Thousands rallied for public health care Sept 27 in the wake
of cuts to dozens of Ontario hospitals.
September 29, 2008 Despite poor weather
that affected most of southern Ontario, protesters took to the
streets of Toronto, Windsor, Kingston, Sudbury and Thunder Bay
to speak out against hospital cuts, destructive home care
policies, the lack of nursing home staffing standards and
privatization of health care.
Speaking to a crowd of about 2,000 protestors at
Toronto's Metro Hall, Patty Rout, OPSEU 1st Vice-President, said
Canada puts less of its economy into public health care funding
than almost all G8 countries, and that within Canada, Ontario
funding lags behind other provinces.
"One of the richest provinces in Canada, our
government has taken a consistent "can't do" attitude towards
health care," she said. In Kingston, OPSEU Regional VP Dave Lundy and
board member Lynn Orzel spoke to about 300 people who had come
out to a downtown park.
"They keep on telling us more private health
care is the answer," said Orzel, "the reality is private
healthcare has helped create the mess we are in today."
In Sudbury the rally heard from Sandra Croteau,
whose brother Keith was beaten to death in Extendicare York in
January 2007.
"The night that he was murdered there were three
people, three PSWs that night, for the whole floor. I'm sure
there were 100 more (patients) on that floor. And the person who
murdered him, he was on suicide watch," she said. "Obviously
there was nobody watching him."
In Windsor the rally marched to the offices of
MPP Dwight Duncan, Ontario's Minister of Finance.
"It's about time that we stand up together and
fight for more public funding of the health-care system for all
of Ontario." said Jim Kennedy, chair of the London Health
Coalition.
In Thunder Bay, OPSEU Regional VP James Tocker
told the rally that this is just the beginning of what we need
to do, and that the biggest enemy of medicare is indifference.
"We know that if there are enough of us, we can move the
government on this issue," he said.
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