Located on Toronto's Dovercourt Road north of Dupont Street and the CPR railway tracks, this small house set back from the street stands out for its flagstoned front yard and its religious statuary.
Elusive New Democrat MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau rolled into town for the first time Wednesday, promising to actually move to the Quebec riding at some point in the future.
And, some of the residents who also met her for the first time said Brosseau made a good impression.
"She is very composed and competent, and expresses herself very well in French," Louisville Mayor Guy Richard told the National Post. "I think she wants to do well. We want to see her regularly in the region, but like any new candidate, she'll have to get used to the job."
Flanked by NDP senior Quebec lieutenant Thomas Mulcair, the 27-year-old former assistant manager of a university pub, arrived unannounced to the riding of Berthier-Maskinongé she won handily May 2.
Famous for taking a mid-campaign vacation to Las Vegas and working nearly 300 kilometres away, Brosseau appears to have made a few new friends, and possibly, supporters.
The Canadian Press reported she won over several constituents with her charm. "She seemed open," one resident said after meeting Brosseau. "I will give her a chance."
Michelle Picard, a local museum director, told the CP reporter, "Her French is quite good. I think she understands more than she can speak. She's a very nice person, very easy to talk to."
In a telephone interview with community newspaper l'Écho de Maskinongé, Brosseau said in French she was excited about her first day in the riding and spoke to many locals about their issues and concerns.
Giving HIV patients drug treatment as soon as they are diagnosed makes them less contagious, slashing transmission rates to their sexual partners by 96 percent, an international study found.
The trial, the first to prove treating a person reduces their risk of infecting others, may change the pace of care for people with the virus that causes AIDS. The World Health Organization currently recommends patients with healthy immune systems not get HIV drugs, which can have serious side effects, until their infection-fighting cells fall below a certain level.
The study involving couples where only one person had HIV found 28 new cases linked to the infected partner. A single infection occurred among 886 couples where treatment began immediately with a mix of drugs from companies including Gilead Sciences Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The 27 other infections were among 877 couples where treatment was delayed.
“This new finding convincingly demonstrates that treating the infected individual -- and doing so sooner rather than later -- can have a major impact on reducing HIV transmission,” Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement released today on the study results.
The trial, which started in 2005 and was slated to run until 2015, was halted early to ensure HIV patients were offered antiretroviral therapy proven to protect their partners.
[. . .]
Drugs to treat HIV can cost $12,000 or more a year, and cause side effects including nausea and kidney damage. Studies are under way to identify the best time to start the drugs that must be taken daily for life. There is no hard and fast rule on when to begin treatment for patients who still have a strong immune system without signs of AIDS.
[. . .]
In the study reported today, patients were treated with a triple combination of drugs chosen from among 11 options, with the goal of reducing the amount of virus in their blood to undetectable levels. Researchers hypothesized that HIV patients with lower viral levels would be less likely to infect their partners, and the earlier treatment starts, the greater the benefit.
Half started taking the drugs immediately after joining the trial, and the other half waited until their CD4 cells -- the immune system cells attacked by the virus -- fell below 250 per cubic millimeter of blood.
The study cost about $73 million and was carried out by the HIV Prevention Trials Network. All the participants received condoms and counseling on how best to prevent the spread of HIV.
The four RCMP officers who Tasered Robert Dziekanski shortly before his death at Vancouver International Airport in 2007 have been officially charged with perjury, the B.C. government announced Thursday.
Last week, Richard Peck, the special prosecutor appointed over the matter, made the recommendation in relation to testimony given by the Mounties at the Braidwood inquiry, which found the four officers displayed "shameful conduct" and were not justified in using the Taser.
On Monday, B.C.'s deputy attorney general David Loukidelis consented to the charges, and on Wednesday, Const. Kwesi Millington, Cpl. Benjamin Robinson, Const. Bill Bentley and Const. Gerry Rundel were officially indicted.
The four officers are scheduled to make their first court appearance on June 29 in Vancouver.
Dziekanski, 40, died at the Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007 after the four RCMP officers, responding to a report of a violent drunk, repeatedly shocked him with an electronic stun gun as he writhed in pain.
Dziekanski, who spoke no English and had never been on a plane before, was unable to find his mother upon arriving at the airport. He remained in a secure customs area for nearly 11 hours and then, appearing dazed and delirious, began throwing around furniture, prompting the 911 call.
