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Kat Lanteigne, executive director for BloodWatch.org and writer of the play Tainted based on three-years of research about the tainted blood scandal, travelled to Alberta to help spread the message about concerns about private, donor-paid plasma collection. Lanteigne said these types of clinics had started to show up in Ontario in the last few years. "This is a big-pharma push," she said. "If they can build a clinic and get a licence from Health Canada then they can open without the province's permission." She said that the private sale and collection of blood and plasma introduces risk into the system. She also dispelled another myth that plasma is being imported into the country. She said that is not the case, as about 70 per cent of the drugs produced from plasma is what is being imported. When successful in the fight to get Ontario to legislate against private, donor-paid plasma collection at the end of 2014, and because Quebec has a similar law, Lanteigne said they made the mistake of thinking that because the largest provinces in Canada had done this, the rest of the provinces would follow suit.

Instead, as part of one of her first decisions, the new federal Liberal Health Minister approved CPR opening a clinic in Saskatchewan. Lanteigne says the Saskatchewan government, led by Premier Brad Wall, then approved the private, donor-paid plasma collection business to open in Saskatoon, "in between a pawn shop and a pay-day loan company." "This collection facility is a blood broker. They are literally a middle man Ñ a source to get profits. "We're asking the provinces and territories to pass voluntary blood donation acts which adds blood and plasma to their existing human tissue acts ..." Lanteigne explained. There is a lot of information on the BloodWatch.org website about the issue, including an informative timeline. The organization also has a Heart Watch rating system. Alberta currently has three hearts and Lanteigne would like to see that increase to five. "Saskatchewan has broken our hearts," she adds.

Kim Storebo, CUPE Local 46 president who works with Canadian Blood Services (CBS), also spoke at the event. She said CUPE supports a public, voluntary-based blood system in Canada, adding CBS needs to increase the number of its own plasma collection sites. The organization has been slowly closing locations since 2012. "There is no evidence the collection of plasma from paid donors will create self-sufficiency," she said. "Under no circumstances should there be payment of blood plasma donors with cash or cash-in-kind equivalents." The union wants to see blood and plasma collection remain the sole responsibility of Canadian Blood Services and for the organization to expand its plasma collection and its work hours and ensure stable and consistent hours for its employees. As part of the wrap-up of the Alberta tour officials with FOM, BloodWatch.org and CUPE presented an online SumOfUs petition with more than 15,000 signatures to provincial health minister Sarah Hoffman asking for all provincial governments to "implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood plasma collection clinics are allowed to operate in Canada." Azocar assured those at the meetings that Friends of Medicare would continue to lobby the Alberta government this fall and next spring during the Legislature sittings.

Indeed, this nasty internal fight is remarkably similar to what the Republican Party establishment is undergoing in the U.S., with angry OMA dissidents unleashing Donald Trump-style brutishness and Tea Party-style radicalism to scare patients, silence critics and ultimately take over the OMA leadership. Suddenly, the OMA deserves our sympathy because this time it is actually taking on the good fight for Ontario patients.

The conflict centres on a tentative four-year deal reached on July 11 between the OMA and the provincial government on everything from increases in funding for physician services to giving doctors a stronger voice in managing and reforming the health-care system. The tentative agreement came after two years of bitter fighting between the OMA and Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins and his senior bureaucrats.

Under the deal, the overall budget for physician services, in other words their pay, would increase by 2.5 per cent a year, rising to $12.8 billion in 2019-20 from the current level of $11.9 billion. But a recently formed group calling itself the Coalition of Ontario Doctors and alleging it speaks for thousands of OMA members wants the tentative deal scrapped, arguing that if approved it would result in fewer doctors, fewer health clinics, less patient care - and even lead to the death of patients.

Like Trump in the U.S. with his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric, such claims by these dissident doctors are meant to scare Ontario patients. At the same time, the coalition, suggesting the deal's approval method was rigged, hired high-priced lawyers and went to court to force the OMA to hold a general meeting, now set for Sunday in Toronto, where doctors will vote in person on the deal rather than cast ballots online.

In addition, some angry doctors have taken to social media to bully, silence and question the motives of physicians who back the agreement. Combined, these tactics are irresponsible, reprehensible and unworthy of doctors who claim their first priority is care of their patients. Leading the charge against the OMA is the Ontario Association of Radiologists, which has about 1,000 members and is bankrolling the court challenges and ad campaigns against the OMA and the tentative deal.

As a group, radiologists are among the highest-paid doctors in Ontario, earning an average of more than $600,000 a year, with some topping $1 million. In recent years they have benefitted from new technologies that allow them to perform medical procedures quicker, thus allowing them to see more patients and send more bills to the government. Despite all their gloom-and-doom rhetoric about pending deaths brought about by the deal, what the dissidents are really upset about is - what else? - their own wallets.

