[ CYPHER CODE #030 ]
When a first-world country gets third-world diseases, the experiment has failed.

[ CYPHER CODE #031
Pirates got scurvy because they had no fruit. Canada has no excuse.

[ CYPHER CODE #032 ]
You can’t eat virtue signaling.

BRIEFING

Grant here. We've all seen that Canada is not doing too hot lately. But then again, who is? After the COVID crazies, most countries are still picking up the pieces. But things in Canada are looking particularly grizzly. People there are actually getting scurvy. Yes, you read that right, scurvy. Let’s break it down.

The first thought that comes to mind is probably, “No way, how on earth are people in this century, in the Western world, getting scurvy?” Fair question - but it's true. Canadians are apparently bringing back diseases from the 18th century, apparently inspired by Blackbeard himself.

Now, to be clear, cases are not widespread at this point, but they are becoming common enough that doctors, health officials, and the government have started to pay attention.

This old-school pirate disease is taking hold mostly in Canada’s remote areas, where work is seasonal and grocery selection is slim. The mix of low income, poor transport, and harsh weather makes it difficult for people to get fresh produce.

Here is the catch: those same conditions have existed for decades, yet scurvy is only now starting to resurface. So what changed? The answer: food prices. Since 2020, the cost of groceries in Canada has jumped more than 20 percent.

In northern and Indigenous communities, everything is flown or trucked in. For example, a single head of lettuce can cost as much as ten dollars. When money is tight, people turn to shelf-stable foods: canned, boxed, frozen. Those keep you alive, but not nourished.

And that is how, in the land of maple syrup, Canadians are once again fighting off the same disease that used to take down pirates.

SOURCE

Doctors in La Ronge, Sask., have treated 27 cases of scurvy within the last six months, bringing to light the severe impact of food insecurity in the province’s north.

When the first case was found, Lac La Ronge Indian Band hired northern medical services’ Dr. Jefferey Irvine to chair an investigation into vitamin C deficiency among members and the wider community.

Irvine confirmed to Global News that of 50 vitamin C blood tests, 27 were confirmed to be deficient, pointing to scurvy, and 10 showed low levels. All patients were over 20 years old and 79 per cent were Indigenous.

Scurvy symptoms vary from fatigue and joint pain to hair changes, wounds not healing and loss of teeth.

When hearing about the uptick in cases, the Saskatoon Food Bank said it’s unfortunate we are still talking about scurvy in 2024.

But it is important to note that this problem is not limited just to remote areas. A recent case popped up in Toronto where a 65-year-old woman who lived mostly on canned soup, tuna, white bread, and processed cheese was diagnosed with scurvy.

SOURCE

Doctors in Canada described a similar experience this month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A 65-year-old woman came to a Toronto hospital with skin lesions, leg weakness, poor mobility and gum bleeding.

She told them she had difficulty preparing meals and getting groceries, and that she had little social and family support. Her diet mainly consisted of canned soup, tuna, white bread and processed cheese. Similarly, after she began taking vitamin C supplements, her symptoms began to improve.

In both cases, “doctors didn’t initially consider scurvy,” writes Lauren Ball, a community health researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia who was not involved with either case, for the Conversation. “This was based on the premise that there is abundant vitamin C in our modern food supply, so deficiency should not occur.”

DEBRIEFING

Not to beat a dead horse, or ahem, a pirate, but this outbreak of scurvy in Canada is not just a disease. It is a symptom. When a modern, developed nation starts seeing eighteenth-century illnesses return at this scale, it means something fundamental has gone wrong.

Canada used to be what progressives held up as the “perfect” picture of order and moderation. Now it's a case study in everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Between the housing crisis, sky-high food prices, rising crime, state-sponsored euthanasia, collapsing universities, and an immigration surge the country cannot sustain, Canada is circling the drain faster than a bad plate of poutine. Cities like Toronto and Vancouver are unlivable for working people, rural areas are slipping into poverty, and government “solutions” keep making things worse.

This new wave of scurvy is not about a lack of oranges. It is about a lack of leadership that genuinely cares about the welfare of its citizens. People are not just broke; they are malnourished. They are taxed into exhaustion and priced out of basic survival. When a head of lettuce costs ten dollars and a studio apartment costs three thousand, even the strongest economy starts to look like a ship taking on water.

So yes, Canada has scurvy now. But the real sickness runs deeper. A country once praised by the Left for its living standards, has now been reduced to headlines that sound like satire.

NOW YOU KNOW

The maple leaf clearly needs some attention and perhaps a glass of orange juice.