On April 15 and 16, Friends of Medicare organized major rallies in Calgary and Edmonton. Here are excerpts from the speeches delivered by Friends of Medicare chairperson Christine Burdett and Dr. Walley Temple, a professor of surgical oncology at the University of Calgary Medical School.

Christine Burdett
"An American author named Bernard Lown put the problem very well in a recent book about the American health care system. He said, and I quote: ‘For-profit health care is an oxymoron. The moment care is rendered for profit, it is emptied of genuine caring.’ That, in a nutshell, is the problem with for-profit health care. People working in for-profit systems have to care for the bottom line before they care for their patients."

Dr. Walley Temple
"The most significant problem with for-profit care is that it destroys the sacred trust between the patient and physician – a trust that not only provides comfort but also provides healing. It destroys the Samaritan role of the hospital. It makes doctors and nurses into instruments of the investor and makes patients into a commodity."