Four suffer burns after home explosion

During the night, in northwest Toronto, three people were burned after an explosion. In addition, a man is suffering from life threatening burns. There were six people in the house at the time of the explosion, and they managed to get out of the house. However, a 24 year old man suffered third degree burns on 90 per cent of his body. The victims were in a bungalow in the Lawrence Avenue West and Keele Street area when the explosion happened around 10 p.m., Wednesday evening. A 17 year old boy was taken to hospital in the special burns unit. Two other men had minor burns on their arms, hands, faces and necks, and a woman and a child got out of the house uninjured. A firefighter said that there was not a single wall standing in the house when the doused the flames. The firefighters think that this problem came from a natural gas line, but they said it is too early to tell.

This article describes what I imagine is a very scary event. I have never been in a fire but I love my family and my friends and I know how I would feel if we were all woken up in the middle of the night to the smell of burning and the sight of flames. I would be terrified not just for me but for everyone. Then, you are out on the street, and you watch your house go up in flames and everything you have gathered over the years is lost.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091029/explosion_burns_091029/20091029/?hub=TorontoNewHome

T.O. boys dies of H1N1 flu

On Monday, health officials stated that a 13 year old boy died of H1N1 flu virus. The boy’s name was Evan. He complained that his neck was hurting on Saturday night with his hockey team; his team name was Mississauga North Stars. By Monday, Evan complained that his knees were hurting him and he told his dad to run a bath. His dad did. When the father came back 10 minutes later, his son was laying on the floor dead. His dad tried to do CPR and he also called 911. They tried CPR but the H1N1 flu had already attacked his heart. His mom, a nurse, and his brother were at a hockey tournament at the time.

This is an important article but it is also scary. It comes at a time when people are trying to make up their minds if they should take the flu shot that is supposed to prevent the virus from harming people. The story of this hockey player is only one story, but it at least shows people that this virus can be deadly. I believe that more people will take the flu shot because of this story.

Swine flu fears mean fewer handshakes, hugs: poll

This article is about the H1N1 flu and what people should do to prevent it. Over 52 percent of people surveyed said that they wouldn’t shake hands with people because of the possibility of getting the disease. The archdioceses' from Halifax to Vancouver said that during the Sign of Peace celebrations congregants can’t shake hands and instead they had to bow their heads. In addition, holy water fonts are being sanitized and left empty. Also a minor soccer league is saying that the players should show a sign of sportsmanship by forming a line and clapping. The province of Manitoba was hit the worst of the H1N1 during spring. The article also reported that many people around the world are going to go into survival mode.

I thought this was a good article because I am very interested in the swine flu and how it is affecting people. As I go to church I was especially interested in how churches are dealing with this virus while still observing and respecting religious ceremony. As a sports fan, I was interested in the information about the precautions that teams such a s soccer league teams are taking to address the challenges of this virus. In times of fear, we need articles like this to give us important information about how to deal with problems without panicking.

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/swineflu/article/712445--swine-flu-fears-mean-fewer-handshakes-hugs-poll

Toronto plans for mass swine flu vaccination

This article is about the H1N1 flu vaccination that is coming to Toronto. The health committee says that in Christmas we will receive this vaccination and it will be a six week period to hopefully vaccinate everyone. The Toronto Health board is going to make the doctor's offices open 7 days a week so they can use up all the doses fast as they can. They are going to be 19.5 million doses aloud in Toronto and there are 36 health units in Toronto. In the week of November 7 their will be a special vaccine for pregnant women. They Health board already has 1 million doses ready but they are not bring them out till "early November." They are seeing the most H1N1 cases in Toronto. Adults are going to need 1 dose of this vaccine and kids under 10 will need 2 doses. One average about 40 per cent of Torontonians get the seasonal flu.

I thought this was an important article because this the HINI virus is scaring a lot of people and this makes me feel like the government is on top of the problem. The plan makes sense to me although I worry that people are going to panic and flood the medical centers. Overall however, I feel less scared about the problem than i did before I read this article.

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/swineflu/article/711248--toronto-plans-for-mass-swine-flu-vaccination

Aging population a threat to Canadian blood supply: study

This article is about people who do or do not donate blood. A news reporter said that Canada’s population is aging and we might not have enough blood to donate to sick adults and children. Less than 4 per cent of Canadians donate blood. The common ages that donate blood are ages 15-24 and the least likely ages to donate blood are ages 25-54. Most likely people who are wealthy and immigrants do not donate but people who live in small cities or towns tend to donate blood. There are about 12.5 million people who can donate blood but decide not to.

This was a very interesting article. I learned a lot about the blood supply situation in Canada that I didn't know about before reading the article. For example, I had no idea that young people are the most likely to give blood and that English speaking people and people who live in towns are also more likely to donate their blood. I think that more people should read this article because they would be more likely to want to help do something to fix this very important problem.

http://www.thestar.com/article/709591

Ontario Health Minister David Caplan quits

The article is mostly about the decision by the health minister, David Caplan to resign because of a report that is very critical of the spending practices in his ministry. The article reports that although the opposition leaders were happy that Caplan had resigned they worried that his resignation would take attention away from problems in the department. They accuse the government of "flushing money down the toilet". The article is also about the government's reaction. Their reaction as presented by the former health minister, Smitherman, is that it was the government's decision to stop untendered contracts that actually helped to find the problem and that all other governments had this problem even before them.

My opinion in reaction to this article is that the current government, the Liberals, have a lot of nerve trying to take credit for solving this problem. This is their second term in office. They don't have the right to look at other governments before them and blame it on them. Also things are worse than they say: The report is 50 pages long and that means there were a lot more problems in the Ministry other than just how contracts were given out. I think the government should do what any student would do when we get in trouble: take responsibility and apologize!

No rebound yet for Canadian car sales

This article is about car sales in Canada. It reports that although car sales continue to drop in numbers over previous years there was some good news. The rate of the overall drop in car sales had slowed down. Four companies actually reported increases in sales: Ford, BMW. Mercedes, and Hyundai. It was BMW that showed the greatest rise in sales. However, normally strong selling car companies such as Honda and Toyota took a dive as did the company with a terrible sales record: GM. The observer who was quoted in the article said that his research indicated that Canadian car buyers were starting to get the confidence back and he believed that they would soon be more wiling to buy cars. Let us hope he is right.

I think the article did an effective job capturing the present car sales situation in Canada. At the end of the article I understood the difference between car sales being worse than last year but that the difference between last years sales and this years sales had slowed down. This means that the situation is improving but we are still not in great shape. I would have like the writer of the article to explore more of the reasons why some of the companies were doing better than others.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/704176