Manitoba Health Coalition - MHC

06/18/2026

A new piece from CBC Manitoba’s Arturo Chang looks at gaps in access to public health care for international workers and their children in Manitoba.

This story was prompted by a recent ruling denying a cancer patient's attempt to keep their health-care coverage in Manitoba after turning 18. This case is a symptom of systemic barriers preventing immigrants from accessing care.

The Health Minister has intervened to ensure this youth, who has been deemed too ill to travel home, will still receive full public access to cancer treatment here in Manitoba.

This is very good news, but this case remains an example of an ongoing, structural injustice built into our health care system.

Medicare promises universal and expansive coverage. This must include all who work and reside in Manitoba, regardless of citizenship status.

06/16/2026

Accountability is central to good relationships and demonstrating responsibility.

In our work as a Coalition, we are accountable to our community by prioritizing (and protecting) public health care and expanding (access to) health care in Manitoba.

We work to uphold the human rights of all and ensure barrier-free access to healthcare.

We seek accountability from the healthcare system.

06/12/2026

Tell the prime minister to enforce the Canada Health Act and defend universal, public care health care across Canada!

Help us urge the Prime Minister to stop ignoring Alberta's two-tier health care law.

06/11/2026

Had a rare and much needed in person meeting with the Indigenous Health Committee earlier today.

These folks inspire me every day and have given so much of their time and brilliance to help build this committee and strengthen MHC’s commitment to anti-racism, resurgence, and decolonization.

I love you: Michael, Hafiz, and Gillian. Thank you for trusting me to walk with you.

06/10/2026

Big thanks to the Brandon and District Labour Council for bringing me out to speak at tonight’s Pride in Solidarity panel event.

It was a great conversation and I learned a lot listening to my fellow panelists and hearing from the audience. Shout out to everyone who attended and asked such awesome questions!

There’s a role for all of us as advocates and organizers working together to build a more just and inclusive world.

06/07/2026

Great to walk alongside our friends from MAHCP for the Pride parade this year! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Labour was well represented out there today and it was awesome to see so many familiar faces and MHC board members. That kind of support really matters - you could hear members of the crowd excitedly shout out their unions as they walked by.

The fight for q***r and trans liberation is far from over. It’s important to come together as a community to celebrate each other and show pride in who we are, especially when things are as hard as they are now. Q***r joy is radical and necessary.

But we also have to keep fighting for each other and showing real solidarity to the members of our community made most vulnerable by intersecting forces of racism, transphobia, classism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, and ableism.

Remember that Black trans women started pride and paved the way for all of us to be here and q***r today.

Solidarity forever.

06/04/2026

Excepts from a new op-ed in the Winnipeg Free Press by MHC director Noah Schulz:

“Manitoba has called a state of emergency in the face of rapidly rising HIV rates. This is an important and necessary step, but making real change will involve taking a much more holistic, interconnected look at the overlapping crises of toxic drugs, homelessness, and rising STIBBI rates.

Most deaths due to drug poisoning are preventable. It takes political will to publicly fund the grassroots, peer and community-led approaches that are proven to save lives.”

Follow the link to read the full article without the paywall:

https://mbhealthcoalition.ca/op-ed-drug-crises-epidemics-demand-urgent-action/

06/02/2026

The province recently announced that they are partnering with the private, for-profit company Dynacare to open a new lab in the Interlake-Eastern Health Sciences building.

Manitobans in the region deserve access to health care close to home, including diagnostic services.
The real solution is more public access, not further privatization.

Private, for-profit companies only operate in rural settings when there is public money to support them. Without those public dollars, it is not attractive or profitable enough for them to go outside major centres. Even with public backing, Dynacare has a history of closing its labs and consolidating services.

The profitability of Dynacare’s model also relies on paying their workers less than they make for equivalent work in the public system.

Partnering with private, for-profit companies is neither a safe bet for patients nor an efficient way to fund our public health care system.

A truly secure, equitable and reliably accessible health care system must be fully public.

06/02/2026

Coming up next Wednesday!!

Community-Based Mental Health Responses Work

Join us for a webinar to discover more about the Toronto Community Crisis Service and the made in Winnipeg and Indigenous-led Community Safety Host Program. We will be sending out the webinar link the day before.

📅: June 3, 2026
🕛: 12-1pm CT
📍: online

Please register in advance at the following link or using the QR code: https://bit.ly/3PYwQ7o.