[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 106 (Thursday, August 4, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    THE CANADIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM--THE LOSS OF INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

                                 ______


                             HON. JIM KOLBE

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 4, 1994

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, proponents of a massive government 
intervention into our country's health care system often tout the 
health care system of our neighbors to the north in Canada. The 
following article by Susan Riggs, a Canadian writer, warns us about the 
perils of increasing government intervention in our lives. As we head 
into the final leg of the health care debate, we would be wise to take 
Ms. Riggs' words to heart and stop the trend in our country towards 
curbing individual freedom.
  This article appeared in the Arizona Daily Star on July 17, 1994.

              Warning From Canada: Learn from our Mistakes

                            (By Susan Riggs)

       Toronto.--An open letter to my American neighbors:
       Like you, I woke up today, got dressed and settled down to 
     a steaming brew and the morning newspaper before heading out 
     to work. Unlike you, I read that dozens of my fellow citizens 
     were arrested for carrying copies of the Buffalo News. The 
     newspaper contained information about a trial here that the 
     powers-that-be did not want us to read. It is that simple.
       It is now 11:15 p.m. Minutes ago, I turned on the Buffalo 
     television station, hoping to see on my TV what could not 
     reach us through the newspapers. I am now looking at a blank 
     screen. We received about 10 seconds of the trial 
     controversy, and suddenly my screen went blank. A message 
     appeared on the screen explaining that because of the 
     contravention of a ban, the station was prohibiting broadcast 
     of the news. Along with the sign was a high-pitched whistle 
     that sounded like the air-raid sirens the Britons used during 
     World War II.
       As I sit here alone, I realize that my blood is running 
     cold at the sound of that whistle.
       This could never happen here. Not in Canada.
       You must wonder about a country that would deny its own 
     citizens the freedom to read. As a Canadian, I have done a 
     lot of hard thinking about it. I guess the powers have their 
     reasons for the ban. Censorship always has its reasons, but, 
     believe me, when you are on the receiving end of government 
     censorship, no reason amounts to a hill of beans--and that is 
     why I am writing to you.
       It is my hope that you will read the Canadian story and, as 
     your famous columnist Ann Landers says, ``wake up and smell 
     the coffee''--while you still have a newspaper to read along 
     with it.
       I have always loved the United States of America, and I 
     know that you are now making critical decisions about the 
     role of government in your lives. Many years ago, we in 
     Canada were at a crossroads in our decision making that is 
     similar to the one you are at now. I wish our decisions back 
     then had been very different. Then maybe I wouldn't be 
     sitting here staring at a blank screen.
       Some two decades ago, Canadians were concerned with how 
     government could best help its citizens. We looked around at 
     countries with a comprehensive social welfare system and 
     envied them their cushions of comfort for everything from 
     universal medical care to national day care.
       We were a country that held individual freedom in high 
     esteem. Surely, we thought, it was possible to take the best 
     aspects of socialism and weave them into the fabric of a free 
     society. After all, this was democratic Canada, not the 
     Soviet Union.
       Over the next 20 years, we developed an extensive social 
     support network at both the federal and provincial levels of 
     government. The government spent money on every conceivable 
     program. We spent and spent. Still, no one was ever really 
     satisfied.
       The spending even now continues unabated, and our national 
     deficit today stands at more than $45 billion. (We are now 
     looking to New Zealand for pointers on how to control our 
     deficit.)
       When you adopt an extensive government agenda, you soon 
     discover that all the entrenched programs and layers of 
     bureaucracy become impossible to budge. Much of 
     the population works for the government; about one of 
     every four Canadians now draws a government paycheck.
       People learn to depend on government, and all governments, 
     even those whose leaders warn against this dependency, learn 
     to love the power that flows from it.
       As for the threat to individual liberty, newspaper 
     censorship is, frankly, the tip of the iceberg. Government 
     intervenes in our lives constantly, and individual liberties 
     are abrogated in new and ever more imaginative ways each day.
       Recently, while on vacation, I rented a car in Seattle and 
     tried to drive into British Columbia. My car was confiscated 
     at the border. When I asked for an explanation, I was told 
     that I had not paid taxes on it--a rental car. Had I been an 
     American, there would have been no problem, but, as a 
     Canadian, I had to pay $200 more for a Canadian rental car in 
     order to continue my trip.
       Canadians who dare to get a haircut or a car tune-up across 
     the border are being photographed and prosecuted upon their 
     return to Canada. Why? Because they have secured these 
     services without having to incur the 7 percent goods-and-
     services tax slapped onto our ever-burgeoning provincial 
     taxes. Even insurance plans are now taxed.
       Once it takes hold, monopolization by government soon 
     spreads to nearly every aspect of your life; in the Toronto 
     area alone, we have six separate municipal governments and 
     one super-municipal government (the ``mother'' of all local 
     governments) called Metro, which exists to oversee the 
     others.
       You will find that after a time, your state and federal 
     governments--even those of a different political stripe--will 
     join forces to make their task of tax collection easier.
       Our entire education system, up to university level, is 
     governed by a centralized bureaucracy called the Ministry of 
     Education, which dictates what can and cannot be taught in 
     the schools and how it is to be taught. Universities are 
     mainly government-funded.
       I realize that the issue of government-run programs is 
     particularly important to you now because of the state of 
     your health-care system. I sympathize with you completely. I 
     cannot imagine a world where one could be left bankrupt 
     because of illness. I also think that you are on the right 
     track with your solutions. If anyone can devise a workable 
     system for medical care, it is you.
       I suggest that you look upon it as you do your police 
     protection; a guard in place for the physical and mental 
     well-being of your citizens. The real danger in socialized 
     medicine is the attitude of entitlement it engenders.
       The stories you have heard about us are largely true. It is 
     not uncommon to pick up a newspaper and read about ``The 
     Frightening Wait for Cancer Therapy'' here in Ontario, and 
     the situation is no, better in the other provinces. There is 
     a shortage of the most advanced diagnostic technology. 
     Thousands of the health cards that ensure access to 
     medical care have been issued erroneously.
       We do wait two hours for an appointment booked weeks in 
     advance. Despite our world-class doctors, many patients can't 
     get treatment in time because of overcrowding. When you are 
     faced with a life-and-death medical situation, you don't mind 
     paying whatever it costs. Under the government-dominated 
     medical system, however, you can't even buy your way in--
     unless, of course, you go to the United States.
       The sound of the air-raid siren on my TV has stopped, at 
     least for now. As the politicians love to say, this is my 
     ``defining moment.''
       Writing is my great love, the part of me that can never be 
     censored. This letter was difficult to write, and no one up 
     here knows that I have written it. All these issues are not 
     just personal; they are professional, too.
       I am employed in administration at a prominent Ontario 
     university that has historically enjoyed a high degree of 
     autonomy. Last summer, my president wrote a letter to the 
     staff explaining that the government had expressed an 
     intention to take a more active role in the management of 
     university affairs. He described this as an enormous threat 
     to our autonomy as a free-thinking institution, and in the 
     end the government retreated--for now.
       As I sit here tonight, it is simply beyond my comprehension 
     that such a well-intentioned and beloved country as my own 
     could go so far astray so quickly. And it is all the more 
     remarkable that it has taken place without grand conspiracies 
     or intricate plots.
       Indeed, most Canadians are as offended by the images of 
     totalitarian government as you are. We shared your joy at the 
     fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the Soviet bloc; 
     we value freedom. And yet we have fallen into a trap where we 
     are not free.
       As with that other well-known road, we traveled this one 
     with the best of intentions.
       To those who would dismiss me as an alarmist, I issue this 
     invitation: Read our newspapers, watch our news broadcasters 
     (what is left of them) and see for yourselves. Prove me 
     wrong. I wish you could.
       Really think about what it could mean when you hear about a 
     government initiative that sounds too good to be true. Thank 
     God for a free press, even when you find yourself criticizing 
     the media for broadcasting stories that you would rather not 
     hear about. The recent publication ban is not the first one. 
     There are others, and their numbers are growing.
       When you make critical decisions about the role of 
     government in your life, please think about me, about this 
     letter and about Canada.
       Listen and learn, America. Cup your ear to the wind and 
     hear the blood-chilling wail of the siren whistle as it 
     drifts down across your border. If just one of you reads this 
     letter and pauses, even for a moment, to think about what 
     unchecked government can do, then it has been worth the 
     writing.
       I have faith in you, America. Your road is tough and not 
     perfect. Nothing is. Your road will keep leading you to 
     freedom--the freedom to read and think and be exactly who and 
     what you are--if you only let it. Treasure that freedom, love 
     it and resolve never, ever to let it go.

                          ____________________