An Alberta government funding grant to help provide mental-health services to low-income and homeless Calgarians is a welcome move, according to the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA). “As a union, we’ve been advocating for better support for mental-health services across the province,” says Mike Parker, president of HSAA, which represents about 26,000 health-care professionals including mental-health therapists, social workers and addictions counsellors. “Our members work on the front lines and know only too well that…

What’s your dream? Maybe you fantasize about winning the lottery and buying a beachfront home in Hawaii or a log cabin in the woods. Maybe it’s being able to afford to take your entire extended family on a five-star cruise. Or is it simply that you’ll have enough money to quit work? What if your dream was to lead a normal, ordinary life? To get up and go to work six days a week, to pack…

Note: This oped was originally published in the Edmonton Journal. Photo (above): The family pictured in Kananaskis with Ayed Saad and Faika Satterthwaite earlier this year. As headlines mistakenly scream about a refugee crisis in Canada, as we hear claims that diversity is a threat to Canada and as alt-right anti-immigrant groups try to recruit the homeless at a Labour Day event in Edmonton, we seem to be in a constant state of fear. Why? What happened?…

On June 9 and 10, I successfully completed MS Bike – the Multiple Sclerosis bike ride of 180 kms from Leduc to Camrose. On the second day, I was soaked with rain, peeling myself off the seat and so exhausted. I humbly reminded myself that there was an end in sight for me, that this struggle would be over within hours and that it was only temporary, a brief insight into the lifelong struggle for those…

Our Corporate Challenge 2018 AHS Cancer Care team really want to thank HSAA’s Social Justice committee for its $500 sponsorship! We had a really fun year in the Red Division against 30 other very large Edmonton and area employers. We participated in 22 of the 26 events ranging from road race to lawn bowling to “Unknown Challenge.” We achieved gold in cribbage, silver in badminton, a fourth-place finish in bunnock and were in the top eight in…

Revolution Love Live, an annual action-packed, family friendly, all-ages, free community event took place at Calgary’s Olympic Plaza on June 9 in perfect weather. There was hula hooping with Anna Kittilsen, hip hop with the Magoo Crew and live music and juggling with me, Mitch Cedar, an HSAA member, event creator, producer and frontman for the group the Revolution Sonics. It was a fun-filled afternoon with lots of people, big and small trying out these different activities and wading in the…

This article was originally published in the Calgary Herald; you can find the original article here. Premier Rachel Notley had a message as she stood in front of hundreds of unionized paramedics, lab technicians and medical specialists three weeks ago. Speaking at the Health Sciences Association of Alberta’s convention, Notley said her NDP government has the back of organized labour, as it beefed up labour laws and maintained public services in the midst of the province’s…

On May 26, 2018, our family joined about 150 other walkers at Nicholas Sheran park in Lethbridge for the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Walk to Cure Diabetes. Our daughter Brooklyn, pictured with the family pet Zip, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in November 2015 when she was eight years old. Since then, we have been actively involved with JDRF, an organization that raises money and funds diabetes research. This year the participants in the…

I am an active volunteer with Generously Giving Back (GGB), a Canadian registered charity founded by everyday people with big hearts who have come together with one common purpose: To make a difference in the world, as there are no boundaries in kindness and giving. Generously Giving Back has two annual fundraisers, a golf tournament in June and a gala dinner and silent auction in November. These, along with private donations, raise about $50,000 each year.…