London chapter supports Unifor rally in defence of public health care

Photo courtesy of Kevin Jones

The London chapter of the Council of Canadians joined a Unifor protest yesterday in defence of public health care. The rally began in Victoria Park and then moved to the offices of London North Centre MPP Deb Matthews and London North Centre MP Susan Truppe. 

CTV reports, "Health care workers rallied in Victoria Park Thursday, and the Unifor members say if something isn't done to fix the health care system, more at-risk people will fall through the cracks. The union says that health care will be underfunded nationally by about $36 billion over the next 10 years, and many are concerned for the future. ...Unifor says the federal government refuses to discuss a new Canada Health Accord - the blueprint for federal contributions to provincial health care - and believe it is part of an effort to increase privatized health care." 

The London Free Press adds, "Unifor is reminding MPP and Liberal cabinet minister Deb Matthews [she's the president of the Treasury Board] to respect bargaining rights for Ontario health-care workers. Conservative MP Susan Truppe is being urged to support renewing and re-signing the Canada health accord which expired earlier this year." 

And the London Community News notes, "Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union with more than 305,000 members, launched rallies in several Ontario cities on Nov. 6, including Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and London. Organizers said some 15 buses brought in union members and their supporters from across the province to the London rally where about 500 people gathered in Victoria Park." 

15,000 Unifor health care workers are set to negotiate new contracts this year. Many of them coming off a two-year wage freeze and are having additional responsibilities placed on them. As CTV notes, "[Unifor] members say that along with seniors, [long term care] facilities are now also taking on assisted living patients and some with mental health issues. They say meeting all the varying demands is taking a toll." 

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow also tweeted this 3-minute video from yesterday's protest in London. 

Photo: London chapter activists at yesterday's rally. Photo by Kevin Jones. Photo: Fred Wilson marches for public health care. Photo by Bill O'Neill.

Brent Patterson
Political Director
Council of Canadians

Originally published as
http://canadians.org/blog/london-chapter-supports-unifor-rally-defence-public-health-care

SUPER IMPORTANT Meeting - Thursday, Nov. 6, 6:30 pm, Landon Library

Regarding: 

GET ON THE BUS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH CARE! 

RALLY 

NOVEMBER 21, 2014 at 12 noon QUEENS PARK 

Peter 519-455-3430 (or email pbergmanis@rogers.com) TO RESERVE A SEAT 

IT'S OUR PUBIC HEALTH CARE MAKE IT BETTER! DON’T KILL IT! 

The threat to Medicare in Ontario from private clinics, which would create a two tiered health care system, is very, very real. This is not something we can hope will go away. Last Spring many of us worked hard on the Save Our Services referendum. The postcards collected voted overwhelmingly for not only saving Medicare, but putting more resources into it to make it better. 

A chartered bus is going from London on Friday, November 21 to Queens Park to join in a massive protest against austerity and the gradual killing of socialized medicine in Ontario. 
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SUPER IMPORTANT LONDON COUNCIL OF CANADIANS MEETING 

THURSDAY, NOV. 6, 2014, LANDON LIBRARY, 167 WORTLEY RD. 

Martha Bishop Room

6:30 - snacks and social 

7:00 - SPEAKER: Peter Bergmanus (London Health Coalition) 
"THE SEIGE ON MEDICARE AND WHY WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT OR LOSE IT" 
Questions and discussion 

7:30 - Sign up to go on the chartered bus to Queens Park for the noon rally on Nov. 21. leaving 8:30 am - returning 7:00 pm 

7:30 - 8:45 pm WORKSHOP TO MAKE WHIMSICAL MUSICAL, PERCUSSION, AND NOISE EMITTING INSTRUMENTS TO USE FOR NOV. 21 RALLY 

Twiddle tum tooters… floogleflonkers….snarfblatters…. Please bring funnels, pots, wire, kazoos, garbage can lids, 5 gallon plastic pickle jars, plastic kitty litter containers, bells, whistles, kitchen gadgets etc. etc. etc. Anything that can make a loud noise. Share PVC pipe, fabric, ribbons. Use your imagination and have fun! 

We will use our props and wear costumes for a photo op in front of St Joe’s (corner of Richmond and Grosvenor) in London at 4:30 pm on Thursday, Nov. 13. 

fragrance free event free to the public 

info: Roberta 519-601-2053

Minutes of our last meeting on Oct. 9:

http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/LondonCoCMeetingMinutes.pdf

Save Our Services Health Care Rally!

40 million in cuts coming to hospitals in London Ontario and 3 billion coming province wide. Join us at the health minister's office at 242 Piccadilly st. Monday Mar 4 at 4pm for some street theatre (musical beds and chairs) and help us Save our Services. All welcome!



