Canadian Political Notes

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss.

Won’t Get Fooled Again, The Who

Let’s say you have a group of people who get routinely discriminated against in almost every facet of life, are the victims of a disproportionate number of crimes compared to an average citizen and who suffer from a medical condition so severe that, while not life-threatening in the physical sense, leads to a disproportionate number of suicides and generally prevents most people afflicted with the condition from enjoying their life in any meaningful capacity. One would think the least that the government could do is protect this group under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

While somewhat belatedly, at least someone is finally trying to reach out to transsexual and transgendered individuals. Bill Siksay, the NDP MP who won the election in Svend Robinson’s old riding had introduced an amendment to include this group of people under the CHRA. This would bring potentially increased penalties to those convicted of hate crimes against transgendered individuals; it would give these individuals legal standing to fight the discrimination they face in society and it would hopefully expand the number of such individuals who are entitled to sex-change operations under the Canadian health care system.

However, unfortunately this bill will only be voted on if it is selected through the Parliament’s lottery system. That doesn’t sound promising and I don’t have any more details on that. Even if this amendment will likely never go anywhere, it demonstrates another reason why I like a lot of what the NDP does.

Secondly, the Supreme Court ruled against the Canadian Health Act today in the case of Chaoulli v. Quebec. While I hope this argument forces the government to put more money towards medical services, I truly worry about what this decision may mean for the future of Canadian healthcare. The public system is not perfect by any means, but I prefer it to a two-tier or completely privatised system, both philosophically and objectively. I can see little problem with the recommendations of Senator Michael Kirby, who suggested that provinces pay for private treatment if the patient isn't treated within a certain timeframe. However, a completely two-tier system is something I do not support and where I fear this ruling might lead within a few years.

I know very few people who have spent as much time in hospital as I have. The notion that my family and I would be forced to spend a chunk of our savings on my healthcare just because I happened to have medical problems doesn’t seem right. Even more troubling is the notion that I could gain access to faster and better care than someone just as sick as myself because my family happens to be upper-middle class. Canadians have constantly supported medicare, despite the costs, and polls indicate that people would be willing to pay even more in taxes if it meant better healthcare services. While universal healthcare is an important Canadian symbol, people support it for many valid reasons and many articles and studies have demonstrated that concerns about two-tiered systems are valid. I’ll might have more on this in a couple of days, when I have more time and I’ve read a bit more analysis about the opinion.