A Commentary by Doug Draper
Many in Niagara already know how impulsively unthinking and callous Ontario’s minister of health, Deb Matthews, continues to be when it comes to taking their concerns about the deterioration of hospital services in this region seriously.
Jill and her children, Laila, 2, and Benjamin, 4. Photo courtesy of Jill and her family, and the public interest group, Rethink Breast Cancer.
So impulsive, that Matthews – as if she had less mental faculties than an ant – snaps to say that the Niagara Health System, the amalgamated hospital board for the Niagara, Ontario region – is doing an “excellent job.” And she mouths those words, as if they were coming through a voice mail message from a computer, each and every time citizens across this region, along with their municipal leaders, try to point out to her what a disastrous job the NHS is doing on behalf of those among us who need medical help.
That, in itself, should be enough reason for Matthews’ boss, Premier Dalton McGuinty, to bounce her out of cabinet if he still has his feet close enough to the ground to care about the people Matthews is obviously bowing to (the high-priced bureaucrats and others in un-elected bodies like the NHS) thinks.
And if that is not enough – if the people of this region need one more example of how cold hearted this health minister can be to their concerns – consider the case of Jill Anzarut, a 35-year-old mother of two young children in Toronto who can’t get provincial funding for drugs she needs to treat her breast cancer because – get this – a tumour detected in one of her breasts has been deemed, by provincial health ministry bureaucrats, to be “too small.”
Well let’s just say for starters – so much for early detection of cancer in Ontario. Apparently you have to wait until that tumour grows a couple of centimeter points larger before any government-sponsored drug plan will help you here!
When reporters asked Matthews about the Anzarut case this March 8, this was her response; “It would be inappropriate, and probably illegal, for me actually to abuse my position to fight for drugs to be covered.”
Inappropriate and illegal for a minister of the Crown and the person at the top of our province’s publicly paid for health portfolio to intervene on behalf of a citizen of whose fight for the drugs she needs to battle a life-threatening disease is caught in some Alice-In-Wonderland, bureaucratic quagmire? If this isn’t a time for the top health official of this province to show some leadership, then what is? If she won’t stand up for health care in a case like this, then how can the people of Niagara or any other region across this province expect her to take their concerns about hospital services seriously?
It is reportedly the case that the main drug, Herceptin, that Jill Anzarut needs to treat the tumour she’s battling would cost about $40,000 a year. But that cost seems like fleas on a dog’s rump compared to how much more it may cost to perform more radical treatment if the tumour grows. And what is her life worth and how much will it cost all of us in this society if two young children lose a mom?
Matthews’ response to this young woman’s health needs is a dramatic confirmation of what many people in Niagara already know – that this individual is not fit to be the health minister for this province. Premier Dalton McGuinty should finally recognize this and kick her out of his cabinet. If he doesn’t, then she and perhaps McGuinty’s government should be impeached in this coming October’s provincial elections.
Niagara At Large is posting below a media release from Ontario’s New Democratic Party circulated on this issue this March 10. And below that, this site is providing the link for a cancer patient advocacy group based in Toronto called Rethink Breast Cancer which hosts a letter to Matthews on behalf of Jill Anzarut that you can sign. The link for that site is rethinkbreastcancer.com .
Horwath says breast cancer victim shouldn’t have to fight government for treatment
Queen’s Park – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath questioned why the McGuinty Liberals have told Jill Anzarut that a tumor in her breast is not large enough to qualify her for OHIP coverage of a drug treatment available in other provinces.
“Jill is a courageous and determined woman in a terrifying situation. Why does she have to fight both breast cancer and her government?” Horwath asked the Minister of Health.
Ms. Anzarut is a 35 year old mother of two who was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told that her tumour wasn’t big enough to obtain the costly breast cancer drug Herceptin and that OHIP would not cover the $40,000 annual cost.
Horwath noted that Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia have all approved Herceptin for use for women with similar kinds of breast cancer, and Manitoba has approved it for use on a case by case basis.
“We need to put compassion and humanity back into politics. It’s the government’s job to answer for bureaucratic decisions that lack compassion, transparency and common sense,” said Horwath.
“When someone’s fighting for their life, the last thing they need is to fight their government as well,” said Horwath.
(We encourage you to share your comments on this issue below and invite you to visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
A QUESTION;
Is the Minister of Health, Debbie Matthews and the NOW CEO 0f the NHS,
SUE MATTHEWS related and if so that might be relevant to the fact she raves about the NHS????????
Please guys look into this and if it is so then it is patronage as I suggest.
LikeLike
The people in Wisconsin and Ohio, and throughout the states are demonstrating because they are being asked to pay the price for corporate mistakes (de-regulation, billions/trillion dollar bailout etc.) Hard-fought democratic gains are being sacrificed at the behest of dictating transnational corporations and neo-con politicians. It’s happening here, and I find it disgusting.
LikeLike
I would sugget Canadians turn off their TV’s, and turn on Democracy Now, free on the internet. Naomi Klein and others have important comments/information for all of us.
LikeLike
We are being DEPRIVED not only of ordinary health care that we had been automatically given BEFORE LHIN, NHS & HIP ( e.g. man in N.
F’s paper with fingers severely cut sent to hospital , home, back again & to another hospital in dire pain & not given help for a variety of overused excuses) Now these grps. with the Gov’ts blessings are stripping us of “life saving help” as this young mother waits helplessly while these incompetent so called leaders , do not give us our promised “access to our health care” that we are paying for and “NOT GETTING”!! Why would the gov’t invest in a program of early detection for breast cancer and then when they reach the purpose of the goal not allow the SIMPLER solution of removing a small lump which is less costly & may in fact save a life and let a young mother go and enjoy her life ???????????????? OUR GOV’T AND THEIR AGENCIES ARE FAILING US ROYALLY AND WE ARE BY OUR SILENCE ALLOWING THEM FREEDOM TO DO SO…… PLEASE SPEAK UP!!! They are Civil Servants and we are paying THEIR way……not visa versa ….. these are atrocities being INFLICTED on innocent people only wanting & needing help in times of crisis!!! God help us all!
LikeLike
It gets worse. This isn’t Huxley or Orwell, but it may as well be: the U.S is ramming through legislation which allows (unelected) corporations to run towns/municipalities.
LikeLike
Just to clarify for the first commentor: Deb Matthews is the sister in law of former Ontario Premier David Peterson. She is the sister of Peterson’s wife Shelley. Matthews is a very common name, and likely no link to Sue Matthews. Deb Matthews has a Ph.d. from UWO in Social Demography, but I don’t know what that means at all! Her political background both the PC’s and the Liberals. What does it all mean?
LikeLike
What a shameful response to a woman in dire need of the support of our health care system.
LikeLike
The Mathews Group had a deal to own the Paerson Airport, the people made such a stink the airport was bought back, the Deb Mathews family have one foot in the Liberal camp and another in the Conservative camp, they have all the bases covered, they went bankrupt twenty years ago and lost their Fort Erie holdings. Black creek Village was one of their projects, they the Peterson clan are renowned in getting plum portfolios in goverment, so why should they give a hoot about us, the unwashed peons of the Province of Ontario.
LikeLike
Pearson Airport, government, typos folks.sorry.
LikeLike
And you idiots keep electing these people
LikeLike
This is an almost unbelievable story. My heart goes out to this poor young woman (and her family) who is being callously ignored by the very agency that should be helping her. Is this what they brag about with their slogan: The Right Care at The Right Time at The Right Place. What a joke….if it wasn’t so supremely sad. We all must sign the petition.
LikeLike
Anne
Yes they certainly are failing this young woman and that is just one of the many shames this Ontario Liberal Government has perpetuated on the destitute and needy of this province. They cut and keep cutting corporate taxes and who pays for this Corporate Welfare. The peoples of this Ontario through the privatization of the Social Safety net.
We keep hearing excuses about the cost of Health Care and this falls right back into the very lap of this asinine, inept Governments, in Queen’s Park and Ottawa.
eHealth, the salary, perk and severance package structures allowed and encouraged as a sign of entitlement is insane if not totally criminal in relation to those having to pay the shot for these indulgences.
The Sunshine list is a very, very very sick scenario in a province where unemployment has ravished the peoples and Harper and McGuinty’s gang can yap all they want the reality of the end is no where in sight.
BUT WHOEVER IS ELECTED WILL WITHOUT A DOUBT CLAMOUR FOR ANOTHER RAISE……”ENTITLEMENT” the BY WORD for The CEO’s ASSOCIATION whose salaries and perks are already in orbit around mars.
LikeLike
These recent politicians are all overseeing nthe privatization of health care. I need to know and nobody has answered my question yet … given that 90% or more of the hospital rooms will be private rooms at the new hospital (for better infection control, presumably), does that mean that unless you have private insurance coverage for private rooms you are going to get hit for a bill of almost $200 a night?
LikeLike
No! you will not get the private room you will no doubt find yourself in the broom closet or in the aisle ways , maybe in the Tim Horton coffee shop.the new Hospital is what it is, a money maker, why would the Royal Bank finance it . it is an investment, not in health care but in making money for the banks,why else did they the Politicians put it in an area that is hell to get too, even if you live in St.Catharines. the public be damned.
LikeLike
The brave new world of corporations running the show is here and active ,too big to fail , billions given to banks who stole billions in the scam , pyramid scheme the selling of worthless paper mortgages to greedy investors,those theives would have been executed in China , here they keep their limos,condos and fat bonuses. and given free rein to screw the people one more time, it pays to be a white collar crook.
LikeLike
DEB Mathews should lose her job immedately,as somebody has already
stated the WORST of the WORST. She should not receive any Pension
whatsoever. We in Ontario deserve the BEST not the WORST. Then she
won’t have to pick on the the people who have to take drugs for their mental state,or people who have a lump in their breast. I thought dictators
were only in Europe,not so.
LikeLike