This was a post made to the DAWN Ontario Women with DisAbilities' electronic list, reprinted with permission from list member, Kathleen Williams.

Actor and health care activist Shirley Douglas - daughter of Tommy Douglas, who started medicare in Canada - spoke outside the premiers' conference in Halifax last week.

Here is an edited excerpt (Toronto Star, August 6th, 2002).

Worth noting is Shirley Douglas' use of the term "Old Men", because I've heard that terminology so much over my life as the daughter of a Serviceman. "Old men make wars, and young men fight them". Actually taken in the context of Medicare, it basically means the same thing. Old men (that being the Premiers and Prime Minister and some of his cabinet, of this country) who have crested the hill, and have sufficient means to afford private medical care and choices, do not give a fiddler's fart about those coming up behind them.

Mr. Klein, in particular, infuriates me, as the Province of Alberta, where I was a resident for 30 years, promised all Albertans that our children and grandchildren would reap the benefits of the Heritage Trust Fund. To date I have yet to see any Alberta Provincial Government extend any 'leg up' to the citizens of that province by using the "Heritage Trust Fund". Case in point, the starving Alberta cattle, who are being generously helped by other provincial farmers, and the people who, because they are on Social Services, now are at the bottom of the list for MRI's, but if they had the cash to pay pronto, they would have the tests performed immediately. What a heritage that is!

Mr. Harris, just copycatted Mr. Klein's, 'slash and burn' policies and the promotion of hatred and distrust of the citizens of our society least able to defend or fend for themselves. And the rich and capable think his words, policies and procedures are gospel. It is so easy to speak when one is doing so from a position of securtiy and comfort. I hope Kimberley Rogers and her unborn infant are waiting at the foot of his grave when he exits this 'golf course'!

Mr. Campbell, in BC, is tearing down Human Rights as we speak, and giving minimal time for study and response to his proposals by the public. Railroading this through is just the beginning of what his government is going to do while they are in power and in the name of, so called, 'tax cuts' and 'tax reforms'. He cut back the Social Services recipients and then turned around and hired a number of professionals to fill positions where they would be, yet again, studying ..... (the interminable studying processes these governments get up to, is unbelievable), because he needed 'the best minds' for the job. I guess the 'best minds' is up for interpretation, dependent on the solutions that these 'best minds' come up with. I'd wager, the solutions have little to do with their lives and a lot more to do with the lives of the BC defenseless.

Why Canadians continue to elect majority governments, both federally and provincially, is beyond me. If Canadians were sincere in their 'watchdogging' efforts, they would only put in minority governments. That way all the participating parties would constantly have to scramble to satisfy the greater needs of the people who put them there in the first place. It would allow for them to scrutinize each other, and to our benefit, because they would be wanting to outshine and out perform each other. We could only be the winners in a situation like that.

My opinions only!

Three smiles to you, :) :) :)

Kathleen Williams

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Shirley Douglas speech - edited excerpt from Toronto Star August 6, 2002

It's a sad day and it's a bad day and we're watching right across this country the killing of health care. And don't anybody make the mistake that it's not being done on purpose.

I have watched this for he last five years. I've watched them create the crisis and then I have watched them come in with a cure. And apparently a cure is going to now be private MRIs across the country.

Old men in power, beware. You cannot have it both ways. You campaign on health care for every Canadian when that is not what you practise.

And the duplicity within your governments has now become so large that people see you for what you are. You talk one way when you
are at the premiers' conference, many of you.

You've been trying to privatize this almost since its inception. I watched this health-care system be born. But I watched it be born by a group of people who believed in it and that was why it worked.

We are now watching a health system that does not work because we have people running governments who don't believe in it, who are trying to sell it back to the companies that are their friends, who are willing to bring in private insurance companies.

In the end, the public is going to have to decide what stand to take.

My father would not be sad, my father would be so mad, but he also would have whipped this country up.

The public is going to have to step up and say, "Stop this, this is ours, and you're not going to take it away".

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About Kathleen Williams:
Kathleen is legally blind, on a Federal Disability Pension, since 1986. Some of her involvements include:

• Past Pres. White Cane Club, Penticton, B.C.,
• Past Director, 2nd Vice Pres., and Prov. Liaison with CCB/BC/Yukon Div.
• Past Member-at-large, Beta Sigma Phi,
• Past President, Theta Chapter, Calgary;
• Public Relations Chair, Hemer High School Reunion.

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This page was updated August 7th, 2002