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The cancer funding reversal a victory for the grassroots
Posted: February 13, 2014
(February 13, 2014)
Chalk one up for public outrage.
After more than two weeks of daily news coverage, petitioning, public meetings and the threat of a door-to-door, 40,000-home canvassing drive, a grassroots mobilization against plans to halt the local thoracic cancer program has succeeded.
Windsor-area MPPs exalted at Queen’s Park Monday after the Liberal government reversed an earlier decision by Cancer Care Ontario, meaning local cancer patients will continue to receive treatment in their own community. And while all local members were taking bows for the reversal, they were also willing to give the lion’s share of credit to a grassroots campaign that would not quit.
“This community said, unequivocally, we’re not going to take this lying down,” said MPP Taras Natyshak, (NDP — Essex.) “The government would have to have been deaf not to hear it.”
Natyshak, who played a major role in organizing the 7,300 signature petition drive and public meeting, added that credit must also be given to Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj and a team of medical professionals who refused to back down in the face of the threats from Cancer Care Ontario.
