Ontario Health Coalition

Ontario Health Coalition The Ontario Health Coalition is a network of over 500 grassroots community organizations representing virtually all areas of Ontario.
(1)

Very active coalition that campaigns to protect & improve public health care for all Ontarians under the principles of the Canada Health Act including: hospital care, long-term care, home care, access to doctors and nurses and community health centres. We seek to provide members of the public with more information on their health care and engage them in public policy. Follow us on Twitter!

oHealthC
https://twitter.com/OntarioHealthC


Contact us:
Ontario Health Coalition Office
(416) 441-2502
[email protected]
15 Gervais Drive, Toronto, ON
M3C 1Y8

Share & pls join your local protest: ALBERTACalgary 12 pm MDT Corey Hogan’s office,1717 10th Street NWEdmonton 12 pm MDT...
08/29/2026

Share & pls join your local protest:
ALBERTA
Calgary 12 pm MDT Corey Hogan’s office,1717 10th Street NW
Edmonton 12 pm MDT Eleanor Olszewski’s office12220 Stony Plain Road
Leduc 4:30 pm MDT Mike Lake's office101, 4710 - 50 Street
Lethbridge 12 pm MDT Rachael Thomas' office, 255 8th Street South
Medicine Hat 12 pm MDT Glen Motz’ office, 1306-2810 13th avenue SE
Red Deer 12 pm MDT, Burton Bailey's office, 100A-4315 55th Avenue
St. Albert 12 pm MDT, Michael Cooper’s office, 1220-20 Perron Street

BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver 12 pm PDT Gregor Robertson's office, 360 - 3150 54th Avenue E
Victoria 12 pm PDT Will Greaves' office, 210-852 Fort Street

MANITOBA
Winnipeg 12 pm ADT Doug Eyolfson’s office, D-3092 Portage Avenue

NEW BRUNSWICK
Moncton 12 pm ADT Ginette Petitpas-Taylor’s office, 272 St. George St # 110
Fredericton 12 pm ADT David Myles’s office, 590-77 Westmoreland St.

NOVA SCOTIA
Cape Breton 12 pm ADT Jaime Battiste’s office, 729 Highway 105, Boularderie East

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Yellowknife 12 pm MDT Rebecca Alty’s office, 114-5109 48th Street

ONTARIO
Grey Bruce 10 am EDT Alex Ruff’s office, 1101 Second Avenue E., Owen Sound
Toronto 4 pm EDT Danielle Martin’s office, 622 College Street
Waterloo 12 pm EDT Bardish Chagger’s office, 100 Regina Street S.
Hamilton 11 am EDT Aslam Rana’s office, 25 Charlton Avenue E.
London 11 am EDT Arielle Kayabaga’s office, 390 Commissioners Road W.
Windsor 1 pm EDT Kathy Borrelli’s office, 9733 Tecumseh Road E.
Thunder Bay 12 pm EDT Patty Hajdu’s office, 705 Red River Road
Kingston 3:30-5:30 pm EDT Mark Gerretsen’s office, 234 Concession Street
St. Catharines 11 am-1 pm EDT Chris Bittle’s office, #1-61 Geneva Street

P.E.I.
Cornwall 11 am ADT Heath MacDonald’s office, 4 Meadowbank Rd #2, Cornwall

QUEBEC
Montréal 12 pm EDT Minister of Health Marjorie Michel’s office, 1100, Boulevard Crémazie E.

SASKATCHEWAN
Send letters to MP Buckley Belanger 4-306 Husky Ave., Air Ronge, SK S0J 3G0

Background:
 Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (no. 2), formerly known as Bill 11, passed December 11, 2025.
 The legislation establishes an unprecedented model of two-tiered health care access in Alberta by permitting physicians to charge patients for medically needed services and bill the public health care system at the same time. It also brings in for-profit health insurance, like they have in the United States, which is unprecedented in Canada since the inception of Public Medicare.
 No other province currently permits this.
 Legal opinion prepared by Goldblatt Partners LLP for the Canadian Health Coalition states that Bill 11 violates the core principles of comprehensiveness, accessibility, and universality protected and required by the Canada Health Act, and violates the prohibitions against extra-billing and user fees.

On TUESDAY SEPT 1 join our protests across Canada (list is here):ALBERTACalgary 12 pm MDT Corey Hogan’s office,1717 10th...
08/29/2026

On TUESDAY SEPT 1 join our protests across Canada (list is here):

ALBERTA
Calgary 12 pm MDT Corey Hogan’s office,1717 10th Street NW
Edmonton 12 pm MDT Eleanor Olszewski’s office12220 Stony Plain Road
Leduc 4:30 pm MDT Mike Lake's office101, 4710 - 50 Street
Lethbridge 12 pm MDT Rachael Thomas' office, 255 8th Street South
Medicine Hat 12 pm MDT Glen Motz’ office, 1306-2810 13th avenue SE
Red Deer 12 pm MDT, Burton Bailey's office, 100A-4315 55th Avenue
St. Albert 12 pm MDT, Michael Cooper’s office, 1220-20 Perron Street

BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver 12 pm PDT Gregor Robertson's office, 360 - 3150 54th Avenue E
Victoria 12 pm PDT Will Greaves' office, 210-852 Fort Street

MANITOBA
Winnipeg 12 pm ADT Doug Eyolfson’s office, D-3092 Portage Avenue

NEW BRUNSWICK
Moncton 12 pm ADT Ginette Petitpas-Taylor’s office, 272 St. George St # 110
Fredericton 12 pm ADT David Myles’s office, 590-77 Westmoreland St.

NOVA SCOTIA
Cape Breton 12 pm ADT Jaime Battiste’s office, 729 Highway 105, Boularderie East

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Yellowknife 12 pm MDT Rebecca Alty’s office, 114-5109 48th Street

ONTARIO
Grey Bruce 10 am EDT Alex Ruff’s office, 1101 Second Avenue E., Owen Sound
Toronto 4 pm EDT Danielle Martin’s office, 622 College Street
Waterloo 12 pm EDT Bardish Chagger’s office, 100 Regina Street S.
Hamilton 11 am EDT Aslam Rana’s office, 25 Charlton Avenue E.
London 11 am EDT Arielle Kayabaga’s office, 390 Commissioners Road W.
Windsor 1 pm EDT Kathy Borrelli’s office, 9733 Tecumseh Road E.
Thunder Bay 12 pm EDT Patty Hajdu’s office, 705 Red River Road
Kingston 3:30-5:30 pm EDT Mark Gerretsen’s office, 234 Concession Street
St. Catharines 11 am-1 pm EDT Chris Bittle’s office, #1-61 Geneva Street

P.E.I.
Cornwall 11 am ADT Heath MacDonald’s office, 4 Meadowbank Rd #2, Cornwall

QUEBEC
Montréal 12 pm EDT Minister of Health Marjorie Michel’s office, 1100, Boulevard Crémazie E.

SASKATCHEWAN
Send letters to MP Buckley Belanger 4-306 Husky Ave., Air Ronge, SK S0J 3G0

Background:
 Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (no. 2), formerly known as Bill 11, passed December 11, 2025.
 The legislation establishes an unprecedented model of two-tiered health care access in Alberta by permitting physicians to charge patients for medically needed services and bill the public health care system at the same time. It also brings in for-profit health insurance, like they have in the United States, which is unprecedented in Canada since the inception of Public Medicare.
 No other province currently permits this.
 Legal opinion prepared by Goldblatt Partners LLP for the Canadian Health Coalition states that Bill 11 violates the core principles of comprehensiveness, accessibility, and universality protected and required by the Canada Health Act, and violates the prohibitions against extra-billing and user fees.

On July 13, we held a press conference with representatives from Will Trial Lawyers to discuss patient safety issues rel...
07/15/2026

On July 13, we held a press conference with representatives from Will Trial Lawyers to discuss patient safety issues related to Grifols, a for-profit pharmaceutical company. Grifols has been allowed to come in and privatize plasma collection and pay “donors” despite huge fightback because of exploiting the poor and desperate to sell their blood and because it brings new risks to the safety of the blood system. We have been fighting to get the Ford government to uphold the law in Ontario which bans paid plasma.

We worked with Will Trial Lawyers, among other lawyers and law firms, during the pandemic to advocate for people who died and suffered in for-profit long-term care homes. They are a personal injury law firm.

"Week after week, the revelations about Grifols just keep getting worse. First, it was two deaths after people gave plasma in their facilities. Then, it was more non-compliant inspections than all other blood and plasma centres in Canada combined. Now, not only have they risked the safety of the donors by failing to follow standards from top to bottom of their operations, but they have also imperilled the safety of the blood system itself by taking plasma from donors who should have been screened out due to risk of exposure to serious illness," said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition.

She stated, "We are beyond the tipping point. This company must be stopped. Health Canada must withdraw their approval for Grifols to operate in Canada. The Ford government must uphold the law and stop for-profit paid plasma in our province. And Canadian Blood Services (CBS) must cancel its contract with Grifols."

Read the full release and watch the press conference at OntarioHealthCoalition.ca.

By pre-ordering garlic with us, you are supporting the Ontario Health Coalition’s effort to protect public health care f...
07/01/2026

By pre-ordering garlic with us, you are supporting the Ontario Health Coalition’s effort to protect public health care for all and to stop cuts, privatization and policies that go against the public interest. You are also supporting local Stratford-area farmers by purchasing fresh, Ontario-grown garlic.

🔴 There are two options for pre-ordering our garlic 🔴

#1 Heirloom & Organic Mix Garlic Bag $16
Mix of a variety of heirloom and organic garlic in a bag with approximately 8 heads of different sizes and types. Approx. 1 lb (450 g) of garlic

#2 Large White “Music” Variety Garlic Bag $16
Bag of large organic white “Music” garlic bulbs (largest garlic bulbs). Approx. 1 lb (450 g) of garlic

🔴 To place a pre-order 🔴

Print/email and distribute this pre-order form in your office, organization, or among your friends:https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/Garlic-Pre-Order-Form-2026.pdf

Pre-order directly online and pay by credit card here: https://square.link/u/E9bvlgcO

Pre-order directly online by e-transfer to [email protected]; write “garlic” in the message and how many bags of #1 and/or #2

Fill out this pre-order form (https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/Garlic-Pre-Order-Form-2026.pdf), make your payment by cheque, and mail them in. Cheques should be made out to Ontario Health Coalition. Please send the completed form and cheque to: Ontario Health Coalition, PO Box 113 North York Ontario M3C 2R6

👉 Deadline: Please send your pre-orders as soon as possible. Pre-orders will only be taken if the garlic is paid for.

🚨 NOTE: For individual pre-orders (as opposed to group pre-orders described above) from community members who live in the following communities, you can pre-order now and pay, and we will deliver orders to your local coalition in August/September. You can pick them up from your local coalition in September. (Individual shipping is too expensive for it to be an effective fundraiser.)

We can get orders to these communities for individuals to pick up at their local coalition (if your community is not on
the list, we are sorry): Thunder Bay, Blind River, Sudbury, North Bay, Barrie, Midland, Grey Bruce, Ottawa, Cornwall, Renfrew, Kingston, Jones’ Falls, Oshawa, Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville/Halton, Peterborough, Haliburton, Hamilton, Niagara, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Woodstock, Chatham, Sarnia, and Windsor.

Garlic pre-orders will be filled in early September.

Have you or your family recently had to spend an extended period of time waiting in the emergency department for an inpa...
06/23/2026

Have you or your family recently had to spend an extended period of time waiting in the emergency department for an inpatient bed?

If you experienced this in the Greater Toronto Area and are willing to share your story, please email us at [email protected] by Wednesday morning.

Thank you!

06/17/2026

NEW: Health Coalition Issues Open Letter to Health Minister to Stop Transfer of Lab Testing by Quest/Lifelabs to U.S.

June 15, 2026

Dear Minister Jones,

We are writing to ask that you stop LifeLabs/Quest from sending Ontario patients laboratory specimens to Quest’s reference laboratories in the United States and restore our public hospital outpatient laboratories. As you know, in August 2024, Quest completed its acquisition of LifeLabs. Since then, Quest, an American multinational, has been attempting to cut back services to Ontario’s patients. In Sudbury, they attempted to close their laboratory processing facility entirely and have now reduced its staffing by half. From January to March, they cancelled afternoon hours at the Kenora lab collection centre. Currently, they are beginning to move lab tests that are done in Ontario’s hospitals to the United States.

For decades, these reference laboratory tests have been performed in Ontario’s hospitals. Shifting them to the United States raises serious patient privacy and specimen quality concerns, delays results, harms the efficiency and independence of Ontario’s medical laboratory system, transfers more Ontario health care dollars to the United States and reduces income to our hospitals.

On March 9, 2026, LifeLabs/Quest informed “external laboratories” that reference laboratory tests will be transitioned to Quest Diagnostics. What they call “external laboratories” are Ontario’s public hospital medical laboratories that have been routinely used for many years by LifeLabs to test samples from Ontario patients that LifeLabs did not have the ability to process. Quest’s reference laboratories are all in the United States. Quest’s March 9 memo states that phase one of this transfer of tests to the United States will begin on April 6 with phases two and three following in the period May to July of this year.

Quest’s actions will:

⚫ Reduce the protection of Ontario patients’ medical data;
⚫ Take financial resources away from hospitals;
⚫ Make Ontario’s medical laboratory processing system less efficient by removing needed volume;
⚫ Send more Ontario tax dollars to the United States, and;
⚫ Jeopardize sample quality by increasing transportation and turnaround time and by making it harder for Ontario hospital patients to access needed reference tests.

In our view, these actions by Quest demonstrate a lack of concern about delivering high quality medical laboratory services in Ontario. Maximizing corporate income by bleeding income from Ontario’s health care system and patients should not be the driving force of our medical laboratory system. Quest’s contract to provide outpatient medical laboratory services in Ontario must be cancelled as soon as possible and your government must restore all outpatient lab testing to the control of local public hospitals.

Transferring the community laboratory work to the hospitals will make a more integrated health system and ensure public – and Canadian domestic — control over these vital services. It will be cheaper, provide better quality and faster care, strengthen the services within the local hospitals and increase accessibility for patients to needed health services.

Please provide us (and the public) with all contracts between the Ontario government and Quest/LifeLabs.

A link to a copy of Quest’s March 9, 2026 memo “Changes to Referred-out Testing – Phase 1 of 3” can be found here:https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/Changes-to-Referred-out-Testing-–-Phase-1-of-3.pdf

Link to printable version of open letterhttps://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/letter-to-Minister-re-Quest-for-media-release-web-vrsn.pdf

A lineup of expert speakers will show you how to find health care data on system capacity and performance, local service...
06/16/2026

A lineup of expert speakers will show you how to find health care data on system capacity and performance, local service providers, the labour force, long-term care, and corporations in Ontario and across Canada.

This conference is geared to those who want to know how to find health data which is often difficult to access, including academics, students, journalists, policy/research staff from non-profit and advocacy groups, union researchers, political researchers, and community members who want to strengthen public health care research in your local areas. It is about data, not policy: how to find it, what data sets are readily available, and how to access information with and without Freedom of Information requests.

Join us live on Zoom from 9 am to 5 pm on Thursday, June 25. The cost is $100 for full day access and conference materials. Please register by noon on Wed 24 here: https://square.link/u/eUHimpKV. See all the workshops here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/event-virtual-health-research-conference-via-zoom/

Speakers in order of appearance:
⚫ Kevin Skerrett, Ottawa Health Coalition, Director of the Financialization Lab at Carleton University, Board member OMERS AC, former researcher at the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Research Officer at the International Labour Organization, and Scholar in Residence at York University.

🔴 Saul Melamed, Client Affairs Manager for Ontario, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

⚫ Katie Scrim, Manager, Special Analytical Projects and Census Labour and Commuting, Statistics Canada

🔴 Isabelle Levesque, Assistant Director, Centre for Population Health Data (CPHD), Statistics Canada

⚫Ross Sutherland, chair, Ontario Health Coalition, retired Registered Nurse, author of “False Positive: Private Profit in Canada’s Medical Laboratories”.

🔴 Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition, author of numerous reports and book chapters on health policy, privatization, organizing for social change, equity and the growing gap in income and wealth, human and disability rights.

⚫ Doug Allan, Research Representative, CUPE SCFP, author of Leftwords blog, author of numerous reports on health care policy, budgets and capacity.

🔴 Salah Shadir, OHC Operations and Administration Director

⚫ Marzian Alam, Director of Research, Ontario NDP Caucus

🔴 Andrew Longhurst, senior researcher and political economist, with a focus on health policy, at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. His work has been published in academic journals and by research institutes, including Canadian Journal on Aging, Political Geography, the CCPA, and the Parkland Institute.

⚫ Joanna Frketich, award-winning health reporter for The Hamilton Spectator with more than 20 years experience covering hospitals, medical research, public health issues and more.

🔴 Shalom Schachter, LL.B., Rabbi, former Interest Arbitration and Long-Term Care Regulation Lead, Ontario Nurses’ Association and long-term care researcher for CUPE, Vice President of the Association of Rabbis and Cantors for Jewish Renewal, member of the Toronto Board of Rabbis, representative to various interfaith advocacy groups including the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition.

Access to health care is a fundamental human right. These photos are from the protest yesterday. Thank you to Danielle R...
06/09/2026

Access to health care is a fundamental human right. These photos are from the protest yesterday. Thank you to Danielle Rose Morash for sending them to me. We should all support and amplify the efforts of these First Nations in every way we can.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DdKyS3n5m/

Address

15 Gervais Drive Suite 201
Toronto, ON
M3C1Y8

Telephone

416-441-2502

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Ontario Health Coalition posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category