Auto sector undergoing fundamental transformation as trade upended, KPMG finds

Pharmacist who failed to disclose addiction, couldn’t account for ‘staggering’ amount of drugs fined $100K by disciplinary panel

A Manitoba pharmacist has been hit with $100,000 in fines and costs after a disciplinary panel found he dispensed a “staggering” amount of drugs that could not be accounted for.

Glen Pauch, who worked at a Portage la Prairie pharmacy, was fined the maximum $25,000 by the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba and ordered to pay another $75,000 toward the cost of the investigation and disciplinary proceedings.

A 28-page disciplinary decision dated June 9 found more than 39,000 doses went unaccounted for while Pauch was consuming drugs and improperly dispensing controlled substances — including the opioids oxycodone and hydromorphone, and Concerta, a stimulant prescribed for ADHD — to 11 patients.

The college found Pauch failed to properly document the drugs he dispensed and did not maintain required records for controlled substances returned to the pharmacy or received from suppliers.

Trustees call for e-scooter safety education

School trustees are calling on the province to bolster public education around e-bike and e-scooter safety ahead of back-to-school season.

The Manitoba School Boards Association brought members’ concerns about a growing number of students using electronic devices to get to and from classes to the education minister’s office this month.

“There’s a concerning lack of safety knowledge on the part of Manitoba youth,” executive director Alan Campbell said.

Campbell, a long-time trustee in the Interlake School Division, resigned from elected office this summer to run the association that mobilizes school boards and provides them with labour relations support.

A grand jeté of climate-change denial

The first hurricane to hit Hawaii in 34 years. The Mediterranean on fire from Spain to Greece. ‘Heat domes’ one after another for months on end in Europe and North America. Thousands of excess deaths. A record El Niño piled on top of an average global temperature up from +1.2 C five years ago. Predicted high for this year: +1.7 C.

Surely they’ll get it now, you think — but no, they won’t. It once seemed sensible to think that when the climate damage gets bad enough and the trend line becomes impossible to ignore, ‘they’ (meaning the climate change deniers and their fellow travellers) will finally accept that the threat is real and urgent action is necessary.

A few of them will, but most will not.

It is becoming clear that as the old position of flat disbelief in climate science becomes untenable, the preferred response among former deniers is to admit that climate change is big, dangerous and already well underway — but to insist that it is already too late and nothing can be done about it now.

City crews cleaning up drug paraphernalia, weapons having some impact on inner-city life

A three-person crew, employed by the city as part of its recently expanded proactive cleanup program, allowed the Free Press to follow along last week while they worked to make the Freight House Recreation Centre's property safe to play in.

Letters, Aug. 18

A huge shout out to David Asper, coach Mike Raimbault and his staff, all those involved in game-day and office activities and all the Winnipeg Sea Bears players for an outstanding and very entertaining championship basketball season.