Health for All

For updates, live tweets, and photos, follow @healthforallTO

Today, 90 doctors have occupied Conservative MP, Joe Oliver’s, office. Health For All, a group of migrant and health justice activists, health care workers and allies, is inspired by and expresses its firm support for doctors denouncing the changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP).

On Wednesday April 25th, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Jason Kenney, announced sweeping changes to the IFHP – a program that provides temporary basic healthcare coverage to resettled refugees and those claiming asylum in Canada. If Mr. Kenney’s changes are pushed through as planned on June 30, 2012, thousands of refugees across Canada currently receiving care under the IFHP will find themselves without access to healthcare, unless their health conditions are deemed a threat to “public safety.”

Health for All denounces these proposed changes as fundamentally unjust, and asserts that they are predicated on false assumptions regarding the health of migrants and on a myopic vision of public health. We declare these changes a threat to public safety and the health of migrant communities. As health care providers, we have an obligation to speak out against the root of these pathologies: regressive immigration policy changes, and the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney.

Draconian changes to the IFHP are only the most recent of a barrage of assaults by this government on the public healthcare and immigration system. The Conservative government is continuing its push to implement Bill C-31, legislation that would grant Jason Kenney arbitrary authority to designate certain countries as “safe”, thereby fast-tracking safe-country claimants’ deportation. Under Bill C-31, Kenney would also introduce mandatory incarceration for many refugees (1). Recently, failed refugee claimant Veronica Castro was murdered 30 days after her deportation to Mexico – a country widely expected to be designated “safe” if Kenney has his way (2).

The Harper government has also legislated a two-tier wage system for foreign migrant workers who can now be paid 15% less than the average wage a Canadian would receive for the same work (3). These changes are not isolated pieces of legislation but part of an organized and vicious attack by Jason Kenney and a vocal anti-migrant movement within the Conservative Party that is directly targeting the health of refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented people, and foreign workers openly, and with flagrant disregard for international law and responsibility.

We must also situate Kenney’s attack on migrants within global economic processes that are currently underway. As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, and a global move towards austerity measures, Canada is currently seeing a massive transfer of public dollars into private hands. All the while, we are also witnessing an upsurge in the scapegoating of migrants. Underlying Mr. Kenney’s proposed changes to the IFHP, is the false pretense that migrants are abusing Canada’s immigration system in order to gain access to health services. Mr. Kenney writes in a statement, “With this reform, we are also taking away an incentive from people who may be considering filing an unfounded refugee claim in Canada.” (4) In reality, there is no evidence that migrants make false refugee claims in order to access health services. In fact, data from Statistics Canada indicates that immigrants to Canada are on average healthier than Canadian-born citizens. (5) Additionally, there is no evidence that immigrants to Canada receive more services than their Canadian-born counterparts. Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s own data for example, reveals that “refugees do not receive more financial assistance from the federal government than Canadian pensioners [and] the IFHP Drug Benefit Program matches the formulary of the respective Provincial/Territorial drug benefit program for social assistance recipients.” (7) Decisions to cut social services, including cuts to IFHP, are propped up by anti-migrant hysteria, while migrants are being conveniently blamed for a financial crisis they didn’t create.

In his statement regarding cuts to the IFHP, Kenney claims the Canadian government is “keeping with Canada’s proud humanitarian tradition” to provide “immediate and essential services and support to help [refugees]establish in Canada.” (5) One might then wonder why the IFH program, which costs $84 million per year is being gutted at a time when Canada is set to buy 65 F35 fighter jets at the cost of $385 million? (7, 8) Decisions to cut access to health care aren’t being made because we need to ‘tighten our belts,’ they are decisions deeply rooted in right-wing ideology and not in the interest of public health and safety. These decisions are also not based on sound evidence or on an understanding of social justice (9). Planned austerity measures are forcing those who are exploited for Canada's economic growth to pay for the crimes of reckless finance, through unemployment, reduced standards of living, withdrawal of social services and denial of the human right to health care. This, at a time when those who rank among the country’s richest 1% took 32% of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007, and are currently taking home more gains from economic growth than ever before in recorded history (10).

