Zoomer Week in Review

David Macdonald On Canada's highest-paid CEOs

Almost 15 million dollars. That’s how much 100 of Canada’s top CEOs were paid in 2022--an all time high. And it's more than double what the top executives were paid in 2008. Compare that to the typical Canadian worker who got an average three per cent raise to just over 60 thousand a year. By comparison, the top CEOs made that in 8 hours. So, at a time when the average Canadian is facing food inflation and housing affordability, why do Canada’s richest keep getting richer? We reached David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who released a report this week.

Professor Jim Davies On Best Strategies to Keep Our New Year Resolutions:

We’ve just said goodbye to 2023 and are a few days into 2024. Do you plan to make changes this year? Experts agree that New Year’s resolutions usually fail because they’re too big of a goal. So the best advice is start small. In fact, one study finds 9 in 10 Americans fail at resolutions. We reached Jim Davies, a cognitive science professor at Carleton University, for some do’s and don'ts when it comes to resolutions.

Erika Buckman: Unveiling a Beatles' Secret: Erika Buckman reveals a surprising and bittersweet connection: her late daughter, Caroline Buckman unknowingly played a part in this last melody from the legendary Fab Four. With this revelation, Buckman shares a unique perspective on the song's significance and her daughter's unintended legacy.

Dr. Allison Crawford: Addressing the Mental Health Crisis: Amidst the pandemic, while suicide rates remained stable, crisis lines experienced a surge in calls from individuals grappling with heightened stress. In response, Canada introduces a comprehensive, around-the-clock, three-digit suicide prevention hotline, 9-8-8. Dr. Allison Crawford, Chief Medical Officer at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, joins Bob Komsic to discuss this critical initiative and its potential impact on mental health support in the country.

Brain Canada researchers along with ones from the world renowned Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel are teaming up to better understand the brain and its disorders. One-and-a-half million dollars will support up to three team grants of half-a-million each over two-years.

Professor Rony Paz of the Weizmann Institute from Israel and Brain Canada’s President and CEO Dr. Viviane Poupon’s in Montreal joins Bob Komsic to discuss.

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How old is too old for one to be driving? The province is considering introducing an enhanced road test for those over 80. Currently, drivers have to renew their licence every two years after reaching that milestone. The renewal process involves attending a senior driver education session that involves a vision test and having to draw a clock which measures cognitive abilities. It does NOT examine motor function and co-ordination, concentration, hearing ability, spatial perception, and reaction time.

Ministry of transportation research in 2020 showed more than one-third of drivers older than 80 who passed the clock-drawing test could not pass a road test. The recommendation is for the introduction, by 2026, of an enhanced road test that could combine driving manoeuvres of a standard highway test with additional scoring to gauge cognitive abilities related to safe driving.

The Zoomers’ advocacy group CARP and its chief policy and operating officer Bill VanGorder thinks the province should reconsider.

Irwin Cotler is a former Canadian justice minister who served as Canada's special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism and is the focus of the cover story in the latest issue of "Zoomer Magazine". He's also under around-the-clock police protection because of a threat to his life.

His daughter, Michal Cotler-Wunsh was named Israel's new special envoy to combat antisemitism just before October 7th. She joins Bob Komsic to discuss the current state of rising international antisemitism and Canada's failure to address it.

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A study carried out by two U of T doctors has discovered that the gender of a surgeon can save health-care a lot of money. It involved over one-million adult patients who had about two dozen common elective and emergency surgeries between 2007 and 2019.

The co-authors found costs for patients, whose health data was checked at one-month, three-months, and one-year after surgery, were about 10% lower if they had a female surgeon. The study can be found in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Surgery.

Co-author Dr. Angela Jerath joined Bob Komsic to discuss their study.

There's no scenario where a former senior Israeli army officer sees Hamas freeing ALL remaining hostages. Moty Cristal served for several years in various official negotiation capacities in the prime minister's office and Israel's ministry of defense and for the past 22-years has been an expert negotiator in the private sector.

