Ministry of Health Defies Its Own Cancer Experts: Sylvia Jones Must Put People Over Politics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

05 November 2026

QUEEN’S PARK, ON – Today,Dr. Adil Shamji, Member of Provincial Parliament for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Critic for Public Health, released the following statement regarding the discovery that Ontario's Ministry of Health has been ignoring the advice of its own experts while rejecting treatments for patients with rare cancer:

"For weeks, Sylvia Jones has been defending her heartless decision to reject lifesaving international therapies for cancer patients by saying she remains apolitical and is deferring to medical experts.

"New findings in the case of Sabrina Apitz-Grossman, a 31-year-old woman with synovial sarcoma, reveals Ontario's Ministry of Health rejected her application for out-of-country treatment despite the fact that its government's own medical experts supported the drug and recommended funding her treatment.

"Worse, the Ministry did not advise Sabrina regarding their expert opinion, and failed to disclose this in court during her appeal of their rejection. It was only through a freedom of information request that she was able to discover this.

"Sylvia Jones has repeatedly claimed that clinicians and experts make the final decision on out-of-country funding for cancer patients. This has now been shown to be false and indicates that, despite Jones' claims, the only thing political about Sabrina's treatment has been the Ministry's decision to overturn its own experts.

"It's time to put people over politics. With this latest discovery, all of Jones' excuses to deny lifesaving care for cancer patients have evaporated. Sylvia Jones must take urgent action to approve these treatments and save their lives."