Pixel @ Pixel @lemmy.ca

Posts

5

Comments

39

Joined

2 yr. ago

Although this wouldn't really have made a difference in this case, I just want to point out that services like ExpertFlyer will allow you to access the global distribution system where airlines record the actual reasons for delays in their flight status displays for travel industry employees. You can often times find that the safety issue that they're talking about at the gate is really just a crew shortage issue. There's been a few cases where having this comment has basically come in handy for disproving the airline's reason for denying me compensation. And you can eventually use it in a small claims court if you really need to.

Loblaw/Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacists work on quotas, and the pressure to dispense as quickly as possible causes them to miss obvious and serious drug interactions. The quota system for prescriptions is an actual pressing threat to patient safety.

In BC, if you take more than 3 prescription drugs, pharmacists can bill the province for a medication review (around $80 last time I checked). The medication review is supposed to be a minimum of 30 minutes, improve the patient's treatment plan, etc. SDM would literally turn this into a pure box-checking exercise to claim the $80 in 3 minutes or less.

Oh, and they charge for injecting a vaccine into you (a 3 minute activity and for most vaccines, something you could train a monkey to do). In comparison, independent pharmacists tend not to charge injection fees because they'd rather you come back as a repeat customer than treat you as a cash pig.

I sometimes wonder why we don't just establish a foreign legion like France, or at least permit foreigners to join as enlisted (not officer ranks) like other countries as a pathway to Canadian citizenship. The risk in active service is a far greater display of commitment to Canada than the average study permit holder, and expanding our recruitment pool to Francophone nations in Africa, and states in the Caribbean would at least help greatly in finding non-specialized enlisted.

I don't see the security risk considering that the vast majority of CF recruits are never assessed for loyalty in their background checks, so long as they don't serve in their countries of origin. I've completed the reference check for CF recruit background checks - I really don't think they're that rigorous if they're essentially being outsourced to third party companies.

The fact that having any kind of university degree automatically puts you into the officer cadre, in a country with an extremely high post-secondary education rate like Canada and low tuition fees/generous student funding (versus the US where the opposite is true and the Army is a pathway to post-secondary education), is only furthering a ridiculous ratio of officers to the enlisted. I see more value in starting to recruit from countries where pathways to move up on the social ladder are deeply stifled, and building a base of those who are willing to make meaningful sacrifices to become Canadians (versus yet another MBA student from University Canada West that's only in it for themselves).