Sicko

For awhile, Sicko was a big deal here in London, Ontario. Not only were a few of the scenes filmed here, the North American premiere also occured at the Silver City in our very own Masonville Place. Moore's depiction of London, and the Canadian health system in general, provides Canadians with a different, and, quite possibly falsely embiggened sense of national pride.

To us, Sicko may feel like Moore is giving a wrap-around to Tommy Douglas, but it's crucial for Canadians to sit down and watch the movie, in order to continue to learn about possible social improvements that can be made. There's a reason that Moore talks about Canada first, and that's because, according to Sicko, Canada is simply an example of a country that's geographically close that enjoys public health care. Once we skip across the pond to Europe, Canada starts to seem less like an incredible benefactor, and more like a divorced parent that sends money all the time but sometimes forgets to call on your birthday. The basic support is there, but you know you're not the priority you always wanted to be.

Once we go across the pond (at least, according to Sicko), we see just how powerful public health care can get. In England and France, the well-being of their citizens are an assumed right, not just a pleasant afterthought as a good way to spend extra tax dollars. Whereas Canadians are comfortable enough with their situation to assume that it can't get any better, but at least they're not in America, these European nations have a more civic relationship to their health care. It is not something that has been bestowed upon them, it is something that they have insisted upon from the governments which they allow to be in power. Moore suggests that the seemingly undeniably better system (which also includes preventative medicine and next-to-free prescriptions) is inextricably tied to the revolutionary nature of the country. European countries have lived through enough to feel comfortable making demands upon their governments. This less fearful form of democracy allows the people of these nations to insist on being well-tended to, and, hopefully, serve as an example to other struggling systems.

Then, as the worst possible case scenario, Moore effectively choses to show Cuba last. Not only does he demonstrate that this demonized nation have vastly superior health care, he also brings along a few people for the trip. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the argument, Moore invites several people whose health was negatively affected by their time spent helping in rescue and recuperation efforts at Ground Zero in New York. In finding these people, Moore demonstrates the American health care system's inability to tend to those who many would call national heroes, and the willingness of an enemy nation, based on a belief in the sanctity and positive maintenance of human life, to treat and support them.

It would seem that countries reknowned for revolution and are the ones who are most successful in being taken care of. I worry that even a movie as stirring as Sicko isn't enough to stir Canadians from their assumed contentment into a state of insistence. I can imagine the protestors now, storming up to the doors of Parliament, knocking politely, and then, when someone answers, walking away awkwardly, muttering apologies, deciding that they have no business rocking the boat. Maybe, just maybe, someone will take this movie as a lesson, rather than a pat on the back, and realize that it is, and always has been, our boat to rock.