Zoomer Week in Review

Mary Simon will be Canada’s first Indigenous governor general. The 74-year-old Inuk leader and former diplomat grew up in a remote village in northern Quebec and has committed her life to advocating for Inuit rights. Parallels can be drawn between Mary Simon and Canada’s 26th government general Adrienne Clarkson, this country’s first person of Asian descent appointed to the position, who also cham...

Technology is enabling the discovery of unmarked graves of indigenous children on sites of former residential schools. The system is called ground penetrating radar and it is also used extensively in the construction industry. Dr. Terence Clark of the University of Saskatchewan is a practitioner and he tells Libby Znaimer that locating these burial grounds involves art as well as science. AND How...

Where is the first place you want to travel post-COVID? Zoomers are starting to prepare and plan now that fully vaccinated Canadians won’t have to quarantine when they return home from abroad. Libby Znaimer chatted with Zoomer Magazine’s Executive Editor and travel expert Vivian Vassos. And It’s a problem that plagues our healthcare system: patients who no longer need to be in hospital but can’t g...

Canadians are waiting longer for hip and knee replacements because tens of thousands of operations were postponed or cancelled during the pandemic. According to numbers from the Canadian institute for health information, 50% percent of patients did not get their new joints within the recommended 6 month wait time frame. How long will it take to catch up? Libby Znaimer talked with Dr. Peter Ferguso...

It’s being hailed as the first new Alzheimer’s treatment in 18 years and the first to slow disease progression. But some experts say there’s not enough evidence that Aducanumab actually works. Dr. Sharon Cohen, director of the Toronto Memory Program, was a clinical trial investigator in the drug’s phase 3 trial and has a number of patients who are taking it. Libby Znaimer reached her in Toronto. A...

Over the last two decades, the number of Zoomers in the workforce has nearly tripled. But they are subject to pervasive negative typecasting that holds them back. A new report from Federal, Provincial, and Territorial ministers responsible for seniors, surveys the stereotypes that feed into ageism. Libby Znaimer talk to demographic expert David Cravit, CARP's chief membership officer. AND It’s the...

Women executives in this country earn about 56% less compared with men and are on average slightly younger. That's according to a recent study from Statistics Canada. Economist Marina Adshade, an assistant professor at the University of B.C., says the finding about age may offer a clue as to the cause of the pay gap. AND She's been in the real estate game for decades in cottage country, but Muskok...

The term "war crimes" has been thrown around a lot amid the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Libby Znaimer turned to Janice Stein, an expert in Middle East studies and conflict management and Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. AND What will happen to COVID-19 patients who leave the ICU with long-term side effects of the illness? Dr. Raphael Rush is clinical director of Compl...

Alzheimer’s disease afflicts half a million Canadians and there is still no effective therapy. A pilot study from baycrest and Sunnybrrok finds that low dose radiation can bring remarkable improvement at least for awhile. And it started when a researcher had an idea to help a friend. Researcher Jerry Cuttler joins Libby to share his experience. AND Perdita Felicien’s memoir is a love letter to her...

Like most things during the pandemic, there’s been a stampede to pivot online. This includes the health care system. Family physician, and U of T professor, Sheryl Spithoff recently wrote an op-ed piece condemning health care’s pivot to virtual learning arguing that with so many corporations wanting a slice of the pie, it’ll drive up costs, create fragmented care and pose a risk to privacy. AND Tw...

This week, two devastating reports detailed the failure of Ontario’s long-term care sector to protect elder residents. Where should we look for the right kind of change? Author Moira Welsh takes us through unique facilities that show how the right living arrangements can help people live with purpose and connection. We talked about her book "Happily Ever Older: Revolutionary Approaches to LTC.” AN...

An independent review recently found systemic discrimination contributed to deficiencies in a number of missing-persons investigations conducted by Toronto police. The review, led by former judge Gloria Epstein, examined policies and procedures related to missing-persons cases, as well as how officers investigated the disappearances of residents who were later found to have been killed. It focused...

