ANGIOPLASTY FOR ALL Campaign

Diana PriceJuly 9, 2010 at 5:08pm
Subject: Hi Joe
Here is all the information,

Thanks, so much for your support!

Take care,
Diana.

ANGIOPLASTY FOR ALL

July 9th 2010

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

On July 2nd 2010 the organization Angioplasty for All was formed in Toronto Ontario. The purpose of the organization is to bring awareness of the plight of those Canadians diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Every Canadian diagnosed with MS knows of recent break-throughs in the treatment of those with MS. Diagnosis no longer equals destiny. the growing realization among MS sufferers and their medical specialists, is that MS is not some kind of core disease – it is rather a convenient label that has been attached to a series of symptoms that science did not seem to know the cause of. Until now medical treatment for MS sufferers has amounted to treating symptoms, not knowing how to treat the underlying cause. Medicine did not know the cause.

The surgeries and the research that has has taken place in recent years confirms the reality of what was previously only a hope. To put it simply and in summary fashion, MS is no longer a total mystery. The vascular system draining blood from the brain has been determined to be the fundamental obstacle at the source of the many and varied things that MS sufferers have reported about their disability over the years.

It is not as though the idea is new to science and medicine. Angioplasty to relieve blood flow from the brain has long been a technique used by medical specialists. Everyone in Canada enjoys the benefit of the angioplasty technique when their doctor determines that it is a way of addressing a medical condition.

People like you and I, people who have been diagnosed with MS, are the only Canadians who are denied the benefit of this treatment. We never thought that labeling us with the words ‘multiple sclerosis’ would amount to denying us access to a simple treatment that thousands of Canadians receive in hospitals every year. If you have a dialysis problem and your doctor thinks that angioplasty might help – like the best of Canada – you are put into surgery and given angioplasty. You don’t pay for it. You aren’t denied it because you are of limited means. In Canada you rarely have to wait for it.

This simple surgery is denied to only one group of Canadians – those carrying the label ‘multiple sclerosis’. You and I are denied equal protection of the law of Medicare, you are denied equal benefit under the law of Medicare. You and I live and die by our label – ‘multiple sclerosis’ – not even a true disease. We live and die by a word, attached to us and used to categorize us as people that are deemed not to benefit from angioplasty.

Angioplasty in our cases, is categorized by the Ontario Ministry of Health as experimental and unproven and therefore to be denied to us. Everyday some of us get worse and some of us die. The simple surgery has been repeatedly and categorically demonstrated - in Ontario is is deemed by the Ministry of Health to be ‘experimental’ and therefore prohibited. Doctors now hang up the phone, hospitals - where MS patients are already gowned for procedure, - suddenly produce their chief of neurosurgeon to advise us to ‘get dressed – we don’t do that procedure here’. No explanation is given.

Canada doesn’t work like that. Ontario doesn’t work like that. Medicare doesn’t work like that. We are going to try to do something about it.

The sufferers of MS in our organization have retained a lawyer. Edward Conway is an Ontario lawyer, referred to us by Lawrence Greenspan, the renowned Ottawa civil rights lawyer. Mr Conway explained to us his significant experience in representing patients seeking medical treatment.

Mr. Conway tells us that this is not complicated. Litigation is complicated. But the fundamental point of equality under the law and equal protection of the law is not complicated. It is the spirit of the law and it will be seen by judges in our case.

We are going to court with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was once said to be the most powerful and unknown right brought forward in the law twenty-eight years ago. We plan to make use of it in this case.

The Ministry of Health has its reasons, invalid as they may be, for denying this treatment to MS patients. Rationing is a way of life in a Medicare system. But the decisions that are made are not supposed to be made in a way that simply prohibits one group from a treatment available to all.

Edward Conway has represented MS patients, people with spinal damage, psychiatric disorders, nerve disorders and many other types of people with disabilities over the years. He has used the Charter on many occasions with successes and failures. Charter litigation is not easy. There will be numerous countering legal moves by the parties that become defendants in this case.

We are aiming at the Ontario Ministry of Health. We are aiming at their determination that the label ‘multiple sclerosis’ amounts to a categorical denial of angioplasty. We are saying this is a distinction. It is a distinction based on a disability. It is discrimination. The facts are with us.

In many Charter cases the facts are against the plaintiff. Every Canadian with MS would has followed recent developments, every Canadian with MS would has already received the surgery and can walk, where they couldn’t walk before, who can stand, where they couldn’t stand before, these people know the facts are with us. We need to show the facts to the judges and we need to do it using section 15 of the Charter.

The litigation process needs to be funded. That is a fundamental purpose of our organization. It is estimated that the filing process could cost $10,000 per month. The plaintiffs in the case will have to retain experts in the field. We know the experts and we are confident of being able to retain them. We need to factor in the cost of retaining experts which we estimate roughly at $5000 for the first couple of months.

We have already raised funds toward the cause. We need your assistance. A corporation was established on July 6th 2010, to make the organization formal and transparent, to make the fund-raising formal and transparent.

Corporate Name: 7593066 Canada Inc.
Head office: 80 Overton Crescent Unit #1
Director: Diana Price
Director: Brian Light
Director: Tim Donovan

Bank Account number: 1001965
Transit Number: 06142
Address: 1090 Don Mills Road Toronto, ON, M3C 3R6;
Bank phone: (416) 510-3309

A bank account of the corporation has been established at the Royal Bank of Canada Don Mills and Lawrence. If you feel that you wish to participate and assist this cause we urge you to donate as soon as possible.

Donations should be written in the name of the corporation. On the cheque or money order the payee should be written as 7593066 Canada Inc.

The litigation should be commenced immediately if a result is to be seen as soon as possible. There are two ways to donate. You can send a cheque or money order in the name of the corporation, to one of the two Ontario directors of the organization.

Diana Price
80 Overton Crescent
Unit #1
Toronto ON
M3B 2V2
dianaprice@rogers.com

Brian Light
1048 Broadview Avenue
Suite 401
Toronto ON
M4K 2B8
brian@beautynet.com

Jul 13, 2010