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Sault Star story on Julian La Fortune’s efforts shared on X by Dr. Alan Drummond, past-president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians
Published Apr 22, 2026 • Last updated 4 days ago • 3 minute read
Perth, Ont., physician Dr. Alan Drummond’s X page shares a story on Julian La Fortune’s petition project.Article content
Julian La Fortune is stoked his efforts to draw attention to Thessalon’s emergency department woes appear to be getting healthy attention – and hits.
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A recent Sault Star story on the Thessalon teen launching a petition, which he eventually wants delivered to Queen’s Park, was shared on social media by veteran Perth, Ont., family/emergency physician Dr. Alan Drummond, once heavily involved in medical politics and a strong advocate for the health of public health, particularly advocating for an improved standard of emergency care in Canada.
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“He actually posted my story on his X page and gave me a shout-out,” said La Fortune.
“From the mouths of babes,” wrote Drummond, past-president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, whose campaign is currently well represented on social media.
La Fortune, 15, said this week he has also since been contacted by national media.
“It’s getting to the national level,” he added.
La Fortune, a Grade 9 student at Central Algoma Secondary School (CASS), launched a regional petition in mid-April, aiming to secure 2,000 signatures in a bid to shine brighter light on frequent closures at the town’s hospital and “extreme” wait times at Sault Area Hospital, in Sault Ste. Marie.
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He brands these health-care “gaps” a “critical failure” of public safety and essential service delivery for residents of the North Shore and Algoma District. The petition calls on the province to provide emergency funding to the North Shore Health Network (NSHN) to ensure the Thessalon emergency department remains open around the clock, implement a “robust” physician recruitment strategy specifically for Northern Ontario and allocate resources to Sault Area Hospital to reduce wait times to “provincial safety standards.”
La Fortune, 15, said he and virtually everyone he knows in and around the small community, 90 kilometres east of Sault Ste. Marie, can tell a story about being impacted by emergency department closures, which, as of late, happen almost weekly.
And that is exactly what he is hearing from those signing up; more than 150 have lent their names as of earlier this week.
“They’ve had first-hand experiences with the (doctor) shortages, stuff like that,” La Fortune said.
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A brother has helped, taking the petition to Thessalon First Nation, businesses have posted it, teachers have circulated the appeal, and more door knocking is planned.
Thessalon now reports about 70 per cent of North Shore ED shutdowns compared to some 60 per cent early in the new year.
The rash of recent emergency department closures in Thessalon is not going unnoticed among Ontario health-care brass, says North Shore Health Network’s top official.
Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health are “working with us,” and the Huron Shores Family Health Team is “trying to come up with some solutions,” Tim Vine told The Sault Star earlier this month.
“So, I think there’s a growing recognition that the people of Thessalon deserve to have a reliable access to their emergency department, and that providing that reliability of access is something that the North Shore Health Network can’t do alone,” said Vine, tasked with trying to ensure rural emergency departments east of Sault Ste. Marie are staffed, most often with locums, temporary physicians often flown in from southern Ontario.
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Other NSHN sites have shouldered ED shutdowns and Sault Area Hospital has had its own share of challenges with capacity issues and long wait times.
SAH, however, says its ER waiting room project, launched last August, has yielded encouraging results for patients with less urgent concerns.
The wait time to see a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, for patients using the virtual queue has been reduced by half, compared to those with similar symptoms and health issues who physically wait at the hospital.
The amount of time spent in the emergency room has also dropped by half for patients using the tool, SAH said.
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