Depressed mallrats

A recent head count suggesting that over half the shoppers at the Angrignon Shopping Centre suffer from clinical depression might not actually be a damning incitement of the mall’s food court, movie theatre or even its excellent dollar store. That’s according to Douglas Hospital depression expert Dr. Camillo Zacchia anyway, who says that a recent consultation in the mall showed that “55 per cent of those screened would be considered to suffer from depression, but that was of those who asked to be screened. People feeling depressed would have been more likely to ask to be screened.”

The depressing results were based on a 10-question quiz designed by Harvard-based researchers that asks such questions as: “Have you been feeling a low in energy? Have you been blaming yourself for things? Have you had difficulty falling asleep?” Zacchia describes the questionnaire as a “rudimentary screening tool,” but considers medical health experts going to malls to probe one’s state of mind an effective way to spread awareness to the mental-care deprived.

“Roughly 50 per cent of people who need mental health services do not seek care,” he says. “You might be depressed because of personal circumstances or biochemical reasons, but there are effective treatments, both medical and psychological, that could alleviate the symptoms.” All the more important, he says, because 15 per cent of those who suffer from depression end up committing suicide.

Zacchia recommends those who suspect that they may be veering towards depression consult with physicians or CLSCs. : » Kristian Gravenor

Skating
to excellence

A Montreal skateboard manufacturing company received some really good news on Monday, and it didn’t involve empty swimming pools, newly paved surfaces or promising medical diagnoses. On Monday, the Business Development Bank, attached to Industry Canada, presented Woodchuck Inc. with the Young Entrepreneur Award of 2002, a testament to the company’s robust growth, financial soundness and all-around hard work.

“Winning the award is really good for PR, it’s really motivating. This is something our employees love to do, and they work hard every day. This really is a tribute to them,” says Woodchuck’s 29-year-old president Marc Pelland over the phone from Vancouver, where he and his partners, Max Dufour and Marc Mohammed, are collecting the award. “We don’t get any cash, though,” he adds, laughing.

But the company does get recognition, and with that, Pelland says, leverage for additional financing and more professional interest. They already have the respect: Pelland says Woodchuck will have manufactured, by year’s end, over 175,000 decks, and exports a good chunk of them to 24 countries. Woodchuck employs some 45 people, and Pelland says they’ll be hiring up to 40 more over the next few months. With their Premium brand decks already on the market, he says they will be launching their new board, Avera, next year. : » Patrick Lejtenyi

Algerian
sanctuary

Algerian refugees Mourad Bourouisa, Nadia Seddiki and their two-year-old son Ahmed never showed up for their deportation from Dorval airport, scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday, October 20. Instead, they sent 40 of their friends from the No One Is Illegal campaign to explain why. The activists spread through the airport terminal and distributed several thousand leaflets attacking the Canadian government’s hypocrisy in sending refugees back to a country it considers unsafe for travel by its own citizens.

Another flyer, showing a planeload of passengers, with one highlighted, gagged and chained to his seat, was directed to employees of Air Canada, KLM and other airlines that carry out deportations on behalf of Immigration Canada. Passengers and airport personnel were generally receptive to the information, with one anonymous donor passing a crisp American $100 bill to Bourouisa and Seddiki’s lawyer, William Sloan.

Bourouisa and Seddiki announced later that they’d been given sanctuary in the Union United Church in Little Burgundy. “Any removal of this family from this holy ground is an act of sacrilege,” says Reverend Darryl Gray, adding the Church supports the principle of granting sanctuary to refugee claimants. Both the local and national governing bodies of the church back his decision to offer indefinite asylum in this case.

Reverend Gray also notes that last January, Dorothy Dube took refuge in his church after exhausting her appeals to prevent deportation to Zimbabwe. “Within 48 hours, the moratorium on deportations to Zimbabwe was reinstated and Dorothy was allowed to stay in Canada,” Gray says. As of presstime, the Algerians remain at the church. : » Ken Hechtman

Angel >> Beer For so, so many reasons, but this time in particular for strengthening our bones, a British study reports. Beer is a good source of silicon, a mineral absorbed by wheat and barley from the soil, which stimulates the formation of collagen, a protein found in natural tissue that helps give bones their structure, strength and flexibility. A half-pint of beer contains six milligrams of silicon, or 20 per cent of the average daily intake. There is more silicon in beer than in any other food or drink. And good news for teetotallers: non-alcoholic beer contains similar amounts of silicon. Mineral water is also a good source. Bottoms up.
Insect >> Corporations breaking voluntary emission pledges A report by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation charges that Canada’s largest corporate greenhouse-gas emitters have failed to honour their voluntary pledges to reduce pollution that leads to global warming. They point the finger at TransCanada, SaskPower, Imperial Oil, Stelco, Husky Oil and Epcor Utilities as corporations that have participated in the voluntary pledge but have actually increased emissions. The worst offender was Alberta energy company Epcor, whose emissions, the report says, increased a stunning 141 per cent between 1990 and 2000.