Vol. 101 No. 21
Brian Street, President
Joan Posivy, Secretary
Next meeting: Tuesday November 27, 2018 DG Darcy Long Annual District Governor Visit
Darcy Long is District 5040's current District Governor. The first one chosen from the Sunshine Coast. As we ask of all of our members, why did you choose Rotary? The following is an excerpt from the Coast Reporter, author Cathy Roy.(https://www.coastreporter.net/opinion/editorial/darcy-long-makes-rotary-history-1.23344293)
When the horrific tsunami struck Thailand in 2004, the Longs [Darcy & her husband Doug] saw firsthand the power of Rotary in action. The pair was awed by the way the six local Phuket Rotary clubs worked together in Kamala Bay restoring the locals’ fishing boats. In 2005 friends invited them to join their Rotary club, and the Longs never looked back.
Darcy was the club’s president in 2009/10 and kept looking for more opportunities to serve the organization she’s so passionate about. Fast forward a few years and the chance came to lead the 5040 District in the 2018/19 year, no small job. The District ranges from Prince Rupert in the northwest to Vancouver in the south. Altogether there are 50 clubs in the District. During her governing year, Darcy will visit all the clubs at least once as well as host a spring conference at Sun Peaks in 2019. Her only regret in the whole experience is not being able to have the conference on the Coast because of a lack of a big enough venue.
Each year the incoming international Rotary president chooses a theme. For Darcy’s year the president picked “Be the inspiration.” I can’t imagine a better person to bring this slogan to life. With Doug’s ongoing support and the firm backing from the four clubs on the Lower Sunshine Coast, Darcy will set the standard high for all Rotarians.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday December 4, 2018 Dr. Julio Montaner, OC, OBC, MD, Advisor to UN Aides Program, Director of BC's Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Treatment as Prevention: The B.C. experience and future directions
Dr. Montaner is a UBC-Killam Professor of Medicine, the Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and the UNAIDS Special Advisor on HIV Therapeutics (2014-2017). Dr. Montaner played a key role in the development and implementation of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) as the modern standard of care for HIV disease. He then pioneered Treatment as Prevention (TasP) using HAART to simultaneously stop progression to AIDS and death, and HIV transmission. Based on his TasP strategy, he proposed the 90-90-90 Target that has now been formally adopted by the UN to accelerate the global control of HIV/AIDS.
Upcoming meeting: Tuesday December 11, 2018 Rotary Club of Vancouver AGM
CHRISTMAS GET-TOGETHER & CAROLING Thursday December 13, 2018 7:30 p.m. Annual Club Family Get-Together
Bill & Wendy Dauphinee are inviting us all to join them for an evening of warm fellowship, in cozy surroundings, singing many of our favourite Carols and Christmas songs. Don Evans will be playing the piano. If you play an instrument, please bring it along and accompany Don or do a solo.
They do not require any particular musical skills, just members who enjoy singing.
Bill & Wendy have said they would appreciate it if each couple would bring a small plate with their favourite hors d’oeuvres or a plate of Christmas baking with them for the festive table. Your hosts will supply wine and soft drinks.
Please RSVP to Wendy, wendy@dauphinee.ca or 604-985-9693
ROTARY CHRISTMAS PUB NIGHT Thursday December 20, 2018 7:00 p.m. @ The Sylvia Hotel
Back by popular demand, we are having another Rotary pub night. Wear you favourite Christmas sweater, come thirsty and hungry, and we will celebrate the holiday season with great conversation, laughter and good cheer! The iconic Sylvia Hotel has a fabulous menu of appies and entrees, and has a cozy dining room perfect for our gathering!
WHEN:
Thursday Dec 20th 7:00 p.m.
WHAT:
Drinks & Dinner
WHO:
Everyone (partners/guests welcome)
WHERE:
Sylvia Hotel, English Bay area
(1154 Gilford and Beach Ave.)
Free underground parking!
Please RSVP with Milton so he can book seats.
At this time of the year, tables are going quickly, so do let me know early.
