Health care protest plans Brockville stop

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A provincewide protest against Bill 195, the provincial government’s Reopening Ontario Act, will soon make its way to Brockville.

Ontario health care workers are organizing a political protest throughout the summer and fall, and say in a press release that their “workplace rights are being trampled on by the same government that called them heroes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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They say this is happening because of Bill 195, which was passed in late July. In response, 22 communities throughout the province will host an opposition rally, though specific dates for each community have not yet been announced.

According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the bill “suspends many fundamental workplace rights” for Ontario’s health care workers.

“The PC government recognized hospital workers as heroines one minute, then stripped away their basic rights at work the next,” Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE, said in a statement.

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“The Ford government calls these women heroines, but is actually hurting them very badly by taking away their basic workplace rights.”

The Act was passed last month as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic “to ensure important measures remain in place to address the threat of COVID-19 once the provincial declaration of emergency has ended,” the province said at the time.

Ontario’s state of emergency ended July 29.

The Act has many functions, but in general it was passed as a way for the province to extend emergency orders every 30 days for another two years, as long as it is necessary, despite the provincial state of emergency being declared over.

It came under fire as an overreach by many groups, however, including the health care unions.

CUPE says under the Act, health care employees can have their shifts changed from days to nights, be reassigned to another job, relocated to another community, laid off without notice, and even have their parental leaves cancelled.

“The government is using the pandemic to gut the basic rights of this predominantly female workforce,” said Hurley.

“We’re not the only citizens alarmed by the government’s legislation – civil rights groups and others are taking action to restore citizens’ rights.”

They added at least 6,450 Ontario health care workers have contracted COVID-19 at work and approximately 14 have died. The rate of infection and death for health care staff in Ontario, they claim, is one of the highest in the world.

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Premier Doug Ford has fought back against the claims, and said the Act “will provide the province with the necessary flexibility to address the ongoing risks and effects of the COVID-19 outbreak as Ontario moves towards recovery.”

The union says it is “currently assessing with others legal challenges to the legislation,” but in the meantime, the protests will go on.

Recently, some hospital workers held a five-minute political protest at work, following workplace rallies across Ontario.

The full-scale rallies are being planned and were to start later this month in Brockville, Pembroke, Cornwall, Kenora, Fort Frances, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Ottawa, Stratford, Guelph, Halton, Mississauga, Cobourg, Peterborough, Oshawa, Lindsay, Windsor, Hamilton, Niagara, and Toronto.

sbedford@postmedia.com