I believe we can all agree that change is overdue, but how will we determine a plan of action. Will we seek guidance from televisions, or will we turn to each other, our families, neighbours and communities? We are industrious by nature, builders and planters. Even the ants and the birds. Every one of us has come together respectfully to build a community.
In many cities around North America, once bustling, prosperous cities are in decline. The current political parties have presented many fleeting promises in Windsor. We cannot forget that without policy changes, we will not see manufacturing or economic improvements.
I graduated the year Nafta was enacted. Within 3-4 months, most Montreal garment factories left for Mexico. Windsor’s automotive sector managed to hold out for a few extra years. Windsor has not seen a return of its’ once prominent automotive industry, just as Montreal’s’ garment district remains barren. In Windsor, we are accustomed to cyclical promises and an ever dwindling manufacturing base.
When government policies stifle economic growth, independence and autonomy, our income tax base contracts requiring new taxes to offset the shortfall. What we have built together, quickly unravels.
In the last few years much has changed, once illegal acts in both health care and education are now championed without consensus or debate. In schools critical race theory threatens the sanctity of childhood and the foundation of family. Children are being exposed to graphic sexual content, transitioning and hormone therapy without parental knowledge or consent. Parents around the US are fighting back at school and city hall meetings. Here in Canada, we have been denied the opportunity to be heard. The once conservative PC party now fully supports CRT in Ontario schools. I support the initiative to protect and champion strong families, one in which parents are the primary educators and caregivers of their children.
Many of us here know of someone with a health care horror story. Rather than address a decades old staffing shortage, quality of care and medical errors, Windsor is focused on a brand new hospital with the same old problems.
I have witnessed first hand the trauma caused by government overreach within the healthcare system. In my email correspondence with the hospital patient advocate, I described my mothers’ last week as an act of violence and the doctors as blood thirsty beasts. My mother was bullied and coerced into a one week pain schedule that she did not ask for and I argued against. That same week, a bag of EOL drugs was delivered to her front door without her consent, the consent of the POA, or anyone speaking to me, the primary caregiver. The delivery of that bag broke her heart into a million pieces.
This involuntary drug schedule resulted in toxic shock and a trip to the ER for narcan. While we waited for the ambulance my mother spoke to me of betrayal.
She was euthanized in her sleep the next morning and she died alone, 16 hours later.
In the following months, I met with the chief of staff, the doctors involved, I spoke to Christine Elliot and Doug Ford’s office. There were plenty of phone numbers, offices and titles, each contact suggested I call someone else.
I challenged the use of the word burden in her medical notes. I asked for transparency, patient protection and I challenged their over-reach. My concerns were ignored, in place, I was offered psycho-social counseling.
Ontario spends 74 million dollars per year on euthanasia, for 2022, the budget has increased by 23 million. Euthanasia and assisted suicide has expanded to include people with disabilities, chronic conditions, and mental health concerns. In Canada, euthanasia has been used for anorexia patients and those unable to find affordable housing.
Instead of fixing health care, the focus is on death-care.
These changes have gone unchallenged by our legacy parties, the Liberal,NDP and PC’s.
We cannot lay a foundation to honor the living, without respecting the elderly and unwell. We are left with no recourse but to recognize the inherent value and dignity of human life, from conception to natural death.