CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

Stop Bill 60

No more privatization of Ontario’s healthcare!

Last week, Health Minister Sylvia Jones introduced a bill that would expand private, for-profit clinics. Bill 60, misleadingly titled Your Health Act, would make permanent the government’s plans allowing for-profit clinics to perform OHIP-covered surgeries and diagnostic procedures – and it has already gone through two readings.

This legislation also allows for-profit clinics to upsell patients by offering services that are not covered by OHIP. Health advocates have already raised concerns that there is not sufficient oversight to ensure transparency for these extra charges, and that additional private services will pull staff away from the public hospitals where they are desperately needed.

act.leadnow.ca

Enough Is Enough

When: March 10th, 7pm
Where: Accolade Building East 102, York University

Chris Smalls is leading a new generation of young, racialized workers who are transforming the labour movement in North America. In 2022, Chris led a successful union drive among thousands of Amazon workers at the JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York.

ofl.ca

Celebrating Stories of Nonviolence

When: March 11th, 3pm
Tickets: $5

Join World BEYOND War for the 3rd annual virtual film festival! This year’s festival explores the power of nonviolent action, from Gandhi’s Salt March, to ending war in Liberia, to civil discourse and healing in Montana.

worldbeyondwar.org

Film: Cuba’s Life Task

When: March 12th, at 2pm
Where: GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth Ave

Film: Cuba’s Life Task and information about the Volunteer Work Brigade to Cuba from April 27 to May 11.

Facebook poster

Teach-In: Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

When: March 13th, 1:30pm EST

Northwestern University Turkish Studies program will have an interview over Zoom with valuable experts and academics on earthquakes. (The event will be in English.)

zoom.us

Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler

When: Mondays at 6pm

Join author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession and exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments and criticisms are all welcome.

zoom.us

Threat of Privatization: Lessons from Homecare

When: Monday March 13th, at 7pm

The Ford government is rushing to move surgeries and diagnostics out of hospitals and to private, for-profit providers. We only need to look to the crisis in home care to see the long-term results of private, for-profit care.

The claim is that privatization is innovation, but homecare was largely outsourced to for-profit providers in the 1990s and has been in a state of crisis ever since. Expert speakers and patients will give an in-depth status update on the crisis in our communities and detail how privatization has worsened care and working conditions.

Register for the town hall.

Manifesto for an Ecosocial Energy Transition

More than two years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – and now alongside the catastrophic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a “new normal” has emerged. This new global status quo reflects a worsening of various crises: social, economic, political, ecological, bio-medical, and geopolitical. Environmental collapse approaches. Everyday life has become ever more militarized. Access to good food, clean water, and affordable health care has become even more restricted. More governments have turned autocratic. The wealthy have become wealthier, the powerful more powerful, and unregulated technology has only accelerated these trends.

Source: The Bullet No. 2787

What Happened to Ending Child Poverty in Canada?

By Doreen Nicoll

Ending poverty is a policy choice. Government knows what needs to be done, they have the resources, so now we need political will and action. The national child poverty rate declined by 40 per cent from 2019 to 2020. That’s the greatest year over year decrease since the federal government promised to eradicate child poverty in 1989. Yet, nearly one in eight children still lived in poverty in 2020. That’s just shy of one million children.

Source: The Bullet No. 2788

To Renew Working-Class Resistance, the Labour Movement Must Be Democratized

Since its initial publication in 1988, From Consent to Coercion: The Continuing Assault on Labour by Bryan Evans, Carlo Fanelli, Don Swartz, and the late, Leo Panitch has offered leftists an exhaustive history of the onslaughts against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada. The book charts the increasingly brutal setbacks and depredations experienced by organized labour, from the postwar decades to today. These developments are explained thorough a Marxist lens, through which the authors carry out a rigorous, oftentimes withering analysis of labour issues and politics.

Source: The Bullet No. 2789

There’s Money Galore for Private Clinics – While They Starve Public Healthcare

By Doug Allan

Actual provincial program spending is much less than “planned.” Provincial spending was $6.4-billion less than planned over the first nine months of the fiscal year 2022/23 according to the Financial Accountability Office (FAO). That is 5.0% less than budgeted. After the first half of the year, the FAO had reported that the government had underspent its budget by 4.1% ($3.5-billion). Health was underspent by $1.25-billion – or 2.3% less than planned. This is an increase from an underspend of $859-million reported by the FAO after the first half of the year.

Source: The Bullet No. 2790