Roy Jeffery Ontario's 'Family Physician of the Year'

by Lindsay Kelly

LITTLE CURRENT-The Ontario College of Family Physicians has named Little Current's Dr. Roy Jeffery the Northern Ontario Regional Family Physician of the Year.

Each year, the college selects individuals from regions across the province who "exemplify the best of what being a family doctor is all about, including exceptional care of patients combined with a significant contribution to the health and well-being of communities and/or society in general."

Dr. Jeffery was selected for the region of Northern Ontario and received high accolades from college president Dr. Renée Arnold.

"He is an outstanding rural physician, close to his community and involved for more than a quarter-century in their health including healthy lifestyles," Mr. Arnold said in a press release. "He is also very involved in Aboriginal health, care of the elderly and international health, and has offered his services after the tragedy in Pakistan."

"He is a mentor to his colleagues and a natural leader who has successfully facilitated change in primary care delivery in his area," he continued. "Most of all, he is loved by his patients. One of the directors, on reviewing his application, said, 'I wish he was my doctor.'"

Dr. Simone McIlquham, who put Dr. Jeffery's name forward for the honour, said nominating him was an easy decision.

"It's my job to do these things," she explained. "Every physician gets a call and is asked if they know someone who can be nominated for the award. I was reading the criteria and I thought, I do know someone. I talked about it with the other doctors and they said, 'absolutely.'"

To be eligible, nominees have to meet certain criteria, Dr. McIlquham noted: they have to be an excellent family physician, they have to have academic excellence; and they have to contribute beyond the scope of their practice.

In addition to being an outstanding physician, Dr. Jeffery helps to educate student doctors and residents and continues his professional development in research and by contributing to a medical newsletter which is mailed to doctors across the province.

He is also an avid volunteer who gives his time beyond his practice, including offering his farm for organic farming and helping to develop local trails. Following the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, Dr. Jeffery spent his Christmas there helping minister to people who had been affected by the disaster.

More recently, Dr. Jeffery left his clinical practice (which Dr. McIlquham took over), and has set up his home care practice in town, which allows him to see patients who have difficulty getting to the clinic.

"Taking on his practice last year, I was very impressed with how organized his patients are," Dr. McIlquham said. "You don't always see that in rural medicine, and I was pleasantly surprised that everything was up to date."

Reading some of the nomination forms, it is clear that Dr. Jeffery has had an enduring impact on the community.

For Veronika Bingaman, whose husband was provided palliative care by Dr. Jeffery, the physician's compassion and understanding, as well as his frequent visits during her husband's end-of-life care, were invaluable.

"My husband's pain was excruciating (bone), and Dr. Jeffery paid very close attention to his pain management," she writes. "It was my husband's wish to actively participate in his own plan of treatment and Dr. Jeffery respected that wish with great sensitivity. This dialogue/partnership made an enormous difference to my husband's mental state and his manner of dying."

Kerrene Tilson has appreciated Dr. Jeffery's influence from both personal and professional perspectives. Dr. Jeffery treated her son, Justin, when he broke his back more than a decade ago, and helped the worried mother get through a difficult time.

"Dr. Jeffery met me (at the hospital) and tried his best to explain the situation and the procedures that would take place," Ms. Tilson writes. "He volunteered to fly with my by air ambulance to Toronto and stay with me over the fist 36 hours while my son Justin had surgery at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. His compassion and concern made all the difference on that horrific flight."

As president of the Manitoulin Nordic Ski Club, Ms. Tilson has worked with Dr. Jeffery in a volunteer capacity, growing the club from a small membership to more than 100 members with two trail systems and learn-to-ski programs for children.

"I actually don't quite know how he manages to fit so much into his life," Ms. Tilson writes. "He grooms the trails, repairs the building, helps organize the kids' Jack Rabbit program, leads the way in trail development and encourages and motivates the rest of us. He does all this with a smile and genuine pleasure in being able to contribute to the ongoing viability of the club."

Heather Thoma and Paul Salanki, proprietors of the LoonSong Garden just outside of Little Current, currently plant and harvest their garden on Dr. Jeffery's property. In their view, Dr. Jeffery's support of a "proactive, holistic" approach to health is heartening.

"Dr. Jeffery has been consistently encouraging for us in the challenge we have taken up-of growing food that is the most nutritious and beneficial for the land rather than what is most profitable or easiest to grow," they write. "He sees, as we do, the importance of committing to a long view for the future."

