Ford government policies, scandals and problems

In Ontario senior care home residents are demanding that they be allowed to go outside because they feel like they have been in solitary confinement for a year. 

Residents of Ontario's long-term care homes begged on Tuesday to be allowed outside, saying anti-pandemic restrictions that have confined them indoors for more than a year make no sense given almost all have now been vaccinated.

Some compared their situations to solitary confinement, and urged the provincial government to act on what they called a gross violation of their basic human rights.

Chuck Ferkranus, a resident of a home in Newmarket, Ont., said no one in the building has COVID-19 and yet residents are stuck in their rooms. Ferkranus, who challenged those in authority to live as he does for even a week, said residents are being treated worse than criminals.

"We did nothing wrong; we're not guilty of any crime," he said. "If vaccinations don't end the rules, if no one having COVID doesn't end the restrictions, then what does it take before this comes to an end?"

Many of an estimated 150,000 nursing home residents have been confined to their rooms or floors for as long as 15 months now, cut off from most relatives as well as the outdoors. Activists blame extreme staffing shortages and operators who prioritize corporate needs ahead of the welfare of residents.

Advocates also say the restrictions make no sense. Scientific evidence, they note, indicates COVID-19 is far less likely to spread outdoors than indoors. They also point to evidence that extreme isolation is physically and mentally damaging, especially to residents of nursing homes, many of whom suffer cognitive difficulties and need familiar faces and touch.

"It just cannot go on like this; people are really suffering," said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. "We're furious and we're heartbroken."

Alfred Borg, another resident in Newmarket, said he hasn't been allowed outside for more than a year or even had a shower for five or six months. Instead, he said, residents only get in-room sponge baths when even the law guarantees twice a week baths or showers.

"All day long we just sit in our room," Borg said. "Why are we being treated so much differently from everyone else? It is not enough just being alive. We need a better quality of life." ...

Jane Meadus, a lawyer, called the restrictions a violation of human rights. While anti-pandemic measures loosen in the rest of society, she said, seniors continue to suffer. "All along, these detentions have been illegal," Meadus said. Premier Doug Ford and his ministers have not responded to letters Meadus wrote last month calling for a ban on such confinement, she said. At a news conference on Tuesday, Ford expressed some sympathy but gave no indication he would act on the concerns. "I fully understand -- my mother-in-law's in there," Ford said. "But we have to be super cautious."

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/it-s-beyond-appalling-long-term-care-resident...

More on the disparity between the low rate of receiving vaccines in racialized regions compared to the high rate in wealthy regions where the infection rate is lower. 

In Ontario, the people least likely to have received their COVID-19 vaccine are the same people who keep the city running during lockdowns, says a community organizer.

An analysis from ICES — an Ontario research organization that tracks data on a broad range of health-care issues — used postal codes to show people in Ontario's hardest-hit neighbourhoods aren't accessing COVID-19 vaccines at the same rate as those in higher-income areas that have seen far fewer infections.

For example, 22 per cent of residents in Toronto's upscale St. Clair and Rosedale neighbourhood have had at least one dose. But only 5.5 per cent of people have been vaccinated in the Jane and Finch area, where COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates are more than eight times higher. 

The province responded to the data on Tuesday by expanding vaccine eligibility to people 18 and over in the province's COVID-19 hot spots.

Michelle Dagnino, executive director of the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre, spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about the data. Here's part of their conversation. 

Michelle, what was it like for you to see this massive gap and who is getting vaccinated in your city of Toronto?

It's so disheartening to see one year after the alarm was first sounded about the differential impact of COVID across the city.

[What are] some of the reasons why people in Jane Finch and those other areas of Toronto and Ontario are not getting vaccinated?

One of the first issues that popped up around the vaccine rollout was how one went around to book an appointment.... It's an online portal. For anyone who has tried to book an appointment in the last four weeks or six weeks, you'll know that it's quite confusing in terms of getting onto the portal, trying to understand what priority group you fall under, trying to find a clinic that has availability close to you.

For the residents of Jane and Finch, what that means is you have to have a device connected to Wi-Fi. You have to have familiarity with English. And you have to be able to have a clinic that is close to you. And for the past month, that has not been the case.

How difficult was it for people to get to these places? I would imagine a lot of these people don't have their own cars.

