Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.
Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe and Mail.
In this issue, Karen Howlett examines why primary care is getting less accessible and involves longer wait times, despite more doctors working in Canada than ever before. When she began trying to obtain data for this story, Howlett was surprised by the number of provinces that weren’t willing to provide information. But even more shocking, she said, was learning about Canadians whose entire lives were upended because they didn’t know where to access primary care. “We have universal health care, right? Canada’s very proud of that. Well I guess we do – if you can get access to it,” she said.
Matt Lundy looks at the growing pains Canada is experiencing as it tries to bring in hundreds of thousands of immigrants, which policy makers say is necessary to fuel the country’s economic growth. And Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa argues the world would’ve been a far better place today had Facebook taken its gatekeeping responsibilities seriously.
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Outside the B.C. Legislature in Victoria, people take part in the We Need Doctors Now rally, organized by BC Health Care Matters this past October. In 2021, Victoria's average wait time to see a doctor at a walk-in clinic was two hours and 41 minutes.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Globe and Mail
There are more family doctors than ever in Canada but access to primary care is only getting worse in many parts of the country, statistics collected by The Globe and Mail and interviews with dozens of medical experts and patients confirm. Karen Howlett, Kelly Grant and Tu Thanh Ha report on the mismatch between what exists on paper and what is actually happening on the ground, and the broader problem plaguing Canada’s health care system.
- For these Canadians without family doctors, long waits for lower-quality care are a test of patience
- Canada’s supply of family doctors doesn’t match demand, and provinces lack data to find out why
Canada wants to welcome 500,000 more immigrants by 2025. Can it keep up?
Pedestrians cross a busy Toronto street outside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, May 10, 2019.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Every year, Canada adds a big city – in a sense. The mass of individuals are spread around, mostly to urban centres, but increasingly to suburbs and far-flung communities. More than 700,000 people have been added over the past year, roughly the same as Mississauga, the seventh-largest municipality in the country. They are here to work, to study, to build a better life. Policy makers say higher immigration is necessary to fuel Canada’s economic growth, and in particular, to ease labour shortages, but with a population boom comes growing pains.
Opinion: The legal test the government must pass: not was it right, but was it reasonable?
Police officers move in to clear anti-government demonstrators in Ottawa on Feb. 18.Brett Gundlock/The New York Times News Service
If Justin Trudeau’s critics were salivating at the prospect of the Prime Minister being subjected to close questioning, under oath, at the Emergencies Act inquiry, they’re likely feeling a little disappointed, argues Andrew Coyne. Not all of his answers will withstand scrutiny, Coyne writes, but on the whole, Trudeau didn’t emerge diminished by the ordeal. Instead, his answers came across as sincere, concerned and even reasonable.
How Facebook, and friends of friends, brought democracy down
ILLUSTRATION BY NINA MARTINEZ/The Globe and Mail
Facebook’s choices – tuning its algorithm to serve up divisive and emotive content that keeps you scrolling – have given a bullhorn to hate speech, disinformation and conspiracy theories, argues Maria Ressa. In the Philippines, seen as a testing ground for disinformation campaigns, Ressa and her team at the digital news site Rappler chronicled how one fake Facebook account was able to reach three to four million others. They showed how the social media platform, and other similar networks, could be weaponized to amplify the reach of lies, sow public distrust in the media, and threaten democracy. A similar process has been unfolding in other democracies around the world.
Caleb Campbell, a pastor at Desert Springs Bible Church, has been an undercover man of the cloth for much of the last year.Joe Rondone/The Republic/Reuters
Donald Trump’s most loyal followers may be thought of as bigots or patriots, constitutional standard-bearers or deluded masses. Caleb Campbell likes to think of them as wayward sheep that can be led back. The pastor from Phoenix has created a tool kit for winning back the souls from the Trump church, writes Nathan VanderKlippe. One lesson he’s learned after spending more than 1,000 hours immersing himself in that world: debating facts and figures won’t help. Better to understand the fears and angers that feed personal beliefs.
You want booze in Qatar? Be prepared for red tape, high prices and razor wire
Alcohol in Qatar ridiculously expensive – the most expensive booze in the world, writes Cathal Kelly.Petr David Josek/The Associated Press
Alcohol in Qatar is not only difficult to find, but ridiculously expensive – the most expensive booze in the world. Think $15 for a beer in a bar, and twice that for a mixed drink. The problem isn’t the price. It’s that the cumulative effect of alcohol makes people immune to pricing. The first one hurts, but the sixth is easy. As one louche comrade here put it, “After a while, you’re not even looking at the bill. You’re just tapping your card.” Follow Cathal Kelly as he treks to the only liquor store in the entirety of Qatar, which is in the middle of the desert.
This adventurer helps people living with vision loss cut through fresh snow
Tyson Rettie, who lost vision in his right eye, leads snow expeditions for other visually impaired people.Bruno Long/Bruno Long
Tyson Rettie, a mountain sports obsessive, “made a life out of skiing.” Everything began to change when he was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2015, and years later, started losing vision in his right eye. He had to relearn how to navigate the world – including hitting the slopes, an experience that he says felt familiar and normal, “close to how it was before my vision loss.” Since then, Rettie has made it his life’s work to find a way for other visually impaired people to get out into the wild.
Sarah Polley offers a new directorial vision with Women Talking
Sarah Polley's latest film Women Talking is women filmmaking, at every level.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Johanna Schneller walks you through an interview with Sarah Polley as she discusses her new film Women Talking, and rewriting the rules of the film industry to include women. Her new drama takes place on a single set – a hayloft – where Mennonite women who repeatedly have been drugged and sexually assaulted by men in their community hold a secret meeting to vote on what to do: stay and fight, leave, or do nothing. The film, Polley says, never shies away from darkness, but is meant to inspire hope.
Neil Young’s Harvest turns 50: Should we care?
Neil Young’s classic album Harvest from 1972 was a bestseller, which earned platinum discs on both sides of the Atlantic and yielded Young’s only No. 1 hit, Heart of Gold.Joel Bernstein/Supplied
Neil Young’s country-tinged Harvest was an undeniable bestseller, earning platinum discs on both sides of the Atlantic and yielding Young’s only No. 1 hit, Heart of Gold. Fifty years later, a new box set gathers the original recordings with studio outtakes; an unreleased 1971 BBC solo performance on CD, DVD and vinyl; and a two-hour documentary filmed in 1971 will hit theatres for limited screenings in early December. It is a celebration to be sure, but 50 years later, should we still care?
Thanks for reading this week’s issue of Great Reads! Let us know what you think by e-mailing greatreads@globeandmail.com, and see you next weekend.
– Beatrice Paez and Emerald Bensadoun