Satire

It's Thursday, March 8th.

O.J. Simpson says he might be the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby.

Currently, I guess that glove didn't fit either.

This is The Current.

Mental Health Legislation - Advocate

Three years ago, Corporal Jim Galloway was shot dead after a lengthy stand-off outside an Edmonton home. The man who shot him -- Martin Charles Ostopovich -- was then killed by police fire.

Mr. Ostopovich had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and wasn't taking his medication regularly. At the time, his family said it they thought both deaths could have been prevented if there had been some way of forcing him to get the treatment he needed.

In its throne speech yesterday, the Alberta Government promised to bring in legislative changes to do just that changes that would make it easier for authorities to force treatment on the mentally ill instead of waiting until the person is what's called an "immediate danger" to themselves or others.

We heard from Alberta Health and Wellness Minister Dave Hancock with what he had to say about why he thinks the legislation is necessary.

Alberta is not the first province to move in this direction and it's not the first province to find a heated debate on the subject when it has. Austin Mardon is an advocate on mental health issues and he is schizophrenic himself. And Giri Puligandla is the Executive Director of the Edmonton chapter of the Schizophrenia Society of Alberta. They were both in our Edmonton studio.

Mental Health Legislation - Critic

As we mentioned earlier, not everyone agrees that being able to force mentally ill people into treatment is a good idea. Anita Szigeti is a lawyer who specializes in mental health law and she has concerns about the proposed Alberta legislation and similar legislation in other provinces. Anita Szigeti is a partner with the firm Hiltz Szigeti and she was on the phone from Toronto. Her book is called Guide to Consent and Capacity Law in Ontario.