Moments after the four officers arrived on the scene, Dziekanski was jolted five times with a Taser.
He died minutes after he was restrained and handcuffed face-down on the airport floor.
The incident prompted an international outcry after a citizen's cellphone video of the officers' actions was posted on the Internet.
"My dream is to get the two Koreas united. In a united Korea, I will run a shelter to feed hungry North Koreans," said 20-year-old Yu Chull-Min (not his real name), a North Korean studying at Yomyung School in Seoul where students from the North, aged 16 to 24, are finishing high school.
But this lofty dream often gets lost in confusion and sometimes humiliation, as these young North Korean realise how different they are from South Korean youths.
The biggest difference is their divergence on the unification issue. In a unification camp rally held in April, undergraduates from both South and North gathered to talk about their vision on the unification of two Koreas.
"Why should we bother to unify two Koreas?" said a student from South Korea. "We must recognise that two Koreans have drifted too far away from each other. Therefore, wouldn't it be more comfortable for two Koreas to stay apart as it is now?"
A dozen North Korean students in the meeting were taken aback. "How shocked I was," said Lee Hyun- Ji (not his real name) a 25-year-old student from the North.
[. . .]
Many believe that South Korean students are more individualistic, while North Korean students are more united in their group-minded pursuit of unification.
[,. . .]
Another difference is that South Koreans are used to luxuries alien to youths from the North. "I felt the outrage when I saw students here did not eat all of (their) food just because they don't like it," said Lee Hyun-Ji (not her real name), a student who fled North Korea.
"When I see leftover food, I am reminded of North Korean children who were starved to death (when I was there)," said Lee, who arrived in South Korea in 2006 via China.
We cannot know the future, but currently it seems that the eventual unification of Korea under the Seoul regime is the only possible long-term outcome of the Korean crisis. But once the Kim family regime is gone, the 25 million human beings who lived under their rule will have to make something of their sad and terrifying experiences. Frankly speaking, the entire era was a massive waste of time, resources and lives, but can the average North Korean person accept and admit this? Some people, no doubt, will come to such painful conclusions, but many more will probably not.
There will be no shortage of people who are bound to lose out from unification and/or regime change in North Korea. The Kim family has produced a small army of professional indoctrinators and overseers. Many a well-educated North Korean has made a decent (that is by North Korean standards) living by lecturing his/her compatriots about the finer points of the Juche (self-reliance) doctrine or the heroic deeds of the Kim family. Many others have been employed to enforce the manifold regulations and rules. Under the new system, these people will instantly find out that their arcane skills will be of little use. They are bound to feel unhappy about the new world and they are also bound to search for ways to justify and embellish their past.
[. . .]
Once the country is unified, the majority of North Korean professionals will find out that in the new world, their skills are of little if any value. What can be done by a North Korean medical doctor who knows nothing of 95% of all the procedures and treatments which are routine in modern medicine? What can be done with an engineer who has spent all his life repairing rusting industrial equipment of 1960s' Soviet vintage?
[. . .]
None of these people can be portrayed as a regime collaborator, but they are likely to share the sorry fate of former ideological indoctrinators and minor police clerks. Some of them will manage to re-educate themselves, while others will find new and rewarding career paths, but the lucky will be few in number. The majority is bound to have at least ambivalent feelings about the post-unification situation.
[. . . T]he common North Korean will also have many good reasons to feel dissatisfied about the state of the country after unification. Assuming that North Korea will not change much until its collapse (and this is very likely), after unification more or less every North Korean above the age of 30 will find his/herself restricted to low-paid, unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
This does not mean that unification will bring ruin to a majority of North Koreans. On the contrary, their incomes, their nutrition and their consumer lives are likely to improve dramatically and almost instantly. Nonetheless, they will probably soon take the new relative prosperity for granted, and will compare their income and social standing not with Kim Il-sung's past, but with the situation of South Koreans.
Alas, this comparison is almost certain to be discouraging. Most North Koreans are likely to remain second-class citizens because the lack of relevant skills will prevent them from acquiring skilled work in the post-unification economy (reeducation is difficult in their age, with a heavy burden of social responsibilities on their shoulders). Formerly skilled blue-collar workers as well as many office clerks will have to spend the rest of their work lives sweeping streets and washing dishes. They will probably earn more than a minor official under the Kims' rule, but their relative inferiority will cause much problem.
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