The vast majority don't have their own car. So when we are talking about vaccinating seniors — so the first round of vaccines, which were targeted based on age group — we're looking at 80-plus-year-olds who were told to book their vaccine online and then take public transit to get to a vaccine clinic in one of the most heavily transited corridors in the city and in one of the highest hot-spot areas of the city.

So people were literally having to consider the risk of taking transit in order to get a COVID vaccine. ...

A lot of these people go to work. They're not being able to work from home like many people downtown are, or in the centre of the city. These people are going to jobs where they're spending a great deal of time on public transportation to get there. What kind of a barrier does that present?

For many of our working folks in the Jane and Finch area, they're having to take a day off of work — and it's an unpaid day off of work — to get their vaccine.

And for many who are living paycheque to paycheque, missing a day of work — and potentially missing more than one day, because there may be some symptoms that they get from the vaccine that would prevent them from going to work for another day or two — means that they may not have enough money at the end of the month for food or to pay a utility bill.

These are residents who keep this city running. They are daycare workers. They are Uber drivers. They are grocery store clerks. But most of them cannot afford to take a day off to go get a vaccine. ...

Now that we're months into this vaccine delivery program, are things getting any better since these problems have been identified?

Yes. In the past few days, we have seen improvements. ...

What do you make of the fact that it's taken this long to solve these problems?

It speaks to 40 years of crises in the community, 40 years of austerity, 40 years of neglect in nearly all investments from infrastructure to social services.

This is not a crisis that emerged March 13, 2020. This is a crisis that has been decades in the making. And what's important for all of us in the city and all of us in this country who care about our fellow residents is to understand that whenever the crisis of COVID is over and we are starting to see a finish line, the structural problems, the structural inequity, the racism, the decades of underinvestment in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, will still be there. And we will not be any better prepared for the next crisis if we don't start to address that.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.5...

The Ford government has had to backtrack once again when it comes to Covid, as on so many other issues.

The Ontario government has revised the new police powers that initially let officers make random stops to enforce the stay-at-home order. Now, the province said police may stop individuals only if they are suspected of participating in an organized event or social gathering. The government announced the changes Saturday evening....

Ontario introduced sweeping new restrictions Friday in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the province's third wave. One of those measures includes more power for police where officers can legally stop individuals on the street and in vehicles and question their reasons for leaving their homes.

However, a majority of police services in the province said they do not intend to randomly stop people or vehicles.

In a tweet published Saturday morning, Toronto police said they would opt out of the new enforcement. Instead, they say they will "continue to engage and enforce equitably and effectively, recognizing always that we must inspire public trust." Interim Toronto police Chief James Ramer doubled down on the decision in a separate tweet saying, "Our officers will not be doing random stops of people or cars."

In a news release issued Saturday, Peel Regional Police announced they too would not be conducting random stops. Chief Nishan Duraiappah said he recognizes the "concern" the measure brings to the community and assured residents that the force would not be conducting vehicle or individual stops.

Other police services across the province, including those in York and Durham regions, Ottawa and northern Ontario also refused to do random stops.

Speaking to CP24 Saturday afternoon, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown called the policy a "misuse of police resources." ...

Public health experts have also questioned the measure and civil liberties advocates are warning that the move could lead to a rash of racial profiling. Before the Ford government announced the changes, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said they were planning to go to court to challenge the regulation. ...

Over the last two days, the province has logged record-breaking COVID-19 case counts largely driven by variants of the disease, according to public health officials.

https://www.cp24.com/news/ford-government-revises-new-police-pandemic-po...

The NDP said on Sunday that the PCs had informed they planned to shut down the legislature on Wednesday. Under repeated attacks from doctors, civil rights groups, racial minorities and other parties, the Ford government has said the legislature,  which was due to continue in session until June, will be in session this week, which doesn't mean that it could still be shut down this week. 

The Doug Ford government is denying that it had plans to shut down the Ontario legislature by Wednesday. In a statement on Sunday, the office of Government House Leader Paul Calandra said the legislature will be in session this coming week. The legislature is currently scheduled to sit until June. ...

Earlier on Sunday, the NDP said in a news release that the government informed it of plans to shut down the legislature by Wednesday. ...

She said the NDP has written a letter to the government saying it will not co-operate with any suspension until the province:

• Institutes paid sick days.
• Cancels all extraordinary police powers announced on Friday in their entirety.
• Shuts down all non-essential workplaces.
• Pledges a "meaningful package of supports" for businesses and workers affected by closures.

"People are laying in crowded hospital hallways, struggling to breathe, and many thousands more will join them if we don't replace Doug Ford's plan," Horwath said in the release. "Black, Indigenous and racialized people know check stops and carding will target them, because it always has. Businesses are already on the brink and more will go under without help. People's lives are on the line." ...

Horwath said the NDP is prepared to talk about how the parties can run the legislature with a minimum number of MPPs and staff and with strict health protocols.

"We are not prepared to help Doug Ford go home, leaving a police-state in place while he allows COVID-19 to run rampant, overrun hospitals, and steal the lives of Ontarians who would otherwise make it through this," she said. "Our province has never faced such a crisis as it is today. For the people elected to protect and support Ontarians to walk away from their duty at this time is wrong, and I won't do it." ...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ndp-ford-government-shut-down-ont...

The Ontario Science Advisory Table has heavily criticized the Ford government for its failure to deal with Covid both through its actions and inactions that has resulted in the pandemic becoming an ever increasing crisis in the province,. They especially criticized the Ontario government over the lack of sick leave, and the failure to protect essential workers  and racialized communities, as well as for not focusing on Covid hotspots, all of which thereby help to spread the disease. 

The Ontario government’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table is calling for urgent and stronger action to reign in the spread of cases, noting the province’s hospitals are “buckling.”

“Ontario is now facing the most challenging health crisis of our time. Our case counts are at an all-time high. Our hospitals are buckling. Younger people are getting sicker. The disease is ripping through whole families,” a letter issued Tuesday afternoon on behalf of group’s 40 doctors, medical professionals and scientists said. “The variants of concern that now dominate COVID-19 in Ontario are, in many ways, a new pandemic, and Ontario needs stronger measures to control the pandemic.”

The advisory body, which has been in existence for nearly a year, focused on six areas that, in their words, would “reduce transmission, protect our health care system, and allow us to reopen safely as soon as possible.” ...

Topping the list of recommendations was reviewing the list of workplaces deemed essential by the Ontario government. 

“This means permitting only truly essential indoor workplaces to stay open and strictly enforcing COVID-19 safety measures in those places,” the statement said. “Essential workers must wear masks at all times while working indoors, or when close to others outdoors, and must be supported in doing so.”

The Table also reiterated the need to ensure essential workers continue to receive pay if they need to stay home, are exposed to COVID-19, or need time to get a vaccine. The group said the current federal program is not enough. “Workers who do [go to work sick or go after having been exposed to the virus] often do so because they have no choice: they must feed their families and pay their rent. Compared to other models that appear to have limited spread, the federal [Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit] is cumbersome and does not provide enough financial support,” the members wrote. ...

“An emergency benefit that offers more money, is easily accessible, immediately paid and that, for the duration of the pandemic, is available to essential workers … will help limit spread.”

The advisory body called for an acceleration of vaccinating essential workers in hot spot communities.

“It also means accelerating the distribution and administration of vaccines overall, making it easier for at-risk groups to get vaccinated, and promoting the vaccine with more intensive and effective on-the-ground community outreach.”

The medical experts also encouraged the provincial government to put in place regional travel restrictions due to an increase in variants of concern, stopping indoor gatherings with people from outside the immediate household, and maintaining outdoor activities in a safe way. “This means allowing small groups of people from different households to meet outside with masking and two-metre distancing. It means keeping playgrounds open and clearly encouraging safe outdoor activities,” the group said....

The statement came days after Ontario announced and then abandoned plans to close playgrounds and enhance police powers during an extended stay-at-home order, prompting widespread backlash. 

The Table encouraged those enacting COVID-19 policies to look at those decisions through an equity lens in order to ensure those from racialized, vulnerable and marginalized communities aren’t harmed or neglected since the virus “already affects these groups disproportionately.”

The group also took aim at “inconsistent policies with no clear link to scientific evidence” and restrictions that discourage safe outdoor activity. “[Those policies] will not control COVID-19 and will disproportionately harm children and those who do not have access to their own greenspace, especially those living in crowded conditions,” the statement said.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7774249/covid-ontario-science-advisory-table-...

