Blaming the nurses

October 11, 2001

Former Westray Director Harasses BCNU President

On Tuesday, October 9th, Debra McPherson, President of the BC Nurses Union made a presentation to the BC Legislature's Select Standing Committee on Finance. Like most committees in a legislature with 77 Liberals and 2 New Democrats, the committee has but one New Democrat. Ms McPherson's presentation was excellent. As is typical of nurses, Ms McPherson acted as an advocate for patients throughout the province. Her full brief is available on the BCNU website and can be read by clicking here.

Most people will never see the BCNU brief to the Select Standing Committee, but many did see the news that night with Liberal Ralph Sultan badgering Ms. McPherson, and Liberal Blair Lekstrom, Chair of the Committee, rudely shouting at Joy MacPhail. What did Ms McPherson say to provoke Ralph Sultan into saying that she obviously knows more about nursing than she knows about economics? Was it her criticism of the government for shelling out for its friends before it had a business plan? Was it her criticism of the delayed WCB smoking regulation? Was it her criticism of government plans to slash Pharmacare? Whatever it was, people can judge the merits themselves by reading the BCNU brief.

Mr. Sultan is now MLA for West Vancouver Capilano and chair of the Campbell caucus committee on the economy. From the Liberal website we know that Mr. Sultan was born in 1933, MBA from Harvard, extensive senior level business experience, former chief economist for the Royal Bank.

Both BC Liberal website and the legislative biography page fail to mention Sultan's role as a Director of Curragh Resources Inc. The North Shore News, May 16, 2001, reported "A government commission struck to investigate the causes of the explosion shortly after the tragedy found parent company Curragh Resources Inc. and provincial mining inspectors negligent in their approach to worker safety at the mine." That mine is Westray where 26 miners were killed on May 9, 1992.

A North Shore News editorial wrote "LET'S be clear that West Vancouver-Capilano Liberal candidate Ralph Sultan is not accused of personal negligence in the deaths of 26 miners. That as a board director of parent company Curragh Resources he may well have had little or no personal knowledge of the safety issues involved in the operation of the Westray mine. But he was a board member of a company that stonewalled a Nova Scotia government commission tasked with investigating the causes of the tragic explosion of May 9, 1992."

The next time Mr. Sultan decides to lecture the President of the BC Nurses Union, he might reflect on his own past and what his record is for workers.

Updated August 14, 2001 7:30 PM

Blaming the Nurses - even more offensive!

"Do you agree with the current job action on the North Shore?" In a box titled "Your vote counts", that was the question on the top of the North Shore Health Region's website until this website blew the whistle. On August 14th the question was changed to "Do you agree with the job action by some physicians on the North Shore?"

The health region deserves full marks for ambiguity since, until August 14th, it didn't say what job action. A little further down the page the site said "From 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 1, general surgeons, gynecologists, orthopedic surgeons and anesthetists are no longer providing emergency on-call coverage in the North Shore Health Region." However, when one clicked on their link for more information, a popup box criticized the nurses with "While physician job action continues at Lions Gate Hospital, the BC Nurses Union demonstrated its frustration at recent government legislation by staging an illegal picket around the hospital from 7:00 a.m. today (Thursday, August 9)." On August 14th (3:30 PM), that popup box was changed, but it remained critical of the workers under the direct control of the health board (not the doctors). The updated box concluded "The decision to legislate an end has angered union leaders but received support among a public that has tired in recent weeks of illegal job action and claims of mass resignations. Despite the threat, there has been no mass resignation of nurses since the Bill was passed."

Consider the inconsistencies in how the physicians are treated relative to the nurses. In the case of the nurses, the employer can and did go to the Labour Relations Board to get an order that is then registered in court. Anyone violating that order could be found in criminal contempt of court. The action is initiated by the employer and the penalties are harsh.

Now look at how the doctors' strike is handled. Their regulatory body, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, issued a letter that expressed sympathy with their cause. No disciplinary action is undertaken unless a patient files and pursues a complaint. The likelihood of that is slim and none.

While the government spins to the media that the nurses have backed down in a confrontation, the doctors' strike at Lions Gate Hospital continues with not a word being said.