Final Report - Canadian Association Of Schools Of Nursing: Fill & Download for Free

The Titanic, 1912The wives of Apollo 8 astronauts when finally hearing their husbands voices in flight, December 1968.Arnold Schwarzenegger shows off to some elderly women in the 1970's.Ham the chimp returns to Earth following his historic 16 minute space flight in 1961.September 1933 - Adolf Hitler breaks ground on his ambitious plans to link all major German cities with highways.Princess Diana sitting on the fender of Charles's vintage Aston Martin, 1987.The Beatles reading and answering letters from fans, 1964.Drafted dads saying goodbye to their families. 1943.On April 6th 1896, the first Modern Olympics were opened in Athens, Greece.First Black Students.Elizabeth Eckford is one of the Little Rock Nine; a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937 brought an abrupt end to the age of the rigid airship. The hydrogen airships were highly flammable, so it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise.The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. The two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.The picture portrays Agim Shala, a two-year-old boy, who is passed through a fence made with barbed wire to his family. Concentration Camps split loved ones apart but thankfully some were reunited at a later date.9th Armored Division technician with a little French girl on Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb 1945Children dancing at the streets of New York, 1940The original vacuum cleaner was the size of a car - It had a long hose that was brought into the house.Empire State Building acrobats.Animals being used as part of medical therapy, 1956On this day in 1976, Apple was founded by Stephen Wozniak & Steve Jobs!Arnold Schwarzenegger & Sylvester StalloneQueenie, world's only water surfing Elephant, c1950.Empire State Window Washer Cameraman, 1936.This is The Statue of Liberty under construction in Paris in 1884.The baby cage, for hanging babies out of the window for families without a garden, 1937.Queen with Diego Maradona, 1981.Citizens in a bar celebrate the end of alcohol prohibition in the United States. Circa. December 5, 1933.Marilyn Monroe, 1946. Photograph by Earl Moran.Men never change... Vilnius, 1965Vintage McDonald’s Advertisement in the 1960sHigh School Fashion, 1969.The stages of construction of the Eiffel Tower.NYC Parking, 1930What an advertisement for a high end computer system looked like in the 1980's.Women boxing on a roof, circa 1930s.Readers browsing through the bomb-damaged library of Holland House, London, 1940Steven Spielberg examining a scale model on the set of “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark”, 1980Best friendMLK playing billiardsMaurice Tillet, a wrestler suffering from acromegaly. He died in 1954 & was the inspiration for the character Shrek.The Microsoft staff in 1978.John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's coffin along with the honor guard.22-year-old Jennifer Joseph, the Columbia girl. This was her first and last time ever modelling job (1992).Actress Phyliss Gordon out shopping with her pet cheetah, 1939.Queen Elizabeth's Wedding Cake, 1947.Shaolin Kung Fu MonksobamaAlfred Hitchcock directing the MGM Lion.Ford delivers its first car, July 23rd 1903.The first live televised football match; between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves. London, 1937.Release of Windows 95.The Man Who Didn't Salute HitlerIn WWII the Mona Lisa was packed up & moved 5 times to protect it from looting during the German occupation of France.Measuring bathing suits – too short would land the women a fine, 1920.Head of the Statue of Liberty on display at the World's Fair in Paris, 1878.This was the original Ronald clown of McDonald's, 1963.Lunch Atop a Skyscraper.A 5 megabyte IBM harddisk is loaded into an airplane. It weighed over a 1000kg! 1956.Alcohol, discovered by Prohibition agents, is poured out of the windows of a storage facility in Detroit. 1929 .How real men shave, 1940.A 19-year-old Bill Clinton shaking hands with President Kennedy in Washington, 1963.Women, use your voteairwomen are being trained for police duties in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). They have to be quick-witted, intelligent and observant woman of the world - They attend an intensive course at the highly sufficient RAF police school - where their training runs parallel with that of the men. Keeping a man "in his place" - A WAAF member demonstrates self-defense on January 15, 1942.feminismU.S. women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote, February 1913In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon five years before women were officially allowed to compete in it. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon.Red Cross Nurses Playing Soccer, 1939Red Cross NurseA strikingly beautiful WW2 illustrated nursing student recruiting poster from the 1940s.Of course I can!Be careful what you said!WWII Propaganda Poster by The National WWII MuseumWorld War 2 PosterPropaganda Poster - WWIIWWII military wedding featured on the cover of 'Woman And Home' magazine, July 1944.A lovely young bridge cutting the (wonderfully pretty) 1940s wedding cakeCanadian Women's Army Corps Unit arriving in Italy, c. 19441940s illustrated soda pop ad.Victorian Cross Dressing Couple.victorian eleganceMillie Betra, Ringling Bros, The Serpent QueenScores of flexible, lovely vintage trapeze artists.A spoon full of Coca-Cola helps the medicine go downvintage adWhitman's Chocolate , the way to a woman's heartWonderfully fun 1950s ad.ray ban7-up vintage ad, 1959 - teenagers on the telephoneHelen Keller with her pit bull, MaggieBobbi Gibb in 1966. She is the first woman to have run the entire Boston Marathon (1966), running without a number because women were not allowed into the race. She is recognized by the Boston Athletic Association as the pre-sanctioned era women’s winner in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Gibb’s run in 1966 challenged prevalent prejudices and misconceptions about women's athletic capabilities.A great woman…Women training to be doctors in Philadelphia, 1885Women Bowling, c. 1900Women with bicycles, 1890s."Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.” ~ Susan B. Anthony, 1896Gisella Perl,a successful Jewish gynaecologist in Romania in the 1930sand 40s.She was taken to Auschwitz in 1944,where she treated women with kindness and compassion.She was asked to report all pregnant women to Josef Mengele- better known as the Angel of Death.When she discovered what was done to them (medical experimentation and torture,ending with often being thrown alive into the crematoriums)she vowed that there would never again be a pregnant woman in Aschwitz.So she began the abortions.Women of the free french ambulance corps take time for knitting near Italian Front 1944.19441954 England - women on a day tripgotta love matching mother-daughter outfits, 1954Shanghai, 1930s, two sister wearing wonderful matching outfits.1950s cheerleader outfitsA long line of sunbathing 1950s beauties in stylish one piece swimsuits.C.1940sYoung woman, Norwegian, 1856-19001940's1950s1950s.1950sWomen bootleggers - ProhibitionVintage Black WomenWomen's Land ArmyThe Women's Land Army on parage in Bognor Regis on the 10th of June 1944Waitresses at Londy’s Café, Ipswich, c.19491940s.Artur Pastor, Fisherwoman, Nazaré, Portugal1850 "Classroom in the Emerson School for Girls"1968--school assembly- look at all those skirts. No jeans. Clean and combed hair. This was everyday look. This is how you dressed for school.Bobby socks and loafers, 1944. Photo caption reads: “Bobby Socks and Loafers are on the active feet of nearly every U.S. High School girl. Here is a line up of co-eds at Hollywood High in San Mateo, CaliforniaFirst day of integration at Clinton High School. Tennessee, 1956.19581912 - Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who became the first ballet dancer to tour the world with her own dance company. She moved to London in 1912 and is photographed here in her Hampstead garden wearing a soft belted gown, hat and her ballet shoes.A typical telephone-exchange switchboard, ca. 1943. "War calls come first."Bill and Hillary Clinton playing volleyball in 1975.Leo Tolstoy tells a story to his grandchildren in 1909.Ferdinand Porsche showcasing the Volkswagen Beetle to Adolf Hitler in 1935.The Japanese “War Tuba” used to locate enemy aircraft before the invention of radar. Circa 1930.Children for sale in Chicago, 1948. Some parents sold their children due to poverty.Marilyn Monroe meets Queen Elizabeth II, London, 1956Natalie PortmanElvis Presley

