Local health advocates rally in Windsor against privatization of health care

Windsor healthcare advocates gathered to hold a protest at Tecumseh Road East and Ouellette Avenue on Saturday.

Dozens of demonstrators lined the intersection of Tecumseh Road East and Ouellette Avenue Saturday morning, waving signs and drawing honks of support from passing cars and trucks.

The Windsor-Essex Health Coalition organized the rally as part of a province-wide day of action led by the Ontario Health Coalition. Similar demonstrations were planned in Mississauga, Sarnia, Owen Sound, and other communities.

Patrick Hannon, co-chair of the Windsor-Essex Health Coalition, said the event was meant to send a clear message.

“We’re being visible. This is a visible rally to protect public health care,” Hannon said.

At the centre of their concerns is the Ford government’s move to expand the role of private clinics in Ontario’s healthcare system.

At the end of June 2025, the Ford government announced $270-million in funding for private clinics to deliver surgeries and diagnostic tests, claiming it will improve wait times.

Hannon argued that this shift threatens public access to care.

“The privatization of our health care is critical of us,” he said. “First, we saw some privatization in cataract surgeries and certain other procedures. Tests, colonoscopy results are now, with the passage of Bill C60 in 2023, the Your Health Act. It opens up an entire layer of privatization in our health care system.”

He said private facilities are not subject to the same scrutiny as hospitals.

“In fact, it creates a shadow system for private clinics. These private clinics, since [they] are privately owned … cannot be scrutinized by anyone, by us, by the auditor general,” said Hannon. “Removing funding dollars from our public health care system, which to date is … over $1 billion removed from our public system in order to support private clinics.”

“Our public health care is on life support.”

Hannon rejected the argument that private clinics help reduce wait times.

“They can get wait times down really well because in the private clinics they pick and choose the easy stuff, the stuff that’s not risky,” Hannon said. “Meanwhile, somebody who has some more challenges … [is left] in the public system. So what it does is it stacks up the public system with even greater wait times.”

Hannon said the rallies are part of a long-standing effort to push back against privatization.

“This government did not get a mandate to privatize our health care. That was never an election issue,” he said.

CTV News reached out to Ontario’s Ministry of Health for a response to the concerns raised but has not yet received a statement.

-With files from Am800s Meagan Delaurier.