Posted on 01/12/2006 6:03:45 PM PST by UpHereEh
PORT HARDY, B.C. (CP) - NDP Leader Jack Layton, who's campaigning as the defender of public health care, had surgery at a private clinic in the 1990s, The Canadian Press has learned.
Layton had hernia surgery at the Shouldice Hospital, a private facility in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, while he was serving as a Toronto city councillor. The NDP leader said he wasn't aware the clinic was private when he went for his surgery in the mid-1990s.
"It's just part of the system," Layton said in an interview. "The doctor says, 'Go there.' You pay with your (Ontario health) card. It never occurred to me (it was) anything other than medicare, which it is.
"I can tell you now if my doctor ever refers me anywhere, I'll ask him that question. It never occurred to me at the time, it wasn't a controversy at the time. It wasn't something on one's mind."
Layton stressed that the Shouldice facility is a not-for-profit facility that has been part of the Ontario medical system for decades.
It was originally set up for veterans returning from the Second World War and was grandfathered into the Ontario medical system, he said.
Layton pointed out he has been aiming at curtailing the growth of for-profit health-care facilities on the federal election campaign.
Earlier in the campaign, Layton criticized Conservative Leader Stephen Harper who said he would send a loved one to a private clinic if it would ease their pain.
Layton pointed to family illnesses, such as his wife Olivia Chow's cancer treatment and his own attack of appendicitis, as instances where he has had to make the choice to support the public system. He didn't mention his hernia operation.
Layton said he wasn't avoiding mention of the operation.
"This was no secret, believe me," he said. "Heck, (Toronto) Mayor (Mel) Lastman came to visit me there. Every family I knew, every middle-aged man that ever ran into a hernia, went to Shouldice. It's part of the system, still is."
While pitching his party as the champion of public health care, Layton has also slipped into a more muddied message on medicare at times.
Liberals accused him of flip-flopping earlier in the election when he declared private clinics are a way of life in Canada.
Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said Layton bailed on talks with the Liberal government, supposedly because they weren't prepared to go far enough to crack down on health care.
Suddenly Layton was no longer interested in cracking down, Dosanjh said, adding that Layton "went about inventing facts and manufacturing differences of principle."
Prime Minister Paul Martin has also visited a private medical clinic run by Medisys in Montreal.
The Shouldice Hospital came up in another election. In 2000, former Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark was forced to admit he had similar surgery at the same clinic in the 1980s.
Clark, whose surgery was also paid for by the public system, said he had to chose between a longer wait at a public hospital or a short wait at the clinic.
At the time, Clark also denied he took advantage of a second tier of health care.
The 89-bed Shouldice clinic is named for Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice, who tried to develop a quick method during the Second World War of carrying out hernia surgery to quickly get recruits who suffered from the problem ready for military training.
But the Canadians going to the U.S. are paying out of pocket - no insurance. Medical practitioners and hospitals love this type of patient - one who pays!
There's something that the MSM overlooked today that will help us in vote-rich Ontario next week.
This will bring back into the headlines 2 words that the federal liberals would like to see go away - "liberal" and "scandal". Provincial or Federal what's the difference? We are the only viable option to end corruption and hypocrisy.
Warrant info to be released
Thu, January 12, 2006
By GILLIAN LIVINGSTON, CP
TORONTO -- Federal prosecutors will not appeal a ruling ordering them to unseal the information used by police to obtain search warrants naming former provincial Finance Minister Greg Sorbara and others.
In a letter yesterday to lawyers involved in the case, the Crown said it will disclose early next week almost all information used to obtain the warrants. Initially, prosecutors had sealed all of the information used.
A judge later ruled the Crown had to release an edited portion, but that didn't satisfy media outlets and others -- including Sorbara -- who demanded all the information be unsealed.
"My objective since Oct. 11 has been singular and that is to clear my name," Sorbara said from his home yesterday. "Anything that enhances that and does it quickly is a good thing."
Crown prosecutor Robert Goldstein said the Crown will outline tomorrow the reasons for the decision not to appeal and expects information to be released on Monday.
Some information that might compromise the identity of an informant or give details of a separate investigation will remain sealed, he said.
Sorbara resigned as finance minister last October after he was named in an RCMP warrant relating to a criminal fraud investigation into Royal Group Technologies, where he was once a director. He has stressed repeatedly that he's done nothing wrong.
The warrants led to raids at several companies, including Royal Group and a firm owned by the Sorbara family.
Last month, Sorbara withdrew from a lawsuit seeking to unseal the documents, saying he and his lawyers were pursuing an alternate bid through the Department of Justice and RCMP to clear his name.
No charges have been laid in the case.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2006/01/12/1390061-sun.html
Also, now that the National Post has taken our side, watch for the Waterfront Scandal to make headlines next week as well.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060112/WATERFRONT12/TPNational/?query=waterfront
Yet another example of the elitists making use of superior facilities while the PEONS have to stand in the beggars' line.
Well said!
Maybe you're right but it just goes to show that last weeks of the campaign are going to be very nasty.
I remember listening to a talk show about heathcare, and they had a guy advocating the Canadian system. American doctors would have to give up the notion that they are running a private business and doing it for profit. They must reform their attitude and see their profession as a service, no different from a soldier or police officer. They chose medicine not for money, but as a service thru a government agency and paid a fixed salary. Question is are American doctors willing to be salaried workers in a government agency?
My son has a basketball teammate on his college team from Quebec. This young man needed surgery on his miniscus (knee) and called home for referral. His Canadian insurance solution? Send him an airline ticket to Canada where he would be put on a waiting list for the surgery-at least six month's wait. So his mom purchased a policy in the US in which he had the surgery immediately at a local out patient facility here in California. Simply unbelievable.
Why won't the wanna be pedophile Svend just go away?
The waiting lines in this country are just beyond belief and people are dying in some cases from lack of available care. The NDP's and libs just don't understand that people need viable options not broken promises.
Don't know the answer to that one but if you're saying that Canadian doctors are you're wrong. They operate their own private practices , keep their own hours , pay their own staff and aren't on salary . Contrary to some posts I've read on FR they're not on any kind of quota either.
Shouldice Clinic is a privately owned clinic that has developed special procedures to deal with all types of hernias . My wife's uncle had a double hernia repaired there last fall ( he paid for his stay, about $800 , OHIP the rest ) . IIRC , from their web site , about a third of their patients are American .
They may have their own offices but there are other issues they have to deal with. No quotas per se but in Ontario there is an annual cap on the amount that they can bill the system, which is why it's almost impossible to get an appointment in December (most close their offices when they max out). Also, the NDP has long advocated turning doctors into salaried employees.
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