Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 21h

Hey prospective medical students: Simon Fraser University's new medical school is now taking applications for courses starting next summer.
The new campus likely won't be built by then. But hey it's a shiny new medical school.
What do you think?
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/202...

Applications open, permanent location secured for new SFU medical school

The Simon Fraser University (SFU) school of medicine is accepting applications for its first class of future doctors, marking the launch of the first new medical school in Western Canada in nearly 60 years.

news.gov.bc.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 4d

Say it loud and say it proud: fuck the colonizers and fuck colonialism. Let's gather and eat and figure out how to de-colonize our extracitivst settler states.

Saki 🦄🪶✦Fae NTVtuber✦【NTVN】【V-Chunky】 @nightmaresakito.bsky.social · 5d

A beautiful native woman flipping the bird in response to Monday, Oct. 13th, Columbus Day. “Fuck Christopher Columbus.” Happy Indigenous People’s Day!

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 4d

It's seriously fucked that we let fossil fuel companies take freshwater, poison it with heavy metals and shit, and then pump it below the water table, allegedly taking it out of the water table for hundreds to thousands of years.
So not just stealing water for generations, but poisoning it as well.

Tzeporah Berman @tzeporah.bsky.social · 4d

In 2024 the oil and gas industry paid BC taxpayers $20,000 for fresh water. They used and poisoned 9 Billion litres of fresh water. Fracking companies should not be allowed to do this. If you want to call in the government to stop letting them you can here act.stand.earth/page/89100/a...

Fracking is draining B.C.’s freshwater: Act now before it’s too late

Despite B.C.’s Peace River Region facing an ongoing severe drought, last year oil & gas companies set a new record high for freshwater extraction, with an alarming 50% increase over the year before. J...

act.stand.earth

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 7d

AI art is just people who have never done art thinking a computer program makes them creative.
It doesn't. It really, really doesn't.
Art, like dance and music and food and sex and singing, is a human thing and will always be meaningful because of the humans involved in making it.

The Oatmeal @theoatmeal.bsky.social · 7d

Let’s talk about AI art.

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

Vaccines are rad as heck and a vaccine that protects me from cancer is even fucking cooler. You can check Health Link in BC to see what dose you were given, and talk to a doctor if you have questions about your vaccination status.

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

Hey fellow millennials in B.C. Did you ever get vaccinated for HPV? I did but got the Cervarix vaccine, which protects against the two cancer-causing HPV types. The standard vaccine is now Guardasil 9 which protects against nine types, so I'm paying out of pocket to update my vaccination status.

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

Trump making fake videos to post on his social media site claiming fake "med-beds" exist to cure everything while gutting public health and health care in the USA is just... Like, remember when it wasn't like this? It wasn't always like this.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How Truth Social’s bogus medical claims fool Trump fans

It's not just "medbeds."

www.motherjones.com

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

"Vancouver city council approved a net budget of $423 million for the VPD in 2025 — their second-largest spend, after utilities — but the force expects to go about $8 million over that figure. In 2024, the force similarly advised of a $6.5-million overage for the year."

Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

A single Vancouver police officer made $397,258 last year, making $239,258 in overtime on top of their base pay of up to $158,000.
This is the wildest FOI I've seen in a long time. Well done Liam Britten for digging this up. #CBC
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

47 VPD officers made over $100K in OT last year — and one banked $239K, FOI data shows | CBC News

A single Vancouver police sergeant was paid $239,258 in overtime alone last year, on top of the rank's base pay of up to $158,000. The figure comes from a freedom of information request filed with the...

www.cbc.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 8d

A single Vancouver police officer made $397,258 last year, making $239,258 in overtime on top of their base pay of up to $158,000.
This is the wildest FOI I've seen in a long time. Well done Liam Britten for digging this up. #CBC
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

47 VPD officers made over $100K in OT last year — and one banked $239K, FOI data shows | CBC News

A single Vancouver police sergeant was paid $239,258 in overtime alone last year, on top of the rank's base pay of up to $158,000. The figure comes from a freedom of information request filed with the...

www.cbc.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

An infant has died in Alberta from measles. Infants less than six months can't be vaccinated against measles because their immune systems are still developing and they don't get lasting immunity. Measles is spreading because people aren't getting vaccinated.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Alberta records first measles death since outbreak

Premature baby who contracted disease in utero has died, first death associated with provincial outbreak of nearly 2,000 cases

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Reposted by Michelle Gamage

Alan Drummond MD @dralandrummond.bsky.social · 12d

100 Mile House emergency department temporarily closing overnight - Kamloops News www.castanetkamloops.net/news/Kamloop...

100 Mile House emergency department temporarily closing overnight - Kamloops News

The 100 Mile Hospital emergency room will be closed overnight starting this afternoon.

www.castanetkamloops.net

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

Drug testing is coming back to Peace Point Overdose Prevention Site. Starting Friday, September 26, 2025, folks will be able to get their drugs tested every Friday (6 to 10 p.m.), Saturday and Sunday (11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) at 15521 Russnell Ave, Whiterock.
Tell your friends, check your drugs.

