In the public portion of Council of Canadians London Chapter's 2022 AGM, Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition, will speak about the current crisis in public health care in Ontario.
On October 26, the OHC released a briefing note that charged that the Ford government lied to the public about its privatization of Ontario’s public hospital services. The Coalition reported that the Ford government significantly increased funding to private clinics while at the same time denying that they were expanding the private clinics. The denials were made in written and verbal statements to media across Ontario in the months leading into the election. Then, as soon as the election was over, the Ford government announced it is indeed going to privatize our public hospitals’ services.
“The Ford government lied to the public leading into an election,” said Natalie Mehra. “You can’t just outright deny you are expanding private for-profit clinics while you are in fact shunting millions over to expand private for-profit clinics. You can’t pretend you are not going to privatize before an election and then, as soon as the election is over, announce plans to privatize. By every measure, this is wrong. It is fundamentally undemocratic and cannot go without challenge.”
Register here to join us for Natalie's latest update. The zoom link will be sent out to registrants a few days before the event.
Natalie Mehra has been the Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition for over 21 years. She has built the Health Coalition into the largest and broadest public interest group on health care in the province, representing more than half-a-million Ontarians in its network of more than 400 member organizations and more than 50 local chapters.
The coalition is an activist network and a policy advocacy organization. In her role as E.D., Natalie has conducted countless province-wide tours, organized rallies and lobby days, written and published thousands of reports about health care policy changes, conducted social media campaigns, and developed public education programs. The coalition is recognized as an opinion leader and is quoted in hundreds of media stories on health care reform each month. During Natalie's tenure, the Ontario Health Coalition has won public interest amendments to every piece of health care legislation introduced in Ontario in the last 21 years.