Four Ontario Patients with Life- and Limb-Threatening Illnesses Share Inhumanity of Jones' Healthcare Rejections

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

15 October 2026

QUEEN’S PARK, ON – Today,Dr. Adil Shamji, Member of Provincial Parliament (Don Valley East) and Ontario Liberal Critic for Primary Care was joined by four Ontarians whose lives and livelihood are jeopardized after being failed by Sylvia Jones under Ontario's Case-by-Case Review Program (CBCRP) and Out-of-Country (OOC). Those patients' names are Holly Wardlow, Sabrina Apitz-Grossman, Kevin Nash, and Charles MacDonald.

When Ontarians are unable to receive the care they need in Ontario, there are two programs they can access: CBCRP and OOC. The former, allows funding of certain drugs for rare, life-threatening cancers that have evidence for prolonging survival and no comparable alternative in Ontario. The latter ensures OHIP funding for non-experimental services or treatments that are accepted as appropriate in Ontario but are not available in Ontario.

Recently, the CBCRP and OOC programs have failed to fulfill these intended purposes. Applicants with rare forms of cancer, like Sabrina, Kevin, and Holly, have been denied care through these programs on technicalities that seem more like excuses.

A recent ruling by the Ontario Divisional Court on a similar case found that the Ministry's rationale for rejection was inadequate, lacking in evidence, and a misapplication of its own regulations. Rather than addressing the problem, Jones has changed the regulations so her past practices have become new policy and she can continue to issue rejections.

“These patients need life-saving drugs, and they deserve to get them through programs built for exactly their circumstances. Instead, Sylvia Jones has been rejecting them for reasons that don’t make sense. When the court pointed that out, she didn’t fix her decisions. She changed the regulations and rewrote how the program works so she could continue to reject them,” said Shamji.

“This government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on self-promotional advertising and billions of dollars on things we don’t need, but now it’s trying to balance the books on the backs of patients who will die without their help,” Shamji continued.

“Lives have already been lost to this policy, but there need not be more. I implore Minister Jones to do the right thing by approving funding for these treatments, so we can save the lives of patients like Sabrina, Kevin, and Holly.”