For several decades now, if you have been a patient suspected to have a chronic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, etc, your typical route to get care is to meet with your primary care provider (family physician or nurse practitioner), if you have one, and be referred to a specialist physician.

Once diagnosed with one of these chronic diseases, ongoing care will typically be provided by your primary care provider and by the specialist.

The frequency of specialist visits will depend on the nature of your specific chronic disease and the style of practice of the specialist. If your chronic disease is uncomplicated, this paradigm can work well enough for patients.

If your disease becomes complicated or at least very active, you will need more immediate input from your primary care provider and/or specialist. This is one of the “pressure points” for patients and, if not appropriately managed, patients may have delayed care that will compromise their health, and/or spend inordinate amounts of time in emergency departments.

Earlier this month, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un flanked China’s President Xi Jinping on the red carpet at an epic military parade in Beijing. The supreme leader was feted as a guest of honour along with Vladimir Putin. Behind them in the pecking order were nearly two dozen heads of state — the leaders of regional powers Indonesia and Vietnam among them.

It was Kim’s first time at a major diplomatic event in his 14 years as leader. And it won’t be the last. Indeed, North Korea has asserted itself as a useful cog in the autocratic faction within the new multipolar global order.

Beijing for a long time was the sole ally propping up the Kim dynasty’s totalitarian dictatorship — if only because its collapse would burden China with millions of unwanted refugees. China thus provides its heavily sanctioned neighbour with vital energy and food supplies. Plus, China’s lone mutual defence treaty is with North Korea, signed in 1961.

The relationship has nonetheless been strained over the decades. Mainly, by Pyongyang’s habit of doling out rash threats of nuclear annihilation against the United States and its allies. This irritates Chinese leaders by bringing unwanted attention to what Beijing perceives as its geographic sphere of influence.

If Donald Trump were a religious man, he might have said “There but for the grace of God go I” when he heard that former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. Bolsonaro’s crime was to have plotted a coup to take back the presidency he lost in the 2022 election.

Trump is acutely aware of the similarities between Bolsonaro’s case and his own bumbling, half-hearted attempt to incite a coup on Jan. 6, 2021. Both men were voted out after a single term in office, both immediately declared that the election had been stolen by the opposition, and both then chickened out of a coup at the last moment.

Trump feels the parallels so keenly that he did not just condemn the Bolsonaro trial, claiming that it was a “witch-hunt.” Although the United States has a positive trade balance with Brazil, Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on imports from Brazil as an explicit punishment for putting his friend and ally on trial.

Trump must be feeling close to all-powerful right now. Only eight months into his second term after a triumphant comeback election, he is nearing the point where he can sweep the whole 238-year-old constitutional apparatus of the United States aside and rule by decree.

As the City of Winnipeg appears poised to implement new rules that target people who live in encampments, questions should be raised about who — if anyone — will be safer as a result.

Winnipeg city council’s community services committee recently unanimously approved a motion, introduced and amended by Coun. Cindy Gilroy and seconded by Coun. Sherri Rollins, to prohibit encampments in and around a wide range of spaces, including playgrounds, pools, schools, daycares, transit stops, bridges and rail lines. It also directs the city to expand enforcement across all other city spaces during daylight hours, which could mean issuing bylaw tickets. The motion will go to council’s executive policy committee before a final vote by council.

While some, including Mayor Scott Gillingham, have described these new rules as a “balanced approach” to deal with encampments, we have seen this type of approach before and it does not work.

The motion is framed around safety, especially for children and families. That concern should not be dismissed — no one disputes that unsafe materials have been found in public spaces, but tying those concerns directly to encampments offers a misleading choice. It suggests that the safety of families must come at the expense of people experiencing homelessness. And with Winnipeg’s child poverty rate the highest in the nation, many of the children and families this ban claims to protect are also among those it targets.

Dividing outreach providers won’t solve homelessness. Collaboration and a managed encampment-to-housing site will. As winter closes in, Winnipeg faces a mounting crisis. More people than ever are living unsheltered, exposed to harsh weather, unsafe conditions and the devastating risks of addiction.

Riverbank encampments and makeshift shelters in public spaces have become dangerous not only for residents but also for outreach workers and emergency responders who must navigate snow- and ice-covered terrain just to provide help. Encampment residents, meanwhile, live without even the basic dignity of an outhouse.

The overdose death rate in Winnipeg is among the highest in the country, and too many of those deaths happen in encampments. This cannot continue.

For too long, the conversation has been stalled by a false narrative: that homelessness is solely the result of a lack of subsidized housing. While the housing shortage is real, it is only part of the story. The deeper truth is that Winnipeg is in the grip of a drug-use epidemic that has become the single largest pipeline into homelessness.

Late last month, Manitoba Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo released a report aimed at ensuring the provincial government exercises greater oversight over spending by municipal governments across the province.

Following a yearlong investigation of allegations of financial mismanagement by several local governments, the AG discovered that the province does not currently have a comprehensive process to follow up on complaints regarding municipal governments, review financial submissions made by them, or even monitor the spending of provincial grants they receive.

Shtykalo emphasized that the province provides millions of dollars in funding to municipalities annually and that, “With this funding comes a responsibility — both for municipalities and the Department of Municipal and Northern Relations — to ensure effective stewardship of public resources.”

To many Manitobans, that is likely regarded as nothing more than stating the obvious. All recipients of public funds must handle those monies with care and be both transparent and accountable for how the dollars are spent. And yet, the auditor general found that adequate controls are not currently in place to ensure that is happening.

Some stories are so heavy, you almost want to look away. But when they come from people you know, people you call friends, you realize that looking away is part of what allowed the suffering in the first place.

In recent days I have been listening again to the voices of adults who shared what they went through in the foster care system, residential schools and the forced adoption practices of the ’60s Scoop. Their words are fragments of memory and pieces of truth told with courage, carrying more weight than any of us should have to bear alone. Accounts of abuse, neglect, abandonment and the absence of care. Children mistreated by those entrusted with their protection, left without safety or even recognition of their worth.

My heart cringes with these stories. I imagine the child they once were, left without comfort or safety, sometimes without being treated as worthy of love. There are no words that can undo what happened. But there are words that can bear witness and that matters.

It is essential that these are not just accounts from the past, sealed away as if they belong only to history. The people who endured this are our neighbours, our co-workers, our fellow community members. They are parents and grandparents still carrying the weight of what was done to them as children.