Madeleine Ritts works as the team lead for a community mental health and addictions program at a hospital in downtown Toronto. She is involved in organizing work around poverty and homelessness and holds a practice-based research position at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.
Canada’s public health system is often seen as a model for the US. When it comes to pharmacare, however, Canada imitates its neighbor’s lousy practices, and Justin Trudeau has broken his pledge to establish a public prescription system that would be more just and more efficient.
COVID-19 has exposed the catastrophic failure of Ontario’s private long-term care facilities. We urgently need a system of elder care that’s universal and publicly funded.