Despite the NDP's Friday night filibuster, the governing Liberals used their majority to order striking paramedics back to work on Saturday morning.
Passage of Bill 21 imposed a one-year contract and three-per-cent raise retroactive to April 1 on B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics, who worked-to-rule for seven months. Health Services minister Kevin Falcon claimed Nov. 2 that the H1N1 flu was behind the law. But a Sept. 14 VANOC memo obtained by 24 hours said the International Olympic Committee was losing patience.
"At the latest IOC Coordination Commission review in August, the BCAS strike and uncertainty was raised as one of the three major risks to the Games from the IOC's point of view," wrote Dr. Mike Wilkinson, the 2010 Winter Olympics' medical director.
Wilkinson's memo said the Games could be canceled without full ambulance service. The list of memo recipients included Falcon's deputy minister Gord Macatee and assistant deputy minister Stephen Brown.