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The shriek of a boy or girl on Christmas morning when they open their presents overjoyed they got what they’d wanted. For that child in most of the rest of us that’s a present in itself and, for most of us, luckily not the only one. But what about those seniors who may not otherwise get gifts? Home Instead partners with nursing homes and other groups interested in bringing them presents and smiles with its "Be a Santa to a Senior Program" as Mark Maclean explains.

The lead up to the holidays has begun. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, when charities, companies and individuals rally for favourite causes.

The world’s largest generosity movement, Giving Tuesday, encourages donation of time, talents, and resources to address various challenges.

Charity Intelligence does the homework and is the go-to source for info so that donors can give intelligently. Greg Thomson is research director.

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Looking for something different in a dining experience? Check out Canada’s best new restaurant, Kappo Sato, in Toronto on Mt Pleasant Road. Takeshi Sato is chef owner of the Kappo-style Omakase restaurant. Its Marketing Director, Ken Masuda, explains why such restaurants are so rare in Canada.

Food Critic Amy Rosen was the one who determined Kappo Sato to be Canada’s best new restaurant. She dined anonymously at over 30 establishments nominated by food industry experts during her month-long journey and shares her experience.

Sharon Avery: Lonely in Toronto

Toronto could be one of the loneliest cities in Canada. A new report on the quality of life in this city paints a grim picture. Released this week, the Vital Signs Report by the Toronto Foundation finds residents more lonely, struggling more with mental health, and less civically engaged. We reached Foundation CEO Sharon Avery about the findings and how to remedy the problem.

Cathrin Bradbury: A Warning About Retirement

Is it time to think of a 60 year career rather than 40? One recent Toronto retiree thinks yes, as it’s been a less than dreamy passage to retirement than she planned. Author and journalist Cathrin Bradbury is among the largest generation in Canadian history to move into retirement. In a just published article, she spoke with dozens of experts on everything from finances to health and discovered retiring in your early to mid 60’s can be summed up in one increasingly terrifying word - longevity.

Israel is receiving help of all kinds from all corners of the world and from all types of organizations, such as American humanitarian group HaYovel, whose volunteers include cowboys.

The operations director is Joshua Waller and joined Bob Komsic from Israel.

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Following years of delay, the bronze sculpture of the late Queen Elizabeth II is finally on public display, joining a statue of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria elsewhere on the grounds of the legislature also known as "Queen’s Park."

The woman behind the work, artist Ruth Abernethy, joined Bob Komsic to discuss.

When medicine called, Brad Strauss answered. A cardiologist at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for years, he answered another call in early October when he, like the world, witnessed the terrorist attack against Israel and decided to head there to try to save lives. He joined Bob Komsic on the phone from Israel to share his experiences.

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For many, the only way to see your doctor or therapist was in-person. But, like so many things in the world, March 11th 2020 changed everything, likely forever in a lot of cases.

That’s why the Canadian Psychological Association decided it was necessary to come up with new tele-psychology guidelines. Psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Church chaired the working group and joined Bob Komsic to discuss.

Shortly after the news of what happened in Israel, on October 7th, reached the eyes of the world condemnation followed but at least two American academics couldn’t believe what they were hearing and not hearing from leading universities in the U.S. The two wrote an article titled "Why Was It So Hard for Elite Universities to Condemn Hamas Terrorism?" One of their opening lines pulls no punches, "What they said, and what they did not say, provides a window into the culture of intellectual and moral rot and cowardice that reigns at these once great institutions." Co-author Michael Poliakoff, adjunct professor of classical studies George Mason University in Virginia, joins Bob Komsic to discuss.

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Remember the "triple-demic" of last fall and winter? Seasonal flu, COVID-19, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). With a new highly effective RSV vaccine recently approved for those 60 and older, the National Institute on Ageing feels a lot more needs to be done as vaccination rates in this age group are underwhelmingly low. Arushan Arulnamby co-authored the Institute’s report on this and joins Bob Komsic to explain.