Skip to main content

Health services

Resolution number
3
Whereas
  1. Refugee claimants come to Canada seeking refuge from persecution;
  2. The psychological and physical health needs of refugees have been documented to be significant;
  3. Health has been defined by the World Health Organization and Health and Welfare Canada to be a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity and a fundamental human right;
  4. Health has been singled out by the United Nations Committee on Social and Cultural Rights as the most important priority under the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights which Canada has ratified;
  5. Everyone under Canadian jurisdiction and remaining in Canada for completion of federal processing is in the care and protection of the Federal Government;
  6. The Federal Minister of Health recognises the emergency health needs of refugee claimants;
  7. Doctors are required under the medical ethics to provide health services to all in need;
Therefore be it resolved

That:

  1. The CCR urge the Federal Minister of Health to work with the provincial Ministers of Health to find an effective way to deliver equitable health services to all people living in Canada including refugee claimants;
  2. The CCR contact the Canadian Medical Association and the provincial Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and other professional health organizations to obtain policy positions on the insurance of health services delivery to ALL those requiring medical intervention;
  3. The CCR advocate that the Federal Minister of Health, in consultation with the CCR, strike a committee to advise federal and provincial ministers of health on the equitable delivery of health services and that members of this committee come from immigrant-serving NGO's, the Federal and Provincial Ministries of Health and Health Professionals.
Working Group
Immigration and Settlement