A giant Trojan Horse is making its way around the province, including a stop in North Bay on Wednesday, as a couple groups campaign against the privatization of some hospital surgeries and diagnostic testing.
The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) and the Ontario Health Coalition are also demanding the government invest in staffing and capacity in public hospitals.
“The Trojan Horse is a symbol of a tainted gift the Greeks gave to the Trojans,” says Michael Hurley, OCHU-CUPE President. “When they were passed out the Greeks emerged and slaughtered them. It was a gift they should’ve been wary of. What we’re saying is this privatization of hospital surgeries is a gift the Ontario people should be very wary of.”
The Trojan Horse was set up across the street from MPP Vic Fedeli’s office.
Henri Giroux, co-chair of the North Bay Health Coalition says he can’t understand why more people aren’t protesting.
“We have a card that was given to us when we were born to say everything is going to be free and now this government is trying to change that,” he says. “We gotta stop that, this is bulls__t that they’re pulling here.”
The campaign will ramp up in the new year with the release of further studies on the impact of privatization.
Hurley also says they’re planning on setting up stretchers of people outside of Fedeli’s office to demonstrate people waiting in hallways for care.
The province, meantime, continually says it’s making record investments in healthcare.
“The dollars have increased in Ontario and they say ‘we’ve spent more’ and that’s true. But when you compare them to the other provinces, they’re at the bottom of the barrel,” says Hurley. “When you compare them to every other country with a developed economy in the world, we’re at the bottom in terms of hospital beds and hospital staff to population.”
