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A Few Progressive Canadian Perspectives
THEN THEY CAME FOR HEALTH CARE
(excerpted from "The Globe and Mail" of August 20, 2004 an article by Rick Salutin)
The sense of welfare as a human right emerged in the 1960s, like health care. It, too, occurred by stealth. Till then, welfare had been akin to charity, bestowed by their betters on the poor, who were seen as partially or wholly responsible for their plight. But during the Depression, the destitute started being seen as victims of market forces largely outside of their control. The token of this change was the 1966 Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), which offered federal funding for welfare as long as the provinces made it universally available, provided a decent living standard and removed distinctions between the worthy and unworthy poor. It was a kind of informal acceptance of the right not to be destitute.
The retraction of this right -- one of the "givebacks" of the 1990s -- was the work of then-finance minister Paul Martin. His 1995 budget abolished the CAP, replacing it with the Canada Health and Social Transfer, a pot of money the provinces were handed with far fewer conditions attached. Ontario and B.C. swiftly brought in the old divisions between the worthy and unworthy poor, plus programs such as workfare. The right of Canadians not to be destitute was effectively repealed. It's striking that this did not extend to the health component of federal funding. There, standards stayed in place and the right to health care stood. The ill as a class were now treated as more fully human, as mirrored by their rights, than the poor -- surely due to calculating the votes involved.
This was bad news for the poor. But I'd say it was also bad news for the rest of us. The loss of the right not to be destitute makes the poor less fully human. The non-poor, meanwhile, become more fully human, and they get to show it by lording it over the poor, deciding their fate by giving or withholding welfare. This kind of social breakup is the essence of charity, which was defined in 1825, for instance, as something that exists "to signify the promoting of the happiness of our inferiors." Welcome to the 19th century. Less human solidarity, more division and strife.
The accumulation of human rights is a social, historical process. It isn't handed down once and for all. It can move ahead and fall back. If you can find a reason to deny the rights of the destitute, you can do the same for those of the ill. Why not give health care only to those who deserve it, who exercise, don't smoke etc. It is not inherently illogical. The same for free speech. You can find reasons to withdraw it: terror, moral decay . . . The right to vote? At one time, it went only to those with property or other virtues.
When they came to take away the rights of the destitute, I was not destitute, so I did not speak out. Then they came to take the rights of the ill.
Find this article at the Globe and Mail, or request it by mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040820/COSALU20/TPHealth/ |
Comments from Canadian Union Perspective on Salutin's article
The example of how we got Medicare in Canada in the first place should give us strength. The people that thought up and fought for Canada's Medicare didn't put their faith in politics or politicians. They put their faith in people, in each other. There were 105 people at the founding meeting of the movement to fight for Canada's Medicare. There were 20 construction workers; 19 unemployed men and women; 15 farmers; 12 members of Parliament; six housewives; six teachers; six railway workers; six nurses; three
journalists; two lawyers; two union leaders; two steam engineers; one miner; one professor; one hotel keeper; one retired minister; one merchant; and one motion picture operator. And not one stuffed shirt in the lot. They were all regular folks. They had nothing much going for them except their belief in themselves, their common desire to make the world into a better place and their faith in the power of ordinary people to do extraordinary things. It is what made them strong then. It is what makes us strong now. It is what will keep us strong in the future.
It's just a fact that civilization doesn't happen because we leave it to other people. We have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on each one of us, because it really does! We must make it plain that we are going to hold out for what is right and just and ours. We must do this because we owe it to ourselves and to all the other women and men of good will who came before us and all those who will follow. We must be, as they were and will be, the change we wish to see in the world. Let us together openly declare that we are the ones who will lead by example, with conviction and courage, and we will do it now!
Contributed by Mike Luff, National Representative
National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)
(NUPGE is Canada's second largest union.)
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