This week a little girl died in Laval, while playing and watching TV on her bunk bed. A piece of her clothing got tangled up in the bed, and she was strangled. She was six years old.

Sadly, she’s not the first child to die this way. And there are many other children injured on bunk beds every year. The Montreal Children’s Hospital treats about 50 children a year for injuries relating to bunk beds.

If you have a bunk bed please be sure it meets safety regulations, especially for the distance between the railings on the top bunk. Always use a mattress of the proper thickness. Cut or tie up the cords of window blinds so kids can’t reach them. It is important to place the beds away from light fixtures and ceiling fans, and most especially, windows.

Children under six years should never use the top bunk, and only one child should be on the top bunk at a time. Be sure your kids know never to jump on or from the bed. In fact, they really shouldn’t play on the bed at all.

It probably seems really obvious, or maybe just overly cautious. But I’m sure you’d rather be a little bit of a stick in the mud, than to be making burial arrangements for your child.

Here are some links for bunk bed safety information:

• CBC Marketplace on Bunk Beds
• Health Canada Consumer Product Safety: Bunk Beds
• La sécurité et les lits superposés (French version, Health Canada)

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I don’t know how many of my readers will have seen the new cheese commercials, but I do hope some of you will know what I’m talking about. Our kids are quite taken with them. I’ve seen two so far. Perhaps there are more to come. Both involve a family, some kind of food that uses cheese, and singing. The lyrics of one commercial are sung to the tune of a wonderful oldie, and it seemed rather timely to share it today

It would appear that the Quebec government and the Association des chirurgiens dentistes du Québec (ACDQ) have reached an agreement in principle that will have the dentists back to accepting Medicare patients in the near future. The dentist’s union wouldn’t comment, other than to say the government’s proposal has to be ratified by the membership - but they do have links on their web site at the moment that lead to news items accessible only to dentists who are members of the association.

Going into this pressure tactic some dentists interviewed on CTV complained that they were not really getting paid for the care they give to Medicare patients, as the fees they received from the government just covered their expenses. Children under ten who were not covered by a private insurance were pretty much getting a free ride, as were folks on social assistance. When negotiations stalled in March the dentists pulled out of Medicare en masse - leaving their patients to wait for care until an agreement could be reached, or scramble to find the cash to pay for procedures out of pocket.

Later the figures seemed to be revised: the government was only paying 60% of what the dentists would charge a private insurer. Now as they are just steps away from accepting a new contract, we hear that Medicare patients only make up 10% of the patients in the province.

Here’s a little math problem for my fellow homeschoolers to do with the kiddies:

60% below the private rate means 40% missing

40% x the 10% Medicare patients represent of the total patients = 4%

So why were the dentists asking for a 48.5% increase? Methinks they slipped a decimal somewhere….

Dentists in Ontario make on average $132,000 yearly, or 5.6% percent more than Quebec dentists. Here’s a little math for the younger homeschoolers who aren’t yet ready to multiply percentages:

48.5% - 5.6% = a whopping 42.9%!

Earlier this year Health Minister Michel Couillard offered the dentists an increase of 24%, which would have brought them to $155,000 a year. I don’t think the specifics of the agreement have been released yet, but my guess is that Quebec dentists are going to be getting a good deal more remuneration - or is it respect? - than Ontario dentists this year…

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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We are in the final week of the school year, and at McGill University the Teaching Assistants are beginning a strike today. The 1,100 members of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) have been without a contract for a year.

I remember class sizes at McGill being very large and teaching assistants (TA’s) were given the responsibility of leading smaller discussion groups, often on a weekly basis. TA’s also helped the professors to grade papers and exams.

AGSEM is asking for smaller work loads and a pay increase. They are reminding their members that a fine of up to $1,000 per day can be imposed on both the university and the worker, should scab labour be used during the strike. Quebec’s labour code specifies that only management can replace striking TA’s, and only if they were appointed for the replacement during the negotiation phase before the strike began.

It would seem that perhaps McGill hasn’t appointed anyone to cover for the striking TA’s. This will not likely have much impact on classes, although review sessions to prepare students for final exams may be cancelled. Grading of final term papers and exams is more likely to be the significant outcome of the strike, and we may well see that grades are late being sent out to students as a result.

With the part time faculty at Concordia also on strike, it would appear that the city’s English university students are suffering for the inability of unions and management at both schools to come up with contracts.

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The Quebec Civil Protection web site has several pages for young people that address disasters and emergency preparedness. With the spring thaw upon us there is a risk of flooding in several Quebec rivers, including the Châteauguay, the Yamaska and the Richelieu Rivers. People who live in the regions along these rivers know flooding is an annual concern, especially if ice blocks the flow of the melt water. There may be more reason to watch for flooding this year, with the extremely large snowfall we’ve had this past winter.

Children can learn about disasters and the Civil Protection service, and also how to pack an emergency kit. To reinforce the learning there is a game in which kids go from room to room picking up items such as warm clothing, water, food and a flashlight. The goal is to pack the bag quickly and get to an emergency shelter before disaster strikes. The game involves a small amount of reading (for the checklist) but could conceivably be be played by a non-reader. It will appeal to all primary age children. You can find the game here in English, or look around the site for other cool activities.

The French pages offer the same kid-friendly activities; it might be a fun addition to your second language classes to repeat the games in French!

For parents who want to have the latest news about the flood watch you can go to the Civil Protection web site. Summaries of available information are given in English and French, but the actual site content (weather updates, etc.) is in French only.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!