By Mario deSantis, May 9, 1999

In the last few articles I mentioned how Premier Romanow is providing a corrupted leadership and turning people to become the copycats and backstabbers of North America(1). I am not alone in perceiving the further deterioration of our social fabric; in this regard, I really enjoyed the reading of the recent metaphor on Mouseland(2) where Judy Old Rat turned against her own Nightingales and darkened the election sky for our Old Roy Mouse.

We are living in a state of planned confusion(3) (4) and our leaders are continuing to mismanage our health care system(5) and its people in an environment of secrecy, fear and now of blackmail. Over $130 million dollars of taxpayer money have been spent on the renovation of hospitals by the Regina Health District, and still there is no disclosure for the accountability of such expenditures(6).

The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) has waived strike action for the pursuing of a collective agreement and will resume, on May 10, negotiations with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) under the threats of being found guilty of contempt of court and being fined between $750,000 and $1,000,000(7). I have previously described the hypocritical behaviour of Premier Romanow in passing back-to-work legislation against the Saskatchewan Nurses just a few hours after strike action(8); now we have the hypocritical statement by SAHO that "...the fine must demonstrate that the union, like all people in our society, is ruled by the law and is required to obey the law..."(9)

SAHO has a short memory and doesn't remember the many instances when either itself or the health districts it represents were either abusing their power or breaking the laws with impunity(10) (11) (12). Honourable Pat Atkinson, Minister of Health, in one letter(13) directed to Rosalee Longmoore, President of SUN, states that our bureaucracy "... was being too busy to really listen, to really hear, all the legitimate concerns facing nurses and other health care workers..."; in another letter(14) she suggests the possibility of amending the back-to-work legislation.

In Saskatchewan, we have a government which has been too busy for the last eight years to listen to the predicament of the health care system, and a government which plays with the integrity of our laws and reduces them to an instrument for controlling and managing labour negotiations. This is the leadership of our leaders, no vision, no compassion, no heart, just a set of paper laws(15) diminishing our rights, dividing our people(16), and commanding blind obedience by a corrupted justice system(17) (18).

Endnotes

1. ROMANOW'S LEGACY: MORTGAGING THE FUTURE OF SASKATCHEWAN, by Mario deSantis, April 25, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

2. Nightingales darken election sky, by Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix, Forum, May 1, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

3. Never enough money for SAHO, by Mario deSantis, March 30, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

4. The Political Mission of Premier Romanow: Divide and Conquer, by Mario deSantis, April 18, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

5. Refer to the relevant health care articles published in the North Central Internet News and listed at the site http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/authors/desantis.html

6. CBC Saskatchewan Internet News, May 5, 1999. The CBC's request for accessing the disclosure for the Regina Health District's $130 million dollars hospitals' renovation was denied under the provincial freedom of information laws. Officials with the District also declined to do an interview on the subject (John Weidlich, CBC). Mario deSantis' comment: This is the paradox of Premier Romanow's provincial freedom of information laws, the right for the community owned district health boards to be secretive.

7. SAHO pushes for hefty penalty, by Anne Kyle & Mark Wyatt, The StarPhoenix, April 27, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

8. SUN's Strike and Premier Romanow's Paper Legislation, by Mario deSantis, April 22, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

9. SAHO pushes for hefty penalty, by Anne Kyle & Mark Wyatt, The StarPhoenix, April 27, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

10. The need for a management accounting system to address the current problems of accountability and performance in Saskatchewan Health Reform, by Mario deSantis, June 6, 1995

11. The District Health Boards were not complying with "The Health Districts Act". Refer to the Report of the Provincial Auditor Spring 1995, Chapter 2: District Health Boards, Saskatchewan

12. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 3. Is the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) above the Law? By Mario deSantis, November 1, 1998.

13. News Release dated Apr 12, 1999, Health 99 - 287, MINISTER APPEALS TO NURSES, letter dated 11 April 1999 from Health Minister Pat Atkinson to Saskatchewan Union of Nurses President Rosalee Longmoore, http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999Apr/287.99041205.html

14. Letter dated 16 April 1999 from Health Minister Pat Atkinson to Saskatchewan Union of Nurses President Rosalee Longmoore, published on full page A17 of The StarPhoenix, April 17, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

15. SUN's Strike and Premier Romanow's Paper Legislation, by Mario deSantis, April 22, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

16. The Political Mission of Premier Romanow: Divide and Conquer, by Mario deSantis, April 18, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

17. Examples of mental models in saskatchewan health care and racism, by Mario deSantis, July 29, 1998. Published in the North Central Internet News

18. Excerpt from the Judgment dated July 17, 1998 in the Queen's Bench Judicial Centre of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, by Justice Barclay "...racism is a grim reality in Canada and in Saskatchewan. It exists openly and blatantly in attitudes and actions of individuals. It exists in the fears, in the prejudices and stereotypes held by many people and it exists in our institutions..."