TORONTO — NDP MPP Robin Lennox was removed from the legislature Thursday after accusing Health Minister Sylvia Jones of lying and refusing to withdraw the remark.During Question Period Lennox said the minister was “scapegoating experts” and pointed to emails and recommendations showing that Ontario Health and clinical reviewers had supported funding a U.S. cancer treatment for Toronto patient Sabrina Apitz-Grossman. She asked how many other patients had been denied treatment or died because of the decisions, then said: “She has lied and people have died.”When the Speaker ordered her to withdraw the comment, Lennox refused. She was named and escorted from the chamber.Apitz-Grossman, 31, has stage-four synovial sarcoma that has spread to her lungs. Her doctors recommended Tecelra, a U.S. T-cell therapy costing roughly US$650,000. The manufacturer does not plan to seek Canadian approval..Freedom-of-information records reported by The Trillium show Ontario Health initially opposed the request but later recommended approval once it confirmed the drug would not come to Canada. Two clinical reviewers also supported it as medically necessary. A senior Ministry of Health executive officer nonetheless did not approve the funding. Apitz-Grossman says she was never told about the positive recommendations during her appeal.In a scrum afterward, NDP leader Marit Stiles said the minister had been “lying to the people of Ontario” because the ministry possessed expert advice that the treatment was needed and would work. She said a cancer patient who “will probably not make it to 32” is instead having to fight her own government for the truth, and called the minister’s response “outrageous” and “cowardly.” Liberal MPP Adil Shamji said the political decision not to support the advice of the ministry’s own doctors is causing patients to lose time they do not have..In September another patient, Alex Shved, won a court challenge against a similar OHIP denial. The province then tightened the rules, retroactive to 2011, so out-of-country drug funding is available only when the treatment is already funded in Ontario but temporarily unavailable. The government has said the change could avoid up to $5.2 billion in annual costs.Jones has said these decisions are made by clinicians, surgeons and ethicists, “not by politicians.” The ministry has declined to comment on the individual case, citing patient confidentiality, and notes that drugs not approved by Health Canada cannot be funded through provincial programs.Under legislature rules members cannot accuse other members of lying.
