News/Canada/Montreal

Quebec's Health Ministry says it's on the verge of declaring its measles outbreak over, just as cases reach new heights in other parts of the country.The province says it has not recorded a new measles case since it hit 40 infections on March 18.If no additional cases are reported by Saturday — 32 days after the last contagious case — the ministry says it will signal the end of the outbreak.That's a stark contrast to Ontario, where measles cases have exceeded 800 since an outbreak began in the fall, and Alberta, which on Wednesday recorded 84 cases since March.Quebec's outbreak began in December 2024 with a traveller who was visiting the province while contagious with measles, before they were diagnosed.Most of the province's cases — 32 out of the 40 — were reported in the Laurentians, nor...

The Coalition Avenir Québec government is proposing restrictions for physicians who want to go from the public to the private health system, but an opposition MNA says the proposal lacks substance.Late last year, the CAQ tabled a bill to force physicians to practise in the public system for at least five years after graduating.Now, it's proposing amendments that would apply to all physicians — not just new ones. With the current rules, Health Minister Christian Dubé says it's too easy for physicians to go "back and forth" between the public and private system. A physician just needs to give the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), the province's health insurance board, a 30-day notice to go from the public to private sector.On Tuesday, Dubé proposed amendments to Bill 83, the pro...

Bianca Buitrago-Poulin is celebrating her successful massage studio's one-year anniversary on Montreal's South Shore this month.But it hasn't been easy.It's a business she started out of necessity — a last-ditch effort to save her family home, continue caring for her mother and stay financially viable while battling a debilitating condition that derailed her life and career.The 34-year-old was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia two years ago, but her illness had been affecting her long before that. After more than a decade of working in geriatric care, symptoms like fatigue, dizziness and muscle pain were making it hard to hold down a job.But she pushed on. Together with her boyfriend, they took out a loan to repair the historic home her grandfather bought decades ago on Gardenvil...

It cost $25 million to build, but barely a year after its opening and less than six months in operation, the family birth unit at Montreal's Notre-Dame Hospital is closed for good.The CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, which oversees the hospital, announced the closure a week ago, blaming a lack of specialized obstetrics staff.The loss is a "missed opportunity" and a blow for patients who would prefer to give birth outside of a traditional hospital setting, said Barbara Beccafico, a birth doula and board member with the Quebec Association of Doulas (AQD)."The community was very saddened," said Beccafico. "We felt like it was a beautiful project that was stillborn."The family birth unit emphasized physiological — or natural — medication-free births and collaborated with midwives, wh...

At the end of the fourth round in a six-round fight on Aug. 28, 2021, Jeanette Zacarias Zapata went into convulsions.A left uppercut and a right hook from her opponent were among the string of punches that had become too much to overcome for the 18-year-old Mexican boxer.Her trainer, on-site paramedics and a doctor assigned to the event rushed into the ring to assist her as she lay unconscious at Montreal's IGA stadium.It was Zapata's sixth — and last — professional fight. She died five days later at Sacré-Coeur-de-Montréal Hospital.Her death came three and a half months after she had suffered a concussion in a knockout loss in her home country."This interview is really difficult for me," Irene Zapata, the deceased boxer's mother, told Radio-Canada's Enquête investigative team, while sitti...

Measles is making a comeback in Quebec, with public health officials warning hockey fans about a possible exposure at a recent Montreal Canadiens' game.From December to March in the province, at least 31 cases were reported and experts point to one cause — declining vaccination rates."The unifying theme for all of these places as to why measles is causing outbreaks or is out of control is very simple: low vaccination rates," said Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).Data from Quebec public health, obtained by Radio-Canada, shows vaccination rates declined during the COVID-19 pandemic."It's true that during the pandemic, there was difficulty of access. And access is really the key to making vaccination as easy as possible for parent...

When Nathanael Rafinejad first moved to Montreal, they loved the city's nightlife and worked as a bartender and a waiter while studying business management.But after catching COVID-19 in January 2022, the 29-year-old is now mostly confined to their apartment."I feel completely cut off from the world most of the time," said Rafinejad. "I can't walk anymore. I cannot stand for more than a few seconds at a time. I can't sit for a long time. I have to use a wheelchair every day."Rafinejad is one of thousands of Quebecers with long COVID, a chronic condition that can prevent once healthy, active people from functioning properly.Rafinejad is worried they'll never get better.When they first got sick, it initially felt like the flu. But by the fourth day, the fatigue was so intense, Rafinejad said...

It's been almost five years, but family members of Canadians who died of COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic often feel as if they are frozen in 2020.It pains them that they couldn't hold the hands of their parents, siblings, spouses and friends in the final moments of their lives. Instead, they said goodbye over speaker phone, or through a glass window. They watched as body bags were wheeled out of long-term care homes, and some held modest funerals outside as it snowed.Ahead of the five-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic on March 11, The Canadian Press spoke to five people who lost someone they loved as the virus started circulating in those frightening early days.Since then, more than 60,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Canada based o...

Five years after the first reported COVID-19 case in Quebec, the province's curfew remains controversial — more than half the fines are unpaid, legal battles continue and health experts still debate whether the benefits outweighed the costs.Quebec was the only province to prohibit its citizens from leaving their homes at night during the pandemic.Premier François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec government imposed a nightly curfew on two separate occasions.Was it worth it? Dr. Horacio Arruda, who was the province's director of public health when the curfews were imposed, said it was a necessary move at the time."We needed it because of the indicators of the health-care system, the numbers of people who were getting sick," Arruda said in a recent interview with CBC News."For me, a curfew i...