"We see parallels between his choice to move into a practice of taking the time and effort to care for patients in their homes and the way that the Community Supported Agriculture program we run on the Jeffery farm is about building strong relationships with people and engaging with them and teaching them, not just selling them food," the letter continues.

Though he didn't write a letter of support, Kagawong resident Ed Burt wholeheartedly supports the nomination of Dr. Jeffery for the award. He recalled a time when Dr. Jeffery, following a meeting during which Mr. Burt developed a severe headache, invited Mr. Burt into his home to get him an aspirin.

"He cared enough about it that he gave me something for it," Mr. Burt said. "It was just a small thing, but I remember it being a nice, human gesture."

Mr. Burt said that while Dr. Jeffery was not his family physician, he always felt comfortable talking with him and calling him up if he needed help. Last November, Mr. Burt went through a difficult time when his wife, Elda, was diagnosed with cancer. Mr. Burt arranged to have family available to care for her 24 hours a day, but "there was a component missing," he said, and it became more difficult to sustain the schedule he set up.

Around that time, Dr. Jeffery showed up unexpectedly at the Burt home to see how Elda was doing. "The moccasin telegram works pretty well on Manitoulin," Mr. Burt chuckled. "I never asked why he was there, I was just so happy to see him."

Dr. Jeffery prescribed pain medication to make Mrs. Burt more comfortable and gave Mr. Burt his home and cell phone numbers encouraging him to call any time he needed him. Dr. Jeffery then visited Mrs. Burt a few times a week, talking to her and holding her hand, Mr. Burt noted.

When it became apparent that Mrs. Burt was nearing the end of her life, Dr. Jeffery spent time with the family, gently advising them of her deteriorating condition.

"He very graciously-and it must have been quite difficult-told the family," Mr. Burt recalled. "He said she had done so many things in her life and we only have so much energy, and she had pretty much used hers up. It was calm, peaceful and actually pretty beautiful."

Mrs. Burt died peacefully a short time later, and again Dr. Jeffery was there to provide comfort, attending the graveside burial and the gathering that followed where he joined the family in celebrating Mrs. Burt's life.

Mr. Burt now says he doesn't know how he would have been able to keep his wife at home during her last days without someone like Dr. Jeffery there to provide assistance and comfort.

"Every experience I've had with him as been positive," Mr. Burt said. "I think they know how to pick them-they picked the right person."

This is the second time a Manitoulin physician has received the Regional Family Physician of the Year award; Dr. Jack Bailey, also of Little Current, received the award several years ago.

Dr. Jeffery will be acknowledged at the annual general meeting of the college's local chapter and will receive his award on November 26 during the Family Medicine Forum (FMF) in Toronto.

New broadband funding fast tracks high-speed Internet for Island

by Michael Erskine

GORE BAY-Broadband services will be within reach of 80 percent of Manitoulin Island once an infrastructure project announced last week in Gore Bay is completed.

The announcement of a $485,000 contribution by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to the Blue Sky Economic Growth Corporation will assist in developing the infrastructure to deliver broadband services to nearly 30 communities on the Island.

"More efficient connectivity means Northern Ontario communities and residents are able to tap a whole new range of opportunities in education, health care, culture and business," said Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle. Minister Gravelle is also chair of the NOHFC, which was holding its 20th anniversary meeting at Gordon's Lodge in Gore Bay.

"We want our Island entrepreneurs and public agencies to have a level playing field when it comes to competing and transacting in today's face-paced world," said Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown, who joined the minister in making the announcements.

"This project will ensure that residents of Island communities will all benefit from  the expansion of economic opportunities that access to broadband services will provide," said Blue Sky Economic Growth Corporation general manager Susan Clark. Ms. Clark noted that the introduction of broadband services will take place over the next few years, but cautioned against asking for a precise timetable. "We are going to do it right," she said. Ms. Clark also alluded to the possibility of increasing cellular services on Manitoulin.

The Blue Sky Economic Growth Corporation will be partnering with Omniglobe, a corporation with a world-wide expertise in bringing broadband access to remote areas, in order to implement broadband services on Manitoulin.

Nigel Maund, Omniglobe vice-president of business development, was on hand to outline the first stage of the project. The company will be meeting with First Nations and municipalities over the next little while to ensure that the implementation will mesh with the needs of those communities.

"This wouldn't happen without the absolute support of the NOHFC," he said. "Once we have built the high-speed network, then we can start to develop the applications."