When people are pushed to the brinks, resistance is reborn and communities reenergized. We will not sit idle while thousands of refugees and asylum seekers lose access to vital health services. As activists, students, nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers, we are in solidarity with a growing number of medical personnel rejecting the draconian and racist policies of this government. We are inspired to be part of a movement that asserts that all people have the right to health and reject Kenney’s proposed changes to IFHP as well as the Conservative government’s continued attack on migrants through Bill C-31 and changes to the temporary foreign worker program. We will struggle along side refugees and asylum seekers until we stop Mr. Kenney’s cruel plan. Together, we demand “Health for All!”

Join Health for All at a strategic planning session to find out more about these proposed changes to IFH and how we can work together. Community members, service providers and concerned allies welcome.

Date and Time: Thursday, May 31st, 7:00 PM

Location: Room TBA, 12th floor, OISE (252 Bloor Street West, Toronto)

Follow us on twitter at: @HealthForAllTO

Further information at: www.health4all.ca

Email us at: healthforalltoronto@gmail.com

References
1. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1169015--migrant...
2. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/19/veronica-mexico-refugee.html
3. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1168905--two-tiered-wa...
4. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/11/16/healthy-immigrants-effect...
5. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-04-25.asp
6. https://www.medavie.bluecross.ca/cs/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable...
7. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/faq/refugees/index.asp
8. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/25/pol-refugees-health-cov...
9. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57385887/f-35-fighter-training-leave...
10. http://www.canada.com/health/Cuts+refugee+health+insurance+dangerous+doc...
11. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/richest-1-income...

For Immediate Release

Supreme Court of Canada denies life-saving healthcare to poor immigrants

Friday, April 6, 2012

Toronto – In a stunning blow for poor immigrants living without health insurance in Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear Nell Toussaint’s leave application to determine her constitutional right to access healthcare, effectively barring access to healthcare for thousands of uninsured people needing medical treatment.

“When people do not want to allow me to have access to the healthcare I require, I feel that my life and health are devalued because of my immigration status, ” said Ms Toussaint. “ The Supreme Court’s decision saddens me because I fear my health will further deteriorate and I don’t know what I’ll do because I don’t have the money to pay for tests and treatment.”

Ms. Toussaint is a 42 year old woman who has lived in Canada since 1999. She came to Canada from Grenada on a visitor’s visa and worked to support herself, including paying for minor medical care when needed, until her health began to deteriorate in 2006. At that time, she developed an abscess and kidney problems secondary to diabetes, which left her unable to work. In 2008, having been denied medical care on multiple occasions for her worsening health, she applied for a temporary residence permit that would make her eligible for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. Her application however, was never processed, as she was unable to pay the application fee.

Dr. Meb Rashid, a family physician who has worked extensively with refugee populations, highlighted the injustice of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Ms Toussaint’s leave application. “Health care is a human right and it is unacceptable to deny necessary healthcare to residents of Canada, regardless of their immigration status,” Dr. Rashid said.

Angela Robertson, Director of Equity and Community Engagement and chair of the Network for Uninsured Clients at Toronto's Women College Hospital agreed, saying the decision is a blow to many living without health insurance. "The Supreme Court of Canada decision has effectively sanctioned denying access to care based on immigration status. We know that illness does not distinguish between insured and uninsured and therefore access to care shouldn't either," said Ms Robertson." I think this is unethical and I think most Canadians would agree that the decision is simply unjust."

