Moore v. British Columbia: A Good IDEA?

While the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moore v. British Columbia was concerned with the accommodation of disability in the public school system, the authors argue that the spectre of private school funding looms over the judgment. Given the political consensus supporting public schools in Canada, several substantive and remedial elements of the Moore decision should be viewed in a cautionary light. A standard of accommodation that is rooted in comparison to the services provided by better-resourced and less diverse private schools may not be attainable by or appropriate for public schools, and should the refore be eschewed as a standard of accommodation in analyzing equal access to public school education. at the remedial stage, the awarding of compensation to Jeffrey Moore’s parents for a decade’s worth of private school tuition risks transforming human rights tribunals into purveyors of private school vouchers, an American education policy rightfully rejected by Canadian legislatures. Human rights remedies should be concerned with improving the universally accessible public school system for the benefit of all students with disabilities instead of siphoning scarce resources towards a select few students able to attend private schools. The authors argue that the Supreme Court of Canada was right to reject the Human Rights Tribunal’s systemic remedies which would have, inter alia, shifted responsibility for individual special education programs from the local school boards to the Ministry of Education by mandating greater centralization at the Ministry level of the design, delivery and oversight of individual students’ special education programs. This role is best undertaken at the local level by teachers and specialized board personnel who are in the unique position to know a student’s individual needs and abilities, and the circumstances and resources of the particular board. Concern is raised that Human Rights Tribunals can impose such broad systemic remedies affecting major public policy issues like education funding and centralization subject only to review on the standard of reasonableness

Training and validation of a novel non-invasive imaging system for ruling out malignancy in canine subcutaneous and cutaneous masses using machine learning in 664 masses

ObjectiveTo train and validate the use of a novel artificial intelligence-based thermal imaging system as a screening tool to rule out malignancy in cutaneous and subcutaneous masses in dogs.AnimalsTraining study: 147 client-owned dogs with 233 masses. Validation Study: 299 client-owned dogs with 525 masses. Cytology was non-diagnostic in 94 masses, resulting in 431 masses from 248 dogs with diagnostic samples.ProceduresThe prospective studies were conducted between June 2020 and July 2022. During the scan, each mass and its adjacent healthy tissue was heated by a high-power Light-Emitting Diode. The tissue temperature was recorded by the device and consequently analyzed using a supervised machine learning algorithm to determine whether the mass required further investigation. The first study was performed to collect data to train the algorithm. The second study validated the algorithm, as the real-time device predictions were compared to the cytology and/or biopsy results.ResultsThe results for the validation study were that the device correctly classified 45 out of 53 malignant masses and 253 out of 378 benign masses (sensitivity = 85% and specificity = 67%). The negative predictive value of the system (i.e., percent of benign masses identified as benign) was 97%.Clinical relevanceThe results demonstrate that this novel system could be used as a decision-support tool at the point of care, enabling clinicians to differentiate between benign lesions and those requiring further diagnostics

Somatostatin and dopamine receptors as targets for medical treatment of Cushing's Syndrome

Somatostatin (SS) and dopamine (DA) receptors are widely expressed in neuroendocrine tumours that cause Cushing's Syndrome (CS). Increasing knowledge of specific subtype expression within these tumours and the ability to target these receptor subtypes with high-affinity compounds, has driven the search for new SS- or DA-based medical therapies for the various forms of CS. In Cushing's disease, corticotroph adenomas mainly express dopamine receptor subtype 2 (D2) and somatostatin receptor subtype 5 (sst5), whereas sst2is expressed at lower levels. Activation of these receptors can inhibit ACTH-release in primary cultured corticotroph adenomas and compounds that target either sst5(pasireotide, or SOM230) or D2(cabergoline) have shown significant efficacy in subsets of patients in recent clinical studies. Combination therapy, either by administration of both types of compounds separately or by treatment with novel somatostatin-dopamine chimeric molecules (e.g. BIM-23A760), appears to be a promising approach in this respect. In selected cases of Ectopic ACTH-producing Syndrome (EAS), the sst2-preferring compound octreotide is able to reduce cortisol levels effectively. A recent study showed that D2receptors are also significantly expressed in the majority of EAS and that cabergoline may decrease cortisol levels in subsets of these patients. In both normal adrenal tissue as well as in adrenal adenomas and carcinomas that cause CS, sst and DA receptor expression has been demonstrated. Although selected cases of adrenal CS may benefit from sst or DA-targeted treatment, its total contribution to the treatment of these patients is likely to be low as surgery is effective in most cases

Keeping the Scale of Justice Balanced – Québec Justices of the Peace and Judicial Independence

Protecting judicial independence is a constitutional imperative that requires striking a careful balance between safeguarding the role of judges and courts and permitting governments to carry out their constitutional responsibilities with respect to the administration of justice. On the one hand, public confidence in the administration of justice requires robust assurances that judges are sufficiently independent from the Executive and Legislature that they need not fear reprisals or expect rewards if they judge as the law requires without fear or favour. On the other hand, the elected branches of government are responsible to the people to ensure that judicial misconduct is dealt with appropriately, that justice is effectively administered, including through the “constitution, maintenance and organization” of courts, and that public finances are managed in a fair and responsible manner

Keeping the Scale of Justice Balanced – Québec Justices of the Peace and Judicial Independence

Protecting judicial independence is a constitutional imperative that requires striking a careful balance between safeguarding the role of judges and courts and permitting governments to carry out their constitutional responsibilities with respect to the administration of justice. On the one hand, public confidence in the administration of justice requires robust assurances that judges are sufficiently independent from the Executive and Legislature that they need not fear reprisals or expect rewards if they judge as the law requires without fear or favour. On the other hand, the elected branches of government are responsible to the people to ensure that judicial misconduct is dealt with appropriately, that justice is effectively administered, including through the “constitution, maintenance and organization” of courts, and that public finances are managed in a fair and responsible manner

Moore v. British Columbia: A Good IDEA?

While the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Moore v. British Columbia was concerned with the accommodation of disability in the public school system, the authors argue that the spectre of private school funding looms over the judgment. Given the political consensus supporting public schools in Canada, several substantive and remedial elements of the Moore decision should be viewed in a cautionary light. A standard of accommodation that is rooted in comparison to the services provided by better-resourced and less diverse private schools may not be attainable by or appropriate for public schools, and should the refore be eschewed as a standard of accommodation in analyzing equal access to public school education. at the remedial stage, the awarding of compensation to Jeffrey Moore’s parents for a decade’s worth of private school tuition risks transforming human rights tribunals into purveyors of private school vouchers, an American education policy rightfully rejected by Canadian legislatures. Human rights remedies should be concerned with improving the universally accessible public school system for the benefit of all students with disabilities instead of siphoning scarce resources towards a select few students able to attend private schools. The authors argue that the Supreme Court of Canada was right to reject the Human Rights Tribunal’s systemic remedies which would have, inter alia, shifted responsibility for individual special education programs from the local school boards to the Ministry of Education by mandating greater centralization at the Ministry level of the design, delivery and oversight of individual students’ special education programs. This role is best undertaken at the local level by teachers and specialized board personnel who are in the unique position to know a student’s individual needs and abilities, and the circumstances and resources of the particular board. Concern is raised that Human Rights Tribunals can impose such broad systemic remedies affecting major public policy issues like education funding and centralization subject only to review on the standard of reasonableness