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OTTAWA — Cathy Legere saw firsthand the conditions that elder residents of long-term care were enduring, and the intense pressure that personal care staff were under, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The appalling stories that emerged out of long-term care settings during the early pandemic, especially as reported by Canadian military members who were brought in to help, prompted the Liberal government to promise in its 2020 throne speech that it would work on Criminal Code amendments to"explicitly penalize those who neglect seniors under their care.
It would also give judges the ability to prohibit anyone who is convicted or on probation for that offence from volunteering or working in a setting"that involves being in charge of or in a position of trust or authority towards an adult who is vulnerable by reason of age, illness, mental disorder, disability or frailty."
Fry said Justice Minister David Lametti"does not have any problem" with the bill, and answered in the affirmative when asked whether she believes the government is on board with the approach. The Criminal Code amendments themselves look like"a very viable approach," said Graham Webb, executive director of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and previously its longtime staff lawyer.
But Krista James, national director of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, said prosecutions under Section 215 are already few and far between, and she is skeptical of the impact of amending it.
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