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Media Liaison: Nikki Bozinoff, Health for All. 1-289-700-4191

Also available for comment:
Dr. Meb Rashid, family physician working with refugee populations in Toronto
Angela Robertson, Director of Equity and Community Engagement at Toronto’s Women College Hospital
Andrew Dekany, Barrister & Solicitor

For more information about Nell Toussaint's case:

1. Supreme Court to Decide April 5th on Leave Application in Undocumented Migrants Right to Healthcare Case, background information: http://www.socialrightscura.ca/eng/legal-strategies-right-to-healthcare....
2. Read the Application for Leave to Appeal here: http://www.socialrights.ca/litigation/toussaint/IFH%20APEAL/Applicants%2...

Health for All reaffirms its support for Indigenous sovereignty and for Indigenous communities enacting their rights and responsibilities over their territories. We are aware of the dark history of colonization and displacement on this land, one that remains ongoing to this day with continuing negative health impacts on indigenous peoples’ bodies, waters, and lands.

We are deeply concerned by the current situation being faced by Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) Nation, a small fly-in Oji-Cree community located in Northwestern Ontario. As in 2008, KI is once again having to defend its sovereignty against extractive industry interests being pursued by the government of Ontario. God’s Lake Inc., a mining corporation, in tandem with the government of Ontario, is seeking to drill directly overtop KI sacred burial sites in flagrant disrespect and violation of the community’s right to free, prior and informed consent over any activity on their territory.

KI is seeking to protect 13,000sq km of its pristine watershed homeland from contamination by extractive industrial activity. On July 6, 2011, with an overwhelming 96% of voter support, KI adopted the Water Declaration and Consultation Protocols to outline its relationship with the Federal Government, the Government of Ontario, and corporations. The declaration is rooted in the understanding that a people’s control over local land and water is vital for healthy living and traditional livelihoods.

With the government of Ontario refusing to respect KI sovereignty rights, KI is calling for support. We, Health for All, endorse the KI Watershed Declaration and Consultation Protocols and join numerous other organizations, unions, and community groups in standing in solidarity with KI defending its sovereignty over its lands.

We call on all our supporters and allies to take similar action now.

What you can do:

1. For more information on KI and to endorse KI’s Water Declaration and Consultation Protocols visit: www.KIlands.org

2. Immediately sign a petition at: http://kilands.org/tell-mcguinty-to-respect-ki-sacred-landscape/

3. Call the Minister of Mining & Northern Affairs Now!

Ontario is currently violating Native land rights and sacred burial sites by allowing gold mining company God’s Lake Resources to explore and prospect Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) sacred burial grounds WITHOUT consultation or consent.

CALL BETWEEN 1pm & 2pm, EVERYDAY!

Ontario has devastatingly ignored Native land rights for TOO LONG. KI protects all life by resisting mining abuse on their traditional territory. Speak out to support KI! Call Bartolucci and demand that Ontario respect KI sacred burial sites and land rights NOW!

CALL NOW: 416-327-0633 – Ask for Rick Bartolucci (Minister of Mining and Northern Affairs) or leave a message.
You can also reach him directly at his constituency office: 705-675-1914

Backgrounder: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/652

================

Phone Script:

List of demands and some points to mention:

-Demand that Gods Lake Resources’ mining exploration project in the KI sacred landscape stops immediately.

-It is a disgrace that your government has recorded claims and allowed God's Lake Resources to access KI territory near Sherman Lake even after your minister was notified of the presence of sacred burials in the area and after your government promised to build a new relationship with First Nations and the environment.

-Ontario must finally begin to respect Native land rights by recognizing and respecting KI’s Water Declaration and Consultation Protocol.

-Respect KI’s moratorium on all logging, mining exploration and industrial activity unless and until they have been agreed to through KI’s Consultation Protocol.

You can conclude by saying:

I will continue watching this situation closely, and I will continue to take action to ensure that KI’s Declaration and Protocol are recognized and respected by all governments and corporations.

Follow and be ready to support:
www.KIlands.org
www.facebook.com/TorontoKIsupport

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Toronto – A group of health professionals started off the budget discussions at City Hall today by presenting Rob Ford and City Council with a "prescription" for Toronto: "Stop the Cuts. Ensure services for undocumented people."

