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: zMonstrators brave pouring rain to demand the College of Physicians
he, geons take action against doctors who have withdrawn
' ~ Sency services.

| U.S. threatens
Ride for Peace

PRAGUE — Toronto cycling enthusiast Bob O’Neill enjoyed

a

the hospitality of the Czechoslovakian Peace Committee until the

the - and remainder of the Canadian team arrived to take part in
“Cyclist for Peace ’86’’ ride from Kiev to Prague.

EO Neill, who is on his own round-the-world trip for peace was

Meet up with the Cyclist 86 riders in Kiev, but their plans were
{ted when the U.S. State Department threatened the Ameri-
Organizers of the project with a law suit if any of the partici-
ts contracted cancer as a result of radiation from the Cherno-
fuclear accident.
€amwork Inc. arranged the rides from Kiev to Prague and
vee Montreal to New York as its contribution to the United
tions International Year of Peace.
© get around state department interference, the Canadian and
S. Tiders met the Soviet and Czech teams at Pressov on the
€choslovakian border, July 1 and completed the ride to
e.
a ‘Neill reports he spent his wait in training since he was the
ij} | o, “St rider on the trek. The ages span from 23 to 57. Fifteen
i Dane 13 Soviets, 15 Americans and three Canadians are taking

a “ride.

Bene EE came, SE ig min ae ed

By KERRY McCUAIG

TORONTO — The College of
Physicians and Surgeons should
take action against striking doc-
tors or be replaced by an inde-
pendent body, a coalition of
women’s rights groups has de-
manded.
About 80 people braved a driv-
ing rainstorm in front of the col-
lege’s offices, June 27, to call on
the body to take action against
doctors who have halted health
care services.
Isla Peters, representing the
National Action Committee on
the Status of Women accused the
college of ignoring public safety
during the Ontario Medical Asso-
ciation’s dispute with the gov-
ernment over Bill 94. Passed by
the Legislature June 20, the act
bans extra-billing by physicians.
Peters charged that patients
‘‘were being held to ransom by an
authoritative, paternalistic,
male-dominated profession’. Of
the 27 members on the college
board, 20 are physicians, the re-
mainder, provincial appointees.
‘This is a case of doctors looking
out for doctors,’ she said.

Lois Beddard of Organized

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tors were ‘‘dishonoring the word
strike. This is not a strike about
freedom, it is doctors taking ac-
tion against their patients.’ She
called on college members to re-
sign if they were not going to
carry out their mandate of regulat-
‘ing the medical profession.

Judy Rebick, of the Coalition
for Abortion Clinics accused the
OMA of ‘‘emotional and psy-
chological terrorism against
women’’. Contrary to doctors’
and hospital statements, Rebick
reports that abortions are not
being performed since most hos-
pital therapeutic abortion com-
mittees' are not meeting and
women with appointments are
having them cancelled just prior
to their hospital dates.

Reading from a section of the
provincial health act requires doc-
tors on hospital staff to find a re-
placement if they are unable to
carry out their duties, Rebick said
striking doctors were in contra-
vention of the law and the college
should remove their licenses.

Since the doctors withdrew
their services three weeks ago
hospital emergency wards have

told that I might be extradited”’,
he said ‘‘but that happened rarely,
if at all’.

According to the Los ‘An-
geles-based subsidiary of the
Wiesenthal Centre, the United
States still acts as a haven for up
to 10,000 war criminals, many of
whom are responsible for atro-
cious crimes in nazi-controlled
areas of the Soviet Union during
World War II. Except for
Fedorenko, the U.S. authorities
have not complied with extra-
dition requests from the USSR on
them.

On the witness stand, Fedo-
renko has admitted his “‘con-
scientious”’ approach to his duties

2 2MPEROPOL, USSR —
| fy, C' Federenko, deported
F Sap, “16s United States in 1984 to
fo, - tial in this Black Sea port
here a Crimes, told a trial court
Porta Une 13 that when the de-
tej qOn order came, he was of-
4) p. Shelter in Canada.
Use CreNKo, the only person ac-
} Porte at war crimes to be de-
Usgp by the Americans to the
tha; <,49 the last 40 years, said
} Natio, Jkrainians belonging to
ihe “alist groups wanted to help
pet to Canada’.
‘ thy dorenko also told the court
i Unites up to the last day in the
| hey, ° States, he never believed
J the Suld be extradited, even after
Ision was made. ‘‘I was

| Nazi offered asylum in Canada

as SS overseer in the Treblinka
concentration camp won him two
promotions, but insisted he
‘*treated inmates humanely’’.
He also said that ‘‘he felt pity”’
when children were driven into
the gas chambers, ‘‘but could not
help’’. However, former camp
inmates testifying for the prosecu-
tion say Fedorenko himself
helped herd children towards
what they were told were baths,
but were really gas chambers.
They also said that only the most
dedicated pro-nazis at the con-
centration camp were promoted.
At its height, 800,000 people a
year were exterminated in Tre-
blinka during the war.
— Novosti Press Agency

been closed on a rotating basis
and most elective surgery stop-
ped. The OMA has instructed
their members to treat only life-
threatening cases.

However there have been inci-
dents of patients suffering severe
complications because of delayed
treatment.

When a 12-year-old Scarboro
boy’s surgery for a chronic bowel
disorder was cancelled at Sick
Children’s Hospital, his parents
were forced to fly to Calgary to
have the operation done. In
another incident an 80-year-old
Ottawa woman had to be fitted
with a pace maker when she was
kept waiting for hours in hospital
with a fractured ankle. After first
refusing to investigate the case,
the college said it would now act
to see if disciplinary action was
appropriate.

The group is concerned that the
Peterson government in its efforts
to placate the doctors into ending
their action may introduce legisla-
tion which would prevent future
health care reform.

The OMA has called Bill 94 the

College should discipline
doctors or resign says rally

thin edge of the wedge and points
to other provinces where caps
have been placed on doctors’ in-
comes, ceilings have been insti-
tuted for the number of medical
school graduates and new doctors
have been told they will have to
practice in remote areas for a cer-
tain period in order to tap into the
provincial health care schemes.
The Liberals have told the
OMA they have no such inten-
tions and are willing to sign a spe-
cial charter which would give

doctors the assurances they are

demanding. ;
However coalition spokesper-

sons point to the current cost of

health care in the province which
currently eats up $9.8-billion an-
nually or one-third of the provin-
cial budget. Over 20 per cent of
this goes to doctors fees which
have: doubled in the past five
years.

Doctors currently. have a
monopoly on health care services
they say, where other profes-
sionals or para-professionals
could provide equal or better care
at less cost.

Shades of free trade
—The Patent Act

‘Canadians have been getting a fist full of lessons lately on how
it feels to ride the free trade train. The latest stop is The Patent
Act. This bill will prevent generic drug manufacturers from pro-
viding the ‘‘no name’”’ (read cheaper) equivalent to the brand-
name drugs of the big pharmaceutical monopolies.

With U.S. president Reagan acting as its high profile lobbyist,
American-based drug multinationals have promised Canada
more research dollars (about $1-billion by 1990) and 2,500 new
jobs in the- high tech field if they are just given a free hand to
generate sufficient profits to carry out the needed research.

In preparation for the second Canada-U.S. Summit last March,
Mulroney had ordered draft legislation banning generic drugs.
However some persistent questioning from health care groups
and the parliamentary opposition has stalled it at least until the -
fall.

A study by University of Toronto economist, Harry Eastman
slowed the process by providing the public with some unsettling
facts. While drug costs to Canadians would more than double, the
non-existent research carried out here compared to sales would
not be enhanced.

Actually what the Patent Act means is Canadians will be forced
to pick up the slack for what the drug giants have lost in other
jurisdictions. Agreements similar to the Patent Act presented to
the European Economic Community and the U.S. Congress have
been shot down during the past few years. This left Canada, with
its “special relationship’’ to the U.S., as a last haven for drug
price-gouging.

Meanwhile with the Tories in a mini war with the U.S. over
shakes, shingles and book tariffs, the companies worried that
their interests might be slipping on the government’s order paper,
put out a 12 page ‘‘advertorial’’ distributed June 21 with the
Globe and Mail stating their case.

You'll no doubt recognize some of their names — Upjohn,
known for its marketing of the ‘‘birth control’’ Depoprovera, a
known killer in the Third World where it is dumped. (It’s been
banned in the States.) The company is currently lobbying Ottawa
to okay its use here.

Note Ortho Pharmaceutical, makers of the pill, which was
forced on millions of women with its accompanying strokes,
heart attacks and deaths. This list goes on for DES, valium,
steroids and other “‘miracle’’ drugs which were tested and mar-
keted with profits in mind.

This and much more is exposed by a Vancouver doctor, Joel
Lexchin. In the Real Pushers, Dr. Lexchin outlines how the drug
multinationals have sacrificed the public’s health and finances in
the name of super profits. As Dr. Lexchin points out drugs, while
overused, are still an essential part of a health care system. They
are far too important to be left in the hands of multinationals.

A wide campaign to defeat the Patent Act should be a first step,
to nationalizing the drug companies and bringing them under
democratic control.

—K.M.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 9, 1986 e §