Canadian Healthcare Today: Diagnosing the Threats to Public Care

Since its inception, Canadian healthcare has provided the vast majority of Canadians with medical services free at the point of care and provided by both public and private actors. However, this system has long faced compounding challenges, including: cost-containment, chronic health human resource shortages, prolonged wait times and the rise of "hallway medicine", and systemic racism in healthcare delivery.

Over the last few decades, these challenges have increased as federal and provincial governments have clawed back funding, laid off workers, and the use of new forms of private, corporate actors to fill gaps in care.

This educational panel event, hosted by the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education, brings together health system researchers and public healthcare advocates to shed light on these critical developments and how we can push back on privatization and systemic racism within our healthcare system.

When: November 6 - Doors: 6:30pm, Start: 7:00pm
Where: Owl’s Club, 847 Dovercourt Road, Toronto ON
Cost: Free/by donation

Please stick around after the event for refreshments, music, and socializing!

SPEAKERS

(Moderator) Matthew Tracey is a registered nurse, and a doctoral candidate in Health Systems Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation.

Dr. Danyaal Raza is a family physician with Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, and an Associate Professor with the University of Toronto. He is the inaugural Primary Care & Health Policy Scholar at St. Michael’s Department of Family & Community Medicine. His writing, research and media commentary focus on health system reform, and the effects of commercial determinants on change.

Dr. Vanessa Redditt is a family physician at the Crossroads Refugee Clinic, a specialized primary care clinic for refugees at Women’s College Hospital, and a lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Department of Community and Family Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Nicole Luongo is the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition’s Policy and Systems Change Analyst, where she advocates for evidence-based drug policies that are grounded in public health and human rights. The overarching purpose of her role is to move the conversation on drug policy toward models of legal regulation. She is guided by experiential knowledge of criminalized drug use, involuntary treatment, and homelessness and has spent a decade and a half working in solidarity with those most impacted by punitive drug policies, including as a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). Before joining CDPC, Nicole taught college-level sociology. She continues to publish in the fields of Mad and Critical Drug Studies.

Accessibility
Please get in touch with us for information regarding specific accessibility information for this event, including the use of mobility devices. Any questions or requests regarding accessibility, participation, or programming can be directed to info@leopanitchschool.ca.

We kindly ask all attendees to refrain from wearing scented products.