B.C. NDPers try to cast themselves as the good guys in reversal over pricy drug

Yahoo

2 days ago

VICTORIA — NDP MLA Ravi Parmar was quick to claim a share of the credit last week for restoring drug coverage for Charleigh Pollock, the 10-year-old Langford girl ravaged by a rare terminal disease.
'From the very first day Charleigh's family reached out, my office and I have advocated for her as we do for all constituents, with respect, compassion, and in confidence,' the Langford-Highlands MLA wrote Friday on his social media account.
That was not the view of Charleigh's mother, Jori Fales, who led the fight on the girl's behalf since the threat to cut off her coverage materialized back in February.
'He (Parmar) called once in February when we started our appeal,' Fales said on social media. 'There's been no communication since February except when I emailed Mr. Parmar June 27 asking for his urgent help.
'He responded saying he was glad I'll have the opportunity to meet with Josie Osborne,' he said, referring to a meeting with the health minister on July 4.
The public record discloses little other evidence to support Parmar's claim of 'steadfast' advocacy over the six months.
When he did weigh in, it was mostly to repeat the government line that decisions on funding expensive drugs for rare diseases — like Brineura, the only treatment for Charleigh's Batten disease — must be left up to the 'medical experts.'
Parmar's most recent posting said 'the medical experts who reviewed this case agree: sadly, at this stage of Charleigh's disease, Brineura no longer offers a clinical benefit.'
That claim was disputed by numerous experts in Batten disease, something the government finally acknowledged in restoring funding last week.
Perhaps the key to understanding the victory lap Parmar took Friday was the claim that his advocacy was undertaken 'in confidence.'
Publicly he echoed the premier and the health minister about not overruling the province's hand-picked medical experts.
But all the while, he was fighting the good fight on Charleigh's behalf behind the scenes — or so he'd have us believe.
'The case involving Charleigh Pollock has been one of the most difficult I've faced in my many years of service to my community,' said Parmar. 'It is complex, emotional, and at its core, heartbreaking.'
Almost as if he were the victim, no?
Parmar's self-serving statement might placate some gullible NDP supporters.
But for those wondering how the NDP picked a fight it could not win with an ailing 10-year-old, consider the widespread silence of New Democrats on an issue where they knew their government was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Nor was Parmar's claim that he'd always been there for Charleigh and her family the most preposterous utterance in this affair.
That nod would go to Premier David Eby, when he defended the system that led the province to cut off funding for the only medication that could mitigate the severe seizures associated with Batten disease.
'These are profound and awful decisions that have to be made by experts and physicians and not by politicians,' Eby told reporters last month.
'It doesn't make any sense for that family. I recognize that. But I also recognize that the other course is, if I can say it — is actually worse.'
No, you can't say that. Not when the premier's initial deference to provincially selected experts relegated Charleigh's family to raising money over the internet to pay for the one drug that offered the little girl relief in the time she has left.
As for Parmar, he may be in line for another kind of relief in his capacity as minister of forests.
His mandate letter from the premier directs him to 'work toward a harvest of 45 million cubic metres per year,' from provincial forests, a 50 per cent increase over last year's harvest.
The target was discounted as unlikely to be achieved, owing to permitting, regulations, Indigenous approvals and other obstacles.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey signalled her doubts in the provincial budget, forecasting a status quo timber harvest of 30 million cubic metres this year and next, followed by a reduction to 29 million in 2027.
Now recent events on the trade front may provide Parmar with an out.
Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney both said last week that Canada may be able to settle the long-running softwood lumber dispute with a quota system.
Canada would try to head off or reduce tariffs — currently 14.38 per cent and headed for 34.45 per cent — by capping soft lumber exports to the U.S.
Parmar was quick to embrace the quota option.
'It just may be able to address this issue once and for all,' the forests minister told Mark Page of Black Press Media last week.
Then again, 'the president seems to really like tariffs and, so, he may say, bugger off,' Parmar acknowledged.
Still, the quota option could provide Parmar with an excuse for giving up on the 50 per cent increase in harvesting.
B.C. supplies about 40 per cent of this country's lumber exports to the U.S. and would presumably have to absorb its share of any cap on exports. The cap would in turn reduce the need for any increase in harvesting.
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