Despite a turbulent year of grounded air travel around the world, experts predict travel will be cleared for take off post pandemic but with some noticeable changes. Post pandemic air travel will be more complex and carry a few unavoidable features, like higher travel and insurance costs, and possible vaccine passports. Christine Ross spoke with Richard Smart, CEO of the Travel Industry Council of...

Half of all Canadians now say COVID-19 has impacted their mental health. A recent survey finds for women it’s 6-in-10, jumping to 7-in-10 for those aged 18 to 24 as the current stay-at-home order has some wondering just when will the pandemic end. This has led many to reach out for, or consider,  mental health support. And with so many taking long walks, more and more counsellors are offering natu...

Flexibility of working from home and the desire for larger living spaces have fuelled a boom in finding a place away from big cities this past year. With that in mind, ratesdotca set out to identify the best small towns or rural areas to live in. Mortgage editor Rob McLister is here to talk about their "Livability Report". AND While robins remind us spring’s here, the temperatures sometimes slap u...

This week’s Ontario budget doubled the child benefit for parents. But for those caring for their elders, there was nothing - despite the increased financial burdens caused by Covid-19. Aimee Roberto cares for her mother Julieta Pante and she shared the struggles of the last year. And By now, it’s old hat, the internet is full of pandemic Passover memes and e-book offers. But for the second year th...

There is another scourge that has come along with the pandemic and it’s so bad that the World Health Organization has given it an official name, "The Infodemic". Tim Caulfield is a professor at the University of Alberta who specializes in health law and has written extensively on debunking junk science and misinformation. He’ll be one of the speakers at the Vaccine Summit presented by CARP on Thur...

Millions of  people around the world watched last week’s explosive interview with Harry and Meghan. They accused the royal family of racism and callous indifference to a mental health crisis. It left many people questioning the value of the institution - here at home, more Canadians than ever think it’s time to drop the monarchy. Libby Znaimer talked with pollster Mario Canseco, President of Resea...

Interview 1: Andre Picard What will it take to finally fix our eldercare system in Canada? It’s a question that is at the top of our agenda and now award-winning Globe and mail Health columnist Andre Picard has a prescription in his new book "Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada's Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic," Libby reached Andre in Vancouver. Interview 2: Sarah W...

Interview One: Dr. Michael Verbora Zoomers remember psychedelic drugs and the backlash against them, as part of the counterculture of the 60’s. Now they are re-emerging as a promising area of research and treatment for mental illnesses like anxiety, depression and PTSD. Libby talked with Dr. Michael Verbora. He’s a practitioner of psychedelic-assisted therapy and he was a presenter at the Psychede...

Interview One: Hazel McCallion Part 2 It started with volunteering in her local community. That’s what propelled Hazel McCallion into an extraordinary career in politics, at a time when women politicians were a rarity. Here’s part two of our interview marking her 100th birthday. Interview Two: Dr. Marcus Butler For decades, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation were the primary treatments for cancer...

Interview One: Hazel McCallion Today is Hazel McCallion’s 100th birthday! We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit down with her a few weeks ago to talk about her to talk about her remarkable life. While most of us are familiar with the broad outlines of her career, the story of how she got there from very modest beginnings is not. In this episode are some of our very long, very lon...

INTERVIEW ONE: JEAN AUGUSTINE It was December 1995 when the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month in Canada, after unanimously passing a motion introduced by Jean Augustine, who two years earlier was the first African-Canadian woman elected as MP, representing the Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore. After deciding not to seek re-election in 2006, she moved on to...

The pandemic has dramatically widened the income gap between rich and poor in Canada. That’s the conclusion of research from CIBC, which found that low-paid workers suffered the vast majority of the job losses while there has been a surprising increase in higher-paid jobs. Libby Znaimer talked with economist Benjamin Tal. AND He’s poached salmon in the dishwasher and made garbage pizza with old po...

This week, the Biden administration took power in the U.S. with 25,000 national guard troops standing by. Since the storming of the capitol two weeks earlier, security experts agree that right wing extremists pose the biggest domestic threat to America. Libby Znaimer talked with Bryan Hughes, associate director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American Unive...