I have decided to seek the federal NDP nomination in Toronto Centre
@tcndp
. We urgently need courageous voices in Parliament willing to take bold action to tackle the housing crisis, fight climate change, and end Canada's support for the genocide in Gaza.
Proud to have attended today's rally to mark one year of the nonstop attack on Gaza with my kids and my parter.
There is no military solution to this crisis. Ceasefire now.
I am a Jewish physician and I cannot watch the destruction of health facilities and the death of my colleagues abroad and say nothing.
I have signed in solidarity with Palestine with my colleagues. There is
#NoHealthUnderOccupation
.
Sign here:
@raghu_venugopal
@CMAJ
Thanks! Also, the protest on Monday in no way targeted Mount Sinai and your twitter explosion is a massive distraction from the complete destruction of all health facilities in Gaza. Oh & a genocide.
#freePalestine
This letter has been circulating calling for the immediate removal of
@RitikaGoelTO
from her job. It includes unfounded and unreasonable allegations related to her support of Palestinian rights.
There is no place for stifling advocacy in medicine.
#ISupportDrGoel
Closing overdose prevention sites will cause more of my patients and neighbours to die. Treatment hubs and housing are welcome but people first must survive. We are going to see increased infections, crime, death.
Addiction affects everyone — Ford knows this personally. Yet his cuts to treatment and addiction services will cost lives. We need more addiction recovery services to stop the overdose crisis. Support saving lives:
#ONpoli
More than 200 medical journals agree: the climate crisis is a health crisis. Time to treat it that way
@JustinTrudeau
@theJagmeetSingh
@erinotoole
. Start with no further fossil fuel subsidies or development.
Today we've launched an editorial which will be jointly published by >200 health journals worldwide. The global health community is calling on world leaders to take stronger action at
#UNGA
&
#COP26
to prevent rising temperatures, restore nature & protect health
#HealthyClimate
Highway 413 would be terrible for health & the climate crisis. More car dependent communities, leading to more heart disease, diabetes, stress. More air pollution, which already kills 15,000 per yr in Canada. Use that $ to build transit & 🚲 lanes instead.
Today I stood in solidarity with other Health Workers at Queen’s Park fighting back against Doug Ford’s pandemic politics.
We need
#PaidSickDays
, an end to police in public health, + to get vaccines to essential workers/marginalized communities NOW.
#HealthWorkersFightBack
Glad I had a chance to push for MORE URBAN TREES 🌳🌳this morning in my
@metromorning
interview about coping with the heat. Just wish I had also had a chance to say STOP BURNING
#FossilFuels
Yesterday’s
@globeandmail
editorial declared the war on bike lanes over. They’re a basic part of urban infrastructure & a safety intervention. At
@Docs4Cycling
we’ve been saying this for years. Glad it’s finally catching on! 😀
Enough is enough! I’ll be joining
@anjalih
& other families Thursday to demand that
@fordnation
& Dr. Kieran Moore take action on the ongoing pediatric health care crisis. We need mask mandates, investment in clean air in schools, & ongoing investment in our public health system!
Ontario's kids were failed today. Our babies have decided to stand up for themselves and their families!
Demand that
@fordnation
and Dr. Kieran Moore address the children’s health care crisis. Join us Thurs noon at Queen’s Park.
#OnPoli
#OntEd
#OnHealth
Our elders have been most at risk in the
#COVID19
pandemic, & are also most at risk in heat waves, forest fires, & other climate-related disasters. We can & must address the elder care crisis &
#ClimateCrisis
together. Thx
@AmitAryaMD
for the collaboration
My new federal candidate business cards are here!
I'm excited to start introducing myself to neighbours across this riding. If you spot me at any of the upcoming summer events in
#TorCen
, come say hello!
Family physicians: if you missed the
@UofTFamilyMed
Webinar on Heat-Related Illness, you can now watch it here:
Lots of useful tips on who is at risk of heat exhaustion & heat stroke, how we can recognize it, & how we can prevent it.
#climateemergency
Had the opportunity to speak about the health impacts of wildfire smoke
@TheSocialCTV
today. The smoke is such a physical reminder that the climate crisis is a health crisis, and we must stop burning fossil fuels immediately. also,
Instead we need a climate politics of more. More low carbon jobs, more low carbon housing, more low carbon healthcare.
The climate movement tends to blame overconsumption for the crisis, which is certainly contributing—
I’m devastated for women. And I am heartbroken for all the babies—born into families without enough money or support or emotional bandwidth or time. So much trauma and suffering.
but the root of mass consumption and the root of the problem is the drive for capitalist accumulation—leading to endless extraction & growth in pursuit of endless profits. We need to tackle the problem at this root, by going after the fossil capitalists.
Coming back from a year of mat leave the most joyful & rewarding thing has been calling my list of unvaccinated patients and booking dozens for their
#CovidVaccine
. Most just need an honest conversation about risks/benefits with someone they trust.
#primarycare
FTW!
#medtwitter
So excited for
@CAPE_ACME
's new campaign,
Fossil fuels kill more people than tobacco. Doctors pushed for a cigarette ad ban in the 1980s. Now, we are calling on the govt to ban fossil fuel ads, regulate
#greenwashing
, and require disclosure of health harms
"Every health-care activity has a carbon footprint. Every test we order and treatment we provide, but we can green the health-care sector by reducing demand for health services" write faculty
@SamanthaGreenTO
&
@docdanielle
in
@TorontoStar
.
@uoftmedicine
The climate movement needs to think more about power. Who has it, how we can leverage it to achieve mass decarbonization and a just transformation of our society.
my interview with
@TorontoStar
: “These are things that we can do in the midst of a heat wave [to protect ourselves]. But we need to...advocate for greater action on the climate crisis itself and also on adaptation.”
Last week, I stood in solidarity with LCBO workers and backed their demands for better wages, increased opportunities for full-time employment and an end to the expansion of alcohol sales to private businesses.
Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign
@ocecampaign
, a broad coalition of more than 125 labour, environmental, health groups, businesses & faith communities from across Ontario, representing more than 475,000 people, will launch on Wednesday. Join us!
On April 27 at
#QueensPark
, a broad coalition of more than 125 groups from across Ontario will launch the
#OntarioClimateEmergencyCampaign
to call on all candidates in the upcoming election to treat
#climatechange
as the emergency it is.
Media advisory:
A climate politics of austerity will not build a mass movement, and is irrelevant to the 65-70% of the population who make up the working class. Driving less, flying less, using less energy does not make sense for folks who are already living paycheck to paycheck.
Glad to support fellow Regent Park health workers today, who deserve fair wages, benefits, and fair treatment from their employer. Health workers need
#decentwork
too!
Physicians and nurses from our network visited
@OPSEU
Local 5115 picket line today to support our colleagues and peers at Regent Park Community Health Centre who are on strike for fair wages and benefits. Checkout the solidarity remarks from
@SamanthaGreenTO
👇
#Justice4Workers
In light of this week's overwhelming
@IPCC
report, and the urgent need for us all to comprehend the
#climatecrisis
on a human level in order to imagine how to transform our society, a thread in praise of the
#clifi
#climatefiction
that I have read this year (1/8):
Happy happy Pride! 🎉
Delighted to kick off the weekend with the annual Trans March with such a great attendance from community members and allies. Trans rights are human rights!
& we can leverage the power of workers who are literally at the point of carbon pollution production. Electricity workers/utility workers have enormous power to shut down fossil capitalists/carbon extraction and to demand such a massive transition. /end
Parliament starts up again next week. I just called
@JustinTrudeau
to demand he makes the
#JustTransitionAct
his government’s top priority. It was super easy and you can do it, too!
@350Canada
We can build a working class movement in support of a Green New Deal, inclusive of a jobs guarantee, just transition, housing guarantee, health care guarantee, even a food guarantee. (Why don’t we already have a food guarantee?!)
@SethDKlein
’s book A Good War is such a clear, inspiring, compassionate vision for tackling the
#ClimateEmergency
in Canada over the coming years. Green New Deal mobilization, Indigenous leadership, welcoming the displaced. I hope that all our leaders read it & are moved to act.
My words from 2016 remain true now. “Toronto needs safe injection sites [which] have been proven to ⬇️ overdose deaths, ⬇️ transmission of HIV&Hep C, connect marginalized community members to health care &social service & ⬇️ public drug use.”
@HPAP_Ontario
We need urgent action to reduce emissions & mitigate the
#ClimateEmergency
AND we need to implement a robust, equity-based adaptation & resilience plan at all levels of government. Also, always & forever more trees! 🌳🌳 via
@TheLocal_TO
@royinori
And I agree: “As a Jew, weaponizing specious allegations of Antisemitism is gravely concerning. It makes it that much harder to root out Antisemitism where it really exists — and it does.”
#ISupportDrGoel
Mass public education & science translation about the harms of the climate crisis is insufficient to galvanize mass public action. It hasn’t worked for the last 3 decades & is unlikely to work now. & while more people are experiencing climate harms, they are still the minority.
Devastating piece by my friend and colleague Dr. Suzanne Shoush. “Seven of my grandfather’s siblings lay in residential school graves. The 215 children found confirms what Indigenous people have known about Canada”
Today, a coalition of 141 groups representing ~500K people launch the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign to hold elected officials accountable for climate change. Watch at 9:00 AM on FB: or Insta: . Join us @ the link in the bio.
Great insights into the SDOH and suicide. Also, very helpful critiques from
@tylerblack32
about missing data from Indigenous communities and opioid-related deaths.
Climate change is exacerbating the homelessness crisis. Proposed solutions:
#NoEncampmentEvictions
#HousingforAll
, homeless prevention, more green space, better access to water and sanitation
Having spent time in Lebanon, my heart goes out to the Lebanese and of course Palestinian people who continue to endure unending suffering at the hands of the Israeli government. Canada must stop its arms shipments to Israel full stop.
The people of Lebanon are facing the deadliest violence the country has experienced since 2006.
Hundreds have been killed, including children. Now we've learned that 2 Canadians have also lost their lives amidst this violence.
All violations of International Law must stop.
The
Thank you,
@breakfasttv
, for not just asking about the health implications of wildfire smoke, but about root causes. We must stop burning fossil fuels! No more pipelines, no more gas plants.
@CAPE_ACME
@jddneary
@DocMCohen
@jnvincentMD
Literally he needs anti-oppression and cultural safety training at a bare minimum. Though I wrote to the CEO calling for him to be fired. Chief of Psychiatry in the downtown East! Completely ridiculous
As an ally, I was delighted to join the Pride parade with other New Democrats like my friend
@kristynwongtam
our queer MPP.
Our party’s history of activism and action around issues that matter to queer and Trans folks is something I am immensely proud of. Pride is political!
Over 14,000 cases, 524 deaths, with a 3.7% fatality rate—mostly kids under 15. If Canada and others don’t share stockpiles now, we risk new pox viruses going global. We must act early to break transmission, learn from history, and do our part.
#CdnPoli
"The industry knew gas stoves emitted regulation-breaking levels of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants that can worsen heart and lung health; it just didn’t care." op ed by
@Melissa_Lem
@lizmcdowell
& me
Excited about this upcoming webinar hosted by
@CAPE_ACME
&
@ocecampaign
! Sept 14th.
Hope & Climate Action at the Local Level: the 2022 Ontario Municipal Elections featuring
@MaudeBarlow
&
@pothen
.
Highway 413 would bake in 30 years of unhealthy sprawl in the middle of a
#ClimateEmergency
. We must build better transit & healthier communities instead of paving over wetlands & farms.
Highway 413 would cost billions while destroying much of Ontario's greenbelt and degrading our drinking water. Send a message to Ford to voice your opposition to this dirty and destructive Highway:
#StopHighway413
#ONpoli
I’m a month out from COVID (thanks daycare) & still experiencing debilitating fatigue. But
@drkieranmoore
says no need to isolate any more & masks are so 2021. The lives of reproductive age women—predominant sufferers of
#LongCovid
—don’t matter.
Thanks to
@CFPJournal
podcast, you can now listen to me gush about my love of bikes, the benefits of active commuting, and the joys and challenges of advocating for
#ClimateAction
as a family physician with
@Docs4Cycling
and
@CAPE_ACME
.
Did you know that BP oil spent $100 million in just two years to promote the carbon footprint? To stop the
#ClimateEmergency
, we must force the oil & gas industry to stop extracting fossil fuels. We must stop subsidizing them with public money. It's not about personal choices.
We have a brief but rapidly closing window to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We must act now to protect the health of people and the planet.
Speaking as an
@IPCC_CH
Lead Author, these are some of the most important new messages from the
#climate
report out today: (🧵)
1. For the first time we’re seeing evidence of real, sustained decreases in greenhouse gas emissions from some countries.
But take a breath because…
New certificate program designed for health professionals who appreciate the climate & ecological crises & who are ready to take action. So excited to co-instruct with
@LSolomonianND
@EileenNicolle1
Once again Barbados PM Mia Mottley has been the one who has delivered the speech the world needed. May she be heard, may we rise. Take 8 minutes to listen to the whole thing. Share the lines that grabbed you most.
#COP26
Feeling the solidarity today! My work has incredible workers from
@CUPE
and
@OntarioNurses
who I am proud to support. With an impossible cost of living, we need the labour movement more than ever. Happy
#LabourDay
!
#cdnpoli
The 45th Cabbagetown Festival is starting off today by showing it's got serious chops! It's running again tomorrow along Parliament St! Come check it out, patronize local businesses, and swing by my table! It was incredible to hang out today here with
@MaritStiles
and
@CMA_Docs
@DrKathleenRoss1
I’m embarrassed by this post. Physicians are some of the wealthiest in the country and can afford a small increase in taxes to support programs that improve health like dental care and pharmacare. This is what the CMA chooses to speak out about? Meanwhile silence on Palestine…
This year for Father's Day, our family celebrated by cheering on the Jays! ⚾ It's been amazing having a partner who is so ready to support me in this journey of running for office while balancing the obligations of parenthood.
Listen to your doctor! (Literally)
@CAPE_ACME
board member
@SamanthaGreenTO
on Here and Now Toronto with Gill Deacon: Launching the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign
As thousands of people across Canada rallied to support Palestinians, as they were newly bombed by Israel, I look at the links that bind Black, Indigenous and Palestinian liberation movements with the help of U of T scholar Chandni Desai.
Took some time today to make phone calls for
@amritstpauls
in our neighbouring riding of Toronto-St. Paul's!
Alongside Amrit's team of phone bank vols, we phoned voters to remind them to get out the vote in today's by-election. Fingers crossed for an orange result!
#tostpauls
This x a million. I am proud to be one of thousands of Jews who have marched in support of a ceasefire & Palestinian freedom in Toronto.
@WinchevskyCtr
@IfNotNowOrg
And of course the lives of the immunocompromised and the elderly—who are more likely to die from COVID even when vaccinated—don’t matter either. Because the pandemic is over.
I feel so very personally let down by Public Health.
What does it mean that the federal government committed to a climate resilient & low carbon health system at COP26? What are our next steps as healthcare workers & advocates to build a sustainable healthcare system? Join what will be a useful & inspiring webinar to learn more!
Join Dr Courtney Howard, Dr Nick Watts and host Professor Fiona Miller on January 31 (9am PT/12pm ET) for the first of three webinars exploring the implications of the federal government’s recent commitment to the
#COP26
Health Programme.
Register:
Today marks the 13th anniversary of Jack Layton's passing. As I reflect on his legacy of love and optimism, I remember meeting Jack at an NDP convention in 2005.
I am motivated to uphold his belief that we can make Canada a place of greater opportunity, justice, and equity.
@RicharLisa
Lots of help for this in Toronto & elsewhere as my colleagues have pointed out above. Just wanted to chime in to say it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my practice! To help someone become themselves after they’ve often had stigmatizing care. Like providing well baby care. ❤️
Metered Dose Inhalers cause ~3% of the greenhouse gas emissions in our health system. Join me and
@sushealthsys
at noon today to learn more about how to reduce their use!
#ClimateCrisis
#MedTwitter
Did you know that 100 doses from a metered-dose inhaler (MDI) releases the same greenhouse gas emissions as a 290km car journey?
Learn more at today's seminar, 12-1pm with my
@UofTFamilyMed
@UnityHealthTO
colleagues
@SamanthaGreenTO
, Brenda Chang + others
So glad to finally say goodbye to climate criminal
@enbridgegas
! Replaced our gas furnace w/a heat pump 2 years ago, our gas stove w/induction last year, & our gas hot water heater w/an off-peak electric hot water heater today.
Regent Park Out Loud is an incredible event that gives so much to the community every year! This festival fosters unity and inclusion for the Regent Park community. I'm so grateful to the community leaders who have made this rainbow event such a triumph!
#TorCen
#PrideMonth
The AIDS Vigil has been a space of remembrance and solidarity. We mourn those lost and support those living with HIV/AIDS — knowing that stigma hurts more than the virus. Thank you to
@the519
& others fighting for equitable access to health care.
#TorCen
Health workers call on
@HOOPPnow
to divest from fossil fuels NOW. 2050 is not good enough. Health workers cannot be investing money in fossil fuels--the greatest health threat of our time.
"...our findings bolster the AAP recommendation that counseling about climate change as a child health issue in the outpatient setting is an important and potentially effective educational strategy."