| October 6, 2020 -
No. 67 Ontario
October 8 Day of Action on Long-Term Care All Out
to Uphold the Rights of Seniors and Their Caregivers
- Steve
Rutchinski -
•
Ontario Hospitals Lay Off Staff
Quebec
Government's New Rules and Laws Said to Control COVID-19
• A Stand Bound
to Aggravate the Crisis - Pierre
Chénier
• Citizen-Participation in the Fight
Against the Pandemic - Normand Chouinard
• Important
Demands of Frontline Workers to Face Second Wave
- Interview, Marjolaine Aubé
For Your Information
• New Order in Council
and Use of Police Forces in Quebec
Ontario
October 8 Day of Action on Long-Term Care
- Steve Rutchinski -
The Ontario Day of Action on Long-Term Care (LTC) organized
by the Ontario Health Coalition, frontline care and senior advocacy
organizations is being held on Thursday, October 8 to demand improved
care in LTC facilities and an end to for-profit privatized LTC.
Nineteen cities have now announced a total of 21 events. In Toronto,
the car cavalcade will start at 9:30 am at Queen's Park and an online
press conference will be held at 9:45 am. For all other locations and
start times see the Calendar of Events above. Many
things have been revealed about our society as a result of the COVID
pandemic, things which make it impossible for any thinking person to
want a return to the old normal. And as Canada moves into a second
wave, one of the things that stands out is the irrationality of how
this situation is being dealt with.  Who would ever
imagine that the same for-profit LTC monopolies, responsible for so
many deaths of seniors and frontline health care workers, would be
rewarded with more money from the government, in our name, to fix
things they haven't fixed in more than two decades?
Who
would imagine that seven months into this pandemic, testing and
tracking possible transmissions would be in such disarray; that health
care workers still do not have adequate personal protective equipment;
that schools would be reopened without measures taken for physical
distancing in the classroom or the transportation of students to and
from schools? Or that hospitals would be laying off nursing staff to
balance their budgets! To any thinking person this
is irrationality! How is it that frontline health care workers who have
given their all, become the target of orders-in-council and ministerial
decrees overriding their rights and their collective agreements? How is
it that migrant workers, foreign students and others are recognized as
doing work that is essential to the functioning of Canadian society but
are denied status and rights here? How is it that standards of care for
seniors advocated by registered nurses and other frontline care givers
are simply ignored; or that courts and quasi-judicial bodies can
outright dismiss appeals by teachers' and educators' unions for
governments to implement in our schools the standards set by public
health departments? All of this is to keep working
people from being involved in making the decisions that affect their
lives; to silence the repudiation of the neo-liberal, privatization and
pay-the-rich schemes that disarmed society and set the stage for what
is now taking place.  As the second
wave unfolds, government authorities shamelessly blame the people for
being too lax about maintaining safe "bubbles"; blame the youth for
having parties and so on. Not one will acknowledge it might have
something to do with people going back to work because to do so would
be to acknowledge that contact at work may be a factor and that would
open the door to compensation claims. Not one will acknowledge that
getting to and from work on public transit might be a factor; that
busing children to school by the "old normal" standards; or refusing to
cap class sizes at reasonable numbers might be a factor.
Such
measures all require public investment -- not handouts to the rich.
They require mobilizing the active participation of the polity in
solving these problems. But the public authority clearly has not put
full weight of the society and its resources behind keeping people safe
and sorting out the issues of safely starting up, within the conditions
of a pandemic. The COVID pandemic has indeed revealed many things --
one of the most important being the need for a credible public
authority.
All Out for the Ontario Day of Action
for Long-Term Care!
Fight for the Rights of Our Seniors and
Frontline Caregivers! 
Astounding as it is, Ontario hospitals are
actually laying off nursing staff to try to balance their budgets! This
is taking place even while the Ontario government, through Bill 195,
has overridden collective agreements of frontline health care workers,
claiming that extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary
measures. Apparently that doesn't apply when it comes to adequate
funding of hospitals. Here are but a few recent announcement of
hospital layoffs:  Lakeridge Health
with five hospitals in Durham Region (including Oshawa, Pickering and
Whitby) informed the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) on September 11
that it is cutting eight full-time and six part-time registered nurses
from several of its units as it seeks to balance its budget. ONA
President Vicki McKenna said, "It's truly outrageous that this is the
route that management is taking to balance the budget and the residents
of Durham Region, who rely on Lakeridge for their health-care needs,
should be very alarmed."
Hamilton hospitals will be
making $42 million in cuts this year, with more expected, to meet
provincial 2023 spending targets. "There is nothing left to trim," said
Dave Murphy, President of CUPE Local 7800, which represents 3,500 staff
at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). HHS has had an occupancy rate of
over 100 per cent since August 2016. Southlake
Regional Health Centre in Newmarket will be laying off 97 registered
nurses. This works out to be more than 176,000 hours of direct patient
care lost to cuts according to a September 22 ONA news release. ONA
Bargaining Unit President Jill Moore said: "Nurses are working
short-staffed, but one of our biggest concerns is surge capacity. When
our patient numbers increase, as they typically do during a pandemic,
we often do not have enough staff resources to provide quality patient
care, let alone trying to serve a population that is growing by leaps
and bounds. What is most distressing is that the employer has said that
these 97 layoffs are the best-case scenario. I cannot imagine what more
layoffs will do for patient care." Ontario Health
Coalition Executive Director Natalie Mehra said in an October 2
statement: "Hospitals are reporting across Ontario that they have been
promised their extraordinary COVID-19 pandemic costs will be funded,
but much of the money has not flowed. Local hospitals are reporting
deficits, some have layoffs, some are drawing down their cash
reserves." She added that "hospitals have closed down thousands of beds
even while suffering increased overcrowding. [...] The Ontario Health
Coalition is calling on the Ford government to fund public hospitals
and flow the money to stabilize and build needed capacity."
Quebec
Government's New Rules and Laws Said to Control COVID-19 -
Pierre Chénier -  
On October 1, the Quebec government issued an Order-in-Council
with new measures it says are aimed to stop the spread of COVID-19 in
Quebec (see FYI). Recent data show outbreaks of COVID-19
across Quebec, with cases of infection on the increase in all regions.
Hospitalizations and deaths are also increasing. The daily number of
new reported cases has increased from 799 on September 28 to 1,191 on
October 4. COVID-19 related hospitalizations went from 247 to 361 in
the same period. Forty-four deaths were reported between September 28
and October 4. By comparison, the number of daily new infections was
below 300 between June 1 and September 15.  The Quebec
government says it is appealing to the "consciousness" and the "sense
of responsibility" of Quebeckers to implement the Order-in-Council and
prevent further spread of the disease. But in the same breath the blame
for the increasing cases is put on what it calls the laxity of an
increased number of people, especially the youth holding parties.
The Order-in-Council introduces new police powers, yet Premier
François Legault says there is no witch hunt intended.
Public gatherings will be banned, while the government and ministers
are granted impunity to do as they please, so long as it is done in the
name of protecting "the health of the population." Furthermore
these same Orders-in-Council, Ministerial Orders and Special Powers are
being used to attack frontline health care workers, to silence their
voice and dismiss their numerous proposals to alleviate and overcome
the crisis. Far from heeding their voice and proposals, the state has
granted itself the power to override their negotiated contracts so that
their working conditions can be changed at will. The
already untenable working conditions, exacerbated by the pandemic, have
resulted in massive resignations in health care and social services,
making the fight against the pandemic even more difficult. In fact, the
pandemic has been used to further the restructuring of the state,
stepping up the anti-social offensive to destroy the institutions of
civil society that created some space for the people to intervene,
replacing them with the undisputed power of the ruling elite and
government executives. Meanwhile, COVID-19 testing
and tracing are chaotic. Schools have been reopened without respect for
the government's often repeated two-metre distancing guideline. The
Superior Court just defeated the application of the Autonomous
Teachers' Federation (FAE) for an interim injunction to force the
Quebec government to inform the FAE and Quebeckers of its plan for
accelerated COVID-19 testing in the school system. No such plan exists!
And we are to believe that governments of police powers and deployment
of police forces are going to solve the problems? "Consciousness"
and "responsibility" do not exist up in the air, Premier Legault. They
are embodied in institutions, in processes that exist in real life and
can be used to achieve the aims that society sets to uphold the
well-being of all, especially in times of crisis. Orders-in-Council
will not stop the spread of the disease. Police measures do not
inculcate social consciousness. Taking up social responsibility and
mobilizing people in their collectives and organizations can and this
is what the workers and people have been doing since the very beginning
of this crisis. This is what must be stepped up and these efforts must
be supported by the state.
-
Normand Chouinard - At the moment there are tens
of thousands of Quebec teachers fighting every day to guarantee their
safety and that of their students, but the government prevents them
from being able to decide how to proceed. There are tens of thousands
of workers in the health care system who are putting their lives on the
line to look after the population and find solutions to the crisis. The
government responds with ministerial orders to keep control over the
decisions. There are currently hundreds of thousands of industrial
workers fighting to maintain the measures they have put in place to
protect themselves, but management wants to keep decision-making in the
hands of the monopolies. They are outright blocking the workers and
taking away their initiative. The great mass of youth want nothing more
than to be responsible toward society, and once again they are being
denied this right. The crisis-ridden liberal
democratic institutions have created a situation whereby governments
and cartel parties in public office are there to block the activation
of the human factor/social consciousness. They are not there to make
sure measures are socially responsible. They decide nothing, are
paralyzed by inaction and divorced from considering the sanctity of
human life. Police powers will not solve the problem.  New social forms
are required so that working people can resolve the situation in their
favour: citizens' committees in neighbourhoods where people
live and where they work to ensure that decisions are taken by the
citizens themselves and they can work out what can be done to ensure
their implementation.
In seniors' homes, where
possible, general assemblies with physical distancing should be held to
mobilize older people in decision-making. In
workplaces, health and safety committees need to be expanded to promote
discussion on what needs to be done at work and also in society. The
people need governments which consider it their duty to make sure
companies cooperate.
Youth are eager to
be directly involved as volunteers in all kinds of ways, in
their schools and neighbourhoods. They can be given responsibilities
that instill in them in a practical way the importance of public safety.
Further measures in this direction can be elaborated. The
people need governments which support such things and fund the
process whereby different levels of the civil service are at the
people's disposal to organize them. People need governments
which act as facilitators of such Quebec-wide mobilization
projects to fight the pandemic.
This is
what the government should be doing instead of putting forward new
police measures. If the government does not want to assist, then the
working class, people and youth, have the responsibility to do it
themselves.
- Interview, Marjolaine Aubé -
  
Marjolaine Aubé is President of the Union
of Workers at the Integrated Health and Social Services Centre of Laval
(CISSS de Laval-CSN). These workers include those who lived through the
tragedy at the Sainte-Dorothée residential and long-term
care centre (CHSLD) in Laval in which 101 residents died and many
workers contracted COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. The
interview below focuses on the demands put forward by the union from
the beginning of the outbreak at the CHSLD, to defend the health and
safety of patients and staff, to deal with the urgency of the situation
and to ensure that such tragedies never happen again.
Workers' Forum: Can you
tell us how many workers you represent and what work they do at the
CISSS in Laval. Marjolaine
Aubé: I represent 4,200 members who are
part of categories 2 and 3 at the CISSS of Laval. Category 2 includes
orderlies, housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, specialized workers, what
we call paratechnical staff. Category 3 includes office workers,
involving administrative or computer work, etc. Our CISSS includes 29
establishments throughout the island of Laval. These are all the health
and social services facilities in the network except for the
university. We have a hospital site, CHSLDs, local community services
centres (CLSCs), a youth centre, a readaptation centre for intellectual
disabilities (CRDI) and a rehabilitation site. WF:
From the beginning of the pandemic, the union presented demands to deal
with COVID-19. Can you tell us more?  MA:
Our main demand at this time is to have the necessary equipment at the
local level to protect us, namely the N95 mask. We need it for all the
hot zones [where we are treating infected people] of our
establishments. We made this demand with the other unions involved in
the CISSS. The N95 is currently offered exclusively to those who work
in areas such as intensive care or emergency. However, many studies
have shown that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is also possible.
This is especially the case if you put patients with COVID-19 in a
common area. Our ventilation systems do not allow for proper removal of
the virus particles. We want to be properly equipped so that we don't
get infected and our patients don't get infected. We also need fit
testing, to ensure the masks fit properly, for everyone working in the
hot zones, because there are several kinds of N95 masks. For the
moment, the employer has said no to this demand. We have appealed to
the Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety Board
(CNESST) to remedy this situation.
As for our other
demands, they have been accepted by the employer and our work at this
time is to ensure their full implementation. In all cases, when
presenting our demands to the employer, we have ensured that we also
appealed to the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Our
first demand, on day one of the crisis, was for screening of all
patients and employees in all our CHSLDs. At first the employer did not
want to implement this measure. There was no screening if the person
did not have symptoms of COVID-19 or had not traveled abroad. Staff had
to work even if they had symptoms, and without protective equipment. We
eventually prevailed, and it was when the screening was done that it
was discovered that the CHSLD in Sainte-Dorothée was totally
contaminated. Subsequently, in May, the Quebec government started
implementing systematic screening of all employees, on a voluntary
basis, in all CHSLDs in Quebec.
Workers
at the CHSLD in Sainte-Dorothée hold memorial, July 15,
2020, for workers and residents who died of COVID-19 during the first
wave of the pandemic. |
From the very beginning, we also demanded that
the movement of personnel between establishments be stopped. We also
demanded the cessation of movement between floors, so that no one would
move from a cold zone [where residents are not infected by COVID-19] to
a hot zone. We also demanded that the employer
provide full-time work in the position workers already occupied, so
that they would not have a loss of income because of being limited to
one workplace. It should be remembered that at the beginning, only 20
per cent of the orderlies were full-time. All the other positions were
precarious. We have made significant gains in this regard, and we have
also obtained a ban on the creation of flying squads for orderlies
throughout Quebec. You can imagine how difficult it is for public
health to investigate an outbreak if the worker was on a flying squad,
how difficult it is to find out how the outbreak occurred, to trace the
person's contacts, etc. As far as personal
protective equipment (PPE) is concerned, we have achieved some things.
For example, we requested pairing of workers. Now, if two people work
together, when it is break time, one staff member ensures that the
other safely removes their PPE. This applies to anyone who sets foot in
a hot zone, including housekeeping staff, for example, not just nurses
or orderlies. Through our work, we helped establish
a joint post-pandemic committee in June that includes representatives
from our three unions, as well as management representatives from
several facilities, so that everyone can talk to each other. Our
demands, with the exception of the one on safety equipment, were
accepted in July. The decisions began to be implemented. It takes time,
there are a lot of levels of decision-making, a complicated hierarchy.
But we can say that we now have a plan at the local level. It is not
yet fully implemented but we are moving forward. To
get there, we have made more than 150 public interventions in the media
to get people to listen to us. We have also asked for help from the
Ministry. Certainly the tone has changed in our CISSS because of this
work. Right now, there are outbreaks of COVID-19
everywhere, including Laval. We are in the second wave. Everyone must
take the necessary precautions, including wearing masks. Those who
refuse to wear a mask risk having themselves or those they are in
contact with becoming our patients. We don't want to relive the crisis
of the first wave. That's why we have put forward all these demands and
are working to ensure that they are thoroughly implemented.
For Your Information
As COVID-19 cases surge in Quebec and the death toll climbs
again, the Quebec government has responded with a new Order-in-Council,
announced on September 30 and that went into force on October 1.[1] It is based on
the previous orders which give full power to the government or the
Minister of Health and Social Services to order any measure deemed
necessary in the name of protecting the health of the population. The
orders also provide full impunity to the government and the Minister in
exercising these powers. Measures prescribed depend
on the COVID-19 infection rate. Quebec is divided into 18 areas[2] for this purpose
with each assigned a corresponding "alert" level, ranging from one to a
maximum of four. As of October 1, Montreal, Laval,
Montérégie, Chaudière-Appalaches, the
Quebec City region and Lanaudière are partially or fully at
level four. Some of the major measures in force in
level four areas include: - No visitors in private
homes and cottages, except in the case of people living alone who can
have one visitor (e.g., caregivers or tradespeople performing work can
enter private homes, one at a time). - Activities
organized in a public place are prohibited, except for places of
worship and funerals, where a limit of 25 people is in force and a
register of attendees must be kept. -
Demonstrations are permitted but wearing a mask or face covering is
mandatory at all times. - Travel outside Quebec is
not recommended. Travel within Quebec between zones with different
alert levels is also discouraged, except for essential travel:
students, workers, children of divorced parents with shared custody and
freight transportation. The rules applying to residents of an area with
a given alert level remain in force when in other areas. -
Public meeting rooms, as well as auditoriums, cinemas, theatres and
museums are closed. Libraries other than those in educational
institutions are closed, except lending desks. -
Restaurants are closed except for delivery, takeout and drive-through
orders while bars, pubs, taverns and casinos are closed. For
microbreweries and distilleries, consumption of food or beverages on
the premises is barred. Containment measures are
less restrictive in level three, two and one alert areas. Use
of Police Forces to Implement the Decree In
announcing the Order-in-Council at a September 30 press conference,
Premier François Legault together with Public Security
Minister and Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault explained that the new
restrictions contained in the Order-in-Council are in force for 28
days, starting at midnight October 1. However, no end date was
specified for the Order-in-Council and the exceptional powers it grants
to the government and Minister of Health and Social Services.
Regarding private homes, Legault said "police will be able to
obtain a telewarrant quickly, from a judge, right away" to allow them
to enter a home. If a violation is observed, people will be asked to
comply, in which case the objective of the regulation will be achieved.
Tickets of up to $1,000 can be issued "on the spot" for non-compliance.
Regarding outside gatherings, Legault said that "From midnight
[October 1] all gatherings will be banned. So what we have asked the
police to do is first to disperse the people, invite them to leave.
Then, if there are people who refuse to cooperate, well, they will also
be likely to receive a ticket." Regarding
demonstrations, he said: "For protests [...] wearing a mask will now be
mandatory. Those who refuse to follow this rule can also get a ticket
of $1,000. Officers will be able to act quickly by giving tickets on
the spot." Notes 1. To read
the Government of Quebec's Order-in-Council 1020-2020, September 30,
2020, click
here.
2. For the map of
COVID-19 alert levels by region, click
here.
(To
access articles individually click on the black headline.) PDF
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