FTLComm - Tisdale - April 14, 1999

Tisdale's nurses took their cause uptown to the street to let folks know about their situation. Picketing around the post office Tuesday brought the issue from something on a news cast to real people. While one group marched around the area, another group was armed with a petition and no one that I saw enter the post office did not first stop to sign and wish the nurses well. The government's mismanagement of this issue is so utterly bad that one has to question their ability to govern when such bad judgment is exercised. These nurses, like most in Saskatchewan are dedicated people, that is why they entered their profession and clearly they will use that same dedication and determination to resist the back to work legislation and court injunction brought against them on our behalf by the provincial government. Each one of them made that perfectly clear to me as we talked. I took time to talk to both groups in the pictures shown and they told me that they were appreciative of the support the public is showing them and they are deeply resentful of the way they are being treated by the government. In both pictures the nurse in the centre of each picture explained to me that they were extremely upset with the propaganda from the government over the outrageous exporting of sick people from the province. They pointed out that not one of the patients sent out needed to go as the standby nursing staff ready to handle such cases are not being called into work, instead the transportation of the patients is being done for political reasons.

The nurse in the centre of the picture above stated that she has been a nurse for thirty years and has never seen conditions as bad as they are now. I have to tell you I was extremely moved as I talked to these people, their smiles and good spirits are the same front they demonstrate when you are in pain and in need of care, these are people whom we have relied upon and have never let us down. Now they have taken to the street to try and get things changed because they realise that if they don't, the deplorable conditions in Saskatchewan's health care system will simply get worse. Everyone of these people felt that the money was the least important issue and now without the ability to discuss the problems in health care with their employer, the impasse will deepen and only their resistance can bring about changes. Inside the post office while the nurses were doing their petition and talking to people, inside the talk was about the publics feelings about the situation. They were completely in agreement with the nurses. One lady told me she had been called to work at a nursing home and she refused to go because her conscience would not let her cross that picket line. It was explained to me that things are very serious at the nursing homes and they were worried about the situation there.