Photos click here

Jennifer Chesnut's Radio Interview re CETA

Jennifer Chesnut, Trade Justice Chair 
London, Ontario Chapter, Council of Canadians

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5

For the Love of Canada, Stop CETA Rally Against Increased Medication Costs, July 11, 2012

Approximately twenty-five Londoners joined on Commissioners Road West outside of Ed Holder's office to participate in the first of a series of summer rallies to be organized around specific threats of CETA. Tonight's focussed on the concern raised in the joint University of Toronto and University of Calgary study that warns of a 2.8 billion dollar increase in drug costs annually out of the pockets of Canadians.

The rally was hosted by the stopCETA trade justice coalition and was attended by a diverse group of citizens from union folks to NDP and Green party candidates, artists, teachers, students, various public service workers and a few members of the local Occupy movement. Instead of chanting, we smiled and waved at the long lines of cars that were slowed in traffic along Commissioners. Literature such as the Council of Canadians Healthcare & CETA handbill was given through car windows. Many folks were honking but the favourite was the city bus driver honking most enthusiastically. The group held up signs that said messages like: For the love of Canada, stop CETA, and others about increases in prescription drug costs. One of the trade justice members silkscreened a banner about loving Canada, and of course, the CETApus was out with Roberta and Rory Cory.

Dre Aube was interviewed by London Community News, a local press, and on camera with CTV news about the drug costs issue. Jennifer Chesnut spoke also with CTV news about the local trade justice movement and national municipalities resolution movement and they asked to do a longer interview segment prior to the next rally. The group started planning for the second rally tonight which will focus on Investor State lawsuits from corporations and will take place on Wed. July 25, also outside of Ed Holder's office from 5 to 6pm. They intend, at minimum, to double our crowd. And, will continue with the style of business-attire rally to promote openess to demonstration in a city that is shy about it. London encourages local Council of Canadian chapters to come on down, share the message and spend some time building our networks together.
...... overall, we had a lot of fun and feel very good about the vibe that was created. Dre did a fab job on camera...

Below are the sound bites that we were working with:

CETA will force Canadians to pay 3 billion more a year on necessary medicine. High prescription drug prices are already a barrier to relief for millions of Canadians from pain of cancer to depression, and CETA will only make the situation worse. People living in Ontario will have to deal with the largest hike of about 1.3 million. Drugs are the fastest growing part of health care costs in Canada. Why would we agree to increase our drug costs further?

In CETA, the EU is demanding that we align with their system that favours brand-name pharmaceuticals and phases out the cheaper generic-label drugs. The 3 billion rise in drug costs annually is another example of why CETA is bad for Canadian people.

We are not against trade. We are against reckless trade contracts that favour transnational corporations over people’s health and community well-being. We do not think that a less than 1% increase in the Canadian GDP is a good enough reason to prevent Canadians from getting the medicines they need. CETA runs contrary to the Canadian Constitution that states in clause 36 that “the government of Canada and the provincial governments are committed to promoting equal opportunities for the well-being of Canadians, … and providing essential public services of reasonable quality to all Canadians.”

Nowhere in our constitution does it say that our well-being would best be taken care of by transnational corporations.

Notes: The study showing the drug increase of approximately 3 billion was a collaborative study by U of T and U of Calgary presented to the federal government.

Jennifer Chesnut, July 11, 2012

Stop CETA Rally, July 11, 2012 (Photos by Robert McMaster)

Take Action to Protect Local Health Care!

Town Hall Meeting
Wednesday May 16, 2012

7:00 pm 

King’s University College

Labatt Hall, Rm. 105 

266 Epworth Avenue 

Poster: click here.

Featuring: 

Vicki McKenna, Ontario Nurses’ Association 

Peter Bergmanis, CAW 

Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition

Sandi Blancher, OPSEU

Michael Shapcott, Wellesley Institute

What we can do to protect our local health services and make health care decisions more accountable
Discussion
Q& A
Ideas

You can help to forge a better way!
For more information: London Health Coalition 519-473-6191
or Ontario Health Coalition 416-441-2502
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca

“The Ontario budget will result in harsh
cuts to local health care services. After
years of corporate tax cuts and tax
giveaways for the wealthy, the Ontario
government is now trying to resolve the
deficit on the backs of the sick and
elderly.
We already have a severe shortage of
hospital beds and unprecedented
hospital overcrowding. There are more
than 30,000 people on wait
lists for long-term care homes.
We also have a privatized home
care system that fails to meet
the basic needs of Ontarians.
Yet more cuts are on the way.
It is urgent that ordinary Ontarians from across
this province stand up to protect universal and
fair access to public non-profit health care for
all people in need.”
-- Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition

OCCUPY UWO: A Symposium (details)

Speakers, Song, Art, Ideas

Live stream: click here.

