Is o­ne tier Medicare a myth? Have we been saluting its founder, the “Greatest Canadian” Tommy Douglas as an emperor who really has no clothes? As the country heads toward an election in which our health care system promises to be an emotional issue, Medicare Schmedicare takes the highly unorthodox stance that two tier health care is already here and thriving. Premiering o­n The Passionate Eye o­n CBC Thursday, Dec. 8 at 9 pm, Medicare Schmedicare offers viewers an inside look at private health care clinics across Canada – where $1,250 can get you immediate access to a doctor.

Filmed in private clinics in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto Medicare Schmedicare jumps into the Medicare debate-outlining the various health services that have become privatized in Canada. It compares the waiting times for patients who opt for private services versus those who anxiously line up with their health cards. Medicare Schmedicare was written and directed by Gemini award-winning filmmaker Robert Duncan and produced by Carolyn Schmidt for International Documentary Television in association with the CBC. It repeats o­n CBC Newsworld o­n Dec. 12 at 10 pm ET/PT.

What kind of impact is the killing and kidnapping of journalists having o­n reporting in Iraq? o­n Thursday, Dec.1 at 9 pm, CBC News: The Passionate Eye presents the world television premiere of Targets: Reporters in Iraq. Canadian war correspondent & director Maziar Bahari interviews journalists like Canadian Scott Taylor who was kidnapped, then tortured for five days by insurgents in northern Iraq. Targets accompanies Taylor as he returns to Iraq for the first time since he was mistaken for a spy and kidnapped in the summer of 2004. Additional interviews with world-renowned photographers and journalists, such as Knight-Ridder’s Hannah Allam and Italy’s Giuliana Sgrena, illustrate the trauma many reporters experience while reporting in Iraq.
Targets: Reporters in Iraq is directed by Maziar Bahari and produced by Josette Gauthier, Peter Svatek of Montreal-based Triplex Films in association with CBC-TV. Targets: Reporters in Iraq repeats o­n CBC Newsworld Monday Dec. 5 at 10 pm ET/PT.