News/Canada/British Columbia

When Kathy Meyers heard she could get money back from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) through the disability tax credit, she was excited — but the prospect of filling out forms alongside her doctor felt like another burden to her already demanding days. Meyers, a Port Coquitlam, B.C., resident, has Crohn's disease. Her condition is severe — even with an ileostomy and the removal of her colon, she frequents the hospital for months at a time, and is on permanent disability as she is unable to work.So when a friend recommended True North Disability Services to handle the disability tax credit (DTC) applications for Meyers and her 14-year-old son, it felt like a perfect fit.Her husband, who is also disabled, plans to file an application on his own, after his doctor refused to work with a DTC a...

Two nurses are speaking out about violent incidents they experienced while working in the emergency department at Eagle Ridge Hospital (ERH) in Port Moody, B.C. — saying the Fraser Health Authority (FHA) has failed to provide a safe working environment, and has sought to silence employees who speak out. Veteran nurse Arden Foley says she is not returning to work because of lingering post traumatic stress from an attack by a patient. Victoria Treacy, says she was suspended and placed under investigation by Fraser Health after she spoke out about a patient who threatened her colleagues with a machete.The health authority said Treacy, who currently works at the hospital as a casual FHA employee, wasn't suspended or put under investigation. However, the women's stories are two of many included...

The number of measles cases in British Columbia as a whole continues to grow, with the Interior Health Authority announcing the region's first confirmed case of the year.The confirmed case in Kamloops, was announced by the authority on Tuesday.Dr. Sanaz Vaseghi, a medical officer with Interior Health, said it's not clear how the person was exposed to measles, which makes it more difficult to determine who else in the Kamloops area may have it.The risk to the broader public is considered low, but Vaseghi urged anyone who is not adequately immunized to get vaccinated.So far this year, 49 measles cases have been reported in B.C., according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC).Interior Health said it is following up directly with people who are known to have been exposed to the case ...

Itchy eyes, runny nose, congestion, and sneezing are all common symptoms of seasonal allergies. Dr. Angeliki Barlas, an allergist based in Port Moody, B.C., says that climate change is a contributing factor to worsening symptoms and longer allergy seasons. "People will often tell me I feel like I'm suffering almost year-round because pollen season is more prolonged and much more intense," "We're finding that with climate change, the warming of the environment has been causing pollen to become more inflammatory and affecting the immune system much more," Barlas told CBC's Daybreak North.Dr. Davidicus Wong, a family doctor in Burnaby, shared a similar message about climate change worsening allergy symptoms in an interview with CBC's Baneet Braich. He says that with a warmer climate, pollinat...

Health officials in British Columbia say there are 18 suspected and confirmed cases of measles in the northern region of the province as they continue to warn of the highly contagious disease circulating in a small community in the northeast.On Friday, Northern Health said they believed the disease was circulating in Wonowon, located around 90 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John.The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said Monday that seven cases have been confirmed through laboratory testing in the Northern Health region, and 11 cases are assumed to be measles due to reported symptoms and exposure.The 18 cases bring the total number of confirmed measles cases in B.C. this year to 30.Measles has been seeing a resurgence in Canada — particularly in Ontario, where officials have counted 2,118 ...

The B.C. Supreme Court has certified a Canada-wide class-action lawsuit against consultancy firm McKinsey & Company as part of ongoing legal efforts by the province to recover health-care costs relating to the toxic drug crisis.In a judgment posted Friday, the province alleges the company advised opioid manufacturers and helped design advertising campaigns that led to the over-prescription of opioids.The class-action lawsuit sought by the provincial government — in which it would act as a lead plaintiff, on behalf of other provinces and the federal government — is closely related to another similar lawsuit that the province is pursuing against pharmaceutical companies for their alleged role in the illicit drug crisis.The poisoned drug epidemic was declared a public health emergency in ...

On a Friday night in March 2019, Leon-Jamal Daniel Barrett concluded that humanity was corrupt and his only means to save it was by having "sexual congress" with a woman chosen by God.The fact Barrett took magic mushrooms in the hours before coming to this realization would later prove pivotal to his being found not guilty for what happened next."He waited at his house for this woman to come," wrote Surrey provincial court judge Timothy Hinkson."When she did not, he left his home, believing that if he walked anywhere, God would eventually bring them together."Intoxication to the point of 'automatism'Instead of a woman chosen by God, Barrett encountered a terrified stranger, who fought him as he knocked her to the ground, tried to kiss her and "smashed" her left breast before removing his c...

Northern Health officials have identified multiple confirmed cases of measles in the small northeast B.C. community of Wonowon since late May.It's also warning of an exposure at Fort St. John Hospital earlier this month.Wonowon is located around 90 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, and is the site of the Halfway River First Nation reserve. The nation has a registered population of just under 300 people, and the Wonowon School says its student population comprises just under 60 kids.Members of the public have been warned to check for symptoms of the disease, which has been seeing a resurgence in Canada — particularly in Ontario, where officials have counted 2,046 confirmed and probable cases of measles as of May 31, and in Alberta.Northern Health says that it has found multiple lab-con...

For one Canadian-born doctor, who has been practicing family medicine in Colorado for the last six years, his next career move is a sort of homecoming."It's been kind of a long-time dream of mine to come back to Canada," said Muthanna Yacoub. "For me it's hockey and being in the hills that are basically my antidepressant."The province has been working to make it easier for U.S.-trained doctors and nurses to have their credentials recognized in B.C., a process the Ministry of Health says now takes days instead of months. After speaking to a few physician recruiters at a conference in Vancouver, Yacoub almost signed on with a clinic in Ontario, where he was born and spent part of his childhood. But it was the natural beauty of B.C. that enticed him, his wife and their dog, Hudson.  WATCH | B...

An emergency room physician is blowing the whistle on deteriorating conditions in hospitals managed by B.C.'s Fraser Health Authority — claiming in a lawsuit that her job was threatened after she and other doctors sought to warn patients about a potentially dangerous situation.Kaitlin Stockton has worked in the emergency rooms at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster and Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody since October 2017, where she claims rapid decline in the past two years has led to "increasingly unsafe and substandard patient care."She sat down with CBC News to lay out the concerns detailed in the lawsuit — which include the health authority's alleged rejection of a plea to implement a mass casualty protocol in the aftermath of the alleged attack at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival i...