Call for Public Inquiry and Criminal Investigations into Deaths in Long-Term Care
SEIU has been organizing actions outside a number of long-term care
homes to honour both their members who have died and those working in
the homes and to forcefully demand government action. Photo is from May
7, 2020.
The SEIU Healthcare issued the following call on Tuesday May 5:
"SEIU Healthcare, the union that represents over 60,000
frontline healthcare workers in Ontario, is calling for public
inquiries and criminal investigations into COVID-19 related deaths in
long-term care to keep people alive and determine accountability.
 "First,
we're calling on Premier Ford's government to immediately commission a
public inquiry, pursuant to section 3 of the Public Inquiries Act, to
investigate the deaths of residents and frontline workers at Ontario's
long-term care homes.
"Second, we're calling on the Toronto and Peel Regional
Police to initiate investigations for criminal negligence at a number
of long-term care and homecare providers involving the death of staff.
"Third, we're similarly calling on the Office of the Chief Coroner to use their authorities to inquire into these deaths.
"On Friday, May 1st, our union lost a long-time personal
support worker (PSW) who passed away after testing positive for
COVID-19. She was the third avoidable death of a PSW in as many weeks."
SEIU Healthcare President Sharleen Steward stated: "A
commission is urgently required because until we have a vaccine, or at
a minimum treatment available for the entire population, we must
prepare now for consecutive spikes or waves of COVID-19. Both frontline
workers and the elderly in our long-term care system are saying the
same
thing: keep us alive. That's why we're calling for urgent
investigations that will keep people alive and hold negligent operators
responsible for the death of our healthcare heroes."
This article was published in
Number 34 - May 14, 2020
Article Link:
Call for Public Inquiry and Criminal Investigations into Deaths in Long-Term Care
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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