corporate news report
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Six people were arrested and charged Tuesday at the end of a lively rally protesting cuts to B.C. health care, after they refused to leave an office building at the Royal Jubilee Hospital site. The six, ranging in age from their late teens to late 50s, were escorted out by Victoria police. They have been charged with assault by trespass for peacefully sitting in the hallway outside the executive offices of the Vancouver Island Health Authority for about four hours. Those arrested include a grandmother, grad students, an anti-poverty activist and a former director with the Capital Health Region. A grey-haired man raised his fist in the air as he was escorted out of Begbie Hall at the Royal Jubilee Hospital site by two police officers. Another man raised his handcuffed hands high as he too was led out to cheers and clapping from the waiting crowd.
They were among the 250 to 300 people who gathered at Royal Jubilee on Tuesday morning to protest, and mark the one-year anniversary of Bill 29. It is legislation protesters say gave the government the legal tools needed to rip up collective agreements and take steps toward privatizing and harming health care.
"I'm a grandmother of seven children, and four are disabled. I'm prepared to do anything it bloody well takes to get people to pay attention to how these cuts are destroying lives," said a 53-year-old woman who sat outside the executive office of VIHA. The woman, who wouldn't give her name, works in the social services sector. "There is not an aspect of my life that hasn't been touched by the cuts, from my family to clients at work."
The six protesters wanted to meet with a VIHA administrator to make their demand for public consultation on changes in the health-care system. "I'm here to support the demands for public consultation," said David Ridley, a former union appointee to the Capital Health Region board. The demand for open and public consultation is "completely reasonable, and should be something in place from the beginning," he said. The protestors had a specific demand. "We demand that VIHA place an immediate moratorium on cuts to services and closures of any health-care facility until there is a truly inclusive and accessible community consultation." That public consultation must include all those who are most affected by change, they said. Ironically, most of the VIHA administrators were in Cumberland Tuesday for a meeting.
Joe Murphy, vice-president of clinical and operations support, talked briefly with the protesters in the hall. "I explained that this isn't the atmosphere where you'd enter into any kind of negotiations with anybody," Murphy said. VIHA does have a consultative process, Murphy said. Groups must apply in advance.
This week's meeting will have a 40-minute period open to accommodate four presentations from pre-approved groups, followed by five minutes for questions. "With the number of special interest groups there are on Vancouver Island, presentation requests and questions are submitted in advance to the board," Murphy said. Groups are then approved "based on the relative merit and amount of time we have."
Protesters say that is not good enough for sweeping changes to health care that affect everyone in the province. "I'm not going to let Gordon Campbell drive our health-care system into the gutter," said Melissa Moroz, a UVic sociology graduate student who was arrested. "I'm here to take the keys and say no to a profit-based health-care system that favours people with money." The protesters, who by all accounts were peaceful, were escorted out by police after about four hours -- without getting any agreement from VIHA on their demand.
"They were not disruptive although they did break into song at one point," Murphy said. "We all understand the public has a right to peaceful demonstrations. I think they were just trying to make a point." Victoria police locked the doors to the building about 9:40 a.m., just after the protesters went inside. Officers manned each entrance, along with hospital security staff, allowing staff to enter and leave the building. Staff inside the executive office came and went unhindered by the protesters.
The six were released with notices to appear in court Feb. 27 on the charge of assault by trespass. They're also not to go to the Royal Jubilee Hospital or the Gorge Road Hospital except for medical reasons. Outside, hundreds of health-care workers, representatives from community action groups and people whose lives have been affected by government cuts rallied, handing out pamphlets to passing motorists -- the majority of whom honked as they drove by. They're concerned about everything from privatization that could see unskilled workers doing specialized work to cuts that will mean fewer beds for the sick and elderly. Nurse Jan Maher took a day off without pay to protest with her "Drunk Drivers Need Hospitals Too" sign. "It's worth every penny," she said.
Asked why he was at the rally, Cliff Leblanc said, "Fear." The residential care attendant fears for his job, and for the people he cares for as facilities shut down.
"A lot of us don't like having to be here but it's a necessity," said Freya Keddie, a medical transcriber.
Several of the placards referred to Premier Gordon Campbell's recent drunk driving charge in Maui.