Health Coalition to provide details re. giant march Thursday to demand Doug Ford stop his unprecedented privatization of our public hospital services

Entire train cars with people coming in to join thousands in Toronto for profits

TORONTO, May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Health Coalition will hold a media availability ahead of a giant march and rallies planned for Thursday May 28 calling on the Ford government to stop their privatization of Ontario’s public hospital services. The Coalition has reserved entire train cars for people from towns across South and Central Ontario, as concerned residents will be heading in to Toronto. Information about the trains is below. They will be joined by thousands in Toronto for a large march and protests.

There will be a media availability on Wednesday morning in advance of the march and protests as follows:

What: Media availability to give details about large march and protests in Toronto on Thursday. We will bring maps of the march route and details regarding the protests, train loads coming in, numbers of people and more.

When: Wednesday May 27 at 10 a.m. ET

Where: Media availability in front of the main, south-facing doors of the main legislative building on the designated part of the driveway at Queen’s Park, Toronto

Who: Natalie Mehra, Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition

Events are set for Thursday, May 28 as follows:

In Toronto:
The police will decide upon street closures that morning. We are expecting 5,000 – 10,000 people from the city and on the trains. The NDP, Liberal and Green political party leaders will be speaking at the different rallies along with patients, patient advocates, union leaders, nurses and doctors.

11:20 a.m. Protest at York and Front Streets across from Union Station at 11:20 a.m.
11:55 a.m. March to Queen and York Streets
12:05 p.m. Rally at Queen and York Streets
12:30 p.m. March to Queen’s Park
1 – 1:45 p.m. Rally at Queen’s Park

Local media are invited to talk with large groups of local residents boarding trains from your communities. Local residents are gathering 45 minutes before departure time at their stations as follows:

Barrie (South) departs 9:10 a.m.
Brampton departs 10:52 a.m.
Guelph departs 8:55 a.m.
Hamilton (Aldershot) departs 10:06 a.m.
Kingston Train 1 departs at 7:21 a.m.
- Train 2: departs at 9:34 a.m.
Kitchener departs 8:36 a.m.
London departs at 7:35 a.m.
Niagara departs at 6:37 a.m.
Oakville departs at 11:01 a.m.
Oshawa departs 10:09 a.m.
Ottawa departs at 5:21 a.m.
Port Credit (Mississauga) departs 10:44 a.m.
Windsor departs at 5:35 a.m.
Woodstock departs at 6:55 am.

Over the last year, Ford has announced almost $300 million to open 61 new private clinics – the vast majority of them run for-profit. This is on top of Ford’s major privatization of tens of thousands of cataract surgeries over the last couple of years. By the government’s own estimation, this latest slew of new private clinics alone is intended to redirect more than 1.2 million patients – along with the staffing and funding for them -- away from public hospitals.

Media please note: It is not accurate to say that Ford is addressing wait times or expanding access by opening private clinics. As has been reported across the province, our public hospitals have been pushed into deficit and forced to make cuts, the Coalition notes. Virtually all of them have operating rooms that are left unused or underused because they are funded at the lowest rate of any province in Canada. That is a choice, not a necessity. When the province has wanted to reduce wait times in the past, it increased funding to expand OR and diagnostic equipment (such as MRI) time. The public hospital operating rooms could be funded to open the closed ones and expand hours. Instead, the Ford government is engaging in an unprecedented transfer of public funds away from public hospitals to privately owned facilities. It is not an add on. It is the privatization of the ownership of hospital services, the Health Coalition warns. It is, by far, the largest and deepest privatization of Ontario’s hospitals in our history, unless the coalition is able to stop it.

For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive director, Ontario Health Coalition, cell 416-230-6402.
En français: please phone Michelle Robidoux, co chair, Greater Toronto Health Coalition, cell (416) 856-5008.

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