PRESS RELEASE
Contact: sanctuaryhealthvancouver@gmail.com
November 1, 2012
Community gathers for Dia
de los Muertos Vigil to mourn life-threatening refugee health care cuts
Vancouver, BC: On Thursday evening community
members, health care workers, refugees and migrants gathered in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
for a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) vigil, to oppose recent cuts to
refugee health care. “Dia de los Muertos
is a prehispanic celebration to honour our ancestors. We are also using it to
celebrate resistance and honour fallen immigrants and refugees” explains organizer Alejandra Lopez.
The crowd mourned the recent death of the Interim
Federal Health Program (IFHP). Flowers and banners were carried in a candlelit
procession through the Downtown Eastside to mark opposition to this change,
which denies most refugees access to basic health care.
The
event was organized by Sanctuary Health, a grassroots organization that formed
in opposition to the health care cuts, and by members of the Latin American
community. On June 30, 2012 the Federal
government made drastic changes to the IFHP.
These cuts deny approximately 95% of refugees in Canada access
to all primary and preventative health care. The Conservative government
has promoted the cuts as only denying non-urgent health care – but in fact they
include essentials such as prenatal care for pregnant women and life-saving
medications such as insulin.
As
community nurse Natalie Blair noted “I am being asked to let someone go blind
when it could have been prevented”. She
is one of many health care workers across the country who have refused to cooperate
with the cuts and have been active in vocalizing resistance. Those in opposition claim the
cuts violate basic human rights, are rooted in racism, and threaten the lives
of refugees. The Harper government and Citizenship and
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney have been criticized for pushing forward
aggressive and anti-immigrant policies. “These cuts represent the politics of
division. The government has made a
choice to divert money away from the most marginalized people. This is making people sick and forcing them
to live in fear” said Martha Roberts, a midwife and member of Alliance for Peoples Health, as she addressed
the crowd.
Sanctuary Health is collecting signatures for a petition
demanding that the health care cuts be reversed and that all migrants have
access to health care. They will continue to organize against these
cuts and other policies preventing refugees and migrants from accessing health
care. More information about Sanctuary
Health and these initiatives can be found at http://sanctuaryhealth.blogspot.ca/
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| photo courtesy of Eugene Kung |
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| photo courtesy of Eugene Kung |
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Photographs by Eugene Kung