Phone: 604-838-1222
BAH HUMBUG! December 6 - December 22, 2018
An Eastside Christmas Carol celebrating the spirit and humanity of Charles Dickens.
Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol is beautifully retold in this contemporary adaptation cleverly set within Vancouver's Downtown East Side whilst ever echoing the harsh social and economic themes of a Dickensian London.
This poignant yet ever humourous musical is directed by award winning Renae Morriseau featuring a stellar cast lead by Jim Byrnes, Tom Pickett, Kevin McNulty, our own Jenifer Brousseau and Sam Bob. St James Academy choir and Governor General community award recipient, Stephen Lytton, add their rich voices to this unique adaptation.
“At the darkest hour of a winter’s night, Scrooge confronts spirits of the past, present and future. Emerging from Coast Salish land buried under city sidewalks, they bring the old pawn broker face to face with memories he cannot bear and relationships he cannot heal,” says Savannah Walling, Artistic Director of Vancouver Moving Theatre, “Dickens’ haunting ghost story is filled with social satire, heartbreak and compassion. We hope that our music filled adaptation shines the light of truth on this old tale and today’s Downtown Eastside.”
WHERE:
Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts,
149 W. Hastings St.
The Vancouver Young Professionals will be holding their next meeting on December 3rd. Everyone is welcome, and indeed Rotarians are encouraged to join them. The meeting is held at the YMCA. Contact Thomas Miller (or Joan Posivy) for more details.
Congratulations to Thomas Miller, current President of the Vancouver Young Professionals, for his new appointment as District Rotaract Co-Chair with Joan starting July 1, 2019. Thomas is a very active and involved Rotaractor, we are lucky to have him!
Upcoming Events please click on the titles for more info for specific events
Though not a member of our Club, we want to remember Ronald Hooge, who passed away on November 9th. He was a honorary member of the Rotary Club of Burnaby. He has requested that, in lieu of flowers, those who wish to please donate to (1) his favorite bike-a-thon, the Rotary Club of Vancouver Hearing Foundation, or (2) the Canadian Cancer Society "Ride to Survive" under Don Froese's page (https://www.ride2survive.ca)
Ron's Celebration of Life will be on November 26th, 2:00 p.m. at the Burnaby Mountain Golf Course (7600 Halifax St., Burnaby)
President Brian Street chaired the meeting and gave the invocation.
Don Evans accompanied us on the piano for the singing of O Canada.
Joe Lopushinsky, Sergeant-at-Arms, introduced visitors and guests.
President's announcements:
The membership meeting this morning was a good one. A reminder that all are welcome to attend.
Next week is the annual visit from our DG, Darcy Long. All committee chairs will be expected to share a 3-5 minute verbal update plus provide a written report. Committee Chairs and Board members are to meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Terminal City Club, tentatively in the Gibson Suite. Please RSVP to Carolyn (admin@rotaryvancouver.org/604-831-6831) so we can ensure the room is large enough.
Joan Posivy provided the Secretary's announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above)
birthdays:Sue Haralds-Towsley Nov26th
member anniversaries:Mass Abedi 10 years
wedding anniversaries: None this week
Special announcements and member's moments:
Milton Kiang who organized the last pub night at the Brew Hall in the Olympic Village area let us all know that a good time was had by the approximately 17 people who attended. By popular request the next pub night has been planned - see above for more information and SAVE THE DATE.
Phil Webber gave thanks to the Nominating Committee, John, Kaz, Keith, Verona, Peter, Franz, and ex-officio members Brian and Bill.
NOTE: Any 10 members in good standing may nominate an eligible individual for any position requiring election at the Annual General Meeting which is to be held December 11, 2018. Any such nominations must be delivered to the Club Secretary, Joan Posivy, prior to the December 4, 2018 meeting of the Rotary Club of Vancouver so that they can be announced at that meeting.
