Sue Grafe and Nikki Bozinoff have a first-hand look at how last year’s changes to the federal health care program affect refugee health care in Hamilton.

Grafe is a nurse practitioner at REFUGE, a Hamilton refugee clinic, as well as a nursing professor at Mac. Bozinoff is a McMaster medical student and member of Hamiltonians for Migrant and Refugee Health.

Along with Mac economics professor Michel Grignon, they discussed the impact of last year’s refugee health cuts Tuesday at a panel hosted by the Global Citizenship Conference.

Cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) were brought into effect on June 30, 2012, intended to minimize abuse of health privileges. As of then, refugees not assisted by the government have no vision, dental or medical coverage except in emergencies. Refugees from a “designated country of origin” don’t get any coverage.

At the panel, Grafe and Bozinoff said since the cuts were implemented, there has been a great deal of confusion among practitioners about who has coverage and who doesn’t.

“We [at REFUGE] see people regardless of coverage, but the problem becomes, what do you do?” said Grafe.

“There are pregnant clients who don’t get prenatal care because they fall within the gap of having and not having coverage.”

Bozinoff added that there were problems with IFPH even before the cuts were made.

“Even before the cuts, many [refugees] were turned away if they didn’t have a knowledgeable providers,” she said.

Grafe said that prior to the cuts, many Hamilton refugees had been using walk-ins, but because of the confusion, they seem to be using those services less.

She anticipates that refugees from Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are most affected by the cuts in Hamilton, recognizing that refugees from various countries tend to settle differently across cities.

Grafe also observed some “ironic” inconsistencies in the system with changes to the IFHP.

In some cases, she said, “you can get their medication covered if they qualify for Ontario Works, but you can’t run any blood work.”

In getting coverage through Ontario, she and Bozinoff pointed out, the health care costs are downloaded to the Province.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the IFHP costs $84 million per year, and the cuts would save $20 million annually to a total of $100 million after five years.

Michel Grignon, director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, approached the issue from a socio-economic perspective.

On whether or not Canada’s international image would be negatively affected by the cuts, Grignon doesn’t think so.

“We’re still doing reasonably well in terms of [the numbers] of refugees who come here—we are still seen as fairly generous.”

Currently, Canada is home to 5 refugees per 1000 people. The US has a ratio of 0.9 per 1000 while Syria has 49 per 1000.

He did express some qualms about the policy moving Canadian healthcare toward a two-tiered system.

“What’s great about universal coverage is that doctors don’t have to worry about who is covered. In the UK nobody will ask you anything, they just treat you,” said Grignon.

The Global Citizenship Conference (GCC) is typically held in March, but this year’s has been re-scheduled for September. For the conference’s planners, this reflects a long-discussed need for change.

Founded in 2006 by McMaster students, the GCC aimed to engage students in global and local issues and develop passionate activists and advocates. In its inaugural year, Dr. Phil Wood, Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs, referred to GCC as “the most impressive student event I have seen in my past 30 years at McMaster.”

Past speakers at the GCC included Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow, AIDS activist and former McMaster Professor Stephen Lewis and former Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff.

Shanthiya Baheerathan, GCC Co-Chair of Logistics, explained how over the years the March timing has just not fit well into the student calendar and leaves little room for follow-up after the conference.

“The idea of having it at the beginning of the year is to build a community early on and to have a thread of student involvement continue for the whole year.”

This year, GCC has been hosting smaller but regular panel series on topics such as Idle No More and Think Global, Act Local. On March 5, they will host a panel on Refugee Health.

Shahana Hirji, Co-Chair of Programming, described how the GCC wants to put a higher emphasis on grassroots forms of engagement. Recent panel topics and local activists and instructors chosen to be on the panel are a result of the community focus.

Baheerathan also discussed funding issues that may have precluded a large-scale conference from occurring this semester. She reiterated that in addition to faculty-based funding, the GCC team will be looking to apply for external funding and community grants for the September conference.

In the past, the GCC promoted to other universities and high school students, which attracted more conference attendees.

Baheerathan wants to try to attract more students in a new way by leveraging the already large network of student clubs on campus.

“We want to establish GCC as a hub for social justice clubs on campus. Mac has a lot of different groups, and the GCC wants to create a more cohesive movement where the GCC supports clubs,” said Baheerathan.

But in order to do this, the planners recognize they will need to rebuild the GCC’s brand on campus.

Fariha Husain, Co-Chair of Networking, described how there has been diminished support for and knowledge of the GCC. Husain also emphasized how the current group is working hard to expand the GCC base and recruit students for the conference team.

“We will be looking for conference team planners around mid- to late-March for the September conference. We want to promote heavily through social media to make it a staple event. This is something that requires student interest and a robust discussion amongst student members.”

Julia Redmond

Silhouette Staff

 

“We are all citizens of the world,” said former American president Woodrow Wilson. “The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.”

But on March 10, over 70 members of the McMaster community embraced their global citizenship and gathered in Hamilton Hall to attend the 7th annual McMaster Global Citizenship Conference.

Shawn Cheung, the founder and executive director of Raising The Village, kicked off the day’s events. In his morning keynote address, he shared his story and advised the audience on how to pursue activism, in keeping with the conference theme “Activism is not dead.”

“But I’d much rather talk about ‘action-ism’,” he said, referring to how change will not come about without a significant effort. His advice rested upon Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule: the idea that to master anything, it takes 10,000 hours of work.

Following the opening speech were a number of short workshops with perhaps a more practical outlook, geared toward fueling change at McMaster. The Mac chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) offered a session about fair trade and the process of attaining fair trade certification on campus, while workshops were held to address electronic waste and promote sustainability in Hamilton.

The panel discussions later in the morning offered a chance for local experts to share their insights on global issues. Three sessions, on water governance, the Arab Spring and indigenous rights in Canada, were moderated by Mac students.

The Arab Spring panel appeared to be the favourite of the morning. It featured McMaster professors Dr. Atif Kubursi and Dr. John Colarusso, as well as former Arts and Science student Amal Abuzgaya. It began with a lecture from Dr. Kubursi, who introduced such key issues as unemployment among youth in the Arab world.

“Human rights in the Middle East begin with breakfast,” he said, quoting Senegalese poet Leopold Senghor, noting that the Arabic word for bread—aish—also means “life.”

Colarusso, a professor of mythology and linguistics who has also worked in politics, brought a historical perspective to the discussion. “The transition from mythology to politics was smooth,” he chuckled. “Both have their monsters.”

He compared aspects of the Arab Spring to the Soviets’ policies in governing the USSR. Meanwhile, Abuzgaya, who grew up in Libya under the Gaddafi regime, had much to say about how the people took action, including how social media facilitated the process.

The afternoon saw a number of guest speakers and panel discussions, on topics including the Occupy Wall Street movement and the meaning of the sustainability.

McMaster engineering graduate Boris Martin delivered the final speech of the day. Appropriately enough, he was one of the organizers of the first GCC in 2005, which spanned three days and saw over 600 delegates. He shared some wise words about pragmatic and principled approaches to activism, drawn from his experiences with EWB.

The entirely student-run conference was led by co-chairs Alessandra Robertson, Shanthiya Baheerathan and Siobhan Stewart. The co-chairs were pleased with the success of the conference, noted Shanthiya Baheerathan.

Despite its success, the conference may undergo revision next year, according to one of the directors of programming. It will likely be shortened, and may be rescheduled to February. The goal will remain to inspire students to take on their responsibilities as citizens of the world.

The conference was sponsored by the School of Nursing, the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program, the McMaster Science and Humanities Societies and the Student Services Program Support Fund.

Dina Fanara

Assistant News Editor

 

In preparation for the upcoming Global Citizenship Conference (GCC), taking place at McMaster on March 9 and 10, the GCC’s organization committee and the World University Services of Canada (WUSC) hosted a discussion panel with regards to world issues on March 5.

The main focus of the discussion centered around the concepts of “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to peacekeeping and peace-building initiatives.

The panellists consisted of five influential speakers present at the pre-conference event: Robert O’Brien, the chair of Department of Political Science, Leo Johnson, a refugee from Liberia and recent graduate from McMaster University, Shawn Cheung, the founder of raising the Village NGO and a representative for Canada to the UN and Jessica Franklin, a McMaster Political Sciences professor.

According to one of the moderators for the event, an executive representative of WUSC, the purpose of the discussion panel involved “challenging ways in which we encourage development.” She also said that the “idea of bottom-up approaches to development [is] a new fresh take on ways to change the world.”

The first question presented to the panel was, “Is it fair to separate top-down and bottom-up methods to development?” In response to this question, O’Brien discussed the importance of understanding what is meant by top-down and bottom-up.

What is understood to be “top” can be international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. However, this may also include certain dominant thoughts and theories, certain states over others, or large corporations.

Johnson noted that, “what can be the top in one conversation can be the bottom in another conversation.” He continued, “bottom-up usually becomes the reality . . . there has to be a certain structure or access to power.”

The remainder of the discussion blossomed out of the topics brought up after the initial question. Later in the discussion, Franklin brought up an important point: “immediately when I think of top down and bottom up, gender comes to mind . . . when we look at the notion of top down and bottom up approaches, I look at who is situated in [places of power] . . . whether or not these can be seen as gender neutral.”

When asked about what can be done to instill more balance in international development, Cheung acknowledged that “we don’t need another big player, we need somebody who can understand the region.”

This event served as a glimpse into this year’s Global Citizenship Conference, touching upon several of the topics which will be the topic of further discussed this upcoming weekend.

The Global Citizenship Conference has been running annually for five years and is looking forward to seeing the same overwhelming suppport this year.

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