MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2006

Council of Canadians tackles Day’s criticisms

Charlottetown – The Council of Canadians is concerned that it and other opponents of privatization are being pitted against doctors by Brian Day who has described his critics as supporters of the status quo.

Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians have been speaking to doctors attending the CMA meeting in Charlottetown. “We want doctors who are concerned with the shortcomings of our under-funded, poorly managed system to know that we are on their side,” says Maude Barlow, chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “We want change too, just not the kind of change Brian Day is calling for.”

The Council of Canadians is encouraging doctors to support solutions within the public system.

“We know that it is possible to reallocate resources within the system to improve it,” says Guy Caron, health care campaigner for the Council of Canadians. “Experiments such as the Winnipeg Pan-Am Clinic, Toronto’s Rexdale Community Health Centre and Queensway Surgicentre are very promising examples of solutions developed within the public, not-for-profit system.”

Public education about health care myths has been a key element of the Council of Canadians’ health care campaign. Tonight, in Charlottetown, the organization will bring together advocates of public health care at a “Ceilidh for Medicare.” Speakers will include health care professionals and concerned citizens from various groups across Canada.

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For more information, please contact:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249; 1-800-387-7177, ext. 249; .