Council fails to protect vulnerable
As a group of family doctors and nurse practitioners in Regina, we were among more than 20 endorsers supporting a recent motion by city councillor Andrew Stevens to have Regina join 300 other jurisdictions across North America — including Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton and London — in officially adopting an Access Without Fear policy to ensure all residents have access to municipal services regardless of immigration status.
We were among the many who were disappointed by council’s decision not to pass the resolution and instead to refer it to higher levels in the provincial and federal governments.
Our reasons for supporting the resolution were outlined in our presentation. As providers of primary health care in Regina we know that many municipal services are key to health, and we are regularly reminded of the barriers to accessing such services that exist for patients who have precarious immigration or legal status.
Instead of supporting the Access without Fear resolution, city council referred the issue up the chain to higher orders of government responsible for immigration and refugee settlement services. While this may push these levels of government in a positive direction, the councillors who opposed the resolution seem to have missed an important point. The problems we identified were not problems with the province (which has quite approachable about providing health care coverage for precarious individuals needing it) or with the federal government. The problems we see are the fear of accessing local municipal services.
Many of our patients are working “under the table,” or in other vulnerable work situations, because of their immigration status. They may be afraid to access city policy assistance when they are victims of child or spousal abuse. They are afraid to report housing safety problems, or fire hazards, in their often impoverished housing situations for fear of repercussions. They may need emergency shelter, or paratransit services to access medical appointments. They may be afraid to register for public recreational or fitness services in the city for themselves or their children. They often face language barriers that make their situations even more vulnerable, but may be afraid to access public library language resources, programs or tutoring.
Even if they are not asked for their immigration status, and their status would not be reported, many of them suffer from post-traumatic stress that leads them to fear calling attention to themselves, even if that fear is not grounded in reality. The fear is nevertheless very real for them, and countering it would be significantly aided by a formal public policy and educational approach from the city.
Passing this resolution would have put the City of Regina in the forefront of other progressive municipal governments across the country interested in creating a genuinely positive atmosphere for the precarious people in our midst who live in fear. Regina city councillors expressed their sympathy, but in the end failed to take action in our own backyard.
Drs. Carla Barkman, Megan Clark, Sylvie Jones, Rejina Kamrul, Sarah Liskowich, Sally Mahood, Clara Rocha Michaels and Andrea Vasquez.