Reflecting on our Forces’ new, hyper-casual uniform policy, one might see it as a naive attempt to conjure interest among radical millennial fringe lifestyles that never have, and likely never will, consider the Forces a career. Or, maybe letting some non-binary male military police sergeant or armoured soldier wear a female skirt with their newly long pink hair and prominent face tattoo (yes, all that is possible now) is an attempt to weed out more professionally conservative members of the Forces.

Hospital emergency departments in Canada have long struggled to provide expeditious care. But now, more than two years into the pandemic, many are showing signs of buckling, with lengthy wait times, and in some cases, closings.

Canadians are delusional captives to a broken health care system. We cling to the status quo with grim complacency, comforting ourselves with the notion that it could be worse. We could wait 18 hours in a hospital emergency room and then be charged for seeing the on-call resident. We could wait nine months to see a specialist and then have to fork over a substantial co-pay. We could languish in a hospital hallway for days, waiting for a room to become available, and then have to fight with insurance for coverage for an out-of-network hospital visit.

Behind the story of emergency room closures across the country are the workers impacted, like “Sue,” a 25-year veteran nurse in Ontario who openly weeps about her decision to leave front-line medical care.

The 52-year-old, who has been independently verified to have been a nurse by CTVNews.ca but asked to protect her identity, said she loved her job caring for patients, having worked as an operating room nurse, in surgical care wards, and in rehab and palliative care.

But since February, she has been off work on stress leave and is seeing a psychologist after suffering burnout.

Is there anything that isn’t falling apart in Canada?