Carney attacks refugees while destroying medicare

Protests have erupted at federal Liberal MP offices across the country to call on the Carney government to enforce the Canada Health Act. The protests are a response to the unprecedented threat to Medicare posed by Alberta’s recently adopted Bill 11, which blows a massive hole in public healthcare across the country.

 

In Toronto, dozens of people gathered during rush-hour in front of MP Julie Dzerowicz’s office to demand action from the federal government against both Alberta and Ontario’s violations of the Act.

 

A week later, dozens more protested in front of the same office – this time, demanding that the federal government rescind cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program for refugees, to be enacted May 1st.

 

These cruel cuts will impact the most vulnerable in our society and have been denounced by healthcare providers and refugee advocates across the country. The Canadian Paediatric Society stated that the cuts “will create an insurmountable barrier to essential healthcare for some of the most marginalized families in Canada.”

 

And the cuts are taking place at a time when federal Bill C-12 will mean thousands of people losing their status and facing deportation.

 

These two Toronto protests underline how the federal Liberals prefer to scapegoat refugees rather than tackle the all-out assault on public health care in Canada – an assault that they are aiding and abetting each day through their silence on Danielle Smith and Doug Ford’s privatization juggernaut.

 

The federal government is proceeding with huge cuts to social programs and redirecting those funds to military spending. They are happy to direct anger away from themselves even if it fuels Pierre Poilievre and the far right.

 

To fight Doug Ford and Danielle Smith’s attacks on public health care, we need to fight Carney’s cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program and demand healthcare for all. The federal Liberals have been in power since 2015. In that time, they have allowed more and more privatization of health care services across the country. 

 

Carney is as responsible as the Premiers for the destruction of public healthcare and his right-wing agenda will only build the far-right.