Q. I am a medical student in Uganda. How can I get to practice medicine in Canada? Is it wise to redo medical school in Canada as a foreign medical graduate?A. Getting into a residency program in Canada as a Canadian graduate is getting harder. If you are able to, redoing medical school in Canada is the better choice. You would more likely be able to match into a specialty of your choice.All the best!Medical residency mismatch: number of unmatched Canadian medical graduates reaches all-time highCanada’s medical residency system is leaving some graduates in limbo | University AffairsThe International Student’s Guide to Landing a Medical Residency in CanadaMedical residency mismatch: number of unmatched Canadian medical graduates reaches all-time highThe number of Canadian medical graduates unmatched with a residency training program has reached unprecedented levels, with students and faculty concerned about the growing gap between students and necessary training.Since 2009, the number of unmatched Canadian graduates has been steadily increasing, moving from 11 in 2009 to 68 this year.“This represents 68 students who have spent on average eight to 10 years of undergraduate education to become physicians, incurring great debt, and utilizing taxpayer dollars to facilitate their education,” says Mel Lewis, a student affairs associate dean at the University of Alberta.“There’s a lot of anxiety,” says Franco Rizzuti, president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students. “Students are starting to grasp at straws, trying to understand what’s going on.”A total of 64 training positions also went unmatched, including four in Alberta, two in Ontario and 58 in Quebec.To be able to practice medicine, all medical students need to complete a residency program in an area of specific clinical medicine, such as family medicine, surgery or psychiatry. Students compete with each other for a residency program through an application and matching process administered by the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). This follows a very similar process to the one used in the United States.From a broader societal perspective, those who track health human resources nationally say there’s no reason to panic: 68 unmatched participants is a small fraction of the nearly 3,000 Canadian medical students who took part in this year’s match, and the 64 positions that remained unmatched typically end up filled.On an individual level, although being unmatched is stressful and a loss of a year, historically, virtually all unmatched students find success in subsequent years.Matching for a physician’s futureIn many ways, the Canadian medical residency match isn’t all that different from online dating: following a written application and interviews, students and training programs rank one another and an online algorithm is used to identify potential matches. In essence, both parties need to “swipe right” to make a match.However some training programs have fewer positions than applicants and other programs don’t have sufficient applicants of interest for their positions.There are two iterations of the match; the first is reserved for newly-graduated Canadian medical students. Students unmatched in the first round, as well as international medical graduates (including Canadian citizens studying in medical schools abroad) and Canadian medical graduates who went unmatched in previous years, join the second iteration.A student may choose to apply to only one program – training in cardiology at McGill or paediatrics at the University of British Columbia, for example – or rank multiple programs in multiple locations.Rizzuti says students apply to an average of 18 programs – nearly double the number of program applications compared to a decade ago. CaRMS data show there were 128,334 applications to 644 programs, up nearly five percent over last year.Historically, the match has had more wiggle room in the first round and a greater likelihood that Canadian medical graduates would match with their top-ranked training program.In 2009, the ratio of Canadian medical graduates versus residency positions was 1:1.12.“There was a little bit of a buffer in the system, a few more spots than there were Canadians applying. That gave some flexibility and allowed international medical graduates to come into the system,” says Genevieve Moineau, president & CEO of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada.In 2017, the ratio shrank to 1:1.026. “Now instead of having a 10 percent buffer, you’ve got a 2.6 percent buffer. It’s really, really, really tight,” Moineau says.Mismatch in student interests versus training needsThe number and types of training positions available are usually decided by governments and medical schools, based on planning for population needs and medical school capacity. The exact process varies by jurisdiction, with population needs beginning to drive the process in some provinces.The overall number of residency positions available across Canada has remained largely unchanged since 2013, when it rose above 2,900. (Last year, the quota was 2,970. This year it was 2,967.)But the number of graduates participating in the match has outpaced growth in the quota. In 2013, there were 2,633 Canadian medical graduates participating. This year, that number rose to 2,810, a slight dip from 2016, when 2,836 medical graduates were looking for a match.“There has been a decline in residency spots, most notably in Ontario, with no commensurate decrease in medical student enrolment, squeezing the supply and demand quotient even further,” Lewis says.Exacerbating this tightened ratio is a long-standing mismatch between the personal career interests of medical students and where governments have funded training positions based on their view of future physician need.Some say it is an unreasonable expectation that every medical graduate should have the residency of their choice.“It’s, in part, the mindset,” says Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, who holds the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health Human Resources and is lead coordinator of the pan-Canadian Health Human Resources Network. “We should go where the need is. That should be inculcated in medical schools.”This year, graduates ranked dermatology, plastic surgery and emergency medicine highest, with demand for training in those disciplines far outstripping the supply of training spots.By contrast, after the first and second rounds of the match, opportunities in family medicine, psychiatry and laboratory sciences (which includes different types of pathology) were left unfilled.This year’s match also saw a slight reduction in the number of students prioritizing family medicine and more students ranking internal medicine, creating a wrinkle for students who could not have anticipated this shift and failed to give themselves options in their rankings.Applications from international medical graduates (IMGs) may also be a factor, putting more pressure on Canadian students looking to match in the second iteration. The number of IMGs participating in the match peaked at more than 3,100 in 2014, when the Objective Structured Clinical Examination became a mandatory requirement for all IMG applications outside of Saskatchewan. This year more than 2,400 IMGs participated.But Bourgeault argues that IMGs are not the problem, citing forthcoming research. “We under-utilize immigrants,” she says, noting that many of the IMGs who find success in the match process are willing to go where others won’t.Migration out of QuebecMigration within the country is also playing a role, with students in Quebec opting for residencies in other parts of the country. While bilingual students can rank positions in Anglophone Canada, English-speaking students can’t hope to place with a training position that requires French.This year’s match shows that while Quebec had 58 unfilled positions, it had only eight unmatched graduates, compared to 35 unmatched graduates from Ontario, 20 from Alberta and five from Atlantic Canada.“If students in Quebec are now taking positions outside of Quebec, and students who are hoping to match are not able to, there’s a disparity there,” Moineau says. “The tighter the ratio, the more variables of the playing field, the more challenging it becomes to match.”“Understanding why Quebec graduates don’t want these positions is key,” Bourgeault says.To deal with its perceived physician shortage, Quebec has introduced health care reforms, including actions focusing on physician workload, as well as regional medical resource plans that restrict where and how a physician can practice.A 2014 survey among Quebec medical residents found that 47 percent of those leaving medical residency for professional practice did not have a position two months before finishing their training. Among these residents without a position, 27 percent said they intended to leave Quebec. More than three-quarters of respondents said they believed there were not enough job opportunities for the number of trainees.Planning for the futureUnmatched Canadian graduates have two choices: they can opt to graduate and spend their time as they choose (perhaps doing a master’s program or research) until the match re-opens the following year, or they can defer graduation and instead take more electives as a medical student.Neither is ideal, Rizzuti says. “The former automatically puts you into debt repayment as you’re no longer a student. The latter, where they stay another year, means students are paying another full year of tuition. For Ontario, that’s $25,000 to $30,000.”