OCCUPY UWO: Our Communities Are Not For Sale 2

Local Impacts. Local Outreach. Local Solutions.
Featuring: Mary Lou Smoke, MP Irene Mathyssen, Gina Barber, Dr. Linda Wayne, Occupy London, London Labour Movement,
Justice Folk music by Jill Smith, Erynne Gilpin, Margo Does
Art Intervention by Jeremy Jeresky

Where: Room 105, Labatt Hall, King's College, UWO
When: Thursday, March 1st
Time: 7 pm event followed by reception
Cost: Free

A free & fabulous reception to follow

Sponsored by The Social Justice Peace Club & stopCETA -- a committee of The Council of Canadians -- London Chapter

Occupy UWO is the second in a series of symposiums that aims to open public discussion on CETA – a trade contract that is threatening to put the MUSH sector, Municipalities, Universities, Schools and Hospitals up for contract to European corporations. Following the first symposium featuring internationally acclaimed Canadian Maude Barlow, the second will include First Nations leaders Mary Lou and Dan Smoke, MP Irene Mathyssen, former City Councillor Gina Barber, local independent business activist Dr. Linda Wayne, as well as representatives of regional unions and London’s chapter of the global Occupy movement. Sponsored by King’s College Social Justice & Peace Club, participants will be invited to connect the dots between Canada’s turn toward CETA, loss of full-time jobs and benefits, and the Occupy Movement. These are politics that impact the quality of life of students, faculty and other members of Western.

Kept from the press, Canada is in the final stages of negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with the European Union. More potent than NAFTA, for the first time municipal government will be forced to adhere to trade law and respond to corporate lawsuits. Far beyond a trade agreement, CETA is the impetus for long-term restructuring of Canada through the sale of public infrastructure to foreign corporations. Essential service rates are certain to rise including an estimated two billion dollar per year increase for drug costs out of Canadians’ pockets. If signed, CETA will threaten Canada’s municipal economies, public service jobs, buy local movements, and more. This long-term trade contract will set new policy that will limit London’s economic choices. A growing national movement is responding with thirty-five municipalities and school boards already having passed resolutions to protect them from CETA. A similar resolution will be discussed by the legislature of Manitoba for protection of the whole province.

OCCUPY UWO press release

PRESS RELEASE
Occupy UWO: Our Communities Are Not For Sale!
For Immediate Release 2012-02-24
Although many don’t know it yet, Canada is in the final stages of negotiating a trade agreement with the European Union that is much more powerful than NAFTA. Known as CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, will be putting things on the table that are not normally considered trade items such as drinking water and the entire MUSH sector – Municipal services, Universities, Schools and Healthcare. More than just a trade agreement, CETA is the impetus for long-term restructuring through the sale of Canadian public infrastructure to foreign corporations. Costs of essential services are certain to rise including an estimated two billion dollar increase for drugs per year. If signed, CETA will threaten Canada’s municipal economies, public service jobs, environment, buy local movements, and more. This long-term trade contract will set new policy for Canadian cities including London that will limit our economic options. A growing national movement is responding with thirty-five municipalities and school boards already having passed resolutions to protect them from CETA. A similar resolution will be discussed by the legislature of Manitoba for protection of the whole province. Occupy UWO is the second in a series of London symposiums that aim to open public discussion on CETA. Following the first successful symposium featuring internationally acclaimed Canadian activist Maude Barlow, the second will include First Nations leaders Mary Lou and Dan Smoke, MP Irene Mathyssen, former City Councillor Gina Barber, local business owner Dr. Linda Wayne, as well as representatives of local unions and London’s chapter of the global Occupy movement. Sponsored by the London Chapter of The Council of Canadians and King’s College Social Justice and Peace Club, participants will connect the dots between Canada’s turn toward CETA, loss of jobs, and the Occupy Movement. Politics that will impact all of our day to day lives, you are invited to get informed at this evening of speeches, discussion and the arts. Occupy UWO takes place on Thursday, March 1, 2012, 7 pm, at Labatt Hall, King’s College, The University of Western Ontario. The event is free with a reception following.
#### For more information contact:
Rod Morley
stopCETA committee of The Council of Canadians – London Chapter
519 872-0008 or rmorley1@sympatico.ca

Hey London! Some Local Concerns about CETA

Hey London!

