EVENT: Shadow Summit, Car Cavalcade & Mass Rally outside Council of the Federation this July

Posted: May 23, 2025

(May 23, 2025)

Hosted by the Canadian Health Coalition, Ontario Health Coalition & the Ontario Federation of Labour

Please click here for the registration form. It is also available at the bottom of this page. Registration deadline is 12:00 p.m. noon on Friday, July 18.

All the provincial and territorial leaders from across Canada will be in Huntsville for the annual meeting of the premiers hosted by Doug Ford this year.

Council of the Federation

Monday July 21 – Wednesday July 23

at Deerhurst Resort just outside Huntsville near Algonquin Provincial Park

At the same time the Health Coalitions from across Canada will join together to hold a Shadow Summit just down the road. The nurses’ associations and unions will gather and hold meetings with the premiers and join us. The federations of labour from each province will gather next door. Other groups too, will have a presence. Usually, the Assembly of First Nations has a presence as does the Council of Canadians. The National Union of Public and General Employees will be meeting there. The Canadian Health Coalition will join us to host a rally attended by everyone. It is a significant opportunity to come together, share information, connect with one another and raise key health care issues on the local, provincial and national stage.

Monday July 21 – Shadow Summit

Hidden Valley Resort, 1755 Valley Rd, Huntsville, ON P1H 1A8 (next door to Deerhurst Resort where the Premiers are meeting).

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Opening plenary

• Indigenous opening, Amanda Dale
• Canadian Health Coalition, Tracy Glynn
• Ontario Health Coalition, Natalie Mehra
• BC Health Coalition, Ayendri Riddell
• Manitoba Health Coalition, Noah Schulz
• Nova Scotia Health Coalition, Jennifer Benoit
• Alberta Friends of Medicare, Karen Kuprys
• Quebec representative, Anne Lagacé-Dowson

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Workshops (choose one on the registration form):

• Breaking Medicare: The evidence from across Canada on for-profit clinics’ impact on public hospitals and two-tier Medicare
  • BC Health Coalition, Ayendri Riddell
  • OCHU-CUPE, Michael Hurley
  • OPSEU/SEFPO, Sara Labelle
  • Alberta Friends of Medicare, Karen Kuprys
  • Ontario Health Coalition, Alanna Kong
• One step forward… The fight to implement & expand public pharmacare across Canada
  • Canadian Health Coalition, Steven Staples
  • Council of the Canadians, Nikolas Barry-Shaw
  • Dr. Nancy Olivieri, prominent haematologist, expert on the pharmaceutical industry, whistle-blowing & recipient of the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, OHC board member
• Put the care back in health care: Status of efforts across Canada to win improved care/staffing standards in long-term and continuing care and staffing ratios in hospitals
  • Helen Lee, long time LTC family council chairperson and member of the OHC’s long-term care committee
  • Unifor, Samia Hashi
  • Deb Tveit, OHC staff
• Health care that is truly for all: the efforts to secure health care as a human right, including for migrant workers & people denied health care due to their immigration status
  • Justicia for Migrant Workers, Chris Ramsaroop
  • Canadian Centre for Refugee & Immigrant Health Care, Dr. Paul Caulford
  • Canadian Health Coalition, Tracy Glynn (founder of migrant workers centre)
  • Shulan Tien, OHC staff and Chinese Community outreach coordinator
• Home and community care: what are the best models and lessons in home care reform across Canada to emulate?
  • Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition executive director and author of five reports on home care reform

1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Lunch

2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. Workshops (choose one on the registration form):

• Re-Publicizing Medicare: Turning around privatization across Canada
  From Alberta’s labs to Saskatchewan’s
  long-term care to the rollback of private clinics in various provinces, where and how privatization is being defeated across the country.
  • Ross Sutherland, author of False Positive: Private Profit in Canada’s Medical Laboratories, chair of the OHC
  • Health Sciences Association of Alberta, Mike Parker
  • Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition
• Health care for profit: the privatization of primary care & virtual care
  Telus Babylon, Shoppers Drug Mart, Maple… names we have never associated with health care have taken over virtual care. Primary care also is being privatized. What is happening and the issues that arise from it.
  • BC Health Coalition, Ayendri Riddell
• The opioid crisis, the attack on harm reduction & the privatization of mental health & addictions
  • Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy (Oahas), Denise Baldwin
  • Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, DJ Larkin
  • Dr. Nancy Olivieri
• The fightback against for-profit staffing agencies across Canada: where we are at & what’s next
  Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick have announced action. This workshop will look at where things are at and what our movements are doing.
  • Manitoba Health Coalition, Noah Schulz
  • Ontario Health Coalition and CUPE, Doug Allan
  • With the Canadian Health Coalition and a member of the Coalition solidarité santé (Quebec), Anne Lagacé-Dowson
• Help to create floats and visuals for the mass rally
  • Salah Shadir & Geneviève Farago, OHC staff

4 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closing plenary

• Quick but important briefing about plans for the rallies and car cavalcades the next day
• Amanda Dale and Justice Dale Indigenous closing

8 p.m. – 11 p.m. Bonfire on the front lawn, close to the beach

Tuesday July 22 – Rallies outside the Premiers’ Meeting, Car cavalcade, Roadside action on Highway 60, Leafletting

9 a.m. For those already up in the area: Leafletting at the park gate, Algonquin Park on Highway 60

12 p.m. Car Cavalcade & Rallies – Gather at the parking lot of the Hidden Valley Resort at 12 p.m.
Rally outside Deerhurst (shortly after 12 p.m.) where the Council of the Federation is meeting, car cavalcade down Highway 60, through Huntsville, and back up Highway 11 to final very visible rally at corner of Highway 11 & Highway 60 from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Safeguard and Improve our Public Health Care for All.
Stop the privatization & destruction of our public health care.

Registration Form

Please register by filling out this registration form and emailing it to info@OntarioHC.ca. Thank you!