(September 27, 2025) By: Travis Fortnum, CTV News<\/p>\n
Dozens of demonstrators lined the intersection of Tecumseh Road East and Ouellette Avenue Saturday morning, waving signs and drawing honks of support from passing cars and trucks.<\/p>\n
The Windsor-Essex Health Coalition organized the rally as part of a province-wide day of action led by the Ontario Health Coalition. Similar demonstrations were planned in Mississauga, Sarnia, Owen Sound, and other communities.<\/p>\n
Patrick Hannon, co-chair of the Windsor-Essex Health Coalition, said the event was meant to send a clear message.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re being visible. This is a visible rally to protect public health care,\u201d Hannon said.<\/p>\n
At the centre of their concerns is the Ford government\u2019s move to expand the role of private clinics in Ontario\u2019s healthcare system.<\/p>\n
At the end of June 2025, the Ford government announced $270-million in funding for private clinics to deliver surgeries and diagnostic tests, claiming it will improve wait times.<\/p>\n
Hannon argued that this shift threatens public access to care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe privatization of our health care is critical of us,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst, we saw some privatization in cataract surgeries and certain other procedures. Tests, colonoscopy results are now, with the passage of Bill C60 in 2023, the Your Health Act. It opens up an entire layer of privatization in our health care system.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said private facilities are not subject to the same scrutiny as hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, it creates a shadow system for private clinics. These private clinics, since [they] are privately owned \u2026 cannot be scrutinized by anyone, by us, by the auditor general,\u201d said Hannon. \u201cRemoving funding dollars from our public health care system, which to date is \u2026 over $1 billion removed from our public system in order to support private clinics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur public health care is on life support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hannon rejected the argument that private clinics help reduce wait times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can get wait times down really well because in the private clinics they pick and choose the easy stuff, the stuff that\u2019s not risky,\u201d Hannon said. \u201cMeanwhile, somebody who has some more challenges \u2026 [is left] in the public system. So what it does is it stacks up the public system with even greater wait times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hannon said the rallies are part of a long-standing effort to push back against privatization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government did not get a mandate to privatize our health care. That was never an election issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
CTV News reached out to Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Health for a response to the concerns raised but has not yet received a statement.<\/p>\n
-With files from Am800s Meagan Delaurier.<\/em><\/p>\n Click here for the video clip and original article<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (September 27, 2025) By: Travis Fortnum, CTV News Dozens of demonstrators lined the intersection of Tecumseh Road East and Ouellette Avenue Saturday morning, waving signs and drawing honks of support from passing cars and trucks. The Windsor-Essex Health Coalition organized the rally as part of a province-wide day of action led by the Ontario Health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"\n