity may facilitate true connection this time

Winnipeg study to put meth treatment under microscope

In the battle against methamphetamine, knowledge will ultimately be the key to getting the upper hand. Unfortunately, the data about meth, a drug that varies wildly in its formulation and effects, is lacking.

That may be changing, however, thanks to a groundbreaking study undertaken by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and Shared Health that could help the health-care system screen patients and design more effective treatment options.

The study will track meth users from their first point of contact with emergency responders, all the way through to their discharge from a hospital. The study will look at early-stage symptoms, courses of treatments, length of stay in hospital, and outpatient treatment and support prescribed.

In particular, the study will try to determine the effectiveness of olanzapine, an antipsychotic medication now administered to meth users in Winnipeg almost immediately after contact with paramedics.

Family history, solo sojourns paved path for celebrated author’s latest novel

It’s 1967 and Lee Clarke has just been kicked out of UCLA when he receives his draft letter in the mail. Rather than report for basic training, he hops in a car and sets off across America on an amphetamine-fuelled road trip to bid farewell to his fractured, dysfunctional family before crossing the border into Canada.

Such is the premise for B.C.-born, Portland-based Patrick deWitt’s sixth novel Dodge City, published in September by House of Anansi. He’s in Winnipeg tonight at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location to launch the book.

The 51-year-old deWitt came to prominence with his sophomore novel, 2011’s The Sisters Brothers. The book was a critical and commercial success, winning the author the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and was adapted for the big screen in a film starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix.

His 2018 novel French Exit was also adapted for cinema, and his 2023 novel The Librarianist won deWitt the Leacock Medal for the second time. Dodge City is deWitt’s fourth novel to make the Giller Prize long list.

Feared cuts to facilities, services not in proposed four-year civic budget

Winnipeg’s 2020-23 draft budget includes far fewer civic facility closures than some critics have feared, but the proposed cuts that remain are sparking backlash.

Under the city’s four-year preliminary operating budget, all pools, arenas and libraries that are currently open will remain open — if the spending blueprint is finalized, as is.

Mayor Brian Bowman said the decision comes in response to community rallies against proposals that could have resulted in the closure of up to five pools, five arenas, and three libraries.

“Our priority in this budget process was to keep the lights on at libraries and pools and rec facilities,” he said Friday.

Winnipeg ER nurse shares her account of the fight against COVID-19

She's a veteran nurse at a Winnipeg hospital who has seen her fair share of medical emergencies. But nothing in her past could have prepared her for what's unfolding on health care's front lines amid the coronavirus crisis.

There are stringent new safety protocols. There's an omnipresent fear of the unknown. It's all become part of the new, frightening reality for Manitoba health-care employees — the foot soldiers in this pandemic fight.

The nurse worked back-to-back shifts last weekend at a Winnipeg ER. The woman, who has requested anonymity, shared her first-person account with columnist Dan Lett.

Heightened anxiety:I was very anxious going into this weekend. I felt like I was going into my first job. I was physically terrified about going into the hospital because of what I was reading and what was going on, and what I perceived was going on. I felt sick, like I was going to pass out. I’m sure my heart rate must have been 140. I don’t think I’ve ever been physically scared in my job and I have seen some violent patients in the emergency over the years.

Most incumbents regain their seats… but not all

When it comes to civic elections, voters like incumbents — but that doesn’t mean they are always invincible.

The plane truth about a dangerous president

U.S. President Donald Trump has crossed firmly into cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face territory.

Earlier this week, the president who seems to set policy by spontaneous social-media eruption announced his plans to halt the sales of Bombardier aircraft in the United States, spouting his usual complaints about Canadians and Canadian producers not playing fair.

As usual, the complaint seems to be rooted in the now-usual process: someone close to the emperor whispered in his ear that Canada had treated a Bombardier competitor — Gulfstream — badly, so Trump responded with a pronouncement of broadly agreed doubtful legality. Presidents don’t actually have the power to single out individual companies and ban them from doing business.

Nevertheless, the threat alarmed Bombardier executives, customers, employees and government officials.