Infectious Diseases: Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney: Kenney initiated the fray by publicly naming and accusing Dr. Mark Tyndall chief of infectious diseases at the Ottawa Hospital , a critic of the cuts, of political grandstanding and irresponsible rhetoric. Over the past year, Kenney has alleged that doctors who have documented cases of harm flowing from the cuts have purposefully altered the facts and he labelled protesting doctors as militant leftists. After a 19-city National Day of Action on June 17 this year organized by Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care CDRC , Kenney denounced the doctors for an irresponsible and shameful attempt to further their unreasonable demands, according to The Star. The doctors year-long protest is unprecedented in Canadian medical history but that is no surprise. Beyond the attacks on the character and motives of physicians and his refusal to meet with doctors, Kenney has continued to describe the cuts in terms that do not match the experience of front-line doctors treating refugees nor the official government documents that initially outlined the nature of the changes to refugee health-care coverage and It is a serious matter when a Minister of the Crown is in deep conflict with the health professions of Canada. Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, has engaged in an ongoing and increasingly nasty fight with doctors since May of 2012, shortly after cuts to health care for refugee claimants and privately sponsored refugees under the Interim Federal Health Program were announced that April. More than 20 national health associations have expressed concerns over the cuts, including the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Nurses Association. Eight of these associations have three times requested a meeting with Kenney to discuss the cuts. He has not officially responded for over a year except to indicate that he did not have time to fit such a meeting into his schedule. The CDRC submitted a proposal to him last year that met the ministers purported concern about equity between refugee claimants and Canadian citizens yet preserved care to most refugees. Kenney never responded. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.