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Report gets scathing review from Sto:lo leaders Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Some Sto:lo leaders are calling for the immediate dismissal of Bob Plecas, and Grand Chief Ed John, from their roles as advisors to the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development. In a letter sent to Premier Christy Clark last week, Grand Chief Doug Kelly, president of Sto:lo Tribal Council (STC) said the just released report on child welfare by Plecas, “demonstrates a calloused and ignorant opinion” about indigenous and aboriginal children in government care. The report should be shelved right away, he said. A resolution approved by STC members on Dec. 18, is calling for Plecas to resign, and well as for Grand Chief Edward John to step down from his MCFD advisor role, — but for different reasons. The issues they raise about Chief John have more to do with the irreconcilable contradiction between his role as MCFD advisor, as well as being a member of the B.C. Leadership Council and First Nations Summit Task Group. Ernie Crey, newly elected chief of Cheam First Nation, backed the STC resolution calling for the resignations, along with Seabird Chief Clem Seymour. Crey said First Nations leaders should be consulted directly about issues relating to aboriginal children in care, and how MCFD resources should be spent, rather than the province allowing all that work and responsibility to fall solely on the shoulder of Chief John. As co-author of the book, Stolen From Our Embrace: The Abduction of First Nations Children and the Restoration of Aboriginal Communities, Crey a former social worker, has a very strong interest in issues around kids in care. Continued: LEADERS/ p7
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Originally from Chilliwack, Dr. Ryan Alkins is part of a team at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto that has come up with a game-changing drug delivery method. SUNNYBROOK PHOTO
Sardis grad at the fore in brain breakthrough Sam Bates The Progress We all have a blood-brain barrier. It’s like a saran wrap around the small blood vessels in our brains. It protects the brain from infections, toxins and other threats, and it maintains homeostasis. “But sometimes it does too good of a job,” said Dr. Ryan Alkins, neurosurgeon. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) slows, and often prevents, the intake of life-saving drugs as well. Alkins graduated from Sardis Secondary in 1999, then continued on to obtain his medical edu-
cation at UBC. By July of 2015, he had completed his neurosurgery residency and PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. Alkins has been studying the BBB extensively for years, but his team’s recent discovery is now garnering national attention. “Only a select type of drugs can cross the brain blood barrier,” Alkins said. Thus, treatment options are drastically limited for patients with brain tumours or neurodegenerative disorders. However, Alkins and his colleagues at Sunnybrook Hospital are testing out a new method of
drug delivery to the brain, one that “disrupts” the BBB. This non-invasive method administers the treatment - chemotherapy, for instance - to the patient through an IV. The patient then lays down in an MRI unit, where doctors inject microscopic gas bubbles into the bloodstream through the IV. At the same time, doctors focus a high-intensity ultrasound on targeted areas of the brain. “It’s like focusing light with a magnifying glass,” Alkins said. The ultrasound causes the gas bubbles to rapidly expand and contract, and that oscillation cre-
ates tiny, temporary openings in the BBB, allowing the chemotherapy to leak through to the tumour or other destination. The method was first found successful with animals, and they now are conducting their initial clinical trials on humans. “We use an MRI dye contrast,” Alkins said. “So as [the treatment] leaks through the openings, we can see it on the MRI immediately afterwards.” That’s precisely how they knew that their method was successful with their first patient, Bonny Hall. Continued: BRAIN/ p6
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