“Solutions are complex,” Lewis says. “We need to have a better understanding of the types and number of physicians we need in Canada to help inform our students around their career planning and inform educators around curriculum planning. We need to ensure their are adequate residency spots available to our students with consideration of how many undergraduate medical students we should be graduating.”Moineau co-chairs a national physician resource planning committee that’s currently developing a tool to help forecast future physician needs, which will help make the case for changing student admissions or residency quotas to better align.“We feel strongly that we need to move to being in a society where we have the right number, mix and distribution to meet societal needs,” Moineau says.“This is where everybody needs to advocate to government that we need to have appropriate, long-term health human resource plans in place,” Rizzuti says. “There needs to be a broader conversation to be sure there’s proper alignment in all the steps in training.”Such a call is not new, dating back to at least the mid-1990s, with significant efforts undertaken to do such planning by governments, medical schools and medical associations.Students may also need more career counselling in the lead up to the match, Moineau says, as disciplines like surgery or laboratory sciences have become segmented, forcing students to choose a sub-specialty, like neurosurgery versus cardiac surgery, which may prove strategically disadvantageous.Health human resource planners may also need to take a closer look at how provincial funding and politics are influencing graduates’ choices about where to go for residency training.Training may also need to be revamped to ensure students get exposure to different disciplines, Rizzuti says, as many graduates are still turning away from rural and remote residencies, which could speak to their experience learning in mostly urban medical schools. The interest in family medicine as a first choice has also fluctuated markedly in the last 10 to 20 years.Opening more training spots for physicians is not the answer, Bourgeault says. In the health system as a whole, there are already a number of health care professionals whose skills are under-utilized, including nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physiotherapists and others.Instead, medical schools should be thinking about how to attract and prepare the students they need for the positions they’ve got, and continue to adjust the number and mix of residency spots to better meet societal need.“We need to do that better,” she says. “We have a distribution issue, we don’t necessarily have a numbers issues.”Canada’s medical residency system is leaving some graduates in limbo | University AffairsRobert Chu was a typical medical student in that he excelled at everything he did. He edited his high school newspaper and made it on the dean’s list in his undergraduate years. He volunteered to take notes for disabled students. After he got into medical school, he tutored hopefuls on the entry exam. “If somebody didn’t understand a concept, he was very good at explaining it to them in a manner that they could comprehend,” says his mother, Clara Chu. He was a skilled photographer and he loved to cook. Beef Wellington, macarons, homemade marshmallows. “Never anything simple,” his aunt, Cathy DeFazio, says with a laugh.In his final year of medical school, it surprised everyone that he didn’t get a residency training spot, the important last stage of training to become a physician. He gained more job shadowing experience and reapplied the next year to a less competitive specialty. When he was again refused a spot, Rob Whyte, assistant dean of undergraduate medical education at McMaster University, took the rare step of personally writing him a strongly worded recommendation letter. “Unlike some other students where we are able to readily identify a concern in their file, Robert presents no such evidence and we remain collectively frustrated at his situation,” he wrote.Robert, understandably, was the most frustrated of all, but he confronted the situation with the same resolve that had always worked for him. “He didn’t go halfway. It was all the way,” says Ms. DeFazio. He accessed and reviewed his reference letters – all glowing. He created flow charts of actions to take and people to contact. He wrote an impassioned letter explaining his plight and sent it to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then-Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins and others. There were a few sympathetic replies, but in the end, there was little anyone could do for him. He died by suicide in September 2016.Suicide can have many factors and eludes simple explanations. No one can presume what led Robert to his death, but the stress and frustration he felt must have been enormous. What’s more, the situation he experienced and was trying desperately to expose is happening to others: a growing number of medical school graduates are not getting a residency training position required to practice medicine in Canada. In other words, more and more students are completing four or five years of intensive, not to mention costly, medical school training – only to find they can’t proceed to the next stage.The residency application process is complicated, but to describe it simply, medical students apply – via the Canadian Resident Matching Service, or CaRMS – for residency positions at universities across the country in one or more specialties of their choice. The program committees select those they wish to interview, and then they rank the candidates. The medical school graduates in turn rank the programs, and an algorithm spits out a “match.” For those who don’t get matched, they can apply again over the next week for the remaining programs, often family medicine programs in small communities.In 2017, 68 final-year medical students went unmatched after the second round. Another 31 went unmatched in the first iteration but chose not to apply to the remaining programs, which likely didn’t include their specialties of choice. These numbers don’t include all the prior-year graduates who had failed to match in previous years and were trying again. By comparison, in 2005, only seven students who competed in the second round remained unmatched. If the trend continues, there will be an estimated 140 graduating students who go unmatched in 2021, and 330 if you include those who are re-applying for a second time, according to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC).In simple terms, more medical school graduates aren’t getting residency positions because the number of positions available has been decreasing in relation to the number of graduating medical students. “The most common reason a student doesn’t get matched is just musical chairs,” explains Anthony Sanfilippo, associate dean of undergraduate medical education in the faculty of health sciences at Queen’s University. A decade ago, there were about 114 residency positions for every 100 Canadian medical students, with internationally trained graduates filling the remaining positions. Today, there are 103 positions for every 100 Canadian medical school graduates.That may seem ideal, but many Quebec-based residency positions are available only to those who can speak French, and in 2017 more than 50 of these francophone positions remained unfilled. So there are actually fewer English-language positions than there are graduates, explains Kaylynn Purdy, vice-president of education for the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS). “It comes down to the fact that no matter how good you are, someone has to go unmatched,” she says.In this game of musical chairs, the stakes are high. For many, going unmatched is world-shattering. As Robert wrote in a letter sent to journalists and others, “My diligent studies of medical texts, careful practice of interview and examination skills with patients, and my student debt in excess of $100,000 on this pursuit have all been for naught.” For unmatched graduates, there’s the confusion about why they weren’t selected and the sudden uncertainty of the future. Students can apply when residency positions open up again the following year, but in the meantime, “you have resigned your fate to a year of being in limbo,” explains Aaron, a graduate who went unmatched in 2017 and asked to use a pseudonym. Feelings of social alienation often exacerbate the distress. “You go from being with this cohort of people for years and being quite close to them and they’re all celebrating and moving on with their lives and you’re not,” explains Ms. Purdy. “I’ve heard from some unmatched students that their classmates stopped talking to them because they didn’t want to make the person feel bad by talking about their residency, or the fact that they’re buying a house.” Clara Chu describes the phenomenon concisely: “Facebook,” she says, angrily.The crisis is worrying everyone – medical student organizations, the residency program directors and the undergraduate program administrators. “The deans have clearly identified the unmatched Canadian medical graduate as a top priority,” says Geneviève Moineau, president and CEO of AFMC. Ravi Sidhu, the postgraduate dean at the University of British Columbia’s medical school, says “the unmatched medical student numbers are incredibly disconcerting. I can imagine how stressful it is.”Who is going unmatched – and why – is difficult to grasp. Certainly, choosing a more competitive specialty can increase