Doug Ford apologized today  and admitted he got it wrong when it comes to dealing with Covid. Unfortunately, far too many people in Ontario paid for his mistakes not with embarassment, like Ford, but with their lives. 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologized to Ontarians Thursday morning, days after his government faced intense backlash for introducing a number of additional COVID-19 restrictions that were not recommended by health experts and then nixed earlier this week.

Ford, who is isolating at his late mother's home in Etobicoke after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, said at a news conference he wanted to "address the events of this past week" after his government put in new measures in response to "extremely troubling modelling."

The province was trying to curb mobility in Ontario, he said.

"But we moved too fast," Ford said, with some measures going too far. "Simply put, we got it wrong. We made a mistake. These decisions, they left a lot of people really concerned," Ford said. "For that I am sorry, and I sincerely apologize." ...

The premier and some of his top cabinet ministers have been under fire after announcing last Friday that the province would close playgrounds and hand police arbitrary powers, among other additional measures, in a bid to curb the third wave of the pandemic. 

The public outcry to both moves was so swift and fierce that the government reversed course on both within days of the announcement. Members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table also disavowed the decisions, making clear in interviews with media that they were not based on their own recommendations to cabinet. 

Various sources close to the government told CBC News the decisions came amid panic over the latest modelling for the pandemic and fears that Ford's approval among voters would suffer badly if he was not seen to be taking action. ...

Driven by variants of concern, the third wave has pushed Ontario's health-care system to a breaking point. As of Thursday, there were 2,350 people with COVID-19 in hospital. Of those, 806 were in intensive care units and 588 required a ventilator to breathe, both all-time highs for the province. Hospitals throughout the province have been ordered to stop all non-emergency surgeries amid a record number of patient transfers, as health networks try to cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients. ...

The provincial government has also faced mounting pressure to implement its own paid sick leave program for workers who fall ill with the disease or are exposed to someone with a confirmed case, something that public health experts and advocates have been demanding for months.

In a statement issued after the news conference, Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, said Ontarians were waiting for some sort of commitment to deliver paid sick days, only to get "absolutely nothing. The chorus of voices calling for paid sick days is roaring over Ford's inaction," Hahn said. "It's time to back apologies with actions. It's time for far more than an assurance that he'll work on something."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-covid-19-news-c...

The Ford government is so desperate to find additional healthcare workers to deal with the ever growing Covid crisis in Ontario that it helped accelerate to the edge of failure of the provincial medical system, that it is not only seeking help from other provinces and the federal government in recruiting medical personnel, but is also looking the US and as far away as the Philippines. 

A team of nine healthcare workers from Newfoundland and Labrador have arrived in Toronto to help treat COVID-19 patients in some of the city’s hardest hit hospitals.

The group, which consists of three doctors and six critical care nurses, touched down at Pearson International Airport in a Canadian Forces Hercules aircraft early Tuesday afternoon.

They are the first reinforcements to arrive in Ontario since the province issued a call for more than 600 healthcare professionals nearly two weeks ago.

The Canadian Armed Forces to deploy nine ICU nurses and up to three multipurpose medical assistance teams in the province as well, though it is unclear when they will arrive.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair also said on Tuesday that 62 health professionals from the federal government have volunteered to help in Ontario hospitals, including doctors and nurses who work in prisons or for Indigenous Services Canada. ...

The number of COVID patients in intensive care units in Ontario has more than doubled over the last month and now stands at 875.

Ontario has ordered all hospitals to cease all elective and non-emergent procedures in an attempt to free up capacity but with COVID patients now taking up roughly one out of three available beds in intensive care units concerns are building that healthcare workers will eventually have to make impossible decisions about who to provide the highest level of care to.

Meanwhile a temporary field hospital that was set up on the grounds of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre earlier this month has now begun accepting patient transfers, underscoring how dire our current situation is. The field hospital is currently staffed by doctors and nurses from Sunnybrook though hospital officials say that military medics could eventually be relied upon to treat patients once they are deployed....

“We are continuing our search internationally to see if there are any teams that can come from other countries to help us but as you know there are many countries in the world that are facing the same situation that we are as well,” Elliott said earlier on Tuesday. “We have made some requests in the U.S. and we are still waiting to hear specifics from them but we also looked to other countries, such as the Philippines for example, and are still waiting to hear on that.”