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

Also, helium won't transform into a solid even at absolute zero on Earth. We don't have enough pressure in our atmosphere. You'd need atmospheric pressure 25 times greater than Earth's to make it a solid.

Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

The fact that oxygen melts at -218°C and boils at -183°C is scritching my brain very nicely this morning. Here to share the joy.

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

The fact that oxygen melts at -218°C and boils at -183°C is scritching my brain very nicely this morning. Here to share the joy.

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 12d

I was in a hospital looking at brain scans and a doc told me not to photograph one scan because you could kind of make out the skull shape of the patient and they worried that could identify them. IDK I just found that so cute. Like who can identify a patient from their skull shape except their doc

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

"For the fifth consecutive year, the rate of unintended harm experienced by patients in Canadian hospitals has remained stable at 6%. The latest data shows that in 2024–2025, patients experienced at least one instance of harm in 1 out of every 17 hospitalizations."
www.cihi.ca/en/news/impr...

Improvement still needed as rate of hospital harm remains steady | CIHI

For the fifth consecutive year, the rate of unintended harm experienced by patients in Canadian hospitals has remained stable at 6%.

www.cihi.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

People who access their health records using MyChart might not be able to sue if their personal data is breached. Luckily, British Columbians are protected because of provincial legislation which overrides company policies like this
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

A medical records firm just changed its user agreement. Here’s how Canadian patients might be impacted

Patients who use the medical records software MyChart could lose their right to launch or join class actions because of changes made by its parent company.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

I'm sick of these god damn microplastics in my god damn bone marrow!
Also, horrible update: oil pulled from the ground is turned into plastic and that ends up in your bone marrow. UGH.
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

Microplastics detected in human bone marrow; study examines health impacts

Microplastics have been detected deep inside human bones and could be harming our health, according to a new study.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

Good news update: B.C. invests $6.7 million for the Community Action Initiative’s Community Counselling Fund to provide no- and low-cost counselling to people across the province.
Hell yeah. Hell yeah!
bc.cmha.ca/news/continu...

CMHA BC Welcomes Continued Funding for Community-Based Counselling - CMHA British Columbia

VICTORIA, BC – (September 26, 2025): The Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division (CMHA BC) warmly welcomes the recent announcement (Sept. 8) from the Ministry of Health of a one-time investmen...

bc.cmha.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

When youth get comprehensive sex ed they wait to have sex longer, have safer and healthier sex and face less sexual and physical violence in relationships. Which is why it's a problem that immigrant teenagers appear to be missing out on Canadian sex ed.
Me for @thetyee.ca
thetyee.ca/News/2025/09...

Canada’s Sex Ed Is Leaving Immigrant Teens Behind | The Tyee

Teens’ contraceptive use has dropped, with the largest decrease reported by newcomers, according to a new study.

thetyee.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 13d

It can be hard to identify crisis pregnancy centres online, which work to counsel people against getting abortions. Even Fraser Health seems to have gotten fooled (at least temporarily).
My latest for The Tyee
thetyee.ca/News/2025/10...

Fraser Health Distances Itself from Group Opposed to Abortion | The Tyee

The health authority had agreed to let the group lead a breastfeeding workshop in Abbotsford.

thetyee.ca

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Reposted by Michelle Gamage

Rhi Faux @rhifaux.bsky.social · 21d

With everything else going on, the Tylenol “announcement” may seem minor. But it’s not. The Trump admin’s lies about acetaminophen are part of the same agenda: controlling women’s bodies, demonizing them, and making them suffer needlessly. A policy of intentional cruelty and othering.

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Reposted by Michelle Gamage

The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 21d

Elenore Sturko, who stopped publicly supporting sexual orientation and gender identity learning after she defected from United BC last year, was kicked out of the Conservative Caucus yesterday.

Our June report from @kehyslop.bsky.social on how candidates weigh identities, values and ambitions:

When LGBTQ2S+ Politicians Join Socially Conservative Parties | The Tyee

Elenore Sturko’s aisle jump raises questions about how candidates weigh their identities, values and ambitions.

thetyee.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 21d

Incredible humanizing story on the harms caused by the Trump regime's claims that Tylenol taken during pregnancy causes autism.
1.) It doesn't.
2.) It opens the door for blaming parents for "causing" autism.
www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

‘I’m literally shaking:’ Canadian parent of children with autism reacts to Trump’s claims

When Christina Collura’s son, Luca, was 3 years old, she received confirmation that he was on the spectrum. The journey to helping him took a detour this week, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s ...

www.ctvnews.ca

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Michelle Gamage @michellegamage.bsky.social · 22d

The 2025 Greater Vancouver Homeless Count identified 5,232 people experiencing homelessness. When people shelter in public spaces (because they have no where else to go) they can be caught up in a street sweep. This increases their risk of violence and overdose.
thetyee.ca/News/2025/09...

‘Street Sweeps’ Increase Overdose and Violence Risks, Study Finds | The Tyee

City workers in Vancouver have been confiscating tents and personal belongings from unhoused people since 2008.

thetyee.ca

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