Thinking about CATERPILLAR? If NAFTA had NOT been created, this corporation would never have been able to drop its workers the way it did. Do we want a continuous stream of CATERPILLAR situations in London in spreading sectors including universities, hospitals, and schools? Say no to a much uglier, more comprehensive version of NAFTA called CETA. If the rights of workers and their families’ futures matter to you, then you will want to speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Remember EPCOR nearly buying London Hydro? If this had happened post-CETA, it would not have been possible to stop. CETA enables all sorts of corporations, even ones like EPCOR who have shares in ugly activity like the Alberta Tar Sands, to buy our energy and our water utilities. If we allow CETA to pass, we won’t be able to stop the purchase of London Hydro to the highest bidder. It will likely go to a French corporation like Veolia or Suez who has bought up enormous depths of public water around the world. If the sale of water from the Great Lakes matters to you, then speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Care about the quality of our Canada Post mail service, our garbage collection, our Victoria Hospital, our school boards, Fanshawe college and UWO? All of these and more are at risk from partial to full sale to corporations overseas. When major corporations from Europe or the NAFTA partners, the US and Mexico, buy our services like the London Transit Commission, we won’t have any say over hours of service, types of service or rate of fees. If public service matters to you, then speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Care about our city jobs? When CETA passes, there will be more downsizing of city jobs. The government will tell us that more jobs are created but has that been your experience of free trade over the past few decades? Expect more part-timing and more cuts to benefits in fields as diverse as the auto industry to health care. If your job and your friends and families’ jobs matter to you, then speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Care about our local farmer’s markets? If we allow CETA to pass, more local farms will go under. Farming conditions will actually get worse. It will become illegal for farmers to save their seeds and they will be forced to buy them from major corporations like Monsanto. Further, hormones in beef and dairy will proliferate. If the health of farmers and the food system matters to you, then speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Do you like to buy local? Would you rather spend your money in Wortley Village or one of London’s last-standing downtown businesses? If we allow CETA to pass, local contracts in many areas from goods to construction will be put at risk. The global free trade movement is the opposite of building the local economy. Foreign mega corporations will be allowed to sue our provincial and municipal governments for trying to build London’s local economy if it decreases their profits. One hundred and sixty million has already been given to American corporations under the rules of NAFTA’s corporate protection called Investor State. If you care about buying local, then speak up about CETA.

Hey London!

Do you already feel that there is a disproportionate amount of corporate media messaging in this city? CETA does not protect public broadcasting. If we allow CETA to pass, we can expect that less funding will go to our local stations and less Canadian content will be ensured. Further, the CBC will be at risk of being sold outright never to be returned to Canadian hands again. This is what trade does. It disallows newly elected governments to make new decisions for decades. Trade law is binding. If Canadian media channels from TV to radio to magazines matters to you, then you will want to help protect us and future generations from CETA.

Hey London!

Do you want to protect our natural areas like the Sifton Bog, Meadowlily Woods, and more? If we allow CETA to pass, foreign corporations will have much more influence in zoning laws than they have already had and be able to do with our green spaces as they wish. Our city bylaws will not protect our environmentally sensitive areas from development nor create a situation where we could extend upon what already is protected for future generations. If land, water and species matters to you, then so does CETA. Stop CETA now!

Hey London!

Do you think that all children have a right to corporate-free education? Kids have enough pressure from internet, videos, and tv already. In British Columbia, school boards have passed resolutions to exempt them from CETA. CETA does not protect the MUSH sector – municipal universities, schools and hospitals. If we allow CETA to pass, then our public education is at risk of purchase in part or whole from corporations. In the United States they already have some corporate scripted classes and mandatory commercials in schools because their schools are no longer publically owned. If you do not want London’s children influenced by corporate branding or consumerist views at school, then CETA matters to you. If you believe our government should invest more in the public education of our children, then trade justice matters to you. Contribute to this vision of our traditional Canada by speaking up against CETA.

Our city and our country are not investor states! For more information: www.stopceta.ca

Brought to you by concerned Londoners from STOPCETA–
a committee of The Council of Canadians – London chapter

For the pdf version of this document click here.

PUBLIC FORUM on SENIORS' CARE

Sunday, April 18, 2010, 2:00–3:30 pm
Cadboro Bay United Church, 2625 Arbutus Rd.

The South Island Health Coalition and others are organizing a Public Forum on Seniors’ Care to highlight our concerns about the sell-off and corporatization of Oak Bay Lodge and Mount Tolmie Hospital and the future of public seniors’ care. We will have a panel to discuss seniors’ care and time for comments and questions. The press and our MLA will also be invited as well as other local politicians.
Information: Jessica Van der Veen, 250-598-9272

Health Care for Seniors

Victoria Public Event: For Our Elders, For Ourselves. Better Long-term care now!
When:Thurs. January 21, 2010, 7-9 pm
Where:St. John Anglican Church (Parish Hall), 1611 Quadra Street, Victoria
More info:Speakers feature Toby Edleman, Centre for Medicare Advocacy (USA) and Stephen Elliott-Buckley, CUPE Researcher at HEU For More Information contact: Kerry Janzen, 1-800-663-5813 ext. 7076 or email kjanzen@heu.org

http://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/
BC Health Coalition

"Advocating for Seniors Advocacy in B.C." -- an important community event
The BC Health Coalition is co-sponoring this event with the BC Seniors' Advocacy Network and the Hospital Employees' Union. We wish to develop a more constructive dialogue among advocacy groups that work with individual advocates and pursue systemic advocacy goals.
The evening will feature guest speaker Toby Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney of the Centre for Medicare Advocacy. Ms. Edelman is visiting your area as part of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Long-Term Care tour
Please invite your community organizations, family, friends and co-workers to this important event.

Holly Dressel Book Tour

Holly Dressel, spoke on her new book: "Who Killed the Queen? The Story of a Community Hospital and How to Fix Public Health Care” on September 15, 2008 at the BCGEU Bldg., 2994 Douglas St. Dressel is a best-selling author generally known for work on environmental subjects and as a writer-researcher for television, radio and print for the last twenty-five years. She is the best-selling author, with David Suzuki, of "Good News for a Change: Hope for a Troubled Planet" and "From Naked Ape to Super-species: humanity and the global eco-crisis". Her talk was sponsored by the Victoria Chapter of the Council of Canadians, the South Island Health Coalition, and the BC Health Coalition.

From the publisher: “When Elections Canada conducted a 2004 federal election survey, they found that the number one issue for Canadians of all ages was health. With a new federal election recently announced, healthcare continues to be of the utmost priority. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Montreal, an exemplary Canadian community hospital that had been the site of many national and international medical firsts, was suddenly closed in the mid-1990s. It was not alone. Using the dramatic and entertaining 100-year history of the Queen Elizabeth as a base, Who Killed the Queen? investigates Canada's mass closures of hospitals and hospital beds between 1994 and 1998. The book shows that the resulting 20% loss of beds - a figure unparalleled in the history of any other industrialized country - continues to affect hospital and health care in every province. Holly Dressel offers strong evidence as to who and what was responsible for the closures and also provides well-supported, international assessments of the current quality of the Canadian health care system, arguing that it can not only be saved but strengthened. Who Killed the Queen? not only exposes the effect of internal bureaucratic and external economic pressures on public health care in Canada but also demonstrates the many ways in which this country’s medical care is exceptional and worthy of emulation. This discussion is relevant for all countries whose medical systems are under attack."

Last night, Holly gave us a brilliant and dynamic discussion of the disastrous state of hospitals and health care in Canada, and of the importance of keeping Canadian health care public and avoiding the pitfalls of privatization.

The worst period in the history of Canadian health care was 1994-95, during which hospitals were closed in every province, 57 hospitals in Saskatchewan alone. The question is why?

The answer, according to Dressel, stems from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) forcing Canada to make “structural adjustments”, resulting in the drastic cutting of federal transfers to the provinces. (The IMF dictated specific cuts to social programs.) Other countries have refused to cowtow to the demands and threats of the IMF, but Canada buckled under the pressure, and catastrophic destruction of the hospital care system then existing ensued. By slashing 20% of its hospital funding, less than $30 million was saved in the entire country, a paltry sum in view of the huge loss to health care in Canada.

As a result, Canadian hospitals converted to a bare bones business model of operation, which requires that beds be at least 90% full at all times. Therefore, in the event of a health crisis of any kind these hospitals are immediately overwhelmed.

In BC workers in the Hospital Employees Union were required to accept pay cuts averaging 40%. Nevertheless, in spite of all of the "austerity measures", wait times in Canada remain at par with the rest of the developed world, regardless of popular misconceptions to the contrary.

Privatization of health care, which is also dictated by the IMF, leads only to an increase in profits for the corporations involved, at the expense of universal access. The result is that even well-off people do not seek health care until their medical conditions are accute and severe, because they cannot afford expensive tests early on. Costs are therefore much greater, and death rates even for those undergoing treatment are increased.

For a prequel to the book, a 2006 article in Yes Magazine, click here.