Day 3: Oakville and recap of the past 2 days

Hey everyone and thanks for visiting my blog! My name is Zenah and I just completed my second year at the University of Toronto, and I am a member of the Stop Cuts Student Tour. We are a group of 50 pharmacy students from U of T, traveling around the province of Ontario for the next 15 days to spread our concerns about the McGuinty government's proposed cuts to pharmacy services. This blog will serve as a recap of our days in each city.

It all started on Friday, April 30th. We second years finished our last exam at noon, and piled onto a Greyhound bus at Queen's Park along with our U of T pharmacy colleagues from other classes. We were headed to London, Ontario! Although we were extremely tired (we had been cramming until the wee hours of the night), we were too excited to sleep. Our first stop was the office of MPP Khalil Ramal, at the riding of London-Fanshawe. Clad in our white labcoats, we all surrounded Mr. Ramal and debated with him for about an hour about the Liberals' proposed cuts. It was our first meeting with an MPP but the students came off polished and knowledgeable about our stance. We brought up points about the eHealth scandal, the dispensing fee gap and how the professional allowances fill that gap, and about how many independent pharmacies may have no option but to shut their doors due to these cuts. Although he didn't budge from his stance (as he was a Liberal, that's to be expected), we definitely showed him our side of the story in a charged and emotional debate. Following this encounter, we began canvassing door-to-door in the riding. We answered questions and explained more about the situation. At 5:30pm, I had a phone interview on CBC Radio Toronto's show Here and Now. The reporter was a bit aggressive and asked me some tough questions, but I tried to keep it clear that the people who will suffer from the passage of these cuts are the people of Ontario.

Day 2 was all about drumming up support from the grassroots. We headed to Waterloo, Ontario, where we set up in front of the University of Waterloo's School of Pharmacy. There, we gathered up and down the streets in our white coats, yelling, "STOP THE CUTS!" and "What's getting cut?! Healthcare!" Drivers were honking away with support and we handed flyers out to them and to passersby. What an exhilarating experience! It was great to get out there on the streets and protest the cuts with my fellow students. People walking by stopped to ask more questions and to voice their own opinions. This went on for about two hours, and then we held a press conference and ended up on CTV for the 6 PM news! Check out the video at http://www.southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=7271 . We then went straight to canvassing for 3 hours. Although most of the responses were positive, there were a few who believed that instead of blaming the McGunity government, we should talk to Shoppers Drug Mart. They thought that SDM's tactics were unethical. Heather and I tried to get them to see that this problem doesn't just involve SDM, but will affect all pharmacists. They refused to hear us out and didn't take a flyer. Oh well, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Today we drove out to Oakville, Ontario. As there was no media event today, we set out in the beautiful weather to talk to people door to door. We had some really meaningful conversations with people about the issues at hand. Heather and I talked to one couple for about 15 minutes about what these cuts will mean to them in terms of services--since there is no way to fund the gap between the $14 it costs to fill a prescription and the $7 (soon to be $8) dispensing fee without professional allowances, someone will have to pick up the tab--and it sure won't be the government. Pharmacies will have no choice but to either cut staff (thereby cutting access to the local community pharmacist) or to start charging for services that are now offered free of charge. The couple was concerned about this and very grateful to hear our side of the story. They told us that it's unfortunate that alot of people often get their news and information from one source, and that source may not always be the most balanced (Having a subscription to the Star, I can attest to that--their coverage of this story hasn't always been the most fair). I agree. Ontarians are free to make their own decisions about this, but should make an informed one. Visit us on the web at stopcuts.ca and see the issue through a different lens. Call or write to your local MPP or send a text message to him/her by texting HEALTHCUTS to 123411. Next stop tomorrow: Peterborough!