Free Healthcare? Think again

Remember last year when York University suspended the student activist Daniel Freeman-Maloy for three years without appeal for sounding a bullhorn and disrupting classes during a pro-palestinian demonstration?

Well he's getting back at them now by suing them for $850k in punitive damages. I just found it really interesting and I'd really like to know the verdict for this case. Read the article in the current issue of the Varsity if you're interested (the online version isn't updated yet so I can't link to it).

In other news, if you're a student from BC studying in Toronto, you better not get sick. If you have a BC health card and would want to see a doctor, you might as well flip a coin to evaluate your chances of being accepted or not. It's so ad-hoc it's not even funny.

Just a few weeks ago, after months of waiting, my friend went to see a specialist (who was referred by his then family doctor, who accepted his BC health card without mentinoing anything) and he was turned away at the specialist because they didn't accept his health card. His alternative was to pay $150 for the visit!

Yesterday, I went to see my family doctor for the first time, and I too was told they would not accept my BC health card and I would have to pay for the visit. They said the BC card is only valid for 3 months here and they don't get paid otherwise. Furious, I called the ministry of health and I was told the card is valid for 12 months and after that you have to apply for an Ontario card.

It's all the more absurd because a month ago I applied for the Ontario health card but they refused to give it to me because I am a student. They told me as long as you're a student you are still covered by BC and you won't get an Ontario card unless you are living and working here, outside the university.

Unfortunately, the doctors don't buy that and thus it seems I'm officially in limbo.