“Just the beginning,” promise health coalitions outside premiers’ meeting
As premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney gathered outside the Muskokas this week, public health care advocates made sure the leaders heard that public health care must be protected.
At the premiers’ closing media conference, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said a defining characteristic that separates Canada from the U.S. is Canada’s universal health care system. “If we want to say that we are standing up to Donald Trump and we’re never going to be the 51st state, let’s make sure that our universal health care system is strong,” Kinew said.
Code Red
The week began with a Code Red: A Peoples’ Shadow Summit to Save Public Health Care. The summit was organized by the Ontario Health Coalition with support from the Canadian Health Coalition and the Ontario Federation of Labour. The summit shadowed the Council of Federation and First Ministers’ meetings happening near Huntsville.
The Canadian Health Coalition’s Anne Lagacé Dowson, Steven Staples and Tracy Glynn were among those who spoke on panels about alarming trends in health care in the form of privatization, cuts and failure to treat health care as a human right.
Whisteblower Dr. Nancy Olivieri, drug policy expert DJ Larkin, Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy’s Denise Baldwin, refugee and immigrant health advocate Dr. Paul Caulford, Justicia for Migrant Workers’ Chris Ramsaroop, Unifor’s Samia Hashi, Health Sciences Association of Alberta’s Mike Parker, Ontario Health Coalition’s Natalie Mehra, BC Health Coalition’s Ayendri Riddell and Manitoba Health Coalition’s Noah Schulz were among those sharing their insights at the Code Red Shadow Summit.
On the next day, July 22, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union (CFNU) held a policy breakfast with the premiers. Linda Silas, CFNU president, pressed the premiers to take action for safe working conditions for nurses that also protect patients.
Canadian Health Coalition’s Jason MacLean and Steven Staples were among those who attended the breakfast with the premiers. They encouraged the premiers of provinces that had yet to receive pharmacare dollars to sign an agreement with the federal government.
By noon, a car cavalcade and rally for public health care was underway outside the Deerhurst Resort where the premiers were meeting.
As a stream of buses and cars began arriving at the rally site, Jason MacLean, chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, told My Muskoka Now: “Without a healthy population, we’re never going to have a healthy economy.”
Unions and health coalitions shared these videos, photos and messages about the rally on social media:
