Last night in the NHL, the Montréal Canadiens, aka the Habs, lost 3-2 in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers. Today, the usual suspects were doing the usual whinging, never taking into account--as per many sports enthusiasts--that each game is a discrete entity whose outcome is neither dependent on the previous game nor a reliable portent of the next game. That the Habs last in overtime, and not in regulation time, indicates that they put up one hell of a fight during regulation. Yes, the succession of losses whittles away at their chances of making the playoffs, but it does not necessarily mean the team is to be written off.
Overtime is material to one of the main topics of today's entries, the current big indaba in Québec over nurses working excessive, and dangerous, overtime and being assigned more patients than they can handle. Minutes ago, the embattled Provincial Health Minister, a radiologist named Dr. Gaetan Barette, announced that he will launch a pilot project to try and help the overtime indaba.
I have been feeling conflicted over this issue. For one thing, this issue was transformed into a big indaba a couple of weeks back after a tearful social media video by an "overworked" nurse. Said "overworked nurse" still had time to meticulously dye her hair in an unnatural colour and had a lip piercing, which raises the question "Exactly how overworked is she actually?"
(The woman in the above photographs is Geneviève de Galard, a REALFrenchwoman who was the ONLY nurse at Dien Bien Phu. Notice the natural hair colour (bright, gaudy, aircraft beacon-style pink would be distinguishable even in a black&white photo) and the absence of a lower lip piercing. Methinks it is not entirely unreasonable to conclude that, being the onlynurse to deal with several regiments' worth of wounded, Mme de Galard's work hours and patient ratio would be at least equal to, if not more than, that of the freaky-haired, lip-pierced Gaspesian nurse who made the social media sob-video.)
As well, this year is an election year in Québec. The whinging social media nurse is a Gaspesian. Both of the Québec alt right white nationalist parties, the CAQ and the PQ, have ridden the nurse issue hard.
That being said, nurses are not like other useless union members. They have responsibility for human lives. Just like pilots. The Federal Aviation Administration has extremely strict guidelines on the number of hours a pilot can work. Specifically, pilots a) can only be "on-duty" (from the time the pilot clocks in at the hangar until the plane of the last flight is parked) 9-14 hours, b) can only be in the air between 8-9 hours of these 9-14 hours and, most crucially, c) must have a ten hour rest period between successive on-duty periods. Common sense dictates that, if pilots are required to have ten hours off between shifts, nurses would also have to have ten hours off between shifts since their work also directly impacts the immediate well-being of human lives.
At first, I kept hearing various stories about double shifts, which would mean that nurses would be working hours that would violate FAA guidelines if they were pilots. So, I dug around. No print source had the exact number of hours comprised in double shifts. Then, I came across the 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement(what TSN 690's Eric Macramalla and Conor McKennarefer to as "the CBA) between the Fédération interprofesionnelle de la santé du Québec, the union which represents nurses, and the government. Here is an excerpt from that CBA that deals with overtime and intervals between shifts.
19.02 Minimum Interval
In the case of a change of shifts, there must always be a minimum of sixteen (16) hours between the end of one shift and the beginning of of another shift, failing which the employee is paid at the rate of time and one-half for the hours worked within this sixteen (16)-hour period. [emphases mine]
Now, contrast the above with the FAA guidelines for aircrew rest periods between on-duty time.
10-hour minimum rest period. The rule sets a 10-hour minimum rest period prior to the flight duty period, a two-hour increase over the previous rules. The new rule also mandates that a pilot must have an opportunity for eight hours of uninterrupted sleep within the 10-hour rest period.
The Québec nurses, in case you have not grasped it, agreed to violate their sixteen hour rest periods in exchange for more money. Pilots are NOTallowed to do this by the FAA. Pink haired pierced-lip may not like the hours, but I have not heard her whinge about the time and a half these extra hours bring her.
At this point, the Québec nurses lost my sympathy. Yes, it is as dangerous for them to work double shifts as it is for pilots to work double shifts. The difference is, the Québec nurses wanted it this wayas evinced by the fact that they signed on to the 2016 CBA. If Québec nurses are ever to have my sympathy again, they have to STRICTLYadhere to FAA guidelines to rest hours between shifts and forswear all the time and a half "collars for dollars" money they get for violating FAA guidelines.
Aviation also relates to the second topic of this entry, the new big indaba movie Black Panther. I am not going to go see The Black Panther for a number of reasons. First, the movie looks incredibly dumb, and none of the characters are real men along the lines of Austin Stoker's protagonist "California Highway Patrol Lieutenant Ethan Bishop" in the original 1976 Assault On Precinct 13. To this day, I loathe boneface meth-head runt Ethan Hawke for butchering Austin Stoker's character in the embarrassing abortion of a remake, so why would I go out to see EVEN MORE juveniles performing stunts that marry the laws of aerodynamics and probability in a manner that anyone who has sat through an entire footy/soccer, baseball, NFL football, basketball or hockey game KNOWSto be WILDLY IMPROBABLE?
Then, there was an articlein the current Smithsonian Air&Space Magazine which told of a REAL-LIFE Black/African superhero. The article is specifically about James Banning and Thomas Allen, the first Black/African airmen to fly cross-country all the way from LA to NYC in 1932. More importantly, the article talks about one of Mr. Banning's descendants, a gentleman named Christopher Hart. An excerpt.
And, now, I want to end with a couple of plugs.
I first heard of this group on TSN 690. They are called Hockey Helps The Homeless, and they raise money for homeless people by hosting hockey tournaments featuring National Hockey League players and ordinary civilians.
McLaren alumni Sergio "Checo" Perez is collecting money for the victims of the recent earthquakes in Mexico through his foundation.
Puerto Rico has been devastated by Hurricane Maria. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has set up The Empire State Relief And Recovery Effort For Puerto Rico.
On the subject of Puerto Rico, Los Angeles Chef José Andrés has set up an organisation, called World Central Kitchen, to help feed the hungry, not only in Puerto Rico, but in other bad-off places in the world. Please donate or help if you can.
I also want to plug the Patreons of a couple of superb folks. First, there is Jordan Owen, superb musician and content creator. Then, there is Sunny Megatron, Sex Educator and Podcaster. And there is also director extraordinaire and podcaster Holly Randall. They are, all three, highly entertaining to watch. They have the charm and magnetic charisma of The Kylie Ireland Show podcast of a decade ago, starring the legendary, one and only Kylie Ireland and Eli Cross.