"Ford's PR machinery is on full steam right now, blowing up his weight loss program and his health regimen while he tries to push through a city budget that will make people, particularly immigrants without full status, sicker in this city," says Nanky Rai, a public health specialist who was at City Hall earlier today.

Toronto City Council is beginning deliberations today on the 2012 City Budget with $80 million in cuts. Health providers are specially concerned about a 9.8% decrease in community grant programs, which will see cuts to HIV/AIDS programming, funds for undocumented migrants and more.

Zabia Afzal, a Public Health Policy Fellow at the University of Toronto added, “With these cuts, we will see unhealthy families, and unhealthy communities. Without an immediate expansion of vital services for all, we can expect to live in a sick and broken Toronto.”

Today’s action is part of an ongoing effort by affected communities to resist City Hall’s plans to impose cuts. Health for All will be joining unions, the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network and many organizations to demand health, status and justice for all at 5:30pm later today.

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Media Liaison: Nanky Rai 416-602-0131

Health for All is a multidisciplinary group of migrants, healthcare professionals, students, activists and allies. We believe health is a fundamental human right and a matter of social justice. Health requires not only access to services for maintaining physical and mental health, but requires full economic, social, environmental, and political rights for all people.

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Toronto – In a stunning set back for poor immigrants, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Nell Toussaint’s leave application to determine her constitutional right to a waiver of the $550 application fee for the Humanitarian and Compassionate application, effectively slamming shut the door on thousands of people seeking to regularize their immigration status.

"I went to the Supreme Court of Canada to ask that the $550 fee that immigrants have to pay before their Humanitarian and Compassionate application is even processed be waived for poor people like me," explained Nell Toussaint. "I don't understand why the Supreme Court Justices refused to even hear this case."

On April 29, 2011, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Citizenship and Immigration Canada should consider on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds not rejecting an immigration application from individuals unable to pay the $550 application fee. However, before the Court’s decision was made, Parliament had legislated changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act so that Humanitarian and Compassionate application fees could only be waived if the Minister himself filed on behalf of the applicant.

Because the Federal Court of Appeal had rejected Ms. Toussaint’s claim to a constitutional right to a fee waiver, this change means that the fee waiver that the Federal Court of Appeal ruled on does not apply to anyone but Ms. Toussaint.

"I filed my Humanitarian and Compassionate application with a request for a fee waiver on July 12, 2011, but am still waiting to hear if my fee has been waived," adds Toussaint, a 42 year old woman, who has lived in Canada since 1999. "Even if it is waived for me, it’s not enough. I applied to the Supreme Court of Canada to try to make sure that all poor immigrants could have this chance."

"We are devastated that the Supreme Court has again refused to hear a case involving poverty," commented Bonnie Morton, Chairperson of the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, an intervener in the case. "Poor people in Canada have been trying for twenty years to get the Court to consider whether discrimination against poor people is contrary to the equality guarantee of the Charter, particularly when it denies access to justice as in this case. It is high time that this was dealt with by the Supreme Court. It is difficult for poor people to get to court on issues like this, and even more difficult for immigrants seeking legal status. Nell Toussaint has brought this appeal forward to help all poor people in Canada and we do not know when the Court will have another chance to consider this critical issue.”

Sharry Aiken, an immigration expert and law professor at Queen's University agrees. "Nell Toussaint won the right to be considered for a fee waiver under Section 25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which the Harper government amended to preclude fee waivers in response to this litigation. The federal government did an end run around the judicial system to ensure that poor immigrants are denied access to the only remedy available for regularizing their status in Canada. Today the Supreme Court of Canada refused to right that wrong."