Experience has shown that the introduction of broadband services have acted as a catalyst, noted Mr. Maund. "In supporting this project, NOHFC has taken the long-sighted approach." He also stressed that the big question always asked about the implementation is always "When?"

"It is a big project," he said. "We are going to do it right."

"If they can do it in Africa," noted emcee and NOHFC member Carolyn Lane-Rock, "they can do it on Manitoulin."

Omniglobe has implemented a number of rural infrastructure programs in Asia and Africa, encountering much more difficult obstacles than those faced in rural North America.

Mr. Brown noted that the McGuinty government, through the NOHFC, has invested $29.3 million to support 17 projects to enhance telecommunications infrastructure across the North. "This is in addition to our government's investment of $15.9 million from October 2003 to December 2006 under the NOHFC previous technology program," he said.

The tragedy of domestic violence:

               'Life with Billy' author decribes its societal toll'

by Lindsay Kelly

LITTLE CURRENT-After years of physical beatings, emotional torture, rape and verbal abuse, Nova Scotia housewife Jane Hurshman shot her husband in the head with a shotgun as he sat passed out in their truck beside her.

She was charged with murder and when the case went to trial, her story made national headlines, setting a precedent for battered woman syndrome as a legitimate defence for abused women who kill their husbands. Hers is also one of dozens of similar stories across the country which illustrate what author Brian Vallée calls the war on women.

Mr. Vallée, who produced a documentary for the CBC and later authored the book Life With Billy about Ms. Hurshman's case, visited Little Current last week to speak at a seminar sponsored by Manitoulin Family Resources aimed at creating awareness around the issue of domestic abuse.

The independent journalist joined local women's rights advocate Chuc Willson and Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Brent St. Denis in speaking out against domestic abuse and calling for more attention to what Mr. St. Denis termed "one of the hidden scourges of society."

That domestic abuse is such a rampant crime across Canada came as a shock to Mr. VallÉe when he first came across Ms. Hurshman's story, thinking it would make an interesting piece on vengeance crimes. Yet Ms. Hurshman's tale, he found, was relatively commonplace.

At 16 she got pregnant and married an alcoholic husband who was rarely at home. After giving birth a second time, returning to school to get an education and making attempts to improve her life, she presented her husband with an ultimatum: he was to choose her or the bottle. "At Christmastime, he brought home a bottle of rum, opened the bottle, took a swig and said, 'I guess you lose,'" Mr. VallÉe related.

When Billy, her 'knight in shining armour,' came along to save her, Ms. Hurshman had hopes for a better life, but what transpired was a miserable existence with a horribly abusive man.

As the honeymoon phase wore off, he took away her birth control pills and she became pregnant. He began to abuse her, first verbally, and then physically, before turning on their child. She was forced to engage in more and more humiliating and depraved sexual acts, and he controlled her with a variety of rules that, if broken, would result in a beating, Mr. VallÉe said.

On the night Billy died, he had threatened to burn down the home of the couple's elderly neighbours, and Ms. Hurshman decided she had had enough. The couple had returned to the house, and Billy was passed out in the truck after a night of drinking and doing drugs. Knowing what his horrific plans for their neighbours were, Ms. Hurshman honked the horn, summoning her 16-year-old son from the home-according to Billy's 'rule,' she was not allowed to get out of the truck until he had regained consciousness-and instructed him to get the shotgun. Then she aimed the gun, turned her head and pulled the trigger.

Local RCMP officers, who were familiar with Billy-a notorious bully in the area-believed Ms. Hurshman deserved a medal for her actions, but the Crown charged her with first-degree murder, Mr. 

VallÉe said.

"Around that time a report came out that said one in 10 Canadian women lived in battered homes, and that number is actually low," Mr. VallÉe said. "When it was announced in the House of Commons, several MPs laughed about it...and the women MPs and women across the country were outraged. Three days later it was decided that this was a serious problem that had to be looked at."

The trial, Mr. VallÉe noted, was a humiliating, degrading experience. Ms. Hurshman was compelled to give detailed testimony about the graphic and demeaning acts she was forced to perform with her husband, and obliged to relive her years of abuse.

"The Nova Scotia court found her not guilty of first-degree murder, not guilty of second-degree murder, not guilty of manslaughter, not guilty of anything," Mr. VallÉe noted. "There was  joy in the courtroom and everybody applauded."

An appeal forced her to serve a minimal amount of time, but the public humiliation had already taken effect, he added.

