Checking-In: The Triple Package, Cancer Research and How stress levels affect traders

It's Thursday and to help wade through your tweets, posts, and emails, Anna Maria was joined in studio by our Friday host Rick MacInnes Rae.

Cancer Research: On Monday we brought you the story of a controversial ad campaign in the United Kingdom to raise awareness of and money for pancreatic cancer. Critics say the ads pit one kind of cancer against another.

Listeners had a lot to say. Carol Wilkins of London Ontario wrote:

At approximately the same time as I was diagnosed with a metastatic form of another cancer, a friend and colleague was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was only then that I learned about pancreatic cancer, and I felt incredibly fortunate that my diagnosis was different. Five years later I live with the knowledge that my cancer may return: he died four years ago. We hear with our emotions. I am glad that pancreatic cancer will be better known after this.

We asked on twitter whether this was fair comment or offensive. Patrick Dennis tweeted back:

Fair comment and sadly, also offensive to someone with breast cancer.

Penny Seymour of Scarborough, Ontario wrote:

Why not be able to denote which cancer you wish your donation to go to? That way the funding would go towards the cancer the donor feels most appropriate.

Josee from Toronto wrote this:

I ask myself whether they are even looking for a cure for rare cancers like mine "atypical vascular angio sarcoma" since the profitability for drug companies would be almost nil. Hard to say ... is it a question of science or effort??

Stress & Work: John Coates is a former Wall Street trader but today he's a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a neuroscientist researching how stress levels affect traders working in London, England.

He's also the author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (Listen to our interview here about the book). John Coates was in London, England.

The Triple Package: Last week we interviewed Yale Professors Amy Chua and her husband Jed Rubenfeld on why they think certain cultural groups in America succeed more than others. In their book The Triple Package they argue success is linked to three traits: a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control.

After that interview, John Douglas Willis emailed us this comment:

Why is Amy Chua's new book on success in America so controversial? Race is a social construction, not a biological trait, so the notion that some members of society who are 'racialized' will be successful should hardly surprise us. It is only surprising if we imagine that race is a fixed quality in individuals, something that defines their fate - aren't we long past this rigid understanding of how the colour of skin plays into our life stories? Amy Chua's thesis is oversimplified, a sort of 'pop sociology' - but it is not anathema to a diverse and tolerant society.

Ofure Osifo from Montreal wrote:

As an immigrant, I had to work extra hard during my undergrad days just to prove myself. I was on the dean's list throughout my undergrad days, given an award as a faculty scholar, etc. Knowing that I am a minority, I understood that education is one way to move up the economic ladder in society, and mitigate discrimination. And yes I knew that working harder than the average white person was inevitable for me to prove that I can achieve success academically.

And we received this message on our voicemail from Gilly Adler-Noveau, a psychiatrist and researcher.

You just need to go to a country of origin, where everyone is of the same ethnic background to see that some do possess qualities that help them help their upward mobility and some don't. Socio-economic classes exist everywhere. So it may not be the culture but what propels the people from those cultures to come to north america that makes the difference.

Bill 52: Quebec's National Assembly is expected to vote on the controversial Bill 52 this week. If passed Quebec would become the first jurisdiction in Canada to make it legal for doctors to help people end their own lives. Last month we spoke to Veronique Hivon, Quebec's Minister for Social Services and Youth Protection, and the minister responsible for the bill.

Balfour Mount is known as the father of palliative care -- in fact he coined the term -- and he says he takes issue with the way Bill 52 uses the language of palliative care to talk about doctors intentionally ending patient's lives. Balfour Mount is a retired urological surgical oncologist who opened Canada's first palliative-care ward at McGill's Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal fourty years ago. Dr. Mount has also been on the receiving end of care as a survivor of testicular and esophageal cancer. Balfour Mount was in Montreal.

SLAPP: Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says a $6 million lawsuit he faces against a home developer is an illegitimate SLAPP suit. SLAPP stands for - Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Opponents of these law suits say they are designed to consume the defendant's cash and wear down their resolve while plaintiffs in these cases say they are legitimate. On Friday, we took a look at the legitimacy of these kinds of lawsuits. Here is what you had to say:

John Doucette of Manotick Ont wrote:

Towards the end, this program virtually veered over into outright comedy as an extremely affluent Toronto Lawyer who makes his living from instituting such lawsuits, actually claimed that Canadian law as it exists, is already "evenhanded". Well yes, of course, the "evenhandedness" actually extends to the Legal profession being the richest group of Canadians, and the vast majority of non-lawyer Canadians not being able to afford legal representation at all.

And Ian Kershaw tweeted:

If I had enough money I could waste a million to crush my enemy. We think we're so advanced, we're not.

And Rod Manchee from Ottawa had this to say.

In your item on SLAPP suits one effect I didn't hear a mention of was the effect on public revenues. If a Non-Profit public interest group has to defend itself against such a suit, all expenses have to come out of program funds, while the costs of the suing company reduce its taxable income and thus the taxes it owes ... The end result is that the citizen gets it both ways.

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This segment was produced by The Current's Josh Bloch.