Parliamentary Assistants to Minister of Health, Health Minister Staff, Opposition Health Critics and MPPs in Attendance
The Canadian Cancer Survivor Network (CCSN)’s Ontario All Party Cancer Caucus has lived up to its name, with members of all parties attending the meeting at Queens Park last week.
CCSN held the caucus on October 26th to discuss pressing concerns about cancer care with Ontario MPPs. CCSN staff was joined by Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price, a medical oncologist at the Ottawa General Hospital, MaryAnn Bradley, a lung cancer patient advocate, Laura Greer, a breast cancer patient advocate, and brain cancer patient Reno Leone, along with his daughter, caregiver, and cancer survivor Julianna.
The Caucus meeting’s purpose was twofold: to urge policy makers to increase accessibility to lung cancer screening, and to convey the concerns among cancer patients that they are being put at risk by the easing of COVID-19 public health measures. CCSN shared the results of its fourth Cancer Can’t Wait survey, conducted by Leger, which you can find here.
“All of us here today want to help avoid what may already be an unavoidable increase in the number of deaths from cancer due to challenges of screening and early diagnosis,” CCSN President & CEO Jackie Manthorne said in her opening remarks. “Together we call on members of the Ontario All-party Cancer Caucus not to wait to invest in strengthening cancer care in this province.”
The meeting was attended by two Parliamentary Assistants to the Minister of Health, MPP Robin Martin of Eglinton-Lawrence, and MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy of Newmarket-Aurora; Official Opposition Health Critic France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt; Liberal Health Critic MPP Dr. Adil Shamji from Don Valley East. Conservative MPP Daisy Wai of Richmond Hill and NDP MPP Bhutila Karpoche of Parkdale-High Park, both longtime supporters of CCSN and the All-party Cancer Caucus, also attended. Manthorne thanked MPP Lorne Coe of Whitby and Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier, for his ongoing help and his continuing support of CCSN’s Caucus meetings and receptions.
Also in attendance were four Stakeholder and Member Relations staff from the Office of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Sylvie Jones, including newly appointed Director of Stakeholder and Member Relations, Alex Millier.
Dr. Wheatley-Price urged the Caucus to expand lung cancer screening in Ontario. While Ontario was once a leader in screening, the program has failed to expand. Dr. Wheatley Price stressed that screening works, and that it has contributed to finding early-stage cancers, meaning a much greater chance of a cure. He also highlighted the equity problem with lung cancer, pointing that people from lower socio-economic groups, rural residents, and Indigenous populations were more likely to get lung cancer, have poorer access to treatment, and to die from it. He called for lung cancer screening to be comprehensive and accessible to all, so that it gets to the people who need it.
The cancer patient advocates echoed this as they shared their experiences, calling for more effective strategies to combat not just lung cancer, but all cancers. Julianna Leone called for more effective communication on cancer care. MaryAnn Bradley added that lifting mandates in hospitals made potential cancer patients more hesitant to go to the hospital, especially when COVID and cancer patients share the same floor.
At the end of the Caucus meeting, Manthorne reminded everyone that Cancer Can’t Wait, and that pandemics and natural disasters cannot result in cancer care grinding to a halt.
CCSN plans to hold another All Party Cancer Caucus in Ontario in March 2023.