The committee has recommended the following slate for 2019-2020:
Gerry Glazier, President Elect, if elected to assume office July 1, 2019
Kayo Otake, Director, if elected to assume office July 1, 2019
Mark Startup, Director, if elected to assume office July 1, 2019
Min Kuang, Director, if elected to assume office July 1, 2019
Milton Kiang, Sergeant at Arms Elect, if elected to assume office July 1, 2019
The following will carry over as noted:
Jack Zaleski, Franco Gallo, and Angus Campbell, their second year of office
Kaz Kadono, as Treasurer
Bill Davidson, as President
Brian Street, as Immediate Past President
Bill Davidson will announce his Secretary
John Richardson, as Sergeant-at-Arms (not yet a Board position)
Gordon Esau provided the by-laws update. He thanked the whole committee for their efforts in getting the job done. The changes do not represent major changes but rather they better rationalize long standing bylaws to come in line with Rotary International. Paul McCrae moved to accept the bylaws as amended Verona Edelstein seconded Passed
Program:
Paul Martin introduced speaker Dr. Brian Day.
Dr. Brian Day is an orthopedic surgeon and health researcher in Canada, a past president of the Canadian Medical Association, and a prominent sometimes controversial advocate for patient access to a hybrid of Canada's health system.
Who would of thought that the street person look of Harvey Weinstein and Brad Pitt would be attractive. That people would pay hundreds of dollars more for a pair of blue jeans just because they were ripped and ragged. That people would pay for bottled water when better quality from a tap is free. That we'd walk our dogs scooping up their poop. It would be legal to gamble and buy drugs, alcohol, tobacco, but not spend after tax $ on your own health care.
Rationing of resources evolved as the only way for governments to handle its role as the monopoly provider and funder of physician and hospital services. As part of that rationing, our new graduates could not get hospital privileges to work, those of us in practice had our allotted O.R. time cut back – in Dr. Day's case from 22 hours a week to 5 hours a week resulting in a list building up of over 450 patients waiting to get in for surgery. Moreover, we were denied access to new and up to date equipment. These pressures led a group of us to get together and build our own facility, the Cambie Surgery Centre. We actually looked at Blaine Washington, and the city council there were keen, but there was doubt we could get a certificate of need. Funnily enough, that was in the era of HillaryCare, and our Seattle based lawyer initially laughed because they had been retained to explore the possibility of US surgeons building a place just across the border on the Canadian side. He joked that maybe we could build a tunnel under the border and share some equipment and staff.
Canada’s a health care “system” evolved from that pioneered in the province of Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan Act, with its 8 principles listed here, formed the basis of the Canada Health Act of 1984, but with a not so subtle difference.
Comprehensive
Universal
Accessible
Portable
Public Administration
Effective
Efficient
Responsible
The principles of Effective, Efficient, and Responsible, didn’t make the cut from the provincial version to the national law. Only 5 principles remained:
Comprehensive
Universal
Accessible
Portable
Public Administration
“The State, in organizing security, should not stifle incentive, opportunity, responsibility; in establishing a national minimum, it should leave room and encouragement for voluntary action by each individual to provide more than that minimum for himself and his family”
Sir William Beveridge
Founder of the British National Health Service (the template for Medicare in Canada)
Hypocrisy pervades the experiences of the last 20 plus years. A Canadian company Interhealth, was the brainchild of former left wing Canadian politicians and leaders. Canadian governments were founding shareholders in the private company, whose mandate was to build and operate private hospitals in other countries. While fighting the private sector in Canada, Canadian governments were operating private facilities abroad and, as they restricted working opportunities for orthopaedic graduates and nurses here in Canada, they were recruiting them to work in their private hospitals abroad.
I got to discuss health policy with Canadian prime ministers. Of course I love to brag about my socialist credentials and connections with Fidel Castro and his son Tony. When I was CMA President, my British counterpart was Princess Anne. I had many interesting times, but unfortunately, despite our efforts, we were not able to achieve any significant changes in the status quo.