Think of it as a rich man's self-pity. They won't say it openly, but these rich radiologists, along with some ophthalmologists and cardiologists, are most furious because their fees will be cut more than those other physician services. What the deal tries to do is level the pay structure so doctors with similar training receive the same net incomes.

For its part, the OMA concedes that many doctors who support the agreement aren't completely happy with it. But they believe the main benefit is that the deal establishes a period of peace and a better relationship between doctors and the government, one that has been very destructive over the past few years.

Regardless of the outcome of Sunday's vote, the OMA will never be the same, much as the Republican Party will never be the same after Donald Trump's candidacy and the emergence of the Tea Party. Within the OMA, many conservative doctors who hate the Liberal government at Queen's Park, dislike government interference in their profession and want to run the health-care system as they did 30 or 40 years ago are on the move.

The physicians' deal is the first target in their sights. Next up is the leadership of the OMA, its bargaining team and its specialty sections. Yes, it's time to feel some sympathy for the OMA. Bob Hepburn's column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

The Ontario Medical Association deserves public sympathy as it takes on dissident doctors, Bob Hepburn writes.

The COF Secretariat, which is funded by all the provinces and territories, is contributing around $250,000 to pay for the annual meetings.

Sponsors are contributing $225,000 in cash this year to cover social events

with the host province absorbing approximately the remaining one-third of conference costs

Insurance Brokers Association of Canada

Amgen Canada, Borealis Infrastructure, Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, the Canadian Pharmacists Association

Johnson & Johnson

Lobbyists and other corporate players will get ample opportunity to chat with the premiers and raise issues important to their companies and organizations.

After the appointment, the two waited forlornly in the lobby for more than an hour for an adaptedtransport vehicle. Perron, who is not disabled, sat in a wheelchair because there were no seats in the lobby. As she wheeled Vaillancourt to a waiting taxi van, his wheelchair got stuck in several decorative grooves in the pavement outside the entrance to the new Royal Vic. "That's terrible," Perron said of the pavement for those who must use wheelchairs. "It's a beautiful building, but they are not yet ready to receive patients," Vaillancourt said. However, another patient, 76-year-old Shirley Ann Wood of LaSalle, praised the ultra-modern facilities of the superhospital, especially its "fast" elevators. Wood had just seen her cardiologist for a checkup and was sitting on a wooden bench outside waiting for her daughter to pick her up.

Wood said she was initially skeptical about the superhospital - having gone for years to the Royal Vic on Pine Ave., first for her mother, then herself - but was won over. "Everything is clearly marked and it's easy to get around," Wood said. "It's really nice." But Daniel Andrade, a representative of the MUHC Employees Union affiliated with the CSN, noted that some people found it difficult navigating the many corridors of the superhospital. "It would be nice to have more people standing around directing people to where they need to go," Andrade said.

He identified a number of what he called "hiccups," such as the phone system not working properly, some employees not having phones or computers, printers that were not yet attached and the access cards malfunctioning. Ironically, Andrade added, his card gave him access to every restricted department at the Glen site, and that's not supposed to be the case. Those problems should be ironed out, but Andrade expressed concern that the superhospital won't have enough support staffto function smoothly. Two years ago, the Quebec government imposed $50 million in cuts to the MUHC's operating budget. The $1.3-billion superhospital was built as a public-private partnership to avoid cost overruns. However, design-build contractor SNC-Lavalin is demanding an extra $172 million for what it argues were unforeseen expenses.

SNC-Lavalin delayed handing over the keys to the superhospital by five weeks, which caused delays for the MUHC in "activating" equipment. On Monday, construction workers walked past the new entrance even as patients filed out. As of 4 p.m. Monday, the number of in-patients at the superhospital stood at 125, down from the 154 transferred on Sunday. The volume of outpatient visits was 25 per cent of the normal rate but is expected to rise gradually this week. On Sunday night, the superhospital performed its first operation, an appendectomy, followed by a Cesarean section on Monday. Dr. Ewa Sidorowicz, the MUHC's associate director general of medical affairs, has said that the hospital network will concentrate first on emergency operations and then ramp up the volume of elective surgeries. aderfel@montrealgazette.com twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel

By Bob Peterson / Rethinking Schools

long history of being staff-dominated.

And it has. In New Orleans, following Katrina, unionized teachers were fired and the entire system charterized.

But it recognizes that our future depends on redefining unionism from a narrow trade union model, focused almost exclusively on protecting union members, to a broader vision that sees the future of unionized workers tied directly to the interests of the entire working class and the communities, particularly communities of color, in which we live and work.

It requires confronting racist attitudes and past practices that have marginalized people of color both inside and outside unions.

Having decimated labor law and defunded public education, Walker proceeded to expand statewide the private school voucher program that has wreaked havoc on Milwaukee, and enacted one of the nation’s most generous income tax deductions for private school tuition.

For nearly a decade we pushed for a full-time release president, a proposal resisted by most professional staff.

“Social Justice Unionism: A Working Draft”

Social justice unionism is an organizing model that calls for a radical boost in internal union democracy and increased member participation.

business model that is so dependent on staff providing services

building union power at the school level in alliance with parents, community groups, and other social movements.

The importance of parent/community alliances was downplayed

instead of helping members organize to solve their own problems.

Our challenge in Milwaukee was to transform a staff-dominated, business/service-style teachers’ union into something quite different.

only saw the union newsletter after the staff had sent it to the printer.

Key elements of our local’s “reimagine” campaign and our subsequent work include:

Building strong ties and coalitions with parent, community, and civic organizations,

broader issues

action.

earliest victories was securing an extra $5/hour (after the first hour) for educational assistants when they “cover” a teacher’s classroom.

lobby

enlist parents

we amended the constitution

consistently promoting culturally responsive, social justice teaching.

encourage members to lead our work.

release two teachers to be organizers

appear en masse at school board meetings

to shift certain powers from the staff to the elected leadership

new teacher orientation and mentoring are available and of high quality.

The strength of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) 2012 strike,

rested in large part on their members’ connections to parent and community groups

Karen Lewis

Portland, Oregon, and St. Paul, Minnesota

In Milwaukee, our main coalition work has been building Schools and Communities United,

We wanted to move past reacting, being on the defensive, and appearing to be only against things.

Key to the coalition’s renewal was the development of a 32-page booklet, Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and Communities Our Children Deserve.

concerns of the broader community beyond the schoolhouse door

English and Spanish

Currently the coalition’s three committees focus on fighting school privatization, promoting community schools, and supporting progressive legislation.

schools as hubs for social and health support,

This work reminds me of the words of activist/musician Bernice Johnson Reagon, of Sweet Honey in the Rock: “If you are in a coalition and you are comfortable, that coalition is not broad enough.”

Our new professional staff is committed to a broader vision of unionism with an emphasis on organizing.

We need to become the “go-to” organizations in our communities on issues ranging from teacher development to anti-racist education to quality assessments.

nonprofit organization, the Milwaukee Center for Teaching, Learning, and Public Education

We provide professional development and services to our members

reclaim our classrooms and our profession.

We partner with the MPS administration through labor/management committees

multiple committee meetings, inservice trainings, book circles (for college credit), and individual help sessions on professional development plans or licensure issues.

we offered workshops that drew 150 teachers at a time.

More teachers were convinced to join our union, too, because our teaching and learning services are only open to members.

mandate 45 minutes of uninterrupted play in 4- and 5-year-old kindergarten classes

We also won a staggered start

convincing the school board to systematically expand bilingual education programs throughout the district.

school-based canvassing around issues and pro-education candidates, and organizing to remove ineffective principals.

With the plethora of federal and state mandates and the datatization of our culture,

It’s clear to me that what is necessary is a national movement led by activists at the local, state, and national levels within the AFT and NEA—in alliance with parents, students, and community groups—to take back our classrooms and our profession.

social justice content in our curriculum

waiting to use any perceived or real weakness in public schools as an excuse to accelerate their school privatization schemes,

On the other hand, speaking out can play into the hands of the privatizers as they seek to expand privately run charters

including participation on labor/management committees, lobbying school board members, and balancing mass mobilizations with the threat of mass mobilizations.

In the end, we recognize a key element in fighting privatization is to improve our public schools.

In Los Angeles, an activist caucus, Union Power, won leadership of the United Teachers Los Angeles, the second largest teacher local in the country.

hospital boards are mostly made up of people who live in the community

public hospitals not only serve their communities, but they also operate beyond their walls in what most would consider as home care work

CEO of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, told us he was receiving no increase in funding for the ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) teams that visit client homes to provide mental health support. These workers rarely even see the inside of a hospital. Yet because of their connection to the hospital, they suffer under the same freeze to base budgets.

Between 1998 and 2011, the number of all types of hospital beds in Ontario remained “virtually constant at approximately 31,000” while the population increased by 16%, according to a 2011 Ontario Hospital Association document.

It may come as a surprise that despite these statistics, Ontario Hospital Association president Pat Campbell is not advocating for more hospital beds.

The United Kingdom and Australia consider an 85% acute care bed occupancy rate to be the safe upper limit, according to the OECD. But Campbell, who says the OECD’s figures on Canadian occupancy rates are probably accurate, is not interested in debating appropriate overall rates.

Rose says, for example, that occupancy rates in surgical critical care units, characterized by rapid turnover and short stays, should be about 75% to be efficient.

This kind of cooperation could also work when hospital crowding becomes excessive, for example when flu season hits, says Mike Tierney, vice-president for clinical programs at The Ottawa Hospital and one of the editors of Healthy Debate. What is needed is “an ability to look at hospital occupancy

and bed availability across a region in real time, rather than each hospital trying their best to manage on their own

Occupancy rates matter if you accept the premise that high rates lead to poor access for patients who need to be admitted from emergency departments, notes Michael Schull, an emergency room doctor at Sunnybrook who has published on wait times in emergency and overcrowding risks.

Still, Schull does not advocate for more hospital beds. “It would be a mistake to add beds to a dysfunctional system,” he says.

The sobering reality is that Ontario hospitals are tight for capacity largely because of the number of beds occupied by patients, most of them elderly, waiting for admission to another facility (such as rehabilitation or long-term care) or for support to return home.

Administrators at Health Sciences North in Ontario have discovered the benefit of very active cooperation between the 459 bed Ramsey Lake Health Centre (formerly the Sudbury Regional Hospital) and the local Community Care Access Centre (CCAC).

Working together, the result has been a reduction of ALC patients at the health centre from 133 to 78 in the period between September and December 2012, says David McNeil, vice president of clinical services and chief of nursing.

The challenge for the CCAC was to expand its capacity for community-based care, and some funding was received from the province for new programs including behavioural support and mobility programs. For its part, the hospital recruited a new geriatrician, gradually closed beds at the former Memorial Hospital site that had been used for ALC patients, and redirected money towards chronic disease management.

As well, community groups have been engaged “to help them understand that the hospital is no longer the centre of the universe,” McNeil says

the impact of Liberal health-care policy in southern Ontario is "bad enough." The model Mehra said the province is using to centralize services into fewer communities is especially detrimental to the North. "That doesn't work for the south," she added. "It definitely, in no way, works for Northern Ontario." The state of Northern health care was brought to the floor of Queen's Park this week when, on Wednesday during Question Period, NDP health critic France Gélinas called on the government to stop continued cuts to care in the region. Funding based on volumes doesn't jibe with regional population distributions, Mehra said. "It just doesn't make any sense at all," she said, adding Northern Ontario has many common complaints with small, rural southern Ontario communities.

The coalition argues the entire Ontario system has received short shrift for years and is below the Canadian per capita average by about $350 per person. The provincial Liberals ended a four-year hospital base funding freeze in its latest budget, pledging to spend $60 million on hospital budgets, along with $75 million for palliative care and $130 million for cancer care. The Ontario Health Coalition - and Sault and Area Health Coalition - are not impressed. The local group argues on a regular bases, 22 admitted patients often wait in SAH's Emergency Department for inpatient beds and admitted patients stay in emergency for as long as five days. Patients are lined along hallways on the floors or put in areas that were designed to be stretcher storage areas or lounges with no call buttons, oxygen, out of the nurses' usual treatment areas. Late last month, the Ontario Health Coalition launched an Ontario-wide, unofficial referendum to raise awareness about what it contends is a system in critical condition. The unofficial referendum asks Ontarians if they're for or against the idea: "Ontario's government must stop the cuts to our community hospitals and restore services, funding and staffto meet our communities' needs for care." Ballot boxes will be distributed to businesses, workplaces and community

centres across the province before May 28, when votes will be tallied and presented to Premier Kathleen Wynne. "We have to make it so visible, and so impossible to ignore, the widespread public opposition to the cuts to local public hospitals so the province cannot continue to see all those cuts through," Mehra said. Similar public OHC-led lobbying helped limit and "significantly" change policy in a past Sault Area Hospital bid to usher in publicprivate partnerships (P3s), she added. "The referendum is a way to make that so visible, so impossible to ignore by the provincial government, that we actually stop the cuts," Mehra said. Other speakers Thursday included Sault coalition member Peter Deluca, who spoke of the many challenges his elderly parents have endured thanks to what he dubbed less-than-stellar hospital experiences. "We deserve the truth, we deserve answers, not just political talk," said Deluca, adding concerned citizens must band together in order to prompt change and halt healthcare cuts.

Sharon Richer, of Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE, said as a Health Sciences North employee, she's seen "first-hand" how cuts affect health care. "There won't be change if we don't make a ripple," she said. Laurie Lessard-Brown, president of Unifor Local 1359, told the meeting of how SAH's recent "wiping out" of the personal support worker classification is wreaking havoc on staff and patients, alike. Registered nurses and registered practical nurse must now pick up the slack, she added. "Morale is lowest I've ever seen," Lessard-Brown said. And, as recent as last Tuesday, Unifor learned of a further four full-time RPN positions being cut while supervisor positions were being added. "Cutting front-line workers is not acceptable," Lessard-Brown said. jougler@postmedia.com On Twitter: @JeffreyOugler © 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition executive director, decries what she describes as the profound lack of funding being divvied out to Ontario hospitals during a town hall meeting Thursday evening, hosted by the Sault and Area Health Coalition at Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 25.