White Coat, Black Art

​Ask any Islander and they'll likely tell you that heavy alcohol use on PEI is ingrained. "It's a reality of our culture and our socializing," says Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison. But she's determined to change that. Working with fellow Islanders like Brenda Simmons of MADD, whose son Jacob was killed on his bike by a driver who'd had 13 drinks, Dr. Morrison has released a sweeping provincial alcohol strategy that other parts of Canada may want to study.

Pope Leo XIV, who isn’t known to be a smoker, has been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. In this episode, Toronto father Winhan Wong shares his journey with that same disease. He was diagnosed nine years ago and was also a non-smoker. In Canada, one in four cases of lung cancer now occur in people who have never smoked. Thoracic surgeon Dr. Christian Finley explains why these cases are rising, the stigma patients face, and efforts to develop a national plan.

Dr. Michael Antil left North Carolina in mid‑2023 with his wife and kids, driven out by an increasingly conservative political climate and COVID-era hostility toward doctors. He’s now a family physician to over 2,000 patients in Toronto. He was repeatedly denied permanent residency in Canada, lost in a maze of paperwork and immigration red tape. In this encore episode, we have an exciting update to Dr. Antil’s battle with bureaucracy.

For Black women in Nova Scotia, getting basic health care can be a real struggle – so the Nova Scotia Sisterhood, a primary care clinic in Dartmouth, takes a different approach. Detailed intakes lead to everything from cancer screening to mental health care, delivered by a Black female team that understands the community. And there are Pap parties, too.

Farley Yuras, 74, traveled to Poland to have both knees replaced after the wait in Edmonton became unbearable. He and his wife say that because of long delays, Alberta should reimburse people who leave the country for medically necessary surgery. Steven Lewis, an adjunct professor of health policy at UBC, says the wait for elective surgeries in many provinces is “chaos and anarchy,” and needs fixing.