one’s risk of not getting a residency. In Robert’s first year of applying, he was one of 96 candidates vying for 81 radiology residencies. If family medicine had been his first choice, he would have almost certainly been matched – there were 200 more family medicine residencies than there were candidates who made the specialty their top choice. In 2017, obstetrics-gynecology was an especially competitive specialty, with 113 Canadian medical graduates vying for 77 residency spots. Paul Foster was one of the 36 ob-gyn hopefuls who didn’t match. His first reaction was self-doubt. “Maybe I screwed something up,” he thought, but then he heard of friends who suffered the same fate. “They’re superb candidates. It wasn’t the people with red flags,” he says.Some argue it’s students’ own fault for choosing very competitive specialties and not wanting to go where they’re needed – especially family medicine. But it’s difficult to know from one year to the next whether a specialty will be in demand. Provincial governments set the number of specialty training spots each year, based on changing population needs. And students’ preferences can swing considerably from year to year. Many years, for example, neurology has had a one-to-one ratio of applicants to spots; last year, there were positions for only 70 percent of applicants.Most of those who go unmatched are usually willing to do family medicine – more than two-thirds of graduates unmatched in the first round apply again in the second round to the remaining positions in family medicine and in small communities. But, here’s the clincher: the second round is also open to Canadians who have trained abroad. Last year, 1,811 internationally trained Canadians applied and 411 got positions. The directors of these programs often prefer a foreign-trained doctor whose first choice is family medicine, as opposed to a Canada-trained doctor who is choosing family medicine as a Plan B. As Dr. Moineau says, “family medicine can no longer be seen as a fallback.”Perhaps the most egregious aspect of the matching process is that those who go unmatched are discriminated against upon reapplying. In the one application review Robert Chu was able to obtain, his failure to match the year before was mentioned in the red-flag category. A decade ago, when only a handful of students didn’t get matched, there were often clear reasons, like a professionalism issue mentioned on their medical school record, for example. Today, even though many of those going unmatched are stellar students, the stereotype remains. While almost 97 percent of final-year students are matched, only 65 percent of prior-year grads get matched, despite the fact that most have improved their resumés with an extra year of job shadowing and research. With each additional application year, the chances of matching are lower.Illustration by Ka Young Lee.So what should be done? This past February, the AFMC, which represents Canada’s 17 faculties of medicine, released a list of recommendations to address the crisis of unmatched medical students. One of the most consequential suggestions is that international medical graduates no longer be allowed to apply for the positions that went unfilled in the first round, so that only graduates from Canadian medical schools can compete for these positions. (If this rule was in place last year, around 70 additional positions would have been earmarked for medical school graduates from Canada).It will be up to provincial governments to decide whether or not to adopt this recommendation. But provincial ministries of health are also getting pressure from internationally trained doctors and their families. They’re Canadians, too, and they’re lobbying for more opportunity to do postgraduate training here.Increasing the number of residency training spots would be one way to improve the prospects for budding Canadian-trained doctors. The AFMC is recommending that provincial funders work together to increase the minimum national ratio of one residency position for every current-year Canadian medical graduate. But that would cost money.Residency programs at universities, meanwhile, have been instructed to improve fairness and transparency in the application process. In October, the AFMC board approved a document of best practices in resident selection. For instance, programs should “explicitly and publicly state the processes and metrics they use to filter and rank candidates.” As well, a medical graduate’s previous unmatched status shouldn’t factor into a decision. Enforcing these best practices is difficult, however, because applicants aren’t told why they weren’t selected. In Robert’s case, he wrote emails to directors, asking for feedback. “Not knowing what the problem is makes it very difficult to address,” he explained. All programs refused to provide any insight.Kristina Arion, who went unmatched after applying for competitive ob-gyn residencies, likewise emailed program directors across Canada and was told, “Sorry, we provide no feedback.” Eventually, she got a single program director to review her file. He explained to her that candidates need all three referral letters to be exceptional. Though her letters were highly praiseful, one was written by an obstetrician who she worked with for less than a month; a letter from someone who had known her longer would have meant more. It was advice she found extremely helpful for this year’s application round.Dr. Sidhu at UBC explains that schools don’t provide feedback because it would be unwieldy. A competitive program might have to choose 50 candidates to interview out of 400 applicants, he points out. But most of those who aren’t selected for one program will be matched with another, and therefore won’t need advice. The CFMS has proposed that unmatched applicants should get unique access to timely feedback from residency programs.Undergraduate programs have a big role to play, too. Currently, some schools let unmatched students maintain their student status, so that they can access electives or job-shadowing positions. But other schools don’t offer an additional year. Doing electives can give students a leg up for the next year’s applications, which is why the CFMS is calling on all schools to extend student status to unmatched students. But paying a whole year of tuition isn’t great either, especially considering unmatched students are paying for electives only, not coursework. As it is, residency hopefuls are often paying to fly all over the country, first for electives and, secondly, for in-person interviews.“Despite the stereotype of the medical student with the silver spoon in their mouth, when you’re racking up interest on your debts, you’re going to start to see people who have maxed out their credit and are trying to judge, ‘Can I afford to go to this interview?’” says Dr. Foster, who is currently paying another $25,000 so that he can do electives at Western University.All undergraduate deans have agreed to begin “creating the structures” to support unmatched students, says Dr. Moineau, “including everything from extensive student affairs programs for unmatched students to creating the option for a fifth year.” The schools have agreed to report back to the AFMC by October with the changes they’ve implemented.For the Chu family, the changes are too late. His family still doesn’t understand why he didn’t get matched. As Dr. Whyte wrote, all of his clinical placement supervisors rated him “consistently above average or exceptional.” He was “extremely well motivated,” said one letter. “His clinical examination skills were excellent,” read another. In yet another letter, Robert’s interpersonal skills towards patients and staff was described as “outstanding.”“It’s not much consolation to be continually told I’ve done nothing wrong,” Robert wrote. Without a residency, the medical degree he had worked so hard to obtain had become, he felt, “effectively annulled.”Postscript: Just before University Affairs went to press, Kristina Arion and Paul Foster both learned that they were successfully matched to a residency in the first round of 2018, held on March 1. Dr. Foster was matched to the northern remote stream at the University of Manitoba and Dr. Arion to the ob-gyn residency program at Dalhousie University. General numbers on the success of the 2018 matching process were scheduled to be released sometime in April.Additional update: The numbers are now in for 2018. According to figures released on April 17 by the Canadian Resident Matching Service, there were 69 medical graduates who did not get a residency position this year after the second iteration of the residency matching process. Another 54 went unmatched in the first iteration who chose not to apply to the remaining programs. This compares to 68 and 31, respectively, in 2017. The two numbers combined, that’s a 24-percent increase in the number of unmatched medical graduates this year compared to last. These numbers don’t include prior-year graduates who tried again in 2018 to secure a residency but again did not get matched. This year, according to CaRMS, 57 of 133 prior-year graduates did get matched, a success rate of 57 percent.The International Student’s Guide to Landing a Medical Residency in Canada 04.30.2018Challenges can be scary, but you also