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Media Liaison:
Bonnie Morton, Chairperson of the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues
Email: bonnie.morton@gmail.com

Also available for comment:
Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University
Email: aiken@queensu.ca

Raj Anand, Counsel for the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues
Email: RANAND@weirfoulds.com

Andrew Dekany, Barrister & Solicitor
Email: andrew@dekany.ca

October 15, 2011

To whom it may concern:

Health for All is a multidisciplinary group of migrants, healthcare professionals, students, activists and allies. We are a migrant justice organization that calls for access to health services without fear of debt, denial of service, detention or deportation. We also call for full status regularization for all people.

We support the work that the Canadian Council for Refugees has undertaken to raise awareness about Bill C-4 and to mobilize individuals and organizations to take action to ensure that the Bill does not pass. Although we stand with you in opposing Bill C-4, we respectfully ask that you reconsider the language used in the preamble which reads, “The government should address the problem of smuggling in ways that do not punish refugees.” In particular, we challenge your assumption that so-called “human smuggling” is a practice that ought to be punished and that such a practice is problematic.

As you know, the reasons people migrate are complex. To quote No One Is Illegal organizer Syed Hussan, “People move because they want to. People move to escape war, environmental collapse and lack of economic opportunity. People move for love, for fear. People move because they always have. “ Indeed, although we reject all forms of coerced or forced migration and human trafficking, we also assert that where people have the will to move, that they should do so freely.

Globally we are witnessing increasingly restrictive immigration policies, policed borders, reduced numbers of individuals granted refugee status, and more people of colour from the global south exploited and injured as temporary workers and subsequently denied status. It comes as no surprise then, that individuals are forced to undertake increasingly dangerous journeys, often risking their lives, their health, and often with the help “human smugglers”, or forged documents. Again, we affirm that far from being a crime, human smuggling is a right.

For as long as governments have asserted control of mobility along their borders, people have sought assistance to cross them. Whether it be Albert Einstein who fled persecution in 1935 with forged identification papers because of the support of those who would, today, be labeled human smugglers or the tens of thousands in the United States who, with the assistance of dedicated abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, navigated the underground railroad in order to find freedom from slavery – human smuggling has been commemorated and celebrated as an act of necessity, as an act of courage, as an act of resistance to persecution and injustice.

We feel that the language used in the preamble of your list of organizations opposed to C-4, acts to create a moral hierarchy of migration wherein refugees are depicted as having a “legitimate” cause for migration and all other types of migrants, including those who use the assistance of “smugglers” are depicted as illegitimate, even criminal. We feel that it is exactly this language, legitimate versus illegitimate, that Minister Kenney will use to advance Bill C-4. Again, we assert, it is not human smuggling that is the problem. Rather, it is the restrictive, racist, and often violent immigration policies that bar individuals’ freedom of movement and freedom to access health care that must be resisted. No One is Illegal! Health for All!

Respectfully,

Health for All

Health For All calls on all of our supporters and allies to join us in the health contingent at this year’s May Day of action to demand justice & dignity for all migrants!

March to push immigration enforcement out of our hospitals, health centres and out of Toronto! Demand access to healthcare without fear of debt, denial of services, detention & deportation! Stop cuts to public services! Universal health coverage for all! Universal status
regularization for all!

Hundreds of thousands of people with precarious status in Canada continue to be denied access to healthcare because they are uninsured. From the 3 month OHIP waiting period for new immigrants in Ontario to the discriminatory second tier Interim Federal Health Program for refugee claimants to the workplace injuries of temporary foreign workers and to the thousands of dollars in hospital fees charged to the uninsured, every year migrants die from entirely preventable causes because they are denied equal status and are excluded from our healthcare system.

Meanwhile, a racist Conservative government is mounting an election campaign on an unprecedented anti-migrant platform. Having delivered massive funding cuts to immigration settlement agencies and declaring health centres serving migrants with an anti-oppression framework as ‘nonsense,’ this government is rapidly overseeing a cultural shift to the right.

Health For All joins No One Is Illegal in calling on all those that believe in health, food, shelter, housing, education, childcare and livelihood for all people and against the racist scapegoating of migrants to join us on International Workers Day, the 6th Annual No One Is Illegal May Day of Action.

