UPDATE The attack on our public health care in the Cambie case
In September 2020, the BC Supreme Court dealt a strong blow to the efforts of Dr. Brian Day and others to undermine Canada’s public health care system.
Despite our win, we have been dragged back into the courts by Dr. Day and his supporters as they appeal the previous decision. Earlier this month, we listened to the BC Court of Appeal’s hearing for the Cambie case.
Appellate courts look at potential errors in how the law was applied in the trial judge’s verdict. The appellants [led by Cambie Surgeries Corporation], however, attempted to re-try some of their arguments by presenting just a small cherry-picked selection of the evidence heard at trial. Read the full summary of what we heard at the trial here, and if you haven’t yet, take the pledge to support public health care.
TAKE ACTION
 | Winning Paid Sick Days in BC BC workers need ten days of permanent, accessible, employer-paid sick leave. The BC NDP has promised to introduce permanent paid sick days starting on January 1, 2022, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be the legislation we need unless we demand better. |
Join BC Federation of Labour, allies, and frontline health care workers for a discussion on how we win at this July 7th event.
OPINION Cambie Surgery Centre’s appeal of 2020 court ruling prioritizes profits over progress
“A glance south of the border is all we need to see how difficult it is to wrestle control from powerful private interests once they gain control of a health system”.
Read BC Health Coalition Co-Chair Edith MacHattie and Canadian Doctors for Medicare Chair Dr. Melanie Bechard in the Vancouver Sun here.
PUBLIC HEALTH NEWS, UPDATES, & RESOURCES
- No Translation, No Vaccine for Some Immigrant Seniors. BCHC member Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, as well as others in Vancouver’s Chinatown, have stepped up to fill in the gaps in our communities so that the most vulnerable are able to receive their vaccines. “If they don’t have the language support, they just won’t go”. Read the full story HERE.
- #MakeReveraPublic – Building on our momentum. As Revera’s ownership by the federal crown corporation and pension fund known as PSP Investments becomes more widely recognized, the demand to transfer Revera’s tragically failed for-profit long-term care facilities into publicly owned homes grows and gains momentum. Please watch the full virtual town-hall to learn about the potential to make this campaign an unstoppable force right across the country HERE.
- Long-Term Care Facility Workers’ Perceptions of the Impact of Subcontracting on their Conditions of Work and the Quality of Care. Care workers lost wages, benefits, security, and voice. Their working conditions worsened, with workload and turnover increasing, resulting in a loss of experienced staff and a loss of time to provide care – full report HERE.
- REACH Community Health Centre issues a Call to Action to address the opioid crisis and unveils ‘A Sign’, a passionate spoken-word video that shines a powerful, compassionate and penetrating light on the people caught in addictions, and points to the systemic barriers in which so many are trapped. Watch HERE.
- The current workers’ compensation system in BC is stacked against workers. “The Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) is structured like a private insurance company, with inadequate compensation and arbitrary benefit cut-offs for injured workers”. Read the full report from BC Federation of Labour HERE.
- Public medicare is on trial, pay attention. Are we ready for medically necessary care to be allocated based on ability to pay, instead of need? Read the opinion piece HERE
Click HERE to donate to the BC Health Coalition
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website: www.bchealthcoalition.ca email: info@bchealthcoalition.ca