think the greatest rewards are achieved by overcoming obstacles. You push yourself and it often leads to success.That doesn’t mean everything is always easy. You’ve encountered some challenges while applying to medical schools despite having a good academic record. You have started looking into international schools, but you may have heard that it could be difficult to secure a medical residency in Canada if you become an international medical graduate (IMG).As always, you’re up for the challenge. Just make sure you follow all of the necessary steps and prepare as fully as you can. Use this step-by-step guide to give yourself the best chance of securing a medical residency in Canada.THE PATH TO MEDICAL RESIDENCY IN CANADA1. MAKE SURE YOU MEET THE BASIC ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTSYou’ll need to meet a handful of eligibility requirements no matter which residency program you hope to attend. The basics include having Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status, successfully completing exam requirements, and demonstrating language proficiency. You’ll meet the language requirements if you attended a medical school where the language used for instruction was English or French. If you attended a program that was taught in another language, you’ll need to complete an assessment.Students who plan to begin residency in 2019 are the last class who need to complete the National Assessment Collaboration Examination (NAC) and the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination (MCCEE) to meet basic eligibility requirements. November 2018 is the last MCCEE session.Going forward, IMGs will not be responsible for the above preliminary tests. Instead, you’ll need to proceed directly to completing the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part 1 before applying to residency programs. This mean future IMGs will enjoy a more streamlined process.Dr. Ivan Kamikovski, a St. George’s University grad and Orthopaedic Surgery Resident at the University of Ottawa, says strong exam scores have traditionally been very important for those who want to pursue family medicine.2. ADDRESS PROVINCE SPECIFICSYou really need to pay attention to the details when you start deciding where you want to attend residency, because different provinces have their own eligibility criteria. You may have to take additional steps to verify your medical degree, complete additional examinations, or enter into a service agreement that commits you to practicing in a particular area for a specific amount of time.Meeting certain provincial eligibility requirements can be extremely challenging, so you should take that into account when deciding where to apply. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario are typically the friendliest toward IMGs, according to Dr. Alexander Hart, a Resident Physician in emergency medicine at the University of Toronto and IMG consultant for MD Consultants. “Within those provinces, there are a lot of universities,” he says.3. MAKE YOURSELF STAND OUTVery few people would argue IMGs have it easy when attempting to match for a medical residency in Canada, so anything you can do to boost your visibility would be wise. If possible, take advantage of opportunities near where you would like to practice. “I came to Canada for a period of time to do electives and got letters of reference from here,” Dr. Hart says.Dr. Kamikovski similarly pursued an elective in Canada, and he also made good use of his breaks during school. “When I came back to Canada, I would observe some of the orthopaedic surgeons,” he says, “Just to kind of get my name in there.”Building relationships with doctors and residents could be the key to securing a spot in a program later on. “In Canada, they’re more likely to take a person they know than a person who’s just on a list, a piece of paper,” Dr. Kamikovski says.Just remember that pursing an elective in Canada, while helpful, is not a requirement. There’s no guarantee of obtaining one of these positions since they’re offered through a lottery process.4. THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT YOUR SPECIALTY SELECTIONMedical students who complete their training in the US are required to obtain a Statement of Need, a form letter required for graduates who want to return to practice in Canada. Those who secure a residency in Canada can bypass this step in the process. But the List of Needed Specialties is still useful for seeing which fields offer a greater number of spots — typically primary care specialties. That said, some lucky IMGs have managed to secure competitive specialties.Dr. Kamikovski decided to go the specialty route. He says there are fewer job opportunities in orthopaedic surgery, so he felt many applicants were choosing family medicine and other primary care positions. Just know instructors and other IMGs think this is a risky move.It’s also important to note that, at least for most provinces, residency programs evaluate you separately from Canadian medical graduates."You’re typically competing only against other IMGs. But the spots are more restricted."“You’re typically competing only against other IMGs,” Dr. Hart says. “But the spots are more restricted.” If you attended a quality international program, performed well on your exam, and obtained strong letters of recommendation, you stand a better chance.5. APPLY TO PROGRAMS AND ATTEND INTERVIEWSYou’ll apply for residency positions using the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS). “It’s one central application system and that sends out your application to multiple schools,” Dr. Kamikovski explains."It’s one central application system and that sends out your application to multiple schools."Though you can start selecting programs before you’ve gathered all of your materials, it’s important to note that everything must be completed by a specific date in November to be considered on time. The CaRMS has a timeline you may find useful for staying on track.After programs have a chance to evaluate applications, they’ll begin to host interviews during January and February. As with medical school interviews, preparation is key. Take advantage of any mock interviews your medical school offers and make sure you do your research on individual programs.6. RANK PROGRAMS, THEN WAIT FOR YOUR RESULTSThe CaRMS uses the same algorithm the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) relies on to match applicants to programs. You can’t outsmart the system, so you will want to create a rank order list based on your true preferences. Your interviews should have provided you with most of the information you need to rank your selections.If you start second-guessing your choices, you may want to consult with a trusted mentor. It’s also smart to remind yourself of what it is you’re looking for in a program. For example, Dr. Hart says the University of Toronto is a good option for those who are interested in a niche area of medicine. “That’s the kind of thing that Toronto, above all else, really provides,” he explains. Even still, you don’t want to become too aspirational."That’s the kind of thing that Toronto, above all else, really provides."After you submit your rank order list, you may feel a bit anxious. It’s true that matching is difficult, but it’s not impossible. According to the Canadian Post-MD Education Registry (CAPER), hundreds of IMGs begin Canadian post-graduate medical training every year.TAKE THE NEXT STEPObtaining a medical residency in Canada requires some additional steps, hard work, and a certain amount of luck. But it’s not an impossible task. A residency in Canada could be in your future.Also keep in mind that it’s possible to practice medicine in Canada after completing residency training in the US. While there are a few extra steps, this is a feasible path for IMGs.If you have started looking into programs in the Caribbean as an option, you’ll want to make sure you do your research. But it can be a little tricky to know what you should believe. Make sure you’re distinguishing fact from fiction by reading our article, “The Truth About Caribbean Medical Schools: Debunking the Myths.”

