Health

The Canadian flag is seen flying behind the national archives building in Ottawa Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

After N.B. law, all 10 provinces now have job protection for long-term sick leave

Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 10:25 AM CDT

FREDERICTON - Natalie Lipschultz, who was fired from her job six and a half years ago while battling cancer, is applauding what she says are long-overdue safeguards now in place across the country designed to prevent other Canadians from experiencing the same fate.

Lipschultz, of Burnaby, B.C., was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in late 2019. She continued working for her insurance company, balancing the demands of her workplace with gruelling chemotherapy sessions.

But in January 2020, she had a severe drug reaction to her treatment that sent her to the emergency room. A day later, she was fired.

In the years since, Lipschultz joined an advocacy campaign by the Canadian Cancer Society to encourage governments across the country to increase job protections for people who need extended time off due to severe illness.

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Health

A view of a general population inmate cell is shown during a media tour of the Toronto South Detention Centre in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Ontario jail guards ask for help after coroner’s report on suicides in corrections

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

Ontario jail guards ask for help after coroner’s report on suicides in corrections

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press 7 minute read 3:01 AM CDT

TORONTO - Ontario's jail guards are asking for more help after a coroner's report detailed a suicide crisis among correctional workers and made more than two dozen recommendations to the provincial government.

Thirty-four correctional workers have died by suicide over the past 15 years, according to a report by the Office of the Chief Coroner, titled In the Light of Day.

The report was led by Dr. Reuven Jhirad, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, and Rose Jumarang, who along with a team reviewed death investigations, spoke to more than 90 people and made 28 recommendations meant to improve the health of workers at both provincial and federal institutions.

There have been more suicides among Ontario correctional workers in recent years, the report found. Half of the deaths took place between 2010 and 2019 and the other half between 2020 and 2024, doubling the rate, it said.

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3:01 AM CDT

Health

Congo bans gatherings in areas far from Ebola outbreak. Some say it limits dissent

Jean-yves Kamale And Monika Pronczuk, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Congo bans gatherings in areas far from Ebola outbreak. Some say it limits dissent

Jean-yves Kamale And Monika Pronczuk, The Associated Press 3 minute read 8:26 AM CDT

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Opposition and civil society groups are protesting Congo’s new ban on public demonstrations and mass gatherings in the capital and other areas far from the country’s deadly Ebola outbreak, alleging that the decision aims to limit freedom of speech.

The decision announced over the weekend came as the outbreak of a type of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine continues to grow, with 1,307 people infected and 377 dead across three provinces in eastern Congo. It could be the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

Congo’s ministry of interior on Saturday said gatherings and demonstrations were forbidden in the provinces of Kinshasa, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele as fears grow about the outbreak spilling into new areas. None of the provinces have any confirmed cases.

Separately, the mayor of Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city and now under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, also banned public gatherings and demonstrations, including celebrations linked to sport events, on Monday. Congo is in its first World Cup in over half a century.

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8:26 AM CDT

Health

FILE - The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Nursing gains ‘professional’ label for student loans after judge’s ruling, but theology now dropped

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Nursing gains ‘professional’ label for student loans after judge’s ruling, but theology now dropped

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:20 PM CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing, physical therapy and several other fields will be eligible to take out higher federal student loan amounts — at least for now — after a federal judge blocked part of a Trump administration rule that held them to lower limits.

The U.S. Education Department issued a revised rule on Monday designed to follow the judge's order from last week, officials told The Associated Press. Agency officials called it a temporary change while they fight in court to keep the original rule, which defined medicine, law and other fields as “professional programs” but excluded fields such as nursing.

The department disagrees with the judge's order but will comply, even as officials plan to prevail in the case over which degrees are defined as “professional,” Undersecretary Nicholas Kent said in a statement. “We will continue to make the case that the definition is both lawful and appropriate,” he said.

The change represents a short-term win for groups that sued to stop the rule. Eight groups challenged the department's definition in court, representing nurse practitioners, therapists, speech language pathologists and more.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:20 PM CDT

Health

FILE - A California's SNAP benefits shopper pushes a cart through a supermarket in Bellflower, Calif., Feb. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner, File)

Arkansas will move forward with a ban on using SNAP for candy and soda despite recent court ruling

Travis Loller, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Arkansas will move forward with a ban on using SNAP for candy and soda despite recent court ruling

Travis Loller, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:44 PM CDT

Arkansas is moving forward with its plan to ban government food aid from being used to buy candy and soda beginning on Wednesday, even though a federal judge ruled last week that similar restrictions in other states violated federal law.

Announcing the plan on Monday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited an urgent need to combat a “chronic disease epidemic” in America, including high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

On one floor of the state’s Department of Human Services, “our state has been approving food stamp purchases for soft drinks and candy, while on another floor, our state’s Medicaid program is paying to treat the chronic diseases those products can help create,” she said.

