Magic Statistics

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay (at right) visited Israel and Gaza, but pointedly refused to meet with Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar.  In response, Mr Zahar fumed and raved and threatened.

Canada risks making itself an enemy of the Palestinian people and of the broader Islamist movement by boycotting Hamas and openly siding with Israel, Palestinian foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar said Sunday after he was shunned by visiting Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.

During an hour-long interview that he said was a replacement for the meeting Mr. MacKay denied him, Mr. Zahar alternated between saying he was anxious to open a dialogue with Canada and saying he looked forward to the moment that Canadians voted the “extremist” Conservative government out of office.

A representative of Hamas calls Canada’s government “extremist”?  He’s a moonbat as well as a facilitator of terrorism.  When Mr Zahar’s days in office are over, he has a career as a comedian waiting for him.

He can’t understand why Canada, along with the US and the EU, have cut all aid to the Hamas government.

“I would ask him very simply: What is the moral basis for these sanctions and boycott?” Mr. Zahar said, adding that the sanctions have primarily hurt ordinary Palestinians while leaving the Hamas government standing.

Let’s see . . . Because Hamas is a terrorist organisation and ordinary Palestinians voted for you?  Is this a trick question?

He also doesn’t like the fact that Canada supports Israel’s right to exist within secure borders free from terrorist attacks.

“What is Israel providing you? Nothing. What are you achieving from such policies? What have you gained? Nothing, except the hatred of innocent people.

If they “hate” us, are they still “innocent”?

“For the sake of the future — one, two or three decades from now — the only way to help everybody, everywhere is to co-operate with the Islamic movements and Arabic countries because they are not your enemy.”

But you just said they hate us!

Later in the interview, he suggested that there should be a single Islamic state stretching across the Middle East, adding that there was plenty of space in Canada to establish a Jewish homeland.

Like I said, moonbat.  It’s crystal clear why Canada won’t talk to this bozo.

With "friends" like Zahar, who needs enemies?  If you don’t support our terrorist aims, you’re being unfriendly and you’ll be sorry.  Hmmm.  Where have we heard that before recently?

Previous related posts:

• Avoid raising resentment among Islamists, or else
• Peter MacKay on Canada’s new approach to foreign policy
• PM’s pro-Israel stand will cost votes—or not

The Calgary Health Region has taken out advertisements in newspapers across Canada seeking to hire hundreds of nurses.  Officials in other provinces are raising a ruckus, claiming that Alberta is “poaching” their nurses.

On Saturday, advertisements targeting registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners appeared in newspapers across Canada as part of the Calgary Health Region's efforts to recruit more than 500 new nurses.

The ads drew immediate criticism from local media, with articles appearing in newspapers in Halifax, Saskatoon and Hamilton.

Calgary's print campaign is the latest blow to a beleaguered nursing force in Saskatchewan, said Rosalee Longmoore, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses.
. . .
"We've heard of people who are actually going to B.C. for $10,000 (bonuses) and I fear that we're going to end up in a bidding war across this country for the valuable resource of our registered nurses, and we're going to end up competing on the bonuses," Longmoore said.

Hamilton Health Sciences spokeswoman Gayle Holmes told the Hamilton Spectator that Calgary was "trying to steal our nurses.

"It's the start of the war over talent," she said.

Wow!  I must have missed the court decision making Canadian nurses the property of the hospital or province in which they are employed.  Yet, from those remarks, it would seem that nurses have recently been transformed into indentured servants.

Ms Holmes says Calgary seeks to “steal our nurses”.  “Steal”?  As in “kidnap” or “abduct”?  Sorry, but the nurses in your employ do not belong to you.

Ms Longmoore laments that Canada is “going to end up in a bidding war across this country for the valuable resource of our registered nurses”.  And the problem with that is . . . what, exactly?  News flash: If nurses are “valuable”, then, yes, employers will have to “bid” for them.  It’s called a free labour market.  Deal with it.

No doubt I’m biased because the StatWife is a working registered nurse with over twenty years of service in many hospitals.  On the other hand, maybe this is a perspective that has been missing from the official view of nurses for too long.  My wife and her hard-working, dedicated colleagues have been dumped on for decades.  They endured staffing cuts in the 1980s and 1990s, sending many young Canadian nurses to the US and elsewhere; they’ve been repeatedly stiffed on pay raises; working conditions in our hospitals have deteriorated abysmally; still today, nurses are routinely offered part-time jobs with minimum benefits and expected to work extra shifts at straight time in the interests of meeting thread-bare budgets.

Today’s developments are almost entirely attributable to myopic politicians and hospital boards, who for too long took nurses for granted.  For the most part, nurses put up with this maltreatment as long as they could.  But many burned out, and all of them grew older.  The average age of nurses has increased steadily as the number of new graduates has not kept pace with retirements.

So, look what happened in the meantime. We don’t have enough nurses to meet the demand.  Budget constraints severely limited the number of places in nursing schools, and too few young people wanted to become nurses anyway.  Who would take such a high-stress job for the wretched wages and hours and working conditions on offer?

So, now the chickens have come home to roost.  Nurses are in short supply, demand is increasing, and employers must pay accordingly.

Heads up, Canadians: This is the new world of nursing.  It’s been a long time coming.  This mess was decades in the making, and it’s not going to improve anytime soon.

Some of the complaining officials in other provinces seem to imply that Alberta isn’t doing anything to increase the supply of new graduates.  Not true: Last July, Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, was fully accredited by the province to offer a full four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) baccalaureate degree programme beginning in September 2007.  (Previously, Grant MacEwan offered only the first two years of post-secondary nursing education, following which students had to transfer to University of Alberta or another university to complete a bachelor’s degree.)

Finally, on a more positive note, the StatDaughter, now in her final year of high school, has applied for admission to BScN programmes at several Canadian universities. I am proud of her decision to pursue a vocation in this high calling.  Nursing is an honourable yet undervalued profession, although the public and politicians are now having to wake up to the long-term consequences of that undervaluation.  I hope she will be able to handle the stress and pain that come with caring for others who are suffering.  Godspeed.

Previous related posts:

• Nurses report higher work stress, greater job dissatisfaction
• “Staffing time-bomb” at Britain’s National Health Service
• No jobs for UK nurses? Come to Canada
• US wants more nurses
• BC nurses negotiate big pay raise