The question asks is Ali the Greatest or is it just media hype.In the Ring, Ali is the Greatest heavyweight who ever lived, and one of the top pound for pound fighters who ever lived. He proved it by what Jack Blackburn said is the ultimate test in boxing: who he faced, and who he beat.Out of the Ring he has had more positive social impact that any other fighter ever, and his record of charity, kind acts, and heroism makes him the Greatest outside the ring. By visiting sick children, by rescuing hostages from Iraq, by going out on a ledge to rescue a suicidal man, Ali showed who he was.CREDIT PICTURE BBCAli in person was a humble, kind, person; most of the Greatest hype was to hype the gate in his fights.On the basis of the records, Ali faced everyone in the all time greatest era for heavyweights, beat all but one, and his record makes a strong case for him being, in reality, the Greatest ever in the ring.BBC boxing writer and historian Ben Dirs said of Ali compared to Wlad Klitschko and other fighters of this generation:“Muhammad Ali reigned in the most talent-rich era of heavyweight boxing, winning the title from the fearsome Sonny Liston in 1964, winning it again from the even more fearsome George Foreman 10 years later and beating greats such as Floyd Patterson, Joe Frazier and Ken Norton in between."As a human being, he was simply a fine human being who devoted most of his life to helping others, as Larry Holmes said in Against the Odds:“You really had to know Muhammad to understand him. He really wanted to change the world and make things better.”Muhammad Ali as a fighterMuhammad Ali was the fastest, most physically talented, heavyweight in history.Boxing Historian Monte Cox wrote that:“Muhammad Ali was the most naturally gifted heavyweight champion in history.”Muhammad Ali, The GreatestThe 1960’s pre-exile Ali was the fastest fighter who ever lived, bar none.Mike Tyson’s co-manager, Jimmy Jacobs, who owned the world’s largest collection of fight films, said that on film tests with a synchronizer Ali’s jab was faster than that of Sugar Ray Robinson, or any middleweight, welterweight, or lightweight, he could measure.Jacobs contended that Ali was not only the fastest heavyweight, but also the fastest fighter he ever saw, and was able to measure, on film. (that includes Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson!)Ali’s handspeed was second to noneAli's speed was also measured: In the May 5, 1969 issue of Sports Illustrated, Ali’s jab was measured with an omegascope. Ali’s jab, it was found, could smash a balsa board 16.5 inches away in 19/100 of a second. It actually covered the distance in 4/100 of a second, which is the blink of an eye. (and again, a lot faster than Floyd Patterson, or later, Mike Tyson)Certainly other fighters strongly stated they felt Ali was the fastest fighter they had ever seenMike Tyson says when asked if he was faster than Ali:“He [Ali] was faster than any heavyweight ever!"Floyd Patterson said of Ali and comparing him to other greats such as Joe Louis:“I was a lot faster than Joe Louis, and Ali was a lot faster than me!"Bob Foster: said:“Muhammad Ali. He was the man. He was big, fast; was he fast and slick in the ring! You wouldn't believe how fast!"Zora Folley, after facing Ali, said:“he is just too fast! you can't hit him! But he sure can hit you."Canadian heavyweight George Chuvalo said in Ring of Ali’s speed:“my plan for the fight was simple: as the shorter guy, I wanted to stay close to Ali, nullify his speed and prevent him from using the whole ring. I also wanted to make it rough. The rougher, the better. But it took all of about 30 seconds for me to realize he was the fastest fighter I’d ever seen. It’s one thing to expect it; it’s another thing to feel it, live it."Angelo Dundee, Ali's and Sugar Ray Leonard's trainer, said, after being asked which fighter was faster, the welterweight all time great, Leonard, or Ali, simply said:“Ali was the fastest fighter I ever saw in a ring."What about Cleveland Williams, what did he say about Ali's speed?:“His speed, you can't hit him, you just cannot hit him! I threw hooks, I threw uppercuts, I missed them all! Hell, I couldn't even land a jab!"Compubox claims Williams landed all of 10 punches in his fight with Ali - Thomas Hauser, boxing writer and historian believed that was too high, and rescored it, and found Williams actually landed 3 punches.Rocky Marciano? What did he think? Rocky Marciano, who filmed the "computer fight" with Ali in 1969 while Ali was banned from boxing, said of Ali:“he was the fastest man on wheels, no fighter who ever lived was that fast."What about other boxing figures? Marv Jenson, who managed Gene Fullmer, concurred saying:“Ali has the fastest hands on any heavyweight I have ever seen, hell, he has the fastest hands, period."Ali’s footwork was also simply amazing - he did things no other heavyweight couldDave Christian, in the Modern Martial Artist, describes Ali’s footwork, the circle and jab, as:“it allows you to cover a huge amount of distance with minimum effort, and each step is another chance to pivot, accelerate, or change direction.”Christian also said:“By traveling quickly in a wide arc, Ali made his opponent lose their balance and timing when they tried to follow him, and he took advantage of the openings this created in their guards…I’ve found that Ali’s footwork works really well for setting up deceptive kicks when sparring, believe it or not.”Monte Cox quoted author John Durant as saying Ali possessed:“lightning fast hands and a pair of legs that moved around the ring like a ballet dancer. He would float just out of range with his hands dangling at his side as if to taunt his opponent.”Famed Boxing Historian Don Cogswell wrote, (IBRO Journal # 81):“Muhammad Ali, in his first title reign, presented such a speed disparity between contestants as to appear supernatural."Mike Tyson, a student of boxing to this day, and a guy who has probably watched more boxing film than any other boxing historian, said of ranking the great heavyweights:Mike said when asked if he’d have beaten him, prime against prime:“Nobody beats Ali”.And Mike explains that those who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s and perceived Tyson as the winner just because he hit harder and had bigger muscles let themselves be fooled by Ali’s physical appearance:“Ali is a fuckin’ animal, he looks more like a model than a fighter, but what he is, he’s like a Tyrannosaurus Rex with a pretty face. And fast, Lord God he was fast!”But could you have beaten him on your best day, the reporter said? Mike emphasized, saying Ali was simply too fast, and too skilled, saying again:“NOBODY beats Ali.”Ali’s skills included pure speed, preternatural reflexes, an ability to ignore and endure pain, an incredible ring IQ and ability to adapt, and a will of tempered steel. That will helped him, when his speed was gone, remain a great boxer, and regain the title, 10 years after he first won it, from one of the most feared heavyweights of history.There were 17 top 100 all time heavyweights active during Ali’s reign - he faced every one.Ali faced those 17 top 100 heavyweights, and beat all but one, and when he was 39 and ill; he faced and beat 21 of 22 top 150 fighters, the best of any heavyweight, ever.Ali is unique in boxing history in that he faced every single great heavyweight of his time. Manny Steward paid tribute to Ali, saying:“I have a lot of respect for Ali because Ali was the only champion that I know of that fought anybody, everybody. It was nothing about styles. He fought guys who were terrible for him style wise, but Ali would just tell Angelo Dundee, “Let’s fight”—and he put him with a guy like Kenny Norton who was always going to be a problem because of the way Kenny kept his elbows, he blocked jabs and right hands and that’s all Ali basically had and then he fought him I think three times; Joe Frazier; he went to London to fight Brian London and Henry Cooper; and he went I think to Canada to fight (George) Chuvalo; he fought Karl Mildenberger to fight the German in Germany. He didn’t care whose style that he had to fight so in that way, Ali was the greatest because fought anybody, everybody, in their country, if it was a style that was bad for him he didn’t care, fight him in a rematch he’d do that, whatever.Heavyweight History With Emanuel Steward: Part 2 Of 3 • East Side Boxing • News ArchivesAli himself quoted in “The Greatest” said:“When people ask me about who was the greatest of all time, I say look at the records. I fought better competition, over a longer period of time than any other fighter in history.”Ali faced the best of the best, as ranked by Boxrec:#2 Archie Moore (ranked as light-heavyweight but fought for heavyweight title twice)#4 Sonny Liston#13 Joe Frazier#14 Larry Holmes#15 Floyd Patterson#19 George Foreman#20 Bob Foster (ranked as light heavyweight but fought for heavyweight title twice)#22 Cleveland Williams#34 Ken Norton#36 Zora Folley#43 Henry Cooper#44 Ernie Terrell#48 Jimmy Ellis#51 Karl Mildenberger#57 Oscar Bonavena#67 Jerry Quarry#68 Ron LyleAli faced 17 top 100 all time heavyweights in 26 fights, he beat 16 of the 17 at least once, 5 of them twice, for a 94% victory rate against all time top 100 competition!In addition, Ali beat five fighters ranked between 100 and 160, to wit:#116 Joe Bugner#118 Doug Jones#124 Jimmy Young#131 Mac Foster#141 Earnie Shavers,and Ali faced 23 fighters in the top 150 and beat 22 of them at least once in 31 fights.That meant more than half of his fighters were against top 150 competition, the best percentage in any weight class in boxing history! And again, alone of all the elite champions, he faced every single great fighter of his era…And his ring accomplishments stand the test of time…Max Kellerman said:“From 1970, when Ali came back from his forced exile, to 1978, when Ali won back his crown for the final time (against Leon Spinks), Ali shared the very top shelf with Joe Frazier and George Foreman, and the three of them were supported by Ken Norton and Joe Bugner and, in the beginning of the decade, Oscar Bonavena, Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis, and at the end of the decade Ernie Shavers, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Young. Ali fought them all, and many of the others fought each other. The greatest heavyweight era ever.As heavyweight eras go, this one is very goodAli’s record