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Reports of the Canadian
Armed Forces on Seniors' Homes The Crisis Reveals That Decision-Making Power Must Be Taken Out of the Hands of Those Who Are Unfit to GovernThe release of reports from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) on conditions in long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec has been followed by announcements by Premier Doug Ford in Ontario and Premier François Legault in Quebec in which they promise to address the crisis in long-term and seniors' care. The Ontario report on five long-term care facilities was issued May 20, and released to the media May 26. The report on 25 Quebec homes was released on May 27. The reports generated major media attention, with the term "abuse" being the most common word used in headlines about the Ontario reports. In response, Ontario's Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said the Ontario government will strike an "independent commission" to examine the province's nursing home sector. Premier Legault announced the government will train and hire 10,000 personal support workers, with guaranteed full-time jobs at $26 an hour. This announcement was linked to a request to keep military personnel in the long-term care homes until September, a request that Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has already rejected. Care workers and their organizations, families, seniors' advocates and organizations and many others responded by pointing out that they have been exposing the inhuman living and working conditions in seniors' homes for years, and have called for increased investments in seniors' care, an end to private ownership and control, and for a modern and humane seniors' care sector. Outrage has been expressed across the country that governments respond to the CAF reports but have ignored the reports, studies and inquiries carried out by care workers and their organizations, residents' councils, seniors' advocates, families, academics and others. For years they have exposed the problems of seniors' care and called for increased funding, and a modern seniors' care system where the rights of residents and the workers who care for them are upheld. The armed forces medical personnel are not trained for the work in long-term care homes, but the governments chose this option in place of mobilizing those willing and experienced in this work. In Quebec, the proposal by the graduating nursing students, who are fully qualified to provide the care needed in the residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs), was ignored. In Ontario, the registered nurses' regulatory college offered to mobilize retired nurses, nurse practitioners, and student nurses, but the Ford government was not interested. The Ford government turned down a proposal from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) to set up mobile physician-run COVID-19 assessment centres at long-term care homes. The OMA also offered to provide more administrative support for long-term care homes' medical directors, but this was rejected as well. Workers report that in Montreal North, military personnel were sent to work in the "hot zones" (where residents are infected with COVID-19), while the workers who are experienced and specialized were sent from the hot zones to the areas where patients were not infected, and this within the same shift. This should never take place from an infection control standpoint, never mind that experienced care workers were replaced by those without training in this work.[1] It is now also evident that the health and safety of the members of the armed forces too is not well protected. Thirty-nine members of the armed forces working in long-term care homes have become infected with COVID-19. They have been working 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
A recurring theme is that supply cabinets are locked, there is a lack of basic supplies, even bed linen, and that staff are afraid to use too many supplies. Multiple examples are given of staff not using personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with accepted infection control procedures, but no information is provided about whether adequate PPE is provided, how new staff are trained, if at all, or whether time is allocated to permit proper gowning and masking between patients (which it obviously is not). The impression is left of indifferent or incompetent staff. The individual reports from the five homes in
Ontario all had an identical statement to the effect that all the
concerns reported had been discussed in a collegial manner with
"management" of the homes. The reports say that management
indicated they would address the problems. It is not fortuitous that
the government was forced to assume control of four of the homes the
day following the "collegial discussions" with "management."
Health care workers and professionals have been speaking out for years, on the basis that their working conditions are residents' living conditions, fighting for increased investments in seniors' care. For governments to express shock now, when the army reports what is happening, is a sure indication they intend to do nothing about the situation unless of course it means more state funds can be handed over to private interests who claim this will improve the situation. The problem facing governments across the country now is that they cannot convince the health care workers, the families, or the working people that the status quo can prevail in seniors' care. They also face the problem that it is the workers, together with the families and seniors themselves, who know what needs to be done and are highly motivated to make it happen. Calling in the military and suggesting that their report has great significance and authority is evidence of a desperate attempt to preserve the status quo and keep the decision-making power firmly in the hands of the rich, even if it means a military takeover of what used to be public institutions. The crisis reveals that those institutions are a thing of the past, privatization is a disaster and the decision-making power must be taken out of the hands of those who are unfit to govern. Notes1. See "Interview: Benoît Taillefer, Vice-President, Occupational Health and Safety, Workers' Union of the Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre, Montreal North," Workers' Forum, May 28, 2020. 2. See "Stepped Up War Exercises During COVID-19: Crash of the Snowbird," Tony Seed, TML Weekly, May 23, 2020. (Photos: TMLW, CUPE Ontario)
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A serious
question arises about why these reports are being given such
prominence. The publication of these reports portrays the military as a
lead agency in addressing a public health crisis.[
The
reports from
the military reek of hidden agendas and motives and certainly
point out that those in positions of authority at this time are not fit
to govern. Together they are covering up the fact that care workers
have been and remain a great asset but they cannot perform their duties
so long as the modern system of delivery of health services is hampered
by narrow private interests which operate as cartels and coalitions.
This refers to the hedge and other funds which operate the homes, the
pharmaceutical cartels, the cartels which control the technology at all
levels, along with laundry, food and cleaning services -- the lot, as
well as the cartel party system of government whose first duty is to
make sure the people are deprived of decision-making power. The rights
of seniors cannot be provided with a guarantee so long as this remains
the case.