Yorkton gynecologist Dr. Mohammed N. Hague will give up his
license at the end of the month and cease practicing medicine, following
accusations of misconduct with several female patients. Our family, to my
knowledge, has never had any dealings with Dr. Hague; but I have heard plenty
of positives concerning his work. While I have no comment on the
accusations themselves; I find it difficult to find out that a number of the
people involved wanted to resolve the matter without having to go through the
difficult process of a hearing. Unfortunately, that’s the way to do it if
a doctor disagrees or disputes the allegations. An official with the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan says, “Ultimately we
achieved a resolution fo Dr. Hague no longer being in practice faster than we
ever would have through the disciplinary process, and so the public protection,
from our perspective, was achieved.” Guilty or not, Dr. Hague deserves
credit for going away quietly and not putting these women through a trying
emotional time. Having said that, if it was me and I was innocent, I
would not be nearly as passive. So, I suppose we are left to draw our own
conclusions.
From the ridiculously stupid file, the RBC Cup goals and
penalties are being announced in both English and French this week where the
tournament is taking place in Humboldt. I’m sure Jonathan Parisien and
Emrik Guillemette’s parents appreciate this; but come on. It is a Hockey
Canada event and, therefore, has to be bilingual I suppose. But, there
isn’t a French team competing in the tournament and if they are going to
announce goals in French for the benefit of one or two players on each team,
then we may as well announce goals in French all season long. Are the
French language police going to come after Hockey Canada for not announcing
goals in French at a tournament where Quebec or French speaking New Brunswick
isn’t represented? I lived in Woodstock (home of the Slammers) for two
years. Don’t try and tell me Woodstock is French. In fact, I think
all we do when we announce in French is embarrass ourselves at how little
French we know on the prairies. If there was a Quebec team entered, we
should absolutely extend the courtesy and do as much as we can in both
languages. But, this week it isn’t necessary.
Junior Seau’s apparent suicide last week is a tragedy.
Jumping to conclusions that repeated blows to the head caused him to go into
depression and, ultimately, end his life is rather premature. It is
proven that head shots in sports can definitely lead to problems, mentally,
later in life. But, so too can a prolonged use of steroids. I’m not
accusing Seau of using steroids; but I think his brain should be donated to
science so that more information can be gathered. Furthermore, we are
hearing more from retired players who say they become depressed after retiring
and discovering they have difficulty fitting into the real world. That’s
not the fault of the National Football League. When I quit broadcasting
after a fifteen year career, I could easily have discovered that sales was not
for me and then been in a funk until I did figure out what works best for me as
far as keeping busy, supporting my family, and making me happy. This
would not be the fault of FOX FM. You can’t hang the blame for not
knowing what to do in life on your previous employer. I’m sympathetic to
the plight of Seau, but until scientists are able to check out his brain, I
reserve judgement on what may have killed him.
After watching a train hold up traffic in Yorkton for almost
an hour on Monday during lunch time, I wonder if there isn’t something that can
be done to prevent trains from cutting through the city during certain times of
the day. To me, Yorkton is big enough that sending a train through town
during peak travel periods can be really prohibitive to doing business
here.
In Ontario, a public school board has made a decision to ban distribution of Gideon Bibles to its young students, arguing the distribution of Bibles has no place in a secular school system, and that it potentially violates human rights legislation. So, on one hand we are not allowed to learn about Protestant values; but on the other hand we can be subjected to all kinds of ‘new’ forms of religions that have been introduced to our country through immigration. While we don’t want to offend minority groups, it’s apparently okay to turn around and do the same to the people who still make up the majority of the population.
I printed this quote a number of months ago, but it’s a dandy
so it bears worth repeating every so often: “Don’t wait around for your
life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do
it. Because everything else is all just background noise.”
Nice person mentions this week to Jeff Bahrey, Chris Morson,
Al Frederickson, Jonathan Robert, and Bryon Priebe.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the idea of trains stopping outside of Yorkton, or any other city, in order to avoid peak traffic times would never, and will never work. This is because of many factors. To stop a train at any point has a lot of variables, first of all, there are millions of dollars worth of equipment and cargo/bulk commodities within each train. To stop trains to avoid rush hours in cities would be a poor decision by the company and would inevitably reflect poorly to share holders. Also, some trains that go through Yorkton are over 10,000ft. The length, combined with the speed restriction going through Yorkton, make for what seems to be an endless train. Next, Transport Canada has regulations on how long a train can block a crossing for, once a vehicle is needing to cross it. Inevitably that amount of time is often longer than it should be, but it should be no longer than about 5 minutes. To stop a train out of town may seem like a great idea to the average person, but to a the company it is an avoidable delay. As a railroader, I know we take every precaution we can to avoid the train blocking crossings for longer than 5 minutes. At times, there are unforeseen circumstances that are out of our hands that will cause a longer than 5 minute wait. I always say: As railroaders, we are not exempt from being stopped by a train. Also, with todays busy society, a train being an unexpected, and often unavoidable delay in our day, the wait seems longer than it really is. Next time you are stopped for a train, time it, you'd be surprised that it is often only a few minutes, although it seems longer. Before hiring onto the railroad, I too thought trains were just inconsiderate for coming through the city when I needed to get somewhere. Now, it seems like a preposterous idea to stop the train for rush hour. With train meets along route, and other major delays, it would end up costing the company far too much money and man power to delay the trains further while trying to get across the subdivision. Believe it or not, often a train takes 12-15 hrs to travel just over 100 miles.
I hope that sheds a little light on trains and cities. As for an hour delay, that seems unlikely, and it would have to have been a major unforeseen circumstance for it to happen right in Yorkton. I apologize on behalf of railroaders if it caused you, or any other fine citizens of Yorkton hardship on Monday.
KJ