speaks for itselfAli was and is the first and only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion. He was and remains the first World Heavyweight Champion to come back from retirement and regain the title. He beat 14 world champions, from the years 1962 to 1978, over an incredible 16 year period. Ali won twenty-two World Heavyweight Championship fights over a 14 year period. Ali made a total of nineteen successful title defenses of the undisputed title, nine during his first reign and ten during his second reign.Another record he set which stands today, he has a record of 11-0 in rematches. Ali faced a heavyweight record of 10 Hall of Fame fighters, winning against all but one, and making 17 total fights against Hall of Famers, winning 14.Ali was named Ring "Fighter of the Year" for 1963, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1978. Ali was named the Boxing Writers Association of America "Fighter of the Year" for 1965, 1974 and 1975. Ali was named Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" for 1974. Ali was named The Ring "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1970s.Ali was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. He received the Boxing Writers Association of America James J. Walker Memorial Award for 1984. Ali was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1986. He was inducted into the The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1987. Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Ali was named Athlete of the Century by GQ magazine in 1998. He was named "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC in 1999, and "Sportsman of the 20th Century" by Sports Illustrated.Ali as a human being outside the ringAccording to Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali was asked once before he went on the air on “The Tonight Show” by Johnny Carson why he was so different in person, and in private, than he would be on the air. Ali answered:“Because i don’t have to fill up the Garden tonight.”Ali was far, far, different in private than what you saw on TV. When Ali stood with Malcolm X by his side announcing after first winning the heavyweight title in 1964 that he was now a member of the Nation of Islam and would be changing his name, he said something few athletes have ever told a media throng, before or since:“I don’t have to be who you want me to be. I’m free to be who I want,.”Ali in his private life was a basically shy and retiring man, the same Muhammad Ali who had grown up a quiet and shy child.Ali described himself in his autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story as:“a shy kid, because I couldn’t read I didn’t say a word in school, in or out of class.”This was confirmed by Rahaman Ali, his brother, who flatly said in both his books, My Brother, Muhammad Ali: The Definitive Biography of the Greatest of All Time and That’s Muhammad Ali’s Brother, that Ali was a quiet and shy kid, who no one would have believed would have grown up to be the “Louisville Lip.”Ali’s family and friends described him to Thomas Hauser as an adult version of that shy and retiring kid.Ali used wrestling tricks to hype his fights - that was not who he really wasAli at the onset of his career simply was another Olympian trying to gain notice. And then, he attended a wrestling show, and boxing was changed forever.George, born George Raymond Wagner, was in Los Vegas for a pro wrestling match against Freddie Blassie. Both Ali and the wrestlers made the media rounds to pump up their shoes, and hopefully get people out to buy tickets, and Ali’s life changed when he met Gorgeous George while doing so.Ali desperately yearned to be “somebody,” to, as he put it in his autobiography:“have everyone know my name, sell out big stadiums, make money, I wanted it all!.”And Ali found the key that unlocked celebrity, money, fame, and fortune in the schtick that Gorgeous George used in pro wrestling."Ali told the *Associated Press*' Hubert Mizel in a 1969 interview:“[I got it] from seeing Gorgeous George wrestle in Las Vegas, I saw his aides spraying deodorant in the opponents' corner to contain the smell. I also saw 13,000 full seats. I talked with Gorgeous for five minutes after the match and started being a big-mouth and a bragger. He [Gorgeous George] told me people would come to see me get beat. Others would come to see me win. I'd get 'em coming and going.”From that night in Las Vegas on, for the rest of his boxing career, Ali became Ali. First the poems, then called rounds for knockouts, then increasingly loud talk, bombast, and names for all his opponents.How Muhammad Ali's fascination with pro wrestling fueled his career, inspired MMAMuhammad Ali laid the foundation for Floyd Mayweather to earn almost a billion dollars 60 years later by creating a persona that people loved, and people loved to hate. Either way, they bought tickets, and it was showtime!Ali wrote about liking how “rasslers” promoted fights - and not understanding how that hype might by taken by his opponents:“I decided that could work for boxing too. I didn't realize that not everyone was going to like playing a role in my show. I am truly sorry for hurting Joe and have told he and his family so.”With Joe Frazier, Ali never disliked Joe, wanted to be friends the second the fight was over, and never thought what he was doing was cruel, saying sorrowfully years later:“I made a mistake, I thought Joe was in on the game, and understood like Sonny Liston said, “boxing is like a cowboy movie, with a good guy, and a bad guy for the audience to cheer for. I was one, and Joe had to be the other, and we both made a lot of money. But Joe never understood, and I am truly sorry.”How the trash talking Muhammad Ali we loved got his personality from an old pro wrestlerIn his autobiography, The Greatest: My Own Story, Ali said that his biggest regrets in his life was his failing to stand by Malcolm X when Malcolm left the Nation of Islam, and his estrangement with Joe Frazier.:“I was trying to hype the fights," Ali said, "but I never should have hurt Joe as I did. I was young, and didn't fully understand.”After his retirement, Ali devoted himself to helping othersAfter retiring from boxing in 1981, at age 39, Ali focused on religion and charity, until his declining health prevented him from public appearances. Ali donated millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds. He helped raise tens of millions more. Ali helped to feed more than 22 million people afflicted by hunger across the world. He never asked for, or wanted, praise for these efforts.Among his many charitable efforts, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research. In 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday celebration.In 2012, Ali was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.Perhaps the real Ali, the Private Ali, is best shown in 4 separate acts of kindnessThese four acts define who Ali really is, not the person you see on TV, but the real man behind the cameras and the headlines.The first happened in 1967, as Ali returned from GermanyAngelo Dundee once recalled an incident that took place after Ali’s last fight before his almost 4 year exile in 1967.On September 10, 1966, a young Ali defended his title in Frankfurt Germany against Karl Mildenberger as part of his "European tour." He was tired and stressed by a return to the USA to continue his fight against the military draft, but he won the fight nonetheless. In the 12th round, with Mildenberger on the ropes, referee Teddy Waltham stopped the fight.At the airport the next day, Waltham’s fee of 1,000 pounds was stolen. Waltham, who was counting on the money to pay his mortgage and bills, was distraught. When Ali heard, he gave Waltham money from his own pocket to replace what had been stolen.When asked about the incident, Ali shrugged it off, saying:“man, don't make this a story, he needed the money more than I did.”If it wasn’t for Angelo Dundee relating this story to Thomas Hauser, we would never have known it happened.Then there was the kid in the hospital in 1975Ali visited hospitals, nursing homes, and other places all the time, but one visit stands out in the mists of time.In the 1970’s, Ali, much to Joe Frazier’s annoyance, lived in Philadelphia for three years. Ali was very much a part of his new home, trying to help calm racial strife at South Philly’s Tasker Homes, visiting nursing homes and hospitals, and hiring old fighters to work his camps.Maury Z. Levy in a 1975 Philadelphia magazine article relates a story about Ali:“One day he got into training camp at Deer Lake late because he heard a thing on the news about this little kid who had gotten his legs cut off by a train, He went to the hospital, unannounced, and held the kid in his arms and started dancing around. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is the Ali shuffle. And one day you’re gonna be doing it yourself.”There was going out on a ledge, literally, to save someone else, and then asking the press not to make a story about him, but to credit first respondersThe story of Muhammad Ali going out on a ledge, literally, to stop a man from jumping to his death is preserved forever by Los Angeles Times photographer Boris Yaro. On Monday, Jan. 19, 1981, Yaro was monitoring a police scanner in LA and heard a report of a suicidal jumper. His editor at the LA Times was not interested, but Yaro drove over to Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile, where the man had been reported on a ledge despite that,There, Yaro found a young black man in jeans and a hoodie, on an office-building fire escape nine floors above the ground.The young man, “Joe,” as he was named in reports, had evidently been up there for hours. The police at the scene said, “he seemed to think he was in Vietnam with the Viet Cong coming at him.” A crowd had grown, of course, on the street below, and was happily screaming to “Joe” to jump to his death.Police officers, a police psychologist and a chaplain was stationed at a window close by, begging him to come inside. But Joe shouted, as he moved to the edge and hung out when it appeared someone was going to intervene:“I’m no good, I’m going to jump!”In a twist of fate, Muhammad Ali’s best friend, Howard Bingham, was there that day, and called Ali, who at that time was living in LA not far from the Miracle Mile. Bingham would later remember:“About four minutes later, Ali comes roaring up the wrong side of the street in his Rolls with his emergency lights blinking.”Boris Yaro watched in amazement as Ali talked briefly with the police, then saw the former champ run into the building. Yaro’s pictures, below, record the rest of the incident for history.Ali, in a dark suit and tie, is seen leaning out of a nearby window, trying to see the young man threatening to jump. Just a few feet away, Joe is perched dangerously on the ledge, holding a pillar as he leans out over empty space.By The Los Angeles Times’s account, Ali leaned out and shouted to Joe saying:“You’re my brother! I love you, and I couldn’t lie to you”Dodging back inside, Ali found his way to the fire escape, came out, put an arm around Joe and lead him back inside. The two walked out of the building together, got in Ali’s car and drove, after a stop at a police station, to a nearby V.A. hospital.Ali, deflected credit for saving the young man’s life, saying the first responders were the heroes.Then there was Ali’s trip to Bagdad in 1990.Nothing sums up Ali's life, and who he was, than what he did in 1990. That year, Ali went to Bagdad as the first Gulf War was looming, to try and free 15 American hostages being held by Saddam Hussein.Ali, already badly ill with Parkinson's, ran out of his medications while in Bagdad, and endured very real suffering, yet refused to leave, and persevered until Saddam allowed him to take all 15 American hostages home to their families.But Saddam did not want to give up the hostages, who he was using for human shields, and declined to meet with the ill Ali, thinking he would have to go home without his medications.But Ali would not leave, and his health grew worse.Other Arab countries, worried that something might happen to the world’s most famous Muslim, increasingly pressured Saddam to give him something, and get him to go home before something bad happened.Saddam, to appease other Muslim countries, finally publicly met with Ali to give him a few of the hostages, but before he could announce it, Ali thanked him for agreeing, like a good Muslim, to release all those in the custody to him. Saddam, with the media taking down every word, ordered the release of them all.On Dec. 2, 1990, Ali and the hostages flew out of Baghdad, headed for JFK.The 15 men remain overwhelmed to this day.Former hostage Bobby Anderson remembers:“You know, I thanked him, and he said, ‘Go home,’ be with my family . . . what a great guy”Ali again asked the media not to make the story about him, but about the hostages and their reunited families.The New York Times, after Ali rescued the 19 hostages in Iraq in 1990, said:“however great he was in the Ring, Ali is greater as a human being. Despite being ill, the Champ has given millions of his own money, raised tens of millions more for charity, to feed people, for medical treatment, and perhaps most importantly for a man who is ill, he donates his time to help others. His recent trip to Iraq to rescue hostages held there, during which he ran out of medications he must take, and which caused him considerable suffering, is an example of one man reaching out to help others with no regard for his own health or safety”And for the haters who keep trying to paint Ali as a racist, all but one of the hostages were white…Most folks don’t know that Ali spent 40 years trying to mend the rift with Joe FrazierAli apologized to his old rival repeatedly, and for awhile Joe would accept, and then he would get mad all over again. (nothing illustrates that better than the story Keith Scott relayed in his very fine answer to this question.)After the Thrilla in Manila, Ali apologized to Marvis Frazier for any pain he had caused their family, and told him he should be proud of his father. Ali said :“Tell your dad the things I said I really didn't mean,"Marvis reported back to his father and Joe said:“He should come to me, son, he should say it to my face."So Ali tried, he called Panama Lewis, a close confident of Joe’s, and asked for his private number, telling Lewis he wanted to apologize to him in person. Lewis then called Joe, and told him Ali wanted to apologize to him in person. Joe told Panama not to give him the number.So Ali did regret what had happened, and ironically, Joe’s family forgave him, while Joe never really did…The last thing Ali said about his old rival was:“I'm sorry Joe Frazier is mad at me. I'm sorry I hurt him. Joe Frazier is a good man, and I couldn't have done what I did without him, and he couldn't have done what he did without me. And if God ever calls me to a holy war, I want Joe Frazier fighting beside me.”Ali tried, on many occasions, to mend the rift with Joe. When Joe was dying, Muhammad visited him and for the last time asked his forgiveness. (He told Joe he wasn’t leaving till Joe forgave him! And Joe finally did forgive him, and his son Marvis feels he was at peace with the past when he died)In September of 2015, after Joe Frazier was long gone from this world, the City of Philadelphia, thanks mostly to Larry Holmes and Bernard Hopkins, finally put up a long overdue statue of Joe Frazier in Philadelphia, and Ali’s business manager, Gene Kilroy went to the ceremony. He and Marvis Frazier, Joe’s oldest son, then went to Frazier’s grave and laid a wreath inscribed with a message from Ali.The wreath and message from Ali said:“To Joe Frazier from Muhammad Ali, Rest in peace, Joe, until we meet again. Next time we’re not going to fight, we’re just going to hug each other.”And truly, that was just who the real, private, Ali was…Robert Lipsyte, who spent a large part of his life chronicling Ali’s says any claim that Ali was doing acts or heroism or kindness for acclaim was, even if true, only possibly one small part of why he would go to a hospital and try to cheer a little kid with no reporters around, or try to talk a man off a ledge, or rescue hostages, or give money to a referee he didn’t even like, saying:“The other part was he was capable of acts of kindness; almost casual acts of kindness”Lipsyte said at the time of the incident with the man on the ledge, Lipsyte believed Ali showed up to the office building not only because he thought he could help Joe, but because he wanted to.Yes, Ali in private was a far different person than the loud, bombastic celebrity we saw on television.For Ali’s incredible accomplishments in the Ring, he is the greatest heavyweight of all time, and one of the greatest pound for pound fighters.Angelo Dundee, Ali's and Sugar Ray Leonard's trainer, said:“Look at Ali’s quality of opposition. He shook up the world against Liston, then did it again. He shocked the world against Foreman. He won two out of three against Frazier. Same against Ken Norton. He beat Patterson twice. The also-rans on Ali’s record—Jerry Quarry, Ron Lyle, Zora Folley, Oscar Bonavena, Bob Foster, Ernie Terrell—were as good as all but two or three opponents Joe Louis beat during his 11 years as champ."Dundee: Ali was, continues to be 'GreatestFor Ali’s kindness, decency, charity, outside the ring, he is also the GreatestRobert Lipsyte, who spent his career around Ali, said:“What kind of guy gets in his car and drives toward a potential suicide, to save the life of a man he has never met? The answer, of course, is a guy who thinks himself a hero.Robert Lipsyte also said he believed that intrinsic kindness was just a basic part of the real Muhammad Ali, saying:“In some sort of ways, he talked a lot of people off the ledge, I think about a guy who made people brave. That’s what he did.”When Muhammad Ali Met a Man on a Ledge (Published 2016)And all of it is real, not media hype.CREDIT TO:Ali: A Life by Jonathan EigAs heavyweight eras go, this one is very goodCox’s Corner and Monte CoxDundee: Ali was, continues to be 'GreatestHeavyweight History With Emanuel Steward: Part 2 Of 3 • East Side Boxing • News ArchivesHow the trash talking Muhammad Ali we loved got his personality from an old pro wrestlerMuhammad Ali: A Life by Thomas HauserMuhammad Ali: A View From the Corner by Dr. Ferdie PachecoThe Greatest: My Own Story by Muhammad AliThe Los Angeles Times’s accountThe Real Ali by Rahman AliWhen Muhammad Ali Met a Man on a Ledge