<img src="https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/fdd00e9f-f066-4244-85e8-d12e6d1b760c?size=2" nborder="0" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5" title="Screen Shot 2023-09-14 at 1.49.15 PM.png" alt="Ontario Health Coalition"/>TORONTO, May 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- “Get on Board,” the Health Coalition is saying. “Stop Ford’s Privatization Train Wreck!” The play on words is referring to entire train cars that the coalition has reserved for people from towns across South and Central Ontario. Concerned residents will be heading in to Toronto for a giant march and rallies calling on the Ford government to stop their unprecedented privatization of Ontario’s core hospital services. Events are set for Thursday, May 28 as follows: In Toronto: We are expecting 5,000 – 10,000 people from the city and on the trains The first rally will start at York and Front Streets across from Union Station at 11:20 a.m. The police will decide upon street closures that morning. The march will proceed up York St., across Queen St. to Bay Street. There will be another rally at Queen and York Streets at 12 p.m. Then the march will proceed up Bay Street to College Street, then West to the Ontario Legislature. Health professionals from the University Row hospitals will gather at the Southeast corner of University Avenue and join the march as it goes by. There will be a rally at Queen’s Park at 1 – 1:45 p.m. Media are invited to talk with large groups of local residents boarding trains from your communities. Local residents are gathering 45 minutes before departure time at their stations as follows: <ul type="disc"><li>Barrie (South) departs 9:10 a.m.</li><li>Brampton departs 10:52 a.m.</li><li>Guelph departs 8:55 a.m.</li><li>Hamilton (Aldershot) GO departs 10:06 a.m.</li><li>Kingston Train 1 departs at 7:21 a.m. <ul type="circle"><li>Train 2: departs at 9:34 a.m.</li></ul> </li><li>Kitchener departs 8:36 a.m.</li><li>London departs at 7:35 a.m.</li><li>Niagara departs at 6:37 a.m.</li><li>Oakville departs at 11:01 a.m.</li><li>Oshawa departs 10:09 a.m.</li><li>Ottawa departs at 5:21 a.m.</li><li>Port Credit (Mississauga) departs 10:44 a.m.</li><li>Windsor departs at 5:35 a.m.</li><li>Woodstock departs at 6:55 am. </li></ul> There are approximately 1,500 people coming to the event on the trains. They will be joined by thousands in Toronto. Over the last year, Ford has announced almost $300 million to open 61 new private clinics – the vast majority of them run for-profit. This is on top of Ford’s major privatization of tens of thousands of cataract surgeries over the last couple of years. By the government’s own estimation, this latest slew of new private clinics alone is intended to redirect more than 1.2 million patients away from public hospitals. These private clinics are taking funds, staff and services away from our local public hospitals that run in the public interest on a non-profit basis. They only take the quick, healthy and profitable patients. Patients with COPD, diabetes, even those who use wheelchairs, are often refused by private surgical clinics. More complex (and expensive patients) are left to public hospitals -- with less funding and staff to provide for them. Ford’s move is by far the largest expansion of for-profit private clinics ever. A number of these private clinics are set up to be quasi hospitals with multiple operating rooms, diagnostic suites and more. But they are not governed under the same regime as public hospitals and do not have the safety, public interest, access to information and other standards. Moreover, the laws that do exist to protect patients from exploitative user fees and extra-billing (billing OHIP and charging patients on top) are not being enforced, leaving seniors paying thousands of dollars for their surgeries and tests. At the same time, the Ford government has pushed local public hospitals into deficit and is playing tough with them to force them to impose more cuts to staffing and services. “Make no mistake,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “The Ford government is trying to force a massive shift of our public tax dollars away from our local public hospitals to create an infrastructure of private for-profit clinics. His government is privatizing Ontario’s hospitals now, unless we stop them.” “The Coalition is calling on Ontarians to come out and not take for granted that we will be able to stop the Ford government from privatizing our hospitals,” she added. “In this fight, we are facing down powerful monied interests and the Ford government has many close connections with the for-profit health care industry. If we are going to be able to overcome them, we are going to need to build a fightback that is huge and relentless.” For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive director (416) 230-6402. <img alt="" src='https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/NzQzZTQ0OWMtMDE1MS00YjYwLWE0ZTYtMzM5ZjYzNzNmMGVjLTUwMDExODY3Ny0yMDI2LTA1LTI1LWVu/tiny/Ontario-Health-Coalition.png' referrerpolicy='no-referrer-when-downgrade' />

GlobeNewswire Inc.

MEDIA ADVISORY -- Entire train cars of local residents head to Toronto for giant march to demand Doug Ford stop his unprecedented privatization of our public hospital services

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