Your Ontario Health Coalition Membership

Dear our members and supporters,

I wanted to write a heartfelt thank you for all that you do to make our movement to protect and improve our public health care matter. I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a bit of what we have been doing with your support. I hope you are as proud of our work as we are! It is a LOT.

We have been working for a number of years on massive community outreach. We found that our efforts a couple of years ago to reach more than a million people with leaflets made a very significant difference. They explained why privatization is the destruction of our public health care and highlighted what the Ford government is doing. It took literally thousands of volunteers across the province to make this happen and you can see the results in the polls. All across Canada, people oppose health care privatization but in Ontario the polls show that the support for public health care and opposition to its privatization are the highest in the country – by a significant margin. This is our collective effort and it is the most powerful bulwark against the erosion of our public health care that we can levy.

Over the last year, we challenged ourselves to set a goal of reaching two million Ontarians directly with leaflets opposing health care privatization. We managed to reach more than 900,000 last spring and more than 140,000 during the election period. We are continuing this effort by launching a petition campaign this summer calling on the Government of Canada to uphold and enforce the Canada Health Act and to stop the Ford government from violating it in the private clinics.

In the fall, we will issue a new leaflet with a goal of reaching every doctor, nurse, health professional and health care worker in Ontario. We will also have one for the general public. We know that the more people understand what is happening, the more they support the fightback.

As you know, this has been a tough government. They do what they can get away with. It is our job to create a political context such that it is impossible for them to dismantle and privatize our public health care. Now, with a new term and a majority government, that task is much more difficult. However, nothing is impossible.

To that end, we held a Day of Action at the Legislature in May for those communities with small and rural hospitals at risk and demanded the government stop the closures of emergency departments and vital hospital service closures. We had more than 150 people fill the Public Galleries at the Legislature, hold meetings with politicians and join a press conference. The Minister of Health was forced to answer non-stop questions in the Legislature demanding that she take action on this issue.

In June we got a major front-page media story in the Toronto Star featuring patients who have been extra-billed in private clinics illegally. We followed this with formal complaints from 50 patients, complete with receipts and proof of payment, to the federal and provincial government to get them to enforce the Canada Health Act in Ontario. We called on the Ontario government to reimburse patients charged for medically necessary services at the private clinics and we called on the federal government to uphold the Canada Health Act and enforce it against the Ford government. We will be following up on that work in the fall.

We held a large “Shadow Summit” and car cavalcade during the meeting of all Canadian Premiers and First Ministers last week. The plan was for the meeting to be about trade, the fossil fuel mega projects, increasing military spending and militarization of the border, and the response to Trump’s pressure. It followed the revelation that the federal government is planning $25 billion in cuts to our public programs and services, in part to pay for these. We successfully got health care back on the national agenda and pressed for commitments to improve it and stop privatization.

This is just a sample of the work we have done and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that this government is held accountable and feels the pressure to improve their record.

I am also writing to ask that if you can, please do become a member and/or a donor. I do an automatic donation monthly, as do our other staff, my mother and many of my friends. It doesn't have to be a lot and if you cannot afford it, please don't worry. If you can, please know it makes a big difference. Some organizations donate $100 or more a month also. It really helps to provide reliable cash flow. We can only do what we can afford to do and that depends entirely on donations and memberships.

DONATE HERE

One-time donations or memberships

You can mail in a cheque or money order or pay online

MONTHLY DONATIONS HERE

choose $5 $10 $20 $50 $100 or more per month

E-TRANSFERS

please email us at admin@ontariohc.ca

Please know your support has made a measurable difference. For at least thirty years, we have stopped two-tier health care and we have successfully stopped any attempt to privatize our public hospitals. We have won amendments in the public interest to every single major piece of health care legislation, up until the Ford government took power. (The Ford government has not accepted any amendments to any of its health care legislation.) We stopped the Harris government’s attempt to privatize cancer care and diagnostics. We saved dozens of local small and rural hospitals and other vital services in towns across Ontario. In long-term care, we won improved funding, two baths a week and air conditioning for residents, and a commitment to a 4-hour minimum care standard. We have won many improvements in hospital funding and capacity. We stopped competitive bidding (a form of privatization) in home care, and improved working conditions and care levels.

I believe that we will succeed, once again, in safeguarding and forcing the rebuilding and improvement of our cherished public health care in the public interest. We have to. To let them dismantle and privatize it would be devastating for our province and our country.

I am also fundraising to complete our payments for the legal challenges we brought forward. One was a Charter Challenge to the Ford government's law that enables staff to force patients out of hospitals under threat of charging them $400 per day if they do not go to a long-term care home that is not of their choosing. The home can be substandard or far away -- up to 70 km away in Southern Ontario and up to 150 km away or more in Northern Ontario. The second legal challenge was against the government giving new 30-year licenses for thousands of long-term care beds to the worst for-profits that are responsible for terrible deaths and negligence. We lost both cases, though we did manage to get a lot of information through disclosures in the court cases and we will be publishing the results. Nonetheless, we still have to pay for them and we are deeply grateful to all of you who are able to help.

DONATE TO THE LEGAL FUND HERE

It has been a joy to stand alongside you in this cause and I look forward to continuing our work together. I hope you are ready for the big push this fall as we fight back against the cuts, educate the public and do everything possible to stop privatization.

Thank you so very much. It is the honour and pleasure of my life to do this work with you.

With warmest regards,

Natalie

Natalie Mehra

Executive Director

Ontario Health Coalition

15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201

North York, Ontario

M3C 1Y8

cell: 416-230-6402

email: natalie@ontariohc.ca

To contact the office please email info@ontariohc.ca or phone 416-441-2502.