commmenrrecerememnrsacmcomeneronese So, pe

MEDICARE IN DANGER
AS HARDLINE DOCTORS
PRESS EXTRA-BILLING

SONIA BARNETT (r) WITH AUNT VELMA GOUGH . .

€

When she arrived in Toronto
from Jamaica May 4, Sonia Bar-
nett was looking forward to a
long-awaited month’s vacation in
Vancouver, visiting her aunt.

But within hours of her plane
touching down at Toronto Inter-
national Airport, she was taken
by federal immigration authori-
ties, interrogated for three hours,
held overnight in a motel incar-
ceration room, forced to spend
the night in a bed with another
woman she had never met and

brought before an immigration

hearing. Only after her aunt,
Velma Gough, a Vancouver resi-
dent for 17 years, agreed to post a
$2,000 bond was she aves to
go. *

But before she can oasis
staying for the full month of her
vacation she must return to Tor-
onto May 20 for the formal immi-
gration hearing — and authorities
have steadfastly refused to have
the hearing held in Vancouver.

“She was subjected to humil-
iating and degrading treatment by

the immigration officer,” Delia
Crump, chairperson of the Coali-

tion Against Racism told a press
conference in Vancouver Wed-
nesday, called to protest the inci-

‘dent. She added, ‘‘It’s doubtful

that any Caucasian visitor from
Europe would ever be treated in

such a degrading way.”

CAR is demanding an official
apology from the federal govern-
ment as well as repayment of legal
and other expenses Barnett has
incurred in seeking to defend her-
self from the immigration depart-
ment harassment. :

The Coalition is also demand-
ing the resignation of Toronto
immigration officer P. Ferriera,
the officer involved in the inci-
dent.

According to Barnett’s state-
ment, Ferriera took her into a
room at Toronto International
and began questioning her
immediately. At one point, she
said, he asked if she had any
children, to which she replied,

yes, a child two years old. The of- —

. “treated like a criminal” by immigration authorities.

ficer then went outside the office
to question her aunt who corrob-
orated her answer.

But when Ferriera returned he
told Barnett, ‘“You’re lying, your
aunt says you have two children.”’

Barnett, a soft-spoken woman
of 24, said the questioning con-
tinuedi inan “‘upsetting and intim-
idating way.”’

Velma Gough, her aunt, asked
Ferriera when he came outside the
office if there was a problem.
‘‘He told me; ‘I have to be satis-
fied that these are the right type of
people to be allowed into Can-
ada,’ ’’ she said.

After three hours of question-
ing, Barnett said she was taken to
amotel incarceration room where
three other women were being
held. She asked repeatedly to use
the washroom but was refused
even after she explained that she
had her period and had been un-
able to obtain any sanitary nap-
kins. Later, she had to spend the
night in a bed with one of the
other women, a stranger.

The next day she was taken to

animmigration hearing where her
aunt tried unsuccessfully to ob-
tain a lawyer. Finally, after her
aunt agreed to post a $2,000
bond, she was allowed to go — al-
though she was ordered to appear
at a May 20 hearing in Toronto.

“<I was treated like a criminal,”’
she said Wednesday, ‘‘and all I
wanted to do was visit my aunt on
my vacation.”’

“This isn’t an isolated
incident,’’ said Crump, who add-
ed that she knew of at least two
other incidents including one in-
volving a tourist from St. Vincent
who was held by immigration au-
thorities for five days until a rela-
tive posted a bond.

Crump said that immigration
officers have far too many discre-
tionary powers, emphasizing that
the law should be changed.

CAR has called a demonstra-
tion to protest the incident and to
back its demand for changes. It is
set for May 22 at 12:15 p.m. at the
immigration department offices
at 1055 W. Georgia in Vancou-
ver.

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

By SEANGRIFFIN- |
Between them, the hard-line
leadership group in the B.C.}

| Medical Association and the So-j
| cial Credit government may be}
} organizing the destruction off

medicare — unless there is aj
+ loud public outcry against their}
§ action. ‘

Even as they were set to meet}

| to discuss a proposed fee in-j

crease of 40 percent over two}

} years, B.C. doctors in severall
} areas — — notably those which are
supporters of the right-wing)

‘reform’ group leading the}
BCMA — have announcedy

| plans to begin extra-billing, in}
| defiance of Bill 16 which is still}
' before the legislature.

In Kamloops, that extra-bill-+

| ing has already begun, with doc+
' tors charging each of their pa-
° tients $5-extra for an office visit}

Doctors in four other centres}

i — Burnaby, Nanaimo, Kelow-

naand North Vancouver — are

| expected to follow suit although;
j they will wait until after the)
| BCMA annual meeting set to
| open in Penticton May 14.

The annual meeting, ont

+ which major attention will be}
} riveted, will be a crucial phase in|
| the growing crisis over medicare}
| in the province. BCMA presi-|
} dent Dr. Alex Mandeville and]
| the other members of the re-
| form group have engineered the
} convention as the focal point of}
} what has now become a political]
| campaign to alter the medicare
; system and ach
ing for doctors.

(Ironically, the BCMA exec-

| utive has said that a withdrawal}
| of services over a fee dispute

} would be “‘repugnant’’ to doc-

| tors — yet that executive is pre-|
E pared to take job action includ-}
| ing a withdrawal of services in}
| the campaign to get extra-bill-}
| ing.) ;

See HARD LINE page 3

Salmon
trollers
stage

protest
— page 12 —.