Joint public letter against the trucker protest, February 4, 2022

(sent out on some neighbourhood lists):

"Please forward to as many people as possible.

Thank you."

Philip Berger

The CBC did an item on Dr.Berger and this protest.

JOIN HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN PROTECTING ACCESS TO CARE FOR TORONTONIANS

MEET IN KING’S COLLEGE CIRCLE AT THE MEDICAL SCIENCES BUILDING AT 12 NOON

We are concerned doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have watched with shock the gridlock in Ottawa in recent days. A similar protest against government policy is being brought to the streets of Toronto this Saturday, February 5. We want to ensure that health care services remain available to anyone who needs them and to defend the right of health care workers to show up for work in their hospitals and clinics free of harassment. We want to keep our streets open so that sick people can safely get the help they want and to reassure them that health care workers stand with them.

A group of health care providers has organized to establish a street presence during the convoy protest in Toronto. Our singular message is that access to health care should never be compromised.

ALL CONCERNED TORONTONIANS ARE WELCOME.

WE ASK THAT HEALTH CARE WORKERS WEAR WHITE COATS OR GREENS AND THAT EVERYONE WEAR MASKS

Examples of slogans for placards are: • Treatment not trucks • Health not honking • Occupational therapy not occupying streets • Births not bullying • Therapy not threats • Vaccines not vitriol • Proud to be a (fill in nurse, physiotherapist, doctor etc) • We refuse to sneak into our hospitals • Access to Care Should Never be Compromised

The organizers below will guide the movements of our rally. Please join us.

Philip Berger

Andrew Boozary

Naheed Dosani

Meb Rashid

Angela Robertson

Birgit Umaigba

Raghu Venugopal

Vanessa Wright

Group letter about a follow-up rally Feb.12, 2022

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12 NOON

CONVOCATION HALL AT 31 KING’S COLLEGE CIRCLE

We are a group of health care workers who organized last Saturday’s Access to Health Care Rally. Access to health is access to the streets, to our hospitals, to our shelters and safety for our children.

The Ottawa occupiers and the so-called “Freedom Convoy” have threatened to come to our city, to intimidate Torontonians. We do not want them here. They are not welcome.

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH

Democracy is under serious threat. The occupiers want to scare us. That is exactly why we must show up and reject the streets being taken over and our access denied. We need to show in great numbers that fear will not stop us from identifying as health care workers, from walking freely and safely in our city, from wearing masks in public, and from attending vaccine clinics.

ALL CONCERNED PEOPLE OF TORONTO:

Please join us, show that Toronto belongs to us, not the convoy.

Bring placards

Wear masks WATCH FOR THE GREEN HEALTH FLAG

“TREATMENT NOT THREATS - VACCINES NOT VITIROL - HEALTH NOT HATE”

Philip Berger

Andrew Boozary

Naheed Dosani

Meb Rashid

Angela Robertson

Birgit Umaigba

Raghu Venugopal

Vanessa Wright

Rally cancellation, Feb.11, 2022

After much deliberation, the organizing team has decided to call off the rally on Saturday. With a State of Emergency, the situation is too unpredictable and uncertain to proceed.

Some biographical details about the signatories:

Dr.Philip Berger: comes from a Winnipeg family with quite a few docs Was director of the Inner City Health Program at St.Mike's from 1997 to 2017.

From the Canadian medical Hall of Fame website: "He is an advocate for refugees, members of the LGBT community, people with HIV/AIDS, those suffering from addiction, homelessness, and living in poverty. Dr. Berger has also worked to promote methadone treatment, needle exchanges, documentation and recognition of the aftereffects of torture, academic infirmaries for the homeless, and clinical treatment of AIDS in Africa."

Dr. Andrew Boozary: family practitioner, connected with Inner City Health Associates (ICHA) which is a group of more than 200 physicians and nurses working in over 55 shelters and drop-ins across the City of Toronto, and also has this role at UHN.

Dr. Naheed Dosani: Heads palliative care for homeless people at Inner City Health (ICHA), also teaches at McMaster and U of T. Dosani has a large online following, with a combined 57,000 followers on Twitter (@naheedd) and Instagram (@naheedd) — which he uses to destigmatize homelessness and poverty. From the Star, Aug.8, 2021, “We need to get rid of the notion of the apolitical doctor who is told, ‘stay in your lane,’” he says. “Harm reduction, anti-racist health care and trauma-informed approaches to care through social justice is our lane.”

Dr.Meb Rashid: Latest listing is as the medical director of Women’s College Hospital’s Crossroads Clinic, Toronto’s first hospital-based refugee healthcare clinic, offers primary healthcare services to newly arrived refugees from countries around the world including Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Venezuela, among many others."

Angela Robertson: "an activist working with black, women’s and LGBTQ communities....currently Executive Director of Queen West - Central Toronto Community Health Centre. She was previously Director of Equity & Community Development at Women’s College Hospital and Executive Director of Sistering."

Birgit Umaigba: ICU nurse interviewed on CTV, about the nursing shortage. Nurses across the province say that Bill 124 is interfering with their ability to collectively bargain and acquire the pay increases they feel they deserve....Bill 124, introduced by the Ford Government in 2019, is meant to “ensure that increases in public sector compensation reflect the fiscal situation of the province,” the government said. "Bill 124] strips nurses of their powers. We cannot bargain and it freezes regular salary [increases] to less than one per cent a year,” Umaigba said.

Dr. Raghu Venugopal: Metro Morning says he's "an emergency physician who organized a counter-protest against those who want mandates to end." (Item played on Feb.7). Works at TGH, trained at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, assistant professor of medicine at U of T.

Vanessa Wright: Nurse Practitioner, Crossroads Refugee Health Clinic at Women's College Hospital, Adjunct Lecturer University of Toronto. From her article in Healthy Debate, Sept.2020: "At our organization, opportunities to explore new community partnerships started in late March through our mobile COVID-19 assessment team. For the past five months, we have provided onsite mobile testing in shelters and congregate living settings across Toronto."

Group anti-trucker convoy strategy

Emailed to general neighbourhood lists Feb.5, 2022: read more