Elliott said that Manitoba has also offered to put a call out to retired healthcare workers to help out in Ontario hospitals but she said that the province hasn’t received any formal offer of support at this point.

https://www.cp24.com/news/we-are-ready-to-go-to-work-healthcare-workers-...

Don Davies NDP MP tweet

"The simple truth is that no province in Canada - Liberal, Conservative, NDP, CAQ - has paid sick leave as a basic employment standard. Higher income employees generally get it, low paid don’t. This must change for social justice + public health reasons. It’s time."

The 322-page report from Ontario's Long-Term Care Commission released on Friday concluded the Ford government "had no comprehensive plans to protect long-term care homes that have been neglected for years, leaving residents and staff 'easy targets' for COVID-19". The report notes that the problem extends back into the provincial Liberals and previous PC governments' time in office .

The report stated that the long-term care sector was insufficiently prepared for a pandemic, and it was made worse by the province's slow and reactive response when the virus arrived....

"Critical decisions came too late and the government's emergency response system proved inadequate to protect staff and residents from COVID-19," the report found. "Staff, long-term care residents suffered terribly during this pandemic. Residents and long-term care staff who lost their lives to COVID-19 paid the ultimate price."

Long-term care homes in the province have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 3,700 resident deaths. Of those, 1,937 occurred during the first wave.

The report looked into the state of long-term care before COVID-19, the deficiencies in Ontario's pandemic response, the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in long-term care, and best practices and promising ideas that can be adopted and expanded to improve long-term care. ...

"The province's lack of pandemic preparedness and the poor state of the long-term care sector were apparent for many years to policymakers, advocates and anyone else who wished to see. Ontario's policymakers and leaders failed during those years to take sufficient action, despite repeated calls for reform," the report stated. "Rather, the commitment and resources needed to prepare for a pandemic and address long-neglected problems with long-term care were shunted in favour of more pressing policies and fiscal priorities."

The commission found that the government failed to follow through with the recommendations that came out of reports after the SARS outbreak in 2003. While Ontario paid attention to them for a time, it "lost the will to make pandemic preparedness a priority." This resulted in the stockpile of emergency supplies acquired following SARS expiring and later ordered to be destroyed.

Many of the issues highlighted by the report are not new, but previous governments all failed to address them. The report stated that long-term care experts and advocates have repeatedly been calling for an overhaul of the sector even before the pandemic struck. Many homes had outdated and not up to standards infrastructure. Staffing issues have also been a problem prior to the pandemic. ...

The commission also looked into the government's second wave response. The report stated that despite the preparations by the province during the summer when "there was a lull in the storm," it did not protect residents from a deadlier second wave.​ ...

The commission laid out 85 recommendations, which build on the two interim guidance released last year. They include preparing for future pandemics and developing plans to deal with infectious disease outbreaks. The province should maintain a pandemic stockpile, including personal protective equipment.

“Pandemic preparedness must be a constant priority. The lives of those most at risk depend on it. When COVID-19 slammed into an already vulnerable long-term care sector, the cost of that lack of preparedness was on full display. As it should have done following the SARS outbreak in 2003, the province must now accept that there will be another pandemic. ...

Counselling services should be offered to residents and staff whose emotional and psychological well-being were affected by COVID-19. The commission is also recommending standardizing and prioritizing infection protection and control practices in long-term care homes. Health care system integration should also be strengthened. The commission found that the long-term care sector did not have established relationships with the health care system, particularly hospitals. Resident-focused care and quality of life must improve. ...

The government should also address human resources challenges by accelerating the staffing plan, increasing the number of skilled staff, supporting enhanced education and development and improving working conditions and compensation. The commission also recommended regulating personal support workers. To meet the care demands of long-term care residents, the province must increase and reorient long-term care funding. ...

The province must also improve its compliance enforcement efforts to protect the residents’ safety and well-being and strengthen investigations under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. That includes enhancing whistleblower protections.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-had-no-plan-to-protect-long-term-resi...

