Alicia Carty receives Nell Toussaint Award for Universal Health Care

Canadian Health Coalition Chair Jason MacLean gave this speech at the reception for the presentation of the Nell Toussaint Award for Universal Health Care at an event hosted by Speaker of the House Francis Scarpaleggia in the Speaker’s Dining Room in the West Block of Parliament on Feb. 9, 2026.

The Nell Toussaint Award for Universal Health Care was established by the Canadian Health Coalition in 2025. The award seeks to honour the memory and legacy of Nell Toussaint, a Black champion for universal health care who died in 2023. The award also seeks to recognize Black champions of universal public health care during Black History Month.

This year’s award winner truly epitomizes the fighting spirit of Nell Toussaint. Both the award winner and Nell Toussaint endured needless obstacles trying to access timely health care when they became sick or injured due to their immigration status. But both women refused to give up and both became advocates not only for themselves but for others in their situation.

Many of us here today are fighters for public health care. I also see many champions of migrant rights and justice in the room. One of the key strategic priorities of the Canadian Health Coalition is ending systemic racism in health care.

With anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise, we must fight against the scapegoating of immigrants for multiple crises including the health care crisis. Our health care system is supposed to be universal and there to take care of everyone. But sadly, we have more sick and more costly patients entering our ERs because they have been denied timely access to health care. Immigrants do pay taxes and yet many are shut out of the health care system that is funded by all our taxes.

Today’s award winner came to Canada as a temporary foreign worker. We must reckon with our past and acknowledge that temporary foreign worker programs are rooted in historical racism, having evolved from policies that, until 1955, were explicitly designed to restrict non-white immigration to Canada. The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, established in the 1960s, was explicitly designed to control Black Caribbean workers, treating them as forever temporary, often shut of opportunities to permanently immigrate to Canada.

In fact, in 2023, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery called Canada’s temporary foreign worker program with its closed work permits that tie workers to one employer, “a breeding ground for modern day slavery.”

It is in this context that Nell Toussaint and the award winner experienced injustice – at work and at the hospital. Health care delayed is health care denied. We stand here in memory of Nell Toussaint who died of diabetes complications, who likely would still be with us today if she got health care on time.

It is an honour to announce this year’s recipient of the Nell Toussaint Award for Universal Health Care is Alicia Carty.

After experiencing a serious brain injury while working on a farm in British Columbia, Alicia Carty stepped into the role of advocate, supporting and nurturing community organizations that advocate for injured workers and migrant workers.

Alicia is an active member of Justicia (Justice for Migrant Workers), Injured Workers Action for Justice, and a board member of the Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario Community Legal Clinic, a legal aid clinic serving injured workers in Ontario.

With all these organizations, Alicia is an eloquent champion of universal health care especially for those living with precarious immigration status. Through her lived experiences, she effectively explains how racism and anti-black racism deny migrants like herself access to health care. One of our Alicia’s greatest achievements is advancing reforms in Canada’s workers’ compensation systems and foreign worker programs.

Due to her knowledge and experience, Alicia is regularly asked to speak to media from Canada to Jamaica and at rallies, community events and conferences by community organizations, unions, governments, and colleges and universities. She has travelled from British Columbia to Ontario and elsewhere to share these experiences, and has connected with workers across this country, union members, organizers, lawyers, students, and community members.

Alicia has undertaken many different causes related to the plight of injured workers, including community support during the pandemic, mentoring, and providing emotional support to other workers and members. She has helped to organize annual community dinners for migrant workers in the Leamington area.

Alicia has been a lead informant on important projects including Amnesty International’s report on migrant workers and the Canadian Environmental Law Association’s report on heat stress and agriculture. She also played a key role in a recent play on the experiences of migrant workers. Recently she was recognized with an award from the Toronto and Region Labour Council for her work advocating for injured migrants and their lack of access to health care and benefits under the WSIB system.

Alicia has spent countless hours in her community while also taking care of her injuries and her own family in Jamaica. In the words of her nominator, “Alicia is someone to which we should all aspire.”

Listen to Alicia Carty’s award acceptance speech here: