Vancouver's safe injection site, Insite, has been given respite from closure after a BC Supreme Court ruling found that it is protected by the Canadian Constitution. According to a press release from the Pivot Legal Society, the judge "found that the blanket prohibition against the possession of narcotics contained in the CDSA (Canadian Drugs and Substances Act) effectively prohibits health interventions such as InSite, and thus violates section 7 of the Charter; the right to life, liberty, and security of the person." You can read the entire Insite decision (in PDF). The judge has given the federal government a year to rewrite the drug laws to allow harm reduction measures and in the meantime has given Insite immunity from the drug laws to continue. While the federal government has said they will appeal the decision ("Feds to appeal B.C. court ruling on supervised injection sites"), other harm reduction advocates and health practicitioners are hoping that the decision will allow for more supervised injection sites and prescribed heroin ("Advocates guess at potential ripples from B.C. safe-injection site ruling").

Check out these sites for more information about Insite and the struggle to keep it open:

• Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
• Insite for Community Safety
• Vancouver Coastal Health - Supervised Injection Site
• Keep Insite Open

An interesting article in the Tyee, "Dying for the Rich" looks into a widely researched correlation between a wide income gap and a shorter overall life expectancy. Although in Canada, public health care minimizes the gap, further erosion to public services means that the rich are in fact robbing the poor through tax cuts. For more information on equitable health care, go to the BC Health Coalition site.

A study done by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS has found that 40% of people who died of HIV-AIDS in BC never accessed treatment mainly due to poverty. The study found homelessness, mental illness, residency in a poor neighbourhood, drug addiction, and language barriers impacted patients access to treatment. Read more in CBC article, "B.C. study shows 40 per cent of HIV sufferers died without getting treatment."

The Caledon Institute has released a policy paper, Canadians Need a Medium-Term Sickness/Disability Income Benefit (in PDF) discussing the possibility of a new sickness or disability benefit. The paper examines the current relationship between Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefits and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) disability benefits, and explores possibilities for stronger linkages between these programs.

The BC Government has been hosting want they call a Conversation on Health with the residents of BC. In response, a coalition of community groups called the Women's Health Community Advisory Committee has released a report about women's health that calls on the BC government to go beyond medical issues and fund a range of social services. The report, Conversation on Women's Health (in PDF) calls on the government to increase welfare rates and minimum wage, build social housing and women-only shelters, and fund more medical services. See more in a CBC article, "Violence against women one of top B.C. health priorities: report."

An article in the Dominion,"Race and Waste in Nova Scotia" outlines the struggle of a small black community in rural Nova Scotia to fight the opening of a second landfill in their area. The residents have argued that they have recieved no economic benefit from the first landfill in their community and a second landfill will just add to the poverty and health problems of the residents. The Save Lincolnville Campaign accuses the municipality of environmental racism, defined as: "The intentional situating of hazardous waste sites, landfills, incinerators and polluting industries in and around communities inhabited mainly by people of black descent and First Nations people, as well as the working poor."

The Canadian Association of Social Workers has released a new report entitled The Declining Health and Well Being of Low Income Women in Canada: A Preventable Tragedy. This CASW report, the fourth in a series on women’s income and poverty, focuses on the serious shortcomings of policy toward low-income women and their health. Read the Executive Summary of The Declining Health and Well Being of Low Income Women in Canada: A Preventable Tragedy (in PDF) or order a copy of the report through the association for a small fee.

According to an article, "GPs 'fob off poor with sedatives,' (in PDF)" people in the poorer areas of Dublin are more likely to be prescribed potentially addictive sedatives to cope with daily life than those in richer areas. Patients in poorer areas of town are routinely prescribed benzodiazepines - a group of drugs that includes Valium that are used to treat anxiety and insomnia - instead of being referred to social or mental health services.

A new study provides evidence that the higher mortality rate of poorer men compared with that of wealthier men could be caused by the higher number of poor male smokers. One researcher suggested a further taxation of cigarettes as a way of pushing poorer people to quit or not begin smoking. Another researcher also aknowledged that the fact there are more poor male smokers than wealthy male smokers is indicative of the harder living conditions of the poor. For more information read the Forbes article about the study.

A report written in 1912 indicates the importance of housing: "It is from the standpoint of the health of the people that the all-important question of housing must be approached. Housing conditions should be regulated and supervised in a strong and almost imperative manner by a central national health authority. By such means much may be done towards conserving the nation's most valuable asset." Read the Conservation Commission of Canada's 1912 report (in PDF).

Interventions providing coordinated treatment and support for homeless adults usually results in greater health improvements than does the prevailing sporadic and substandard care, according to a new review of studies. "We found evidence that a substantial number of different types of programs and interventions are effective in improving the health of homeless adults, especially those with mental illness and homelessness," says lead investigator Stephen Hwang, M.D., of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. More information can be found in the Centre for the Advancement of Health's press release or the 9 page study of homelessness in the United States (in PDF).

The rising price of nutritious food is making it difficult for low income families to eat healthily. A doctor proposes ways in which government funding could be used to ensure the health of vulnerable populations.

A study by Statistics Canada examined the effect of income and education on healthy aging. It suggested that those with higher incomes will be healthier than those with lower incomes as they age. There is also evidence that income may have a greater impact on health than healthy behaviour, such as regular excerise. The CBC's discussion and critique of its findings provides an overview of the study's findings.

BC Centre for Women's Health (BCCWH) has many online resources on aboriginal health, health care reform, women and addictions, women with disabilities, lesbian health and many more. Check out the BCCWH download page and read the report: Taking Action: Mobilizing Communities to Provide Recreation for Women on Low Incomes (in PDF).

A study preformed at certain Canadian university nursing programs showed that many nursing students don't have much exposure to poverty and understanding of poverty issues. As poverty has a very large negetive impact on health, it is important that up and coming nurses have more direct experience with poverty and its surrounding issues. Read a University of Alberta's news article: "Student nurses need better understanding of poverty to help patients."

The Centres of Excellence for Women’s Health recently released the final report from a two-year study on the health of rural, remote and Northern women. The report is the largest qualitative study in Canada to date to address the health concerns of this important community. Rural, Remote and Northern Women's Health includes data collected from focus groups and workshops with women from diverse communities across Canada, including fishers and farmers, and from Aboriginal, Francophone and Anglophone communities from coast to coast to coast. The report also draws on data collected from a National Consultation meeting held in Saskatoon (2003). More than 200 women from rural, remote and Northern regions in every province and from the territories in Canada were consulted during the study process. Rural, Remote and Northern Women's Health - Policy and Research Directions (Summary Report; Centres of Excellence for Women’s Health, June 2004) is available online.

The Ontario Employment Standards Amendment Act (Family Medical Leave) 2004, will provide up to eight weeks of job-protected leave for employees who wish to take time off work to provide care or support for a gravely ill family member at significant risk of dying within 26 weeks. Anyone in Ontario covered by the Employment Standards Act, 2000 – including part-time workers – is eligible to take this job-protected time off work. Read the Ministry of Labour press release.

A study of homeless youth in Saskatoon revealed that ten percent of them had contracted hepititus C. The transmission of hepititus C is associated with injection based drug use. The study showed it particularly connected to Ritilan injections. Activists struggle about what to do to tackle the problem. Read a CBC article about the outbreak.

Homeless women in Toronto are dying at 10 times the rate of other women between 18 and 44, according to a study in Canadian Medical Association Journal. "Homeless people are at high risk for illness and have higher death rates than the general population. Patterns of mortality among homeless men have been investigated, but less attention has been given to mortality rates among homeless women. We report mortality rates and causes of death in a cohort of women who used homeless shelters in Toronto. We also compare our results with those of other published studies of homeless women and with data for women in the general population."

Life expectancy for First Nations and Inuit peoples in Canada is five to 10 years shorter than other Canadians and infant mortality rates among these communities is two to three times that of the Canadian average, a new report suggests. Entitled Improving the Health of Canadians, the report was produced by the Canadian Population Health Initiative. The report looks at the inequalities of health among different economic, demographic and ethnic groups in Canada, focusing on the health of children, Aboriginal peoples and the enduring disparities between Canadians of different income levels.