For more info, see:

http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/MayDay

http://www.health4all.ca/

Health For All deplores Roy Green’s recent attack on anti-oppression in an article titled “Systematic Oppression in Canada, with Help from Ottawa,” published in the National Post on March 2011.

Specifically, Green attacks Access Alliance’s focus on anti-oppression principles and practices in their delivery of community services. Joining this attack is Celyste Power, Press Secretary for Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney, who responded to Green’s inquiry about the funding for Access Alliance, saying that anti-oppression is “nonsense, jujune and sophomoric,” and adding that Citizenship and Immigration Canada “does not stand for these types of things” and if immigrants have succeeded in Canada it’s because “they worked hard and played by the rules.” A few days after the publishing of this racist article, Minister Kenny himself continued the attack on anti-oppression on Green’s radio show, calling it “dribble.”

In this age of “austerity” and increasing shift to the right in mainstream media and society, it is not surprising that government officials and their political pundits are stepping up their racist rhetoric in an effort to scapegoat migrants and poor people in economically uncertain times. The recent defunding of 53 million dollars from migrant and settlement agencies, the push for the criminalization of ‘human smugglers’, the detention of 492 Tamil migrants, and the cuts to the Special Diet for poor people are just a few recent example of the scapegoating of migrants and the poor. This scapegoating of migrants and cuts to community services are being made by the same government that has been doling out billions of dollars to build more prisons, purchase F-35 fighter jets and to give corporation enormous tax cuts. And so the attacks continue towards migrants and poor people who are accused of ‘jumping the queue’ or ‘cheating the system’ as they languish in precarious working conditions and poverty.

Contrary to what Jason Kenny thinks, this “dribble” called anti-oppression is a mechanism that has been put in place by many community organizations and health clinics across the country to ensure that people are protected and respected regardless of immigration status, race, creed, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age and ability. Anti-oppression acknowledges that some people are more privileged than others and that injustices are perpetuated not just by those people who are privileged, but also by language, institutions, cultures and systems. This oppression is systemic in Canadian society evidenced by a few salient examples: women of colour earn 53.4 cents for every dollar earned by white men (CCPA, 2010); the poverty rate for immigrants is 34.1 percent (StatCan, 2008); 50% of poor families in Toronto are from racialized communities (Samuel, 2006); and racialized communities are grossly over-represented in the homeless population (HRSDC, 2010). Within healthcare institutions, people are denied services daily because of their status, which can make them ineligible for OHIP. In addition people without status are not accessing healthcare services because of fear of deportation, lack of translation services, and exorbitant fees.

This systemic oppression is also historical. But it seems that Green, Power and Kenny have selective amnesia, forgetting about Canada’s long history of oppression, such as the racist imposition of a separate tax on Chinese immigrants in the early 1900s or the denial of entry of 930 Jewish refugees on board the SS St. Louis boat who were forced to return to Europe and who most likely met their death at the hands of the Nazis in 1939, or the long history of colonization and violence committed against Indigenous Peoples and land.

Green ends his racist article with this question to Access Alliance: “please name one nation which does not engage in systemic oppression based on race, ethnicity, creed, class, gender, sexual orientation, mental health, status, age and ability”. Perhaps Roy Green does not realize that he has contradicted himself, arguing that Canada is both free from systemic oppression and also that all “nations” engage in systemic oppression. But aside from this flaw in logic, we recognize the blatant racism and xenophobia of Green’s article and we reject it.

Health For All will fight the likes of Roy Green and others who attack migrants and the poor. We recognize the value and urgency in implementing an anti-oppression framework in not only service delivery and community-based organizations, but in all spaces that bring people together and specifically in healthcare settings.

Health For All demands the respect of all people through an anti-oppression framework and calls for universal access to healthcare and status regularization of all people because no one is illegal.