People often ask the question, 'why don't battered women just leave?' and through his interviews with Ms. Hurshman, Mr. VallÉe learned the answer.

Ms. Hurshman would often talk about 'the fear,' but Mr. VallÉe confessed he didn't understand what she meant until he interviewed her.

"When she spoke of the events, her eyes bulged out in this unnatural way," Mr. VallÉe explained. "The sound man thought he was having problems with his equipment, but it was her heart beating wildly. It was the first time I understood 'the fear.' Her husband was two years in the ground and I was still seeing how deep the fear was."

As he read story after story about domestic abuse cases, he discovered a disturbing parallel between domestic abuse cases and cases of military and police deaths, he noted.

Between 2000 and 2006 there were 4,588 military or law enforcement deaths in the United States; during the same period there were more than 8,000 deaths of women who had been burned, strangled, beaten or kicked to death by their partners, Mr. VallÉe noted.

Yet despite the severity or sheer number of deaths of battered women, they rarely got much attention in the media.

"I started thinking, 'This is a war,'" the author said, noting that battered women exhibit the same symptoms as soldiers returning from war who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. "In North America, there are 2,500 shelters-that's our refugee camps. They're always filled and there are always waiting lists."

His new book, The War on Women, examines this parallel and what needs to be done to change it.

Education has to start in grade school, and educators must be forceful with their message, the author said. It is also important to get media onside, because "if the media doesn't care, the politicians don't care," he added.

He believes shelters need full funding from the government and they shouldn't have to raise funds to save lives. He also believes that shelter workers need more input into strategies and policies that will protect women.

"We've had a resource here for 30 years," Mr. VallÉe said. "Shelter workers understand how this works and what needs to be done. Right now they're being ignored."

Mr. VallÉe also feels strongly that there needs to be a mandated course in law school that explains the dynamic of domestic abuse-which, he adds, should be properly termed criminal domestic abuse.

In some cases, abusers take on their own defence and the abused women are being questioned by their tormentors, giving the abusers free reign to manipulate the situation, he added.

The author also criticized the current government for slashing funding to important portfolios like the Status of Women Canada and eliminating the National Association for Women and the Law as well as the gun registry.

If police officers are sent to a domestic abuse call, they need to know whether there is a gun in the house, he argued. "Eighty percent of women are killed by legal guns," he said.

The issue is not one of hating men, Mr. VallÉe argued, and he also dispels the notion that men need shelters as nonsense.

"There's no doubt about it, a number of men are done poorly by bad women or the court system, but to say the situation is just as bad for men-that's just bunk," he said. "Most men killed by women are batterers. If men wanted shelters, you don't think they would have had them by now?"

"If they want shelters, I say give them shelters and leave the women at home with the children," he added to rousing applause.

Prevention is the key to stopping the cycles of abuse, and it is important that more men become involved in the strategy for ending violence against women, Mr. VallÉe said. It's not enough, he argued, to wear a white ribbon once a year.

"Women don't need chivalry," he said. "Women want justice. And it can't be for selfish reasons, but just because it's wrong."

Bridge vs. boat mishap delays 

traffic 1 1/2 hours

by Alicia McCutcheon

LITTLE CURRENT-Visitors to Manitoulin had a good practice in patience on Saturday morning as the Little Current swing bridge stayed open for over an hour after the 9 am swing due to two stranded boats.

Constable Al Boyd, community services officer with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), explained that the police received a call from the bridge operator advising them that two sailboats were in trouble at the bridge and that the bridge would remain open until the vessels were dealt with.

"One sailboat was waiting to clear the bridge and was heading west into Little Current when they turned across the current and hit the concrete abutment, which turned him sideways," Constable Boyd said.

The sailboat was then stuck in that position with the strong current pushing it hard against the concrete pier. Another sailboat, seeing a fellow sailor in trouble, decided to try and assist, but ended up getting themselves into more trouble.

"They also became a victim of the current," the constable said.

As the bridge was in the process of opening, the boat's mast became entangled with the end of the bridge and the bridge stopped immediately. The bridgemaster on duty that day was Kevin Taylor who explained that he opened the bridge just enough to let the waiting traffic through when the second boat became ensnared.

"I went down to see if everyone was okay-and they were," he said. "The current was really, really strong that day."

"They (the second vessel) were trying to help but they ended up getting themselves into trouble," Mr. Taylor said. "Anybody, with a sailboat especially, should not try to help anybody when they're stuck near the bridge. The current is too strong and sailboats just haven't got the power."