Food stamps is an older name for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federally funded and state-run program provides a monthly stipend for low-income families to buy groceries. It is used by nearly 42 million Americans, or about one in eight.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:44 PM CDT

Health

FDA panel on peptides will include experts who promote the unproven chemicals favored by RFK Jr.

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

FDA panel on peptides will include experts who promote the unproven chemicals favored by RFK Jr.

Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:13 PM CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When U.S. health officials meet next month to reconsider a list of controversial peptide drugs, they will hear from a new set of voices: doctors and pharmacists with deep financial ties to the burgeoning industry of unproven chemicals.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday released its list of participants for an upcoming meeting to reconsider the safety and effectiveness of several popular peptide injections, including some that have been praised by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Previous FDA panels on the topic have been composed of academics and researchers. The agency’s new group mainly includes health professionals who prescribe, produce or promote peptides, which have become a wellness trend among athletes, influencers and celebrities.

The two-day meeting is the latest example of how Kennedy and his deputies are trying to reshape U.S. health policy in the mold of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Some of the biggest supporters of the movement sell peptide formulas, though many pharmaceutical industry experts consider them illegal, unapproved drugs.

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:13 PM CDT

Health

A hospital worker walks past the entrance to the Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

B.C. nurses issue strike notice as they reach ‘breaking point,’ union president says

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

B.C. nurses issue strike notice as they reach ‘breaking point,’ union president says

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:10 PM CDT

British Columbia's nurses have reached a "breaking point" with burnout, the rising threat of violence and constant staffing shortages, setting off 72-hour strike notice, union president Adriane Gear said Monday.

It comes just weeks after its members voted 67 per cent to reject a tentative contract offer that had been negotiated between the union's leadership and the Health Employers Association of B.C.

"For many nurses, this is more than a collective agreement," Gear said at the news conference announcing the strike notice. "It is about a profession that has reached a breaking point. It is about nurses who can no longer stay silent as they watch experienced and novice colleagues leave the profession injured and burnt out."

Gear said the decision to strike was not made lightly.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:10 PM CDT

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Health

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty looks on as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed delivers opening remarks at the meeting of the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee in Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Inuit leaders meet with Carney, ministers this week amid tension between groups

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Inuit leaders meet with Carney, ministers this week amid tension between groups

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:17 PM CDT

OTTAWA - Inuit leaders are set to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney and six federal ministers Tuesday in Kuujjuaq, Que., at the latest Inuit-to-Crown partnership committee meeting.

But some Arctic observers say there is discernible tension between the two sides heading into the meeting — a first since the forum was launched in 2017.

"I would think that the federal government going to the meeting on Tuesday would have their backs up a little bit," said former MP Peter Ittinuar, who in 1979 was the first Inuk elected to the House of Commons.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the organization representing Canada's Inuit, hosted an Arctic sovereignty forum earlier this month in Ottawa. It culminated with a call for the federal government to be a better partner and ITK's rejection of what it called "outdated, colonial approaches to Arctic policy that repeat Canada’s past mistakes of marginalizing” Inuit.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:17 PM CDT

Health

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks about holding federal authorities accountable for policies that allowed fentanyl pills to reach the streets, during a news conference in Albuquerque, on Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

New Mexico governor says state could seek billions after DEA let fentanyl hit streets

Susan Montoya Bryan, Jim Mustian And Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

New Mexico governor says state could seek billions after DEA let fentanyl hit streets

Susan Montoya Bryan, Jim Mustian And Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 7:52 PM CDT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's governor said Monday that state officials could pursue billions of dollars in civil damages after revelations that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents repeatedly allowed shipments of fentanyl to flow into drug-plagued communities as investigators sought to build bigger cases.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vowed to take her outrage “right to the White House and Congress” to seek assurances the DEA is no longer using the risky law enforcement strategy in New Mexico — and that it is not being replicated elsewhere. Overdoses have surged in New Mexico, even as fentanyl deaths declined in other states.

“This is a stunning failure by the federal government,” the governor told reporters at a news conference in the state medical examiner's office in Albuquerque, joining a host of state and local law enforcers and officials demanding answers. “It’s disgusting and despicable.”

The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Updated: Yesterday at 7:52 PM CDT

Health

Nutrition apps can help build healthy habits. For some users, their gaming features carry risks

Albert Stumm, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Nutrition apps can help build healthy habits. For some users, their gaming features carry risks

Albert Stumm, The Associated Press 5 minute read 6:38 AM CDT

Green means go, red means stop. Trophies or confetti come with good performance, and people who fall behind get nudged to do better.

Those brightly colored engagement tactics long ago jumped from smartphone games to everything from online shopping to sports betting and classrooms. So it should come as no surprise that many nutrition-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal and Noom also use gaming features to keep users coming back.

But as nutrition apps proliferate, some researchers are raising alarms that gamification features may do more harm than good for some people.

Isabella Anderberg, a psychologist researching digital dieting behavior at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, said calorie tracking can reinforce behaviors associated with body dysmorphia and disordered eating.

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6:38 AM CDT

Health

FILE - A dosage of Wegovy, March 1, 2024 in Front Royal, Va. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)

Canada approves generic version of Wegovy for weight loss

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Canada approves generic version of Wegovy for weight loss

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 9:05 AM CDT

OTTAWA - Health Canada has approved a generic version of Wegovy, a semaglutide drug that's prescribed to help people lose weight.

The weekly injection is known as Svemia from the Canadian company Apotex and is pharmaceutically equivalent to weight-loss medication Wegovy from Denmark's Novo Nordisk.

Health Canada says Svemia can be prescribed to people 12 years of age and over, as a supplement to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for weight management.

It's the third generic semaglutide medication approved by the department, though the first two were authorized for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in adults.

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Updated: 9:05 AM CDT

Health

The Saskatchewan Legislative Building can be seen from Trafalgar Overlook in Regina on Thursday, October 24, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

Saskatchewan ends fiscal year with $947-million deficit, expenses in health care up

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

Saskatchewan ends fiscal year with $947-million deficit, expenses in health care up

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press 1 minute read 12:46 PM CDT

REGINA - Saskatchewan's government is ending the last fiscal year deep in the red.

The province's year-end public accounts show Saskatchewan is to post a $947-million deficit for the 2025-26 year.

It's a major swing from the $12-million surplus the province had initially projected.

The province says more spending in health care and other areas pushed it into a deficit.

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12:46 PM CDT

Health

Trump administration suspends funding for New York’s Medicaid fraud unit

Ali Swenson And Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Trump administration suspends funding for New York’s Medicaid fraud unit

Ali Swenson And Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press 5 minute read 12:43 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would freeze federal funding for New York's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, a state agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting fraud in the safety-net government healthcare program.

In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30.

The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration, and part of a barrage of anti-fraud actions it has aggressively promoted in the healthcare sector. They have included the creation of a new task force, targeted investigations, funding deferrals and demands for revalidation of healthcare providers that have touched all states but focused largely on Democratic ones.

The pulled funding also comes after the administration admitted a glaring error in figures meant to help justify a fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program earlier this year, a mistake critics said revealed a Trumpian tendency to attack first and verify the facts later.

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12:43 PM CDT

Health

Calgary, Lethbridge supervised consumption sites close, province shifts to treatment

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Calgary, Lethbridge supervised consumption sites close, province shifts to treatment

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read 12:11 PM CDT

CALGARY - The lone supervised consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge officially shut their doors Tuesday as the province shifts funding to treatment centres.

Safeworks Outreach at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary was the province's first supervised consumption site. It opened in 2017 to respond to the opioid and overdose crisis, providing sterile equipment for drug use alongside supervision in case of an overdose.

Six more opened in the following years across the province but, with the closure of the sites in both Calgary and Lethbridge, only three remain operational: two in Edmonton and one in Grande Prairie.

Recovery Alberta did not immediately provide a response about whether those sites are expected to close in the future.

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12:11 PM CDT

Environment

FILE - A person uses a fan as they wait in line to purchase Broadway tickets in Times Square, during a heat advisory in New York, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray, File)

How to stay cool in a heat wave even without air conditioning

Caleigh Wells And Melina Walling, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

How to stay cool in a heat wave even without air conditioning

Caleigh Wells And Melina Walling, The Associated Press 5 minute read 10:51 AM CDT

Heat can be dangerous, but health experts say there are ways to manage the threat.

Scorching temperatures, especially combined with high humidity, pose risks particularly for children, older people and those with certain health conditions. Anyone can suffer from heat-related illness.

Climate change is also exacerbating heat waves and heat stress.

So here are some tips to stay safe:

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10:51 AM CDT

Health

Resident Kerli Faria takes a break amid the rubble while searching for her nephews at a building that collapsed during the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Aid workers warn of infectious diseases, overwhelmed hospitals after Venezuela quakes

Juan Pablo Arráez And Isabel Debre, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Aid workers warn of infectious diseases, overwhelmed hospitals after Venezuela quakes

Juan Pablo Arráez And Isabel Debre, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 12:10 PM CDT

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — Aid groups warned Tuesday that Venezuela's fragile healthcare system is being pushed to its limits nearly a week after two powerful earthquakes, with damaged and understaffed hospitals overwhelmed by the injured and deteriorating conditions in the disaster zone causing infectious diseases to spread.

The scores of international and domestic teams across Venezuela remain focused on the search for survivors, with the government death toll surpassing 1,700 and new bodies still being hauled out from the rubble.

But a humanitarian crisis is already unfolding among the living. United Nations agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.

Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said on Tuesday. Suddenly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and elsewhere without adequate emergency shelter available.

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Updated: 12:10 PM CDT

June 30, 2026

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