Rally for health care, not Greenbelt highways - Dufferin and Glencairn (2882 dufferin street)
I recorded a few short clips, a few from across the street and then the speakers came next.
The vehicle noise was atrocious, however thankfully they had an amplified speaker, or nothing would have been heard.
The vehicle noise was atrocious, however thankfully they had an amplified speaker, or nothing would have been heard.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm going to the airport...
01:00to understand that it is their job to stop 413 just as much as it is any provincial politician.
01:28The federal government has the power to stop 413 as long as it does its job by refusing
01:37permission to destroy endangered species habitat.
01:40The federal government has the power to stop 413 by requiring a new federal impact assessment.
01:48They've already done the work of fixing the legislation, so they have that power again.
01:54So we're really glad that Councilor Mike Cole is right here and we are counting on him to
02:01tell his friends in the Liberal Caucus federally that it's their job to stop 413, it's their
02:07job to require a fresh federal impact assessment of 413, it is their job to use their power
02:16to protect the endangered species along the route for Highway 413 and that's why it's
02:21so great to have someone like Councilor Cole here with influence in those sectors to take
02:26the stand with us, to give voice, to help us put back pressure on the federal government
02:32as well as the provincial government to do their jobs here.
02:36I don't know if you did want to speak, but if you do want to speak, that's great too.
02:40Thank you very much for being here.
02:43I know many of you are too young to know, but it was my legislation that created the
02:49Greenbelt and we did succeed in protecting the Oak Ridges Moraine at the time, so that
03:01was something that took five years of work, but we were able to basically achieve that
03:10success because people had no idea that the headwaters of Toronto's water sources are
03:20in the Greenbelt.
03:21So whether it's the Ganaraska, whether it's the Credit, the Humber, the Don, that's where
03:27your drinking water comes from, so if they're going to pave it with this superhighway, not
03:36only do you end up paving it and attracting more cars, but what happens with the highway,
03:43the basic reason they're doing it is because the highway feeds the development beast.
03:51So wherever you have roads, you're going to have massive development take place that will
04:01help development, but then some of the best farmland in North America will be lost forever.
04:09So once you pave all of the farmland, it's gone forever.
04:15So in terms of the success we achieved in creating the Greenbelt, I can't remember,
04:21it was so long ago, 2003, when we did it, the success is to speak to people directly
04:28and one of the things that you can do that's very effective is to basically visit your
04:39local MPP.
04:42Doesn't matter, there's the developer's friend there, you see?
04:51So what happens is that even if you visit, they record that visit and if you tell them
05:00directly, I'm here to see the MPP or talk to the staff and get other people to visit,
05:06emails don't work, sad to say, forget emails, they don't work.
05:11You have to visit the office of your MPP in person, be courteous, let them know your concerns,
05:21say you're concerned about your children, your grandchildren's ability to have fresh
05:26fruit, fresh vegetables and clean drinking water.
05:30That's what it's all about.
05:33So that is, I think, the most effective strategy because ultimately, the pressure has to be
05:40on the architects of the highway and that is the Ford government and again, they have
05:47to be told and informed that you do not support it and oppose it and as you know, luckily,
05:58we stopped the $8 billion land giveaway and that was a result of a couple of great journalists
06:07that did that and so then there's a police investigation now into that $8 billion giveaway.
06:16So that's why, again, visit your MPP, ask your people across the city, across Ontario
06:23to visit their MPP, be courteous and say, listen, I want drinking water for my children
06:29and grandchildren, I want fresh fruits and vegetables and I don't want to lose the best
06:35farmland in North America, which will happen.
06:40So again, keep it up.
06:42You can effect change, but you've got to be targeted and as I said, don't waste your time
06:49with emails, please.
06:51They all go into the junk box.
06:53So visit and spread the word, keep to farmland food and deal with this oncoming climate catastrophe.
07:05This highway will feed the climate catastrophe and it will accelerate it.
07:11You don't want a catastrophic situation that's even worse than it is now when they build
07:16this highway, which will again end up paving not only the highway but all the lands around
07:23it with nothing.