The OPP boat and Harbor Vue Marina were sent to the rescue with Harbor Vue unsnagging the stuck vessel and the two boats towed out of harm's way. Unfortunately, the boat that tried to perform the rescue had to be towed to the marina for further repairs.

The bridge master explained that the incident occurred during the nine o' clock swing but the bridge did not close until 10:15 am. It was another 45-50 minutes after that to clear the traffic that had accumulated on both sides of the bridge.

An officer was dispatched from the Espanola detachment to deal with the kilometres of traffic on the north side of the bridge while officers from Little Current dealt with Island-side traffic.

Talking to a power boater that same day, Mr. Taylor learned that even the biggest boats were having a hard time navigating through the channel.

"I thought the boat was going to tip right over," Mr. Taylor remarked. "I was pretty scared and nervous for a while after that day. Sailboaters have to realize that the current there is too strong."

EDITORIAL

It's great to be Canadian on July 1

While this commentary is being penned on Monday of this week, June's final day, it is written in anticipation that most Islanders will take time off on Canada Day, July 1, to reflect on and simply enjoy our country.

Last week's paper, the one directly before the Canada Day event, carried a front page slogan above the flag. It read, "It's great to be a Canadian!" and we have carried this message in that spot in the pre-Canada Day paper for about fifteen years.

Credit for the idea goes to Jack McQuarrie of Gore Bay, former publisher of The Recorder in that community. About fifteen years ago, Jack, via our Ontario Community Newspapers Association, suggested that all Ontario papers carry this same simple message, pre-Canada Day.

We got Jack's message indirectly (through our association) but agreed with him that it was a first-rate idea, and told him so in person. We've been trying (with one or two memory lapses) to keep the tradition going in this paper although, sadly, the idea did not catch on universally.

It's an easy message to proclaim because it's true: it is a great thing to be a Canadian, whether by birth or by process of naturalization. We even think of those people of other nationalities who live here in the gray area of "landed immigrants" as Honourary Canadians.

We must not put on airs about any of our national prerequisites, but these things are true: we are (usually) unfailingly polite;  with the exception of Newfoundland (which, after all, was its own country until 1949) - and of course Quebec - we speak English with virtually the same accent from east to west coasts; we are considerate of one another and admire those who make a virtue of this particular attribute (remember last year when the CBC carried on its national search for the "Greatest Canadian", the people chose Tommy Douglas, the provincial premier who first introduced - in Saskatchewan - universal health benefit coverage); we produce comedians far out of proportion to our population; we have made a virtue out of necessity by making the most of our long, cold winters by giving the world its best hockey players and curlers; besides being a nation of polite people (see above) we are also a nation of reasonable people who usually do our best to understand the other person's / group's point of view; our technique for the acclimation of "New Canadians" has not been to boil them together in a melting pot, but rather to let them ease into Canadian society at their own rate and in their own styles, even if it takes a generation to find the appropriate level of comfort for a given group; even if it should have happened more quickly, our government has now apologized to its First Nations citizens for earlier national policies of cultural genocide and has made a commitment to attempt to deal with the aftermath of these policies through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission process; we have four distinct seasons (although one of them sometimes seems as long as the other three together); we are in general a nice people. 

What's not to like?

It's great to be a Canadian!

Letters to the Editor

Assiginack hiring policy excluded honest student

Guidelines send mixed messages to young people 

To the Expositor:

Reeve and Council,

How do we teach our young people proper work ethics and that "honesty is the best policy" when I, for one, am not sure that this is true anymore?

Case in point: only one student applying for a summer job with the Municipality of Assiginack failed to be hired, even though all positions advertised for were not filled. It wasn't that he couldn't do any of the jobs; it was solely because he told the hiring committee that he was scheduled to have an operation towards the end of August (when some programmes are finished anyway). He was being honest, but the hiring committee thought he might get hurt and blame the municipality. The student was told by his doctor to continue all normal activities which included full-body contact midget hockey, high school hockey and Junior A training camp. At no time was a medical certificate requested. We all know that waivers are used to protect against "pre-existing conditions" but again, none was requested.

The hiring policy of the municipality refers repeatedly to the honesty, integrity and fairness of its employees, boards and council, and yet it penalizes a teenager for being honest. Does this not send mixed messages to our young people? Should we be honest only when it is convenient, or should we do our utmost to help these young people develop into the fine, community-oriented people that we know they are?

Sincerely, 

Val Phillips

Manitowaning