Support the Dominion
Donate today!
Support the Dominion
Donate today!
In June, the world's most powerful heads of state will gather in Toronto with the purpose of shaping their preferred global order. The Dominion will publish a special issue on the G8 and G20 meetings and protests. Plans by a Toronto health clinic to allow quick access to medical expertise and more time with doctors for a fee is a violation of the Canada Health Act, according to the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC).
According to a legal opinion prepared for the OHC by a Toronto law firm, doctors who accept fees for "queue jumping" and patients who pay them could be fined as much as $10,000. The planned clinics, run by Vancouver-based Copeman Healthcare Inc., will charge patients a $3,500 registration fee.
In a letter to Health Minister George Smitherman, the OHC called on the Ontario government to "curb the growth of boutique medicine and private for-profit clinics." According to the OHC -- which represents over 400 organizations including womens' groups, trade unions and antipoverty groups -- the government has the power to close loopholes, but has not.
According to a Canadian Press report, Smitherman has warned Copeman Healthcare that it could be fined, saying that "any attempt to extricate from an Ontarian a certain financial sum in advance of the provision of a medically insured service is not on." He did not comment on the request to "close loopholes".
» Canadian Press: Proposed private health clinics violate law
» Official Site: Ontario Health Coalition
There is a crisis in the media in the West. The Murdoch wannabes are swallowing more and more of what we used to call the free press. There are honourable exceptions, and a beacon among them is The Dominion which, in its coverage of its community, of Canada and the wider world, is a rare, authentic independent voice -- of people not of power. I salute The Dominion.