Kieran Fong, documentary filmmaker and journalist Credit: Kieran Fong
I’m so excited to be speaking with Kieran Fong, an Edmonton-born documentary filmmaker and journalist focused on the hard-hitting social issues that Canada needs to address.
Kieran’s first film, Exodus: A Vietnamese Refugee's Journey to Canada, explored his father's harrowing journey as a refugee from Vietnam. That journey included being robbed by pirates, being stranded at sea for several days and reuniting with his cousin before calling Alberta, Canada home.
In 2022, Kieran released, The MYTH of Canadian Healthcare/Hippocrates: A Guide to Treating Healthcare Workers. That short documentary explored the privatization of Alberta’s healthcare system through satirical and critical lenses.
Kieran is currently a Master's journalism student at the University of Western Ontario where he hopes to use his storytelling skills to ignite social change. After watching his impactful documentaries, I have no doubt at all that Kieran will achieve, and even surpass, that goal.
Many influential voices are heard throughout The of MYTH of Canadian Healthcare. Folks hear from union leaders like Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) President Guy Smith, the Alberta NDP member David Shepard MLA Edmonton City Centre, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders along with many doctors and nurses from across Alberta and a few from Ontario such as Dr. Danyaal Raza.
Raza is the founding advisor of Progress Toronto; staff physician with the Department of Family & Community Medicine of St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health; the founding physician lead of the Sumac Creek Health Centre in Toronto’s Regent Park; an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and member of the Decent Work & Health Network.
But perhaps the most impactful voice is that of Carole Moore, a retired hospital chaplain who witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of privatizing Alberta’s universal healthcare system beginning with Premier Ralph Klein (1992 - 2006).
I should probably mention that Carole Moore also happens to be Kieran’s grandmother.
During my discussion with Kieran, I mention that I have had the privilege to interview political scientist and management consultant, Ron Hikel, many times about healthcare as well as a guaranteed standard of living – also known as universal basic income.
In our conversations, Ron described the United States (US) healthcare system as problematic because neither the private nor the public sector dominate thereby guaranteeing two diametrically opposed systems that are constantly fighting.
Ron also said, what the US does eventually comes to Canada. I would argue that US privatization plans come via Alberta, then to Ontario where Conservatives follow Alberta’s playbook eventually passing it onto other Conservative run provinces. And, by all accounts, this is not a good thing.
Ron adamantly believes healthcare needs to remain in the public domain.
In my 2022 interview with Alberta doctor Luanne Metz, Head of the Division of Neurology at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, she summarized the United Conservative Party’s (UCP) healthcare agenda this way, “If you can pay for it, you get it. And, if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it.”
Rally outside the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton Credit: Kieran Fong
Currently, Alberta has no physician contract to honour because Premier Jason Kenny’s Conservative government ripped it up and replaced it with Bill 30, The Health Care Statutes Amendment Act. Bill 30 states the government doesn’t have to honour any future contracts making it easier for doctors to opt into alternative contracts with the government — aka privatizing healthcare services.
In the two years following the UCP implemented changes to physician rules and fees, 33 Lethbridge doctors either retired or left the system. That left over 45,000 unattached patients without access to a doctor or a walk-in clinic. And, that has only grown worse under UPC Premier Danielle Smith.
Walk-in clinics had been run out of the doctor’s offices, but since Kenny limited doctors to 50 submits a day, they were unable to bill for any services over and above that. Without the ability to bill for walk-in services, physicians couldn’t pay their overhead. That put an end to walk-in clinics.
This impossible situation made it easier for Kenney to introduce virtual medicine. And, make no mistake, virtual medicine is corporate medicine.
Telus Health and Shoppers Drug Mart provide virtual services across Canada. However, physicians accessed through these services could be located literally anywhere in the world.
Virtual doctors can book appointments, book follow-up visits, book referrals, and bill. But they can’t examine patients.
That means a surgeon in Alberta could get a patient referral from a virtual doctor who has never examined the patient. The surgeon still has a professional responsibility to the patient, but the corporate physician has none.
In fact, virtual doctors often tell patients if their symptoms get worse go to emergency. Emergency is the new walk-in clinic and triage center for non-existent family practices and that is exactly what Ron Hikel predicted after seeing this exact same process play out across the US.
Find out why the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Alberta, and other provinces and territories, are the only political party fighting to save, as well as expand, universal public healthcare. And, that really means providing fully funded healthcare services from in-utero to death including midwifery services; disability, elder and palliative care; along with dental, full prescription and full vaccination coverage.
And, how documentaries like The MYTH of Canadian Healthcare can spark social change that benefits all Canadians rather than just the wealthy and international corporations promoting privatized healthcare.
Watch Kieran’s full documentary, The MYTH of Canadian Healthcare/Hippocrates: A Guide to Treating Healthcare Workers, here.
Then, book a community viewing with Kieran at kfong178@gmail.com to help your neighbours and extended community understand exactly what the privatization of universal healthcare means to Canadians — and it is dire!
Kieran Fong holding gift for Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro who worked for Jason Kenny Credit: Kieran Fong
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your continued support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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