In addition to the  Ontario's Long-Term Care Commission's report released on Friday on the Covid crisis in long-term care homes discussed in post # 191, another just released report, this one by Ontario auditor general Lysyk, describes the epic crisis in these homes. Lysyk's report focuses on the Ford government failure to regularly inspect LTC homes despite a backlog of 3,000 complaints. Ford pointed to thirty years of failure to invest in long-term care by, in his words "government after government, Liberal and Conservative," which is true, while failing to acknowledge his own gross failures on this issue, that has led to the deaths of thousands in these facilities.

Once again, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a spotlight on Ontario’s long-term care homes. Two reports criticize the lack of action by the government, as well as existing problems in the homes, which left hundreds of residents and staff easy targets for the pandemic -- and they paid the ultimate price. 

A scathing report from the government watchdog outlined neglect and said the nursing homes were badly prepared for COVID-19. A second report from a provincial COVID-19 commission, that was given to the government on Friday night, said there also was no plan to protect long-term care residents from the pandemic.

Some 3,700 residents of long-term care homes in Ontario died because of COVID-19, more than half of them during the first wave last year.

Ontario’s auditor general Bonnie Lysyk said the provincial government’s decision to delay implementing measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes might have contributed to the devastating toll on residents and staff during the first wave of the pandemic. Lysyk said Ontario didn’t appear to learn any lessons from the SARS outbreak almost two decades ago.

"Ultimately, senior management in the long-term care homes are the ones that are responsible for protecting the people inside their homes. So there needs to be some accountability on that front,” she said.

Lysyk also said the government was not prepared and that it had canceled surprise and comprehensive inspections of long-term care homes in 2018.

"Instead of doing comprehensive inspections, they would catch up on the backlog of complaints," Lysyk said. "I think there were outstanding ones of about 3,000. So in that sense, they then did that instead of continuing and doing comprehensive inspections."

Lysyk said in February 2020, the medical officer of health issued a guidance on infection prevention and control, but that left it up to the home operators to decide what action to take. By the time an emergency order was made two months later mandating staff and essential visitors to wear masks, there were more than 800 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents and staff. ...

Premier Doug Ford did some buck-passing of his own, but also promised action, saying that what happened in the long-term care homes can never be allowed to happen again.

"I could point to 30 years of underinvestment from government after government, Liberal and Conservative, but none of that matters because I’m your premier today," he said. "I will stand here and tell you that I’m doing everything in my power as premier and I’m sparing no expense to fix the system."

However, Dr. Vivian Stamatopolous, a long-term care researcher, said the government didn’t implement the recommendations of experts to safeguard long-term care homes ahead of the second wave.

"You can build as many fancy facilities as you want, but if you don’t address the root problems within these homes -- the working conditions and the absent standard of care in addition to the laughable penalties for noncompliance -- nothing is gonna change," she said.

https://news.wbfo.org/post/2-scathing-reports-criticize-ontarios-covid-r...

A third report, this one by the military, in less than a week details the horrors that the Ford government allowed to occur in senior's long term care homes in Ontario. This follows the Ontario's Long-Term Care Commission's report on Friday (see post # 176) and the Ontario auditor general (see post #177). "Dozens of residents in two Ontario nursing homes hit hard by the coronavirus died not from COVID-19 but from dehydration and neglect, the Canadian military says". Those responsible, including owners of private LTC homes, should be prosecuted for their actions. 

Dozens of residents in two Ontario nursing homes hit hard by the coronavirus died not from COVID-19 but from dehydration and neglect, the Canadian military says in reports obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The documents contain new details about the deplorable conditions in two Toronto homes before the Forces stepped in last year, revealing for the first time that causes other than COVID-19 hastened the deaths of residents as outbreaks spiralled out of control and staffing collapsed.

At Downsview Long Term Care Centre, where one in four residents succumbed to the virus, another 26 died from dehydration before a military team arrived last June to provide humanitarian and medical support.

At Hawthorne Place Care Centre, 51 residents died of COVID-19 in the 269-bed facility. The military says it suspects those fatalities pale in comparison to deaths from other causes. “Residents are dying from non-COVID-19 causes more than they should be.”

The allegation of deaths because of dehydration is “not only troubling but potentially criminal,” Amber Irwin, a spokeswoman for Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton, said in an e-mail on Sunday.

According to figures published by the provincial government, 3,762 long-term care residents in Ontario have died of