The Health Minister avoids answering Libby’s question on drug shortages

The Health Minister avoids answering Libby’s question on drug shortages

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House of Commons

HANSARD

October 25, 2012

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, it is a problem the minister is not willing to tackle.

On March 14 of this year, the House voted unanimously in favour of an NDP motion to mitigate the drug shortage crisis.

The motion called for the government to “develop a nationwide strategy to anticipate, identify, and manage shortages of essential medications”.

It sure looks like the government failed when it came to Zarontin.

Now families are struggling to cope.

What is the government’s plan to get this crucial drug into the hands of Canadians who desperately need it?

Hon. Leona Aglukkaq (Minister of Health and Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, on another matter, this summer a study showed that higher costs of living have negative impacts on the health of Canadians and that is why our government has focused on jobs and prosperity.  When our government went to Washington this summer to raise the issue of indigenous and aboriginal people fully participating in the international AIDS conference after some 30 years, that member joined a march on the White House demanding higher taxes. Higher taxes in the United States and higher taxes in Canada, we all know are not good for the health of Canadians.



‘It’s not a fight we’ve won’: Vancouver’s iconic nuclear war activists renew calls for peace

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Libby Davies, a former NDP MP and Vancouver councillor, has been doing her best to keep the spirit alive. In 1983, Davies was one of several city councillors who voted to designate Vancouver a nuclear weapon-free zone. The designation was largely symbolic, but culminated in numerous anti-nuke signs posted throughout the city. "City councillors were meant to think about pot holes and zoning," Davies told CBC News. "The idea that we were involving ourselves in a global issue was very controversial."


True Politics Special- Libby Davies

True Politics Special- Libby Davies

True Politics Host, Steven Soos sits down with former Deputy Leader of Canada’s NDP, Libby Davies!




Libby outraged by the Conservatives’ move to shut down Parliament

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Opposition MPs say they will spend a major portion of the parliamentary prorogation period in Ottawa, with or without the governing Conservatives. Ralph Goodale, the Liberal House Leader, said in a telephone interview from Regina on Wednesday that Liberal politicians will be found in their Ottawa offices through much of February. Libby Davies, the House Leader for the New Democrats, said the members of her caucus art outraged by the prorogation, “how arrogant it is, and how [Mr. Harper is] trying to get off the hook in terms of what’s happening with the detainee issue and the war in Afghanistan.”


Libby calls for Marc Emery’s transfer to a Canadian prison

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NDP deputy leader Libby Davies, Liberal public safety critic Wayne Easter and Green MP Elizabeth May all spoke out at the morning press conference, held to encourage federal safety minister Steven Blaney to sign the required paperwork for Emery’s transfer home…Davies, who has been involved in the case since the beginning, said she was also disturbed by the very “political” comments that reportedly came from the minister’s office. “This press conference is not about the war on drugs, it is about a Canadian, who has been cleared by U.S. to return home,” said Davies. “I think it is better for Mr. Emery and his family to be here.”


Breakfast Television Vancouver: Libby Davies reflects on a life in politics

Breakfast Television Vancouver: Libby Davies reflects on a life in politics

Libby Davies has made her career of linking the formal world of politics with the often controversial needs of the few. From fighting for the rights of sex workers, homeless peoples and drug addicts to helping dismantle ingrained sexism in Parliament over many decades, Davies knows a thing or two about the tough fight—and now she shares her most intimate takeaways in ‘Outside In’.


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