2012 Newmarket Business Excellence Award for Innovation

L-R: Joe Mardini - Bell and  Mark McCann - Myostat Motion Control Inc. Signature Sponsor: Bell

The Bell Innovation Award at the 2012 Newmarket Business Excellence Awards was given to Myostat Motion Control Inc..

Myostat also happens to be the company that both Marks work for - Mark McCann,  of Jonty and Luisa fame, and Mark Dankowych, boyfriend of Judith. If you look carefully at the video, each of them makes a 2 second cameo appearance.

Since 1989, the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards has been recognizing Newmarket businesses whose business achievements or community involvement have made significant contributions to the economic and social well-being of the Town of Newmarket.

Criteria for being awarded the Bell Innovation Award are:

• Must be in business for at least 1 year.
• Recognizes extraordinary innovation in the use of technology.
• Must have utilized an innovative and creative approach to integrate leading-edge  technology into their business.
• The use of the technology must have a significant impact on the company’s business plan.

Congratulations to all at Myostat.

Getting Ready for Movember 2012

It's that time again. I'm starting to get ready for the month of Movember, 2012.



Since Movember last year my prostate cancer fortunes have changed as many of you may recall. Last year this time I had been living for five years with a small, slow growing cancer of the prostate that was being monitored every six months with a PSA test and with a needle biopsy every eighteen months. At the beginning of this year the biopsy showed that the cancer had gone up a notch in aggressiveness and had also spread somewhat within the prostate. It was time to stop watching and to take some action. After a couple of weeks of reading and consultation I decided, with my urologist, that the wisest course of action was to have a radical prostatectomy.

That was in April. The procedure was successful and there was no evidence of metastasis.  The first of the six-monthly PSA tests that I need to have for the rest of my life showed a count of 0 (zero!), meaning no trace or evidence of cancer. However, I do remain at higher risk which is why the testing needs to continue.

All the above leads me to continue having an interest in Movember and the cause of promoting men's health - physical and mental - through clinical research and public education. To help fund this worthy cause we will be running the Mo Stashed Hairiers again this year and I sincerely hope that friends, family and strangers will be generous with this great cause in spite of hard times.

You can find my Mo Space Home Page here. It has a "Donate" button. Donations by Canadians are tax deductible.

Note. For a blow by blow diary of my prostate cancer journey click on the "Prostate Cancer" label here or in the panel to the right of this blog.

Holiday in Haliburton

Ingrid and I spent two very relaxing days at Country Charm B&B, Haliburton. Highlights included a leisurely stroll through the Sculpture Forest and a little excursion up to Skyline Park with its view of Haliburton Village and Head Lake, with the Haliburton Highlands in the background.

Rain had been in the forecast but the weather co-operated very nicely.

Click on the link to see our whole Haliburton Holiday 2012 album.

Here are a few of the photos:

Ingrid and I with the village of Haliburton and the Haliburton Highlands in the background.

Beaver contemplating lamp post. I would  have simply called it Mister Tumnus.

Barb - superb hostess and proprietor. Her barn is reflected in the kitchen window

Hard Labour in a Canadian Prison?

An Internet search on Julie Balotta, according to Google, will produce about 144,000 results in 0.24 seconds. She is famous, having given a breech birth to a baby boy who survived the ordeal.  OK, that happens somewhere every day. What made her famous is that the labour started in what is now an infamous prison. This, too, has been known to happen in prisons for women around the world. What makes the Ottawa-Carlton Detention Centre infamous?

• This woman was in labour for hours without being provided one shred of medical assistance other than a pain killer. If the reports are to be believed, nurses (really?) told her she was having indigestion or "false" labour. (In my opinion these nurses need recertification before being let loose again on an unsuspecting population.)
• She was told that she should not have allowed herself to become pregnant if she cannot handle pain.
• When she made too much noise she was moved from the cell which she shared with two other women and segregated in an isolation cell where she was utterly alone.
• Finally, after a baby's foot emerges, officials call an ambulance. Baby Gionni is delivered by the paramedics right there in the prison cell - all credit to them.
• Eventually mother and child are admitted to hospital - Julie needing blood, Baby Gionni with respiratory problems.

You can get more details here: Ottawa prison investigating allegations that guards ignored womanwho gave birth in jail cell

Human right organizations, bloggers and newspapers are outraged, rightly, that Julie's rights were violated, regardless of why she is in jail, and an investigation is underway according to Ontario's minister for correctional services, herself a former delivery room nurse. (Advocates call for inquiry after woman gives birth in Ottawa jail cell)

Nobody seems upset that Baby Gionni's rights were violated. Oh, yes. Of course. This is Canada. In this country a child in the womb, of any age, is not legally a person and has no rights. I wonder what the legal position is when a foot is sticking out?