Status: Inside Vancouver's Sanctuary Movement- a seven part series

Check out David Ball's 7 Part series looking inside the Sanctuary City Movement here:

Status: Inside Vancouver's Sanctuary Movement- A Tyee 7 part series (July 2014)

Sanctuary City Community Forum, July 2, 2014, 6 pm

Friends and community members!

Join us for a light dinner and a Community Forum on the topic of building a Sanctuary City in the Lower Mainland. Based on consultations over the last few months, we will be:
1) Giving a brief overview of work that has happened so far and presenting a draft list of necessary principles for our campaign
2) Discussing proposals for creating a Sanctuary City (or Sanctuary Cities) here, including sector-specific proposals for service providers
3) Outlining and discussing ways for each of us to get involved in organizing towards a community where all members, regardless of status, can access services without fear

LOCATION: 215 West 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories. We will be meeting on the east side of the building (entrance off of West 2nd Ave)

DATE/TIME: Wednesday July 2, 2014, 6-9pm

ACCESSIBILITY: West 2nd staff have confirmed that the washrooms and doors are wheelchair accessible. We are meeting on ground floor. For any other accessibility inquiries, please get in touch with us.

***Please note that while everyone is welcome to attend, we ask that attendees do not use this meeting to promote their interests in upcoming civic elections. Thank you. If you have any questions regarding the forum, please do not hesitate to contact us at sanctuaryhealthvancouver@gmail.com.

CHILDCARE (on site) also available upon request. Email us at sanctuaryhealthvancouver@gmail.com.

STOP CUTS TO REFUGEE HEALTH CARE RALLY - NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION JUNE 16th

Please join us Monday June 16th at noon @ 300 West Georgia St (infront of the immigration & refugee board offices) to stand up for health care for all people regardless of status! and tell our communities and government that we oppose the IFHP cuts.Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/649663168454377/

Interim Federal Health Progran Cuts Petition

We are all human, we all get injured, we all get sick:
Health Care is a Right for Everyone

A Refugee is any person who is forced to leave their home country for life-saving reasons. Canada is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 UN Protocol on the Status of Refugees and has in the past been a global leader in the provision of respectful treatment of those seeking refuge – this is changing quickly.

The recent drastic changes to the Interim Federal Health Program now deny approximately 95% of refugees in Canada all access to primary and preventative health care as well as the supplemental health care that is provided for many low-income Canadians. The Conservative government has promoted the cuts as only removing health care “extras” – but prenatal care, medicine, lab testing and the other affected services are vital elements of good healthcare.

Most refugees can now only access medical care in cases of life-threatening emergency. Refugees who are from “Designated Countries of Origin” (DCO) cannot even access these limited emergency-only services. A DCO is anywhere that Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, says is a ‘safe’ place – as we all know, no country can be safe for every person.

The only health services that all refugees are now technically entitled to are in cases of ‘public health concern’ (someone with a highly infectious disease) or ‘public security concern’ (someone with a psychotic condition that the state or a doctor considers dangerous to the public). This policy basically says that refugee medical care should only be provided to protect “us” from “them”, pitting people who have citizenship in Canada against those who have less secure status in this country.

These cuts will leave many people sick and injured without proper care, overloading the already overcrowded emergency rooms and forcing the provinces to pick up the bill. Ultimately this creates a kind of medical apartheid, where some people are “worth” health care while people who are actually among those most in need are abandoned.

These changes are happening at a time when all immigrants (even those who have permanent residency or citizenship), refugees and undocumented people in Canada are facing policies of increased scrutiny and widespread threats of deportation. Health-care providers and community groups across the country are organizing to support refugees and undocumented people’s health care needs, despite the Federal Government’s cruel actions.

We believe in health care for all, provided as a human right regardless of where you are from or how much money you have,


Signed,

"Sanctuary city policy should not simply re-brand the city, but represent a "shift in culture, to be able to see people as people and not as different categories of people who are deserving or not deserving."

http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/05/29/Vancouver-Undocumented-Migrants-Sanctuary/

Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has just released a shocking study about the impacts of the Tory government's refugee health care cuts.

In an unprecedented move, doctors have been taking public action against the cuts, including a third national day of protest on June 16th, 2014: http://cdrcdayofaction.com/

Fore more on the study:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/ending-health-care-for-refugees-has-put-children-in-grave-danger/article18679568/

http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2014/05/15/refugee_kids_hospital_admissions_doubled_after_ottawas_health_cuts.html

 

Yesterday's National Day of Action for Refugee Health Care

Yesterday doctors, nurses, health workers and concerned members of the public held rallies across Canada to demand restoration of federal funding for the Interim Federal Health Program which provides health care for refugees and asylum seekers in Canada. 

Here are some photos from the Vancouver rally.

Media Coverage:

BC doctors, nurses protest refugee health cuts

MDs call on Ottawa to retract changes

Refugees ask feds to restore benefits

Canadan doctors stage 'day of action' to protest refugee health care cuts

The Specator's View: Refugee Health Cuts Exposed As A Failure

Cuts to refugee health-care continue to endanger lives

Doctors plead for cuts to refugee health coverage to be reversed

Doctors say public purse and public health at risk because of federal cuts

Refugees suffer consequences of federal spending cuts, doctors say

For immediate release:

Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care says Interim Federal Health Program incrisis on Refugee Rights DayGroup plans second National Day of Action June 17th to take message to thestreets

Toronto, April 4, 2013 �Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care is marking
Refugee Rights Day by releasing more examples of refugees being denied
necessary health care because of federal cuts and confusion surrounding
the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP). These are new cases reported
since Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care joined with the Canadian
Association of Refugee Lawyers to launch a Charter challenge to the
federal government�s cuts to refugee health care.

As hospitals, community clinics, medical professionals, and provincial
governments continue to struggle with the incomprehensible structure of
the revised IFH program individual patients � including sick children and
pregnant women fleeing
sexual violence � are suffering. This includes the recently publicized
case of a Calgary woman who was denied cancer treatment.

�We are finding more and more patients legally here having to go without
badly needed health care services,� said Dr. Meb Rashid, medical director
of the Crossroads Clinic at Women's College Hospital. �The patients we see
have fled unimaginable terror to seek a safer life in Canada, and our
government is telling doctors that they cannot provide necessary
treatment.�

It has been six months since Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care submitted a
written proposal to Citizenship, Immigration, and
Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney that addresses the federal
government�s stated equity concern while maintaining access to important
health care services for refugees. The group has yet to receive any
response to its proposal.

Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care is organizing a National Day of Action
for June 17th to take the facts directly to the streets and tell Canadians
the consequences of the federal government�s cuts to refugee health care.

�The Conservative government is failing many sick refugee children and
women,� said Dr. Philip Berger, Chief of Family and Community Medicine at
St. Michael�s Hospital. �These refugee families are legally within our
borders and the government has a Charter responsibility to provide them
with basic health care coverage. Life saving medication and prenatal care
is not gold plated
health care. The government should finally start telling the truth.�

The following is a sample of cases catalogued by Canadian Doctors for
Refugee Care in which refugees have been refused coverage and care. Every
case has been verified.

�        a woman with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of
sexual violence in her country of origin cannot be treated because she has
to wait for her IFH coverage to be initiated

�        a man is found to have a mass in his liver after an Emergency
room visit. He does not have any insurance to follow up because he is from
a Designated Country of Origin (DCO) and cannot pay for it himself

�        a woman fleeing the sex trade arrives in the late stages of
pregnancy and cannot get any testing as she awaits her IFH coverage

�        a six year old child cannot get proper investigations for a
possible urinary tract infection as she awaits her IFH coverage. The
family cannot pay for the treatment

�        a woman with a biopsied mass in her neck cannot get a follow up
appointment to get her results even though she has health coverage through
the IFHP

�        a woman with a large mass in her pelvis cannot get diagnostic or
curative surgery because she is denied refugee status during the work-up

�        a woman in labor is asked to pay for the cost of her epidural as
the anesthetist is unable to understand her IFHP insurance coverage late
at night. She delivers her baby without pain control

�        a woman requiring treatment of fibroids and heavy vaginal
bleeding  is denied coverage for a necessary pelvic ultrasound.

�The government should listen to the 20 national health care organizations
as well as that of many provincial governments and
rescind these cuts now,� added Dr. Rashid.

More information is available at: www.doctorsforrefugeecare.ca.