MUHC links to Kuwait questioned

The Montreal Gazette has raised questions about the transparency and resource management of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), after unearthing details about its role in a five-year agreement between Montreal Medical International Inc. (MMI) and the government of Kuwait. The agreement, which was signed in 2010 and is in effect for two more years, was designed to improve cardiovascular services in Kuwait through post-doctoral training provided by McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

Prominent members of the MUHC and MMI, including MMI President Michael Churchill-Smith and former MUHC Executive Director Arthur Porter, signed the contract. However, Quebec Health Minister Réjean Hébert said he was unaware of the agreement. According to The Gazette, the MUHC, supposedly receives payment for the use of its staff in Kuwait, never detailed receipt of these funds on any public document.

The contract also states that no Kuwaiti citizens will be admitted or treated at the MUHC. However, La Presse reported last week that a Kuwaiti heart patient underwent an operation at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Dec. 16, 2011. While MUHC spokesman Ian Popple emphasized that the patient was treated on “compassionate grounds,” this event has been criticized because many Quebec heart patients wait for several months to receive cardiac surgery.

Senate reform act goes to the Supreme Court The federal government has asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether the Senate Reform Act is constitutional, according to a statement last Friday by Tim Uppal, the Minister of State for Democratic Reform.

The Conservative government introduced the act to the legislative agenda in 2011. If passed, the legislation would allow provinces to elect senators and also limit senators’ terms to nine years. Senators are currently appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister, and may serve until they reach the age of 75. However, the legislation has not been debated in parliament for almost a year, and faces certain challenges, including how to determine the number of senators who should come from each province.

Opposition has criticized the decision to send the legislation to the Supreme Court, saying that it could take as long as two years to release a decision. However, the Conservatives claim they are attempting to speed up the legislation. NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen has alleged that the Conservatives are trying to delay the legislation in order to continue appointing as many senators who support their party as possible before the Act passes.

UBC fills pay gap

The University of British Columbia (UBC) announced last week that it will give its tenure-track female faculty members a two per cent pay raise by the end of February. The pay raise, which will affect 880 female professors, is also retroactive to July 1, 2010.

The decision, which will cost UBC about $2 million this year alone, was made after the university’s Equity Office held a series of internal equity studies. These studies discovered that female professors were paid approximately two per cent less than their male counterparts, which averages to about $3,000 per year.

According to The Globe and Mail, McGill and Western University have been filling gender pay gaps for the past two decades, but UBC’s approach is different than the route taken by most other Canadian schools. While most other universities focus on raising the pay of female faculty members deemed to be under-paid, UBC plans to raise the salaries of women at all ends of the pay scale.

UBC has said that it wants to implement the changes immediately, so as to avoid potential human rights complaints that could follow the Equity Office’s findings.

Landslide in l’Épiphanie leaves two workers dead

A landslide last Tuesday left two truck drivers dead in a quarry in L’Épiphanie, a city just northeast of Montreal. The two drivers were operating heavy machinery in the quarry when sliding gravel caused their vehicles to fall approximately 100 metres into the pit and become trapped under mounds of gravel and mud.

Rescue crews recovered their bodies on Saturday after a four-day search, which was put on hold several times due to poor weather conditions and fears of another landslide. Another worker, whose backhoe was similarly trapped in the quarry, was rescued on Tuesday. He was airlifted out of the quarry and taken to the hospital in Terrebonne, where he is recovering from the shock of the incident.

One geologist has speculated that the landslide may have been caused by a several factors, including the way the site was being excavated, and the composition of the pit, which has a layer of clay soil between layers of excavated gravel. Authorities are currently conducting an investigation to determine the cause.

Ikea monkey won’t return home yet

Yasmin Nakhuda—owner of Darwin, the Ikea monkey—lost a third bid to have her monkey returned to her after an Oshawa court decision on Friday.

Toronto Animal Services took Darwin to the Story Brook Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ontario, after he was found wandering around an Ikea parking lot wearing a shearling coat. He remains at the sanctuary today, and will stay there at least until a trial is held this spring.

Nakhuda filed a civil action against the sanctuary after claiming that by-law officers from animal services tricked her into giving up Darwin. She filed a motion with the provincial courts to allow her to take Darwin back until the trial begins, but this request was denied. A judge reminded those in attendance on Friday that this was not a custody battle, but rather a matter over personal property. The sanctuary maintains that they believe Nakhuda is an unfit caregiver for Darwin—claiming that she strangled the monkey and neglected to change his diaper for a number of days—and that he is thriving in his new environment.