A 2015 book by a British health author, Mark Britnell, attempted to describe, using 12 categories, what a perfect health system would look like. 12 countries contributed to the list. Canada was not one of them.
Values and universal healthcare of the UK
Primary care of Israel
Community services of Brazil
Mental health and well-being of Australia
Health promotion of the Nordic countries
Patient and community empowerment in parts of Africa
Research and development of the U.S.
Innovation, flair and speed of India
Information, communications and technology of Singapore
Choice of France
Funding of Switzerland
Aged care of Japan
We often hear how efficient our system is compared to the United States. Not so when we compare like with like. Self reported administration costs by administrators in BC were exposed as being false, by a study that used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the true costs. Germany has a hybrid system, with relatively minimal waits in their public system. Canada has very log wait lists and 11 times as many public health bureaucrats as there are Germany. There is one bright spot. Health policy researchers in Canada lead the world in studies of wait times. And do so courtesy of tax revenue that could instead be used to shorten them.
We have allowed government to control access to care by establishing benchmarks in certain areas. Hip and knee replacement benchmarks are, for example, double that which the COA recommended as a maximum. Why has this been allowed to continue, and how have governments been able to get away with it?
26% of doctors surveyed have had patients die on a wait list. I could go on for hours with other examples. Government lawyers in our legal case dismiss them as anecdotes. As I speak, there are over a million such anecdotes on state enforced wait lists in Canada. Ministers of Health have bought into the approach. "Hospitals have fixed budgets and must not run over the... You can't just keep accepting patients and treating them once the money has run out. It won't be tolerated", said Gaetan Barrette, the health minister of Canada's second largest province, Quebec.
The question to the courts is simple: “Should Canadians suffering on wait lists in BC have the same rights under the Charter that the Supreme Court of Canada granted to those living in Quebec?”
Canada is the only country on Earth that forces patients to stay on a state mandated wait list.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is fundraising to support Dr. Day's lawsuit.
We have just heard that we obtained our injunction against the BC Government.
This has rarely been granted in Canadian history. Summary of judge’s decision:
In summary, for the purposes of the Injunction Application, I have determined the following:
a) Taking into account the circumstances of this constitutional litigation and a preliminary assessment of the evidence, the Plaintiffs have established that injunctive relief is appropriate in this case. I make that determination based on a preliminary assessment of the evidence and finding that the Plaintiffs have established that there is a serious question to be tried in that:
Cambie Surgeries Corporation v. British Columbia (Attorney General) Page 73
i. Some patients will suffer serious physical and/or psychological harm while waiting for health services;
ii. Some physicians will not provide private-pay medically necessary health services after the MPA Amendments take effect;
iii. Some patients would have accessed private-pay medically necessary health services but for the MPA Amendments;
iv. Some patients will have to wait longer for those medically necessary health services that could have been available but for the MPA Amendments and impugned provisions;
v. A sufficient causal connection between increased waiting times for private-pay medically necessary health services and physical and/or psychological harm caused to some patients.
b) The Plaintiffs have established irreparable harm in the context of a constitutional case that has proceeded in a manner that is consistent with public interest litigation in that some patients, but for the prohibitions, could have obtained private-pay medically necessary health services much sooner at a private clinic (such as Cambie) and the subsequent delay in receiving treatment causes some patients to endure serious physical and psychological suffering. The nature of this constitutional case complicates the assessment of damages at the interlocutory stage.
c) The Plaintiffs have established that the balance of convenience tips in their favour. This is so despite the Court’s conclusion that the MPA Amendments are directed to the public good and serve a valid public purpose. The Plaintiffs have tilted the balance by establishing that restraint of the enforcement provisions will also serve the public interest in that private-pay medically necessary health services will be accessible in circumstances where the parties are in the midst of a lengthy…
Meeting adjourned with a toast to good health and ethical health care.
Darcy Long is District 5040's current District Governor. The first one chosen from the Sunshine Coast. As we ask of all of our members, why did you choose Rotary? The following is an excerpt from the Coast Reporter, author Cathy Roy..jpg)
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