07:24It'll all look like a moonscape.
07:26Anyways, thank you, keep up the passion.
07:29Thank you very much.
07:31Thanks again for coming by.
07:34We weren't expecting you and it's always great when someone comes and of their own accord
07:40show up.
07:41We have been leaning on MP Marshall Mendocino to do his job as well and ensure that there
07:48is a renewed federal impact assessment of Highway 413 and to ensure that no permits
07:54and no designation of permission to destroy endangered species habitat happens along
08:00the 413 corridor.
08:02And it's so great that we have a federal system in Canada because we are leaning on the provincial
08:07government and unfortunately for now they seem to be in the pockets of their friends.
08:13But what we hope and trust is that the same is not true with the federal government.
08:18That's why right now we're leaning on the federal government to renew the federal impact
08:23assessment to provide a, to guarantee that there will be no permission granted to damage
08:32red tide gage habitat.
08:34Federal fish habitat is squarely within, inland fish habitat is squarely within federal responsibility.
08:45Navigable waters are within federal responsibility.
08:47And so while we are pressuring the province to change course, while we are building up
08:53and leaning on the opposition parties in Ontario to lay the groundwork for that and ensure
08:59that nothing can happen in the interim, we're counting on the federal government to ensure
09:03that nothing can happen on 413.
09:05They've been doing a great job so far.
09:08They have passed endangered species regulations that protect the habitat of the red tide gage
09:16along the 413 corridor.
09:18A big, big cheer for Minister Guilbault for doing that.
09:25You know, whatever the other complaints may be, Minister Guilbault has passed those regulations
09:30and that rule, what's called the recovery strategy for the red tide gage, means that
09:36the minister must pass official habitat protection orders for the 413 route by no later than
09:45the end of January.
09:46And so that means that as long as this federal government or some government of similar mindset
09:52remains in place, in our view, there would be no legal way for Highway 413 to go ahead.
09:59And the other...
10:10I just want to say this is a fantastic turnout for what's part of a day of action all over
10:16the place.
10:17We've got actions happening in York Region and Mississauga and other places that I don't
10:22know.
10:24I want to thank the folks from Environmental Defense, from SCAN, from GASP, from TAIR and
10:31the Greater Toronto Health Coalition for coming out today.
10:34It's very important that we're here at Robin Martin's office.
10:37I'm going to say a few things about Robin Martin.
10:42But first, I have a technical thing I have to do.
10:49Is the MP for Eglinton Lawrence.
10:51Up until recently, she was the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, Sylvia
10:57Jones.
11:00And last year, when the conservative government introduced Bill 60, which is about privatizing
11:06the health services that are provided in public hospitals and sending them to private for-profit
11:14clinics.
11:15It was Robin Martin who headed up the conservative arguments in the committee that examined the
11:24legislation.
11:26And it's not surprising, because in 2002, 2003, Robin Martin was a policy advisor at
11:33the Ministry of Health under the much reviled leadership of Premier Mike Harris.
11:45And during the standing committee on social policy hearings on Bill 60, which she was
11:53chairing for the conservatives, she proudly spoke of her role at that time in helping
11:58to establish a private, for-profit cancer center at Sunnybrook Hospital back in 2002
12:06under Mike Harris.
12:08What she didn't mention was that this private clinic was the subject of a special report
12:14by the provincial auditor that found that it had failed to reduce wait times, which
12:19is what they were saying they needed Bill 60 for, that it had been tendered using questionable
12:26and possibly unethical methods, that the cost to the public was approximately $500 more
12:32per procedure than in the public hospital, and it drained staff from other jurisdictions
12:39leading to, guess what, a reduction of services.
12:44So that's 20 years of her advocating that model, and that's where we are today.
12:52Given the similarities with that experiment in 2002 and what is unfolding around the province
12:58today, it's no surprise that Robin Martin has been deployed as a key figure pushing
13:04this privatization.
13:06The issues around lack of oversight, the use of public resources for private profit, the
13:11inefficacy of such schemes in actually reducing waiting times, and the documented pattern
13:17of increased wait times for the public system as a result of draining staff resources all
13:24create a sense of deja vu.
