Blog – Libby Davies yeehaw
STOP DOWNLOADING HEALTH COSTS ONTO PROVINCES
Libby's letter in support of Stop the Violence BC
Wait Time Alliance: Canadians are waiting longer to see specialists under Conservative government
Conservative Budget Ignores Women
Libby urges the Health Minister to deny for-profit plasma donation
The City of Jerusalem
The City of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Met with Danny Seidemann, founder of Ir Amin (City of Peoples), in Jerusalem (www.ir-amim.org.il). He’s a really good story teller and expert on the complex geo-political layers of this city. “This is where the conflict ends or it doesn’t end at all”, he says. But adds the “Balkanization” of Jerusalem is making a two state solution impossible. Even so, h is cautiously optimistic, as is everyone we have met, due to the change in the US and Obama’s words, and the appointment of Mitchell as his Middle East envoy. Still, he is worried that Jerusalem is being turned into a “settler evangelical theme park.” He has met with more US representatives in the last 30 days, than in the past eight years – such is the renewed interest in the issue.
Danny has been a key activist around the house evictions in Jerusalem. And he gets impassioned about the issue as he talks about the ongoing evictions and how the city is being divided. Later the same day we go on a field trip with Jeff Halper – a great Israeli activist too, whose organization works to prevent Palestinian house demolitions (http://www.icahd.org/eng/).
We inch along jammed streets in a high-density Palestinian neighbourhood, (no sidewalks) roads not fixed for years. We all pay the same taxes says Jeff – but in Palestinian areas there’s rare garbage pick-up, no postal service, no legal water hook ups etc. He takes us to a house being built by 60 young people mostly from Spain. They are building it in two weeks flat from scratch. The Spanish
Government is helping pay for the construction. The owner is beaming as the young folks pour concrete, tile, clear rocks, and sing. His former house was demolished. A young Palestinian boy runs around giving everyone tea with mint. We also meet Salim, whose house down the street has been demolished four times. If you stand in the new doorway of the partially constructed house (they are on day nine) there are striking views. Behind us are layers of housing crushed together, almost defying gravity it seems. In front of us down a steep rocky embankment is the Wall. Still being built ($2 B so far, $2B to go) as it snakes through the city. Its message is powerful. Divide. You cannot ignore the wall. In some places it is covered with graffiti; in others, grim concrete slabs, thick and wide. In the further distance are white, red roofed “settlement” developments. They are on hill tops, serene and look quite beautiful, and illegal. A little further away we can see the police station that is part of the E1 settlement. It is very controversial (3500 homes) and is at this point is not progressing after Obama said it must stop.
I’m a city person and I love cities – the way they work, the way they are run, and how they grow. It comes from my municipal experience as a community organizer in the Downtown Eastside, itself a complex neighbourhood, as well as being a city councillor in Vancouver for five terms. But Jerusalem is quite something different – the contradictions are endless and generate much debate. Of course its historical and religious contexts are unique. But I’ve never seen a city where the roof top water tanks are colour coded to reflect who you are (white-Israeli, black- Palestinian). And a new transit line being contracted going through both Palestinian and Jewish neighbourhoods, but you won’t be able to get on or off in the Palestinian one.
The future of Jerusalem is core to everything, so I am glad I got to see, meet, experience, a little bit of what is happening here.
SFU Lecture: Reflection of a life in politics
Libby speaks out in support of Supreme Court decision on Insite
Libby speaks out in support of Supreme Court decision on Insite
House of Commons
HANSARD
September 30, 2011
You can view this question at: http://www.youtube.com/user/LibbyDaviesMP?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/Ygr_KhEfMqM
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, today, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled in favour of Insite and against years of Conservative interference.
The Supreme Court found that the government arbitrarily infringed on the rights of individuals to receive the treatment and help they so desperately need.
The government has an opportunity here to take off its ideological blinders and support a vital public service that has saved lives and given people hope.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (Minister of Health, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, although we are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision today, we will comply. We believe that the system should be focused on preventing people from becoming drug addicts. A key pillar of the national anti-drug strategy is prevention and treatment for those with drug dependency. As part of our strategy, we have made significant investments to strengthen existing treatment efforts through the treatment action plan. We will be reviewing the court decision.
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, that is precisely what Insite does. Since it opened in 2003, in my riding, fatal overdoses have dropped by over a third. More people get treatment as InSite is there to connect people with the services they need. Today, the people who use this service have had their voices heard.
The Supreme Court agrees, health professionals agree, international health experts agree.
Will the Conservatives admit their failed approach and acknowledge that Insite protects public health and saves lives? Will they stop being the barrier to this very important service?
Healthcare Privatization
Healthcare Privatization
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to press further on the concerns I first raised during question period on October 22 when I questioned the new Minister of Health about the deepening and increasing privatization of health care that is taking place across Canada. I also questioned him as to why on earth the federal government was siding with big tobacco in a law suit that began in B.C.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak further on the concerns that have been expressed to me by many constituents from East Vancouver and, indeed, from people across Vancouver and British Columbia about the state of our health care system.
We know that in September there was a meeting of first ministers around health care. A lot of people watched the live coverage and even the non-coverage as they sat and looked at the empty chairs. However a lot of people focused on that debate because they certainly saw it as one of the key issues facing our society, and that is the crisis in our public health care system.
One of the things that was very disturbing was the fact that there was barely a mention and certainly no resolution on how to deal with increasing privatization. It has been very disappointing to hear the new Minister of Health, who comes from B.C. and who was a former premier and former cabinet minister in the B.C. legislature, basically do zilch in speaking out and making it clear that the federal government will stop the privatization of our health care system.
In B.C. alone the situation is very alarming. For example, surgeries are now being planned to be contracted out to private facilities, while publicly funded and publicly operated operating rooms remain closed at facilities like Mount St. Joseph Hospital. We have four operating rooms operating very much under capacity at the B.C. Children’s Hospital, most of them just sitting there idle, while at the same time, because of a backlog, the provincial government is saying that it wants to send surgeries out to private facilities.
At the first ministers conference there was a lot of debate and discussion around waiting lists, but there was no resolution on dealing with privatization and how by closing down public facilities and laying off public health care workers we have actually created the backlog in operating rooms in various procedures that were done previously through the publicly funded and publicly delivered system.
The government has created the situation where private health care interests can come forward and say that they have a deal for us. We have also been concerned about the contracting out of the B.C. Medical Services Plan and what violation that will pose for the privacy of Canadians and for people in B.C. under the U.S. Patriot Act. Again, we have seen nothing from this government to stop that.
We are waiting to see enforcement of the Canada Health Act. In fact, there was a coalition of public health care defenders, including CUPE , the Canadian Health Coalition, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, CEP and the Council of Canadians who actually went to court to defend the accountability and transparency from the federal government on our public health care system.
To date, we have been terribly disappointed and alarmed at the lack of action taken by the Minister of Health. We wonder whether he changed his principles after he changed his political membership in a political party, because we have yet to see him take action to defend our public health care system.
Ms. Libby Davies: Madam Speaker, I am pleased to give a brief reply to the parliamentary secretary.
I would point out that the member is portraying the deletion of section 6 of the Canada Health Act in 1995 as simply some minor technical amendment. The reality is the deletion of that section paved the way for the privatization of extended health and home care services.
Time and time again we have heard the Liberals deny in the House that they changed the Canada Health Act. We have an acknowledgement and an admission today that yes, indeed, section 6 was changed in 1995.
I come back to my main point. If the government has been so diligent in defending the Canada Health Act and if the government has been so diligent in ensuring the public delivery of public services with public funding, then why do we have this crisis? Why do we have an absolute violation of the principles of the Canada Health Act? Why do we have privatization? Why do we have waiting lists? Why do we have these for profit corporations banging down the door with apparently no punitive recourse from the federal government?
It is up to the federal government to enforce the Canada Health Act.