Take action.

Write a letter to your local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP)

 

How to Find Your MPP

  • Go to this URL and search using your postal code: https://www.ola.org/en/members

  • Address your email to your MPP and copy the Premier, the Minister of Health and the Solicitor General.

  • Contact your MPP’s local constituency office to let them know that you want funds directed to COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMS, not policing. Ask them how your representative will be taking action.

    Here is a simple email to express your support and call for action

TO: [Your MPP]

CC: Doug Ford, Premier <doug.fordco@pc.ola.org>, Sylivia Jones, Minister of Health <sylvia.jones@ontario.ca>, Michael Kerzner, Solicitor General <michael.kerzner@ontario.ca>

RE: Demanding Action on Police Involvement in Mental Health Checks

On July 2, 2020, over 200 of Ontario’s regulated health professionals demanded that their regulatory colleges take action to stop the dangerous practice of calling 911 for wellness checks. In the days that followed, the list of signatories grew to over 500. Their open letters can be found here: www.endpoliceinvolvementinmentalhealth.ca 

The Regulatory Colleges failed to take concrete action. 

I agree with the open letters that have been issued, supported by research that shows that police involvement in mental health is dangerous and life-threatening. The regulators’ failure to act is a breach of their statutory duty to “serve and protect the public interest” under the Registered Health Professionals Act. 

In the public interest, I am calling on you to support the demands that the Government of Ontario to take steps immediately to redirect funding from policing in Ontario to community-based health initiatives that can provide trauma-informed crisis intervention and mobile mental-health supports that reduce harm and seek to prevent loss of life. I am asking you to add your voice to the call for the Minister of Health to immediately direct the Health Professional Regulatory Colleges to advise their members that they have no legal or ethical requirement to involve police in mental health wellness checks by calling 911.  

I look forward to hearing what action you, as my Member of Parliament, will be taking on this important issue. 

Yours truly,

[Your name]

[Your address]