13:27And shame indeed.
13:29To give a flavor of her political approach to this question, I'm going to play a clip
13:34from the legislature of her response to opposition criticism of the government's proposal to
13:40privatize health care.
13:42I hope this comes through properly.
13:49Listening to some of the complaining going on, I get tired of listening, I get tired
13:55of listening to people trying to make a crisis and make fear in the population at a time
14:01of pandemic even worse by using words and expressions like the worst crisis in generations
14:09and, and, oh my god, the government is going to privatize?
14:15Trying to scare the police?
14:22Okay, so that is Robin Martin in full flight in the legislature making light of the very
14:30real worries and concerns people have about the destruction of our public health care
14:34system.
14:35She does not give a shit about what happens to our public health care system.
14:39And so I just want to wrap up today what I want to say.
14:43Number one, it's very good to be here together to say we want health care, we want public
14:50health care, not green belt highways.
14:53Public health care, not green belt highways.
14:56Public health care, not green...
14:58Many other issues, of course, that we could reinvest in.
15:01Education, clean water for Indigenous communities, there are so many things that we could be
15:07spending the money on that they're trying to waste on Highway 413 and the Bradford bypass.
15:12Robin Martin is contemptuous of the very real and widespread concerns Ontarians have about
15:19the wholesale drive to privatize health care.
15:22What we're seeing is possibly the largest transfer of public money into private hands
15:28in this province's history.
15:29That is what's happening with the privatization of hospital services.
15:33It's happening right now, right as we speak.
15:36And she's been centrally involved.
15:39However, Robin Martin was elected in June 2018 in this riding by a margin of 957 votes
15:48and in the recent election in 2022, she won by 524 votes.
15:55So what we need to do, we've got a poster here that Matt mentioned, and thank you Matt
16:00for making this, a nice poster.
16:03This is your MPP, Eglinton Lawrence.
16:07Robin Martin puts highways before health care.
16:10Highway 413 will cost $10 billion, pay part of the green belt, and only add, only reduce
16:16travel times in the GTA by 30 to 60 seconds.
16:21But Robin Martin thinks that's a better use of tax money than nurses and hospitals.
16:26Why?
16:27Because Robin Martin is a longtime advocate of private for-profit health care.
16:31She was a policy advisor under Premier Mike Harris and helped create the first for-profit
16:35cancer center in Ontario.
16:37The center was closed because it was expensive and useless, kind of like Highway 413.
16:44Call Robin Martin.
16:46We want to put these up at the end of our excellent program today, so if anyone wants
16:50to stick around, we've got paste and posters, and thanks everyone for coming out today.
16:56...government for a lot of different issues, and the more we can sort of get to know each
17:00other, work together, I think we'll have a lot of success, because a lot of people in
17:04Ontario are mad about the same things.
17:09...of environmental defense to speak about the highway, Highway 413.
17:13Hey!
17:14Hey everybody, thanks for coming out and helping to hack away at one of the Achilles
17:20heels of this despicable Highway 413 scheme.
17:24Thank you so much for coming, and congratulations, because six and a half years after they promised
17:33to deliver 413, the odds are really no higher than they ever were that the highway is ever
17:41going to happen.
17:42They are no closer to delivering 413 than they were six and a half years ago.
17:52And things are so bad for the Premier that the Premier's friends are starting to breathe
17:58down the Premier's neck.
18:00For sprawl developers who want taxpayer subsidies for their mansions on the Greenbelt and the
18:06last remaining habitat of the Redside Gates.
18:09They want a $12 billion subsidy and they're mad that the highway hasn't come yet.
18:15The multinational construction conglomerates that want to rip us off the way they have
18:22been ripping the Ontario public off on every construction project under this government's
18:28supervision.
18:29They are all breathing down his neck.
18:33And so what has the Premier done to cover his butt?
18:39What has he done to try and get them off his back?
18:42He's resorting to mind games.
18:45So whenever, for example, I'll give a great example, when even after months of expensive
18:53litigation by the provincial government, the federal government insisted upon a memorandum
19:00of understanding that preserved its right to designate 413 for impact assessment, that
19:06preserved the federal right to stop 413 by denying endangered species permits.
19:13What did the province do?
19:15It sent Minister Sarkaria on a lying tour around all of the major transit stations he
19:21was on right before me on CP24, claiming that the MOU said completely the opposite.
19:28Because he can't account for what the actual news is bad.
19:33When the federal government did what we asked and re-estated, as we said they would, the
19:40Impact Assessment Act so they can designate 413 for the impact assessment, what did the
19:45province do?
19:46They tried to make it a non-story.
19:48They said, oh, don't worry, we're going to get the shovels in the ground later this year.
19:53They started putting up signs, fake signs, along the 413 route saying future location
20:00of the 413.
20:01It's no accident that happened when they re-instated the Impact Assessment Act, as we'd asked them
20:07to do.
20:10And a couple of weeks ago, and this is one of the funniest ones, when the federal government
20:16did as we asked and issued a key recovery strategy for the Redside days, which doesn't
20:22sound like a big deal, it sounds like a technical thing, but it designates almost the entire
20:27route of 413 as the critical habitat of an endangered species, and promises a habitat
20:35protection order that will make it illegal to build 413.
20:40What does the province do?
20:42Well, we caught them off guard when we asked about that one, because the answer from the
20:46Premier on that one was even more ridiculous than ever.
20:49He said, oh, habitat protection will be no big deal because I've been told, and you'll
20:56laugh to hear who told him, that endangered species can just hop over the highway from
21:02one side to another and it'll be fine.
21:04He implied that endangered species that live in southern Ontario can move up to the north,
21:10and so that means somehow that the designation of the 413 route as critical habitat somehow
21:16isn't a big deal.
21:18Step after step, we are winning these fights against the 413, and all the Premier has are
21:25mind games.
21:27Now, the dangerous thing is that the Premier is trying to play those mind games on your
21:33federal liberal MPs.
21:35He is trying to scam them into thinking, for example, that the public is somehow behind
21:41the 413.
21:42He is trying to scam them into thinking that a safer move would be to ignore their federal
21:49responsibilities and roll over and let 413 happen.
21:53And so, when we put out a poll, which was independently conducted, it was an ECOS research
21:59poll, which showed there was overwhelming opposition to the actual route of 413, that
22:06something over 80% of Ontarians said that they don't want the actual 413 to be built
22:12through the Greenbelt, through endangered species habitat, where it would actually go.
22:17What did they do?
22:18They commissioned a rigged poll, the developers did, which asked them some vague question
22:24using a name for the highway they never heard, and so it was, do you like highways?
22:31So they tried to pretend that the public supported it, and that they are pressuring the liberals
22:39right now, but with these rigged polls claiming that because people like highways in general,
22:45or because when they use a different name for the highway and don't say where it is,
22:50people are okay with it, they're okay.
22:51But we know that when you ask about Highway 413, when you say where it goes, the general
22:58public overwhelmingly opposes it.
23:01I'm not able to share the figures now, but the numbers on that are starker than ever.
23:06We know that if the federal liberals were to let 413 happen, this would actually be
23:14a politically disastrous move for them, that we see them wiped out of the city of Toronto
23:20altogether, and wouldn't gain them anything, even along the 413 route.
23:25We know this to be true.
23:27You know this to be true.
23:29They want you to believe that your lying eyes can't be trusted, that when you talk,
23:35that your ears can't be trusted, when you talk to your friends and they agree with you
23:40that 413 is idiotic, that somehow there's some silent majority out there that disagrees.
23:47It's just not true.
23:50And thank you for having the guts and trusting your own reason to understand that the overwhelming
23:56view of the public is in opposition to 413.
23:59And in particular, I want to reiterate, thank you for identifying the biggest Achilles heel
24:07of the case for 413.
24:10When we ask people whether they think 413 is a good use of money, or whether they would
24:18like that money, or three quarters of it, to be dedicated to healthcare and education
24:25and other public services, even the overwhelming majority of people who say they think 413
24:31is a good idea, the majority of those people say no, we should cancel 413 and invest the
24:38money in healthcare and education.
24:41The majority of people who think that 413 is a good idea, even the majority of them
24:47think that it would be a better idea simply to pay the tolls of truckers to use Highway 407.
24:53So the public is with you.
24:56You are not some weird group of people.
24:59You are speaking for the vast majority of your neighbors.
25:03You are just the ones who are putting the time in to manifest that view.
25:08And it's really important that you make your elected representatives understand that too.
25:14Because I guarantee you, if you look at the lobbyist registry, the federal lobbyist registry,
25:19what's happening is they are paying people, day after day, to request meetings with this
25:25MPP, MPs, federal MPs, to convince them that the safest move is just to go ahead with the
25:31413, because there's $12 billion dollars at stake for this big international conglomerate.
25:36So they've got all this money to keep doing this.
25:39So it's up to you, free of charge, to remind them of the truth.
25:43They don't care whether the federal government gets re-elected.
25:46They're happy to see them walk into a fan.
25:49But you can speak in their interest and explain to them that the only move, the safest move,
25:55the most reliable move for them, is to do their jobs, protect the environment, and stop 413.
26:02And you can tell this MPP that no matter how much she's hoping that by underfunding healthcare
26:09and squandering the money on Highway 413, it's going to support her agenda to privatize
26:16healthcare, Ontarians aren't on board with it.
26:20And Ontarians are on to her.
26:23So if she wants to be re-elected, then she's going to have to change her view.
26:28And the good news, folks, is that it works.
26:31We know it works.
26:33Because as strongly as this MPP and other MPPs are claiming that 413 is going to happen,
26:40no matter why, no matter how confidently they're saying it now,
26:44they were speaking just as confidently about how they were going to build their mansions
26:49on the Greenbelt a little over a year ago.
26:52And we all know how that went.
26:54You scared the living bejesus out of them, and they backed down.
26:59So scare the living bejesus out of Robin Martin by showing her that she cannot be re-elected
27:06unless she stops the 413.
27:13Thank you, Phil.
27:14Thanks, Michelle.
27:15Thanks, everybody, for coming out.
27:17This has been a great event.
27:19I knew a lot about Highway 413, but I didn't realize that Robin Martin has been advocating
27:25for privatized healthcare for 20 years.
27:27That was news to me from this collaboration with the Greater Toronto Health Coalition.
27:32And I'm going to talk to my neighbours a lot about that.
27:34The idea of a for-profit cancer centre at Sunnybrook, which operated using public facilities
27:39after hours, is totally obscene.
27:42And I think that's a good thing to raise to your neighbours if you live in this riding.
27:46So I want everyone to come in.
27:48We're going to get a big group photo in front of Robin Martin's office.
27:51We also have some sidewalk chalk.
27:53We encourage you to take some sidewalk chalk.
27:55And you can write,
27:57Healthcare, not highways.
27:59You can write, save public healthcare.
28:01You can write, stop 413.
28:03Whatever messages you want to leave for Robin Martin in front of her office.
28:07And sort of up to the corner and back.
28:09And then also, please come and get some posters from myself or Michelle at the end.
28:13And we're going to all sort of head off in our own directions
28:17and poster up this neighbourhood.
28:19Because people need to know
28:21that Robin Martin is a big advocate for private healthcare.
28:25And that she loves the Highway 413.
28:27So let's bring in our banners and let's all gather up for some group photos.
28:31And if you have a camera and you want to post on social media,
28:34this is a great time to get a big picture of the big crowd that we brought out today.
28:38So thanks again everybody for coming.
28:40We hope you have a lovely afternoon.
28:44It's always important to find the right screw to turn.
28:48And so when you're talking to your federal liberal MP, as well as your provincial MP,
28:52it's worth noting, point out to them that Mike Cole showed up and he's with us.
28:58So why the heck aren't you?
29:00Alright?