POPCORN NEWS

Here you can read about events that are happening in our great country, CANADA! Enjoy! -TI

Capital Punishment- by SM 01/01/09

New Snow-Tire Law Effective in Quebec-by TI..26/12/08

Helping the Homeless-by TI..19/12/08

Is a "Doctor Crisis" Possible?- by TI.. 02/12/08

            Could you bear staying in a dark room the size of small wardrobe all by yourself for 30 minutes? How about an hour? How about 2 hours? How about a whole entire day? What if it was a whole month? Would you be able to bear that? What if you were told to stay in a small room, the size of a wardrobe for a whole year! Imagine sleeping on a cement floor right beside a stinky toilet. Imagine wearing the same orange jumpsuit for a whole week! Imagine eating the same boring meal of liver and onions with a small loaf of bread on the side for a whole year! No deserts.....no talking to your family....no Christmas presents....no happy times. Imagine if you were told that you would have to go to this place not for 1 month, not for 1 year, but for 25 years!!! Imagine, if you finally survive out of that horrible place, to go into a world much worse. The second, people would have heard of what you did, they would be scared of you, move away, not let their kids come near you. If you had a family before, they would now hate you and abandon you.

                Isn’t all this miserable enough? Do people really have to make it even worse by killing a murderer? What ever happened to another chance, to life, to forgiveness, to compassion, to people's rights? Life is so valuable and just to take it away from someone like that is cruel beyond belief. Wouldn't it make you feel horrible if really, the person that you would have killed in jail would a few years later turn and look at life from a different perspective, through different eyes? What if you gave them one more year or another chance and they would have helped the world? What if they turned out to really not be guilty and you just realized that after you killed them? Would you be able to live with yourself? Come on we ARE smarter than George Bush.

                Now my question to you is, if we kill a murderer, who is worse, the murderer or the person who killed the murderer? What the murderer has done, he\she has done and it’s over, there is no way to get the person back alive again, but do we really have to get even and kill the murderer? Life doesn’t work that way. No one would be gaining anything. It’s the same as saying, if someone punches you, punch them back. It is pretty obvious where the world would be, if everyone followed that motto. The world would be insane; there would be fights everywhere on the streets, kids would be getting injured daily, teenagers would die daily at school, there would be no respect of any kind and no one would know the difference between wrong and right. It would be as if there was no law. Is that what we want in Canada?

                And now, why do we want to kill murderers? It’s simple, it’s because we want more money. We don’t want to pay taxes for jails even though we pay taxes for other useless things. Only 0.045% of your taxes go to saving many people’s lives in jail and giving them a second chance to make the most of life. All this is because we are greedy, selfish humans that don’t care about our future, our friends, our environment and to save a few extra dollars to buy that bubble gum!

The death penalty is an alternative way to take care of the prisoners that have been in jail for heinous crimes. Many people have been killed, only to have their murderers sent to jail for a couple of years, and then released on bail. We owe these people the assurance of having their murderer gone, the assurance that they will never hurt anyone ever again. Canada should allow capital punishment.

When you have a prison, there are many costs associated. In Mississauga, for 6 inmates, the cost is $119,855 per year. An average person lives over 65 years. The tax payer (you) has to pay for that food, shelter, and comfort that they receive. Is it truly fair that the parents/ family members of the person murdered have to pay for that murderer’s dinner, breakfast, and lunch every single day? With capital punishment intact, the tax payer money would be used for better good, instead of the prisoners. With them gone, the financial stress that the government has to go through could be reduced.

Secondly, when someone takes a life, their life should be taken as well. There are usually multiple offenders that get sent to jail. If these people have taken so many lives, why shouldn’t they be punished? In a way, letting the prisoners live in a jail cell is like reducing the punishment. They receive food, shelter, warmth, and sometimes...entertainment. Why would you want someone to live like that when your relative/friend is long gone? With the death penalty, it would be fair. One life is taken, and the person who took their life’s life is taken.

The death penalty is a way of saving our society. We wouldn’t have to worry that there are murderers out on bail. We would be able to live safe, and be able to have the money we need- especially in the time of recession. Canada should allow the death penalty. It has many positives, and could ensure safety of the population.

    The new snow-tire law, forcing all residents of Quebec to install winter tires, is effective starting from December 15 2008. This law is effective every year, from December 15 to March 15. Anyone caught not using snow-tires will be fined anywhere from $200 to $500. Buying these winter tires is pretty expensive, up to $500 for cheap ones. That’s not even including the storage fee. Having a set of winter tires means that you’ll have to find somewhere to store the tires you use in the summer. Most people pay about a $25 storage fee to their garage for storing it there instead of their own homes. Quebec’s transport ministry says they understand that this would cost people extra, but they say that a 2005 study shows that 38 per cent of drivers who don’t use snow tires are involved in winter car accidents. Despite the costs, some Quebecers support the new law and say that it makes driving in the winter a lot easier.

On December 17, 2008 Chief Justice of Ontario, Martin Teplitsky a Toronto lawyer, his wife and many volunteers helped serve an early Christmas feast to about 600 poor, homeless people at Osgoode hall. They were served a delicious meal. Filet mignon, with fries, green beans and to top it all off, warm bread pudding. Each person also received a crisp $10 bill, given to them by Teplitsky who co-founded this annual feast.Chief Justice Warren Wrinkler helped serve this meal. Teliplitsky and his wife founded 11 years ago a foundation called the Lawyers Feed the Hungry Program. They serve about 1 200 meals a week at Osgoode hall for homeless people. It runs on about $300 000 in donations and a bunch of volunteers. As Teplitsky said “I believe everybody has an obligation to do something to make the world a better place.”

     Have any of you been to the hospital recently? How about your family doctor’s office? You have to wait for hours on end for a doctor to see you. Well, that is because there is a shortage of doctors in Canada, especially in rural areas.

    Paul Martin, Canada’s former prime minister focused on less waiting times for selective surgeries, cancer treatments and diagnostic tests. The problem is that it’s hard to do that if there aren’t enough doctors to treat the patients. This isn’t just a problem in hospitals. There is a shortage of family doctors too. In fact, 15% (about 3.2 million) Canadians don’t have a family doctors. They might just use walk-in clinics if they have emergencies, but those doctors don’t know anything about them. They don’t know their previous medical history; they don’t even know what kind of medications they might be taking. These things may be important in diagnosing a patient or when recommending a new type of medication.

    Are you wondering why there is a shortage of Canadian doctors? Surely a successful country such as Canada must have many doctors. Well, studies say that from 1991-1995, 18% of the medical graduates moved to practice in the United States.

    Canadian doctors are actually earning less money than most people think they do. How much do you think they learn annually? $150 000? Nope. They earn about $75 000 annually after all those taxes are deducted. In the U.S., that is approximately what the nurses there earn per year. This leads to another reason for the shortage of doctors. There was a 10% reduction in medical enrolment, introduced in 1993. There are just less and less people who are interested in becoming doctors. For one, their pay isn’t very good. Two, their workload is very high. Doctors who work in hospitals also face the chance of being sued by unhappy patients, or their family. For most students, it just isn’t worth the risk.

    Also, there are many foreign doctors, from different countries who want to come here to practice, but while they pass all the necessary exams, they can’t find a training program to accept them. Canada is making it very hard for foreign doctors to be succesful in their practices. Hopefully, Canada admits more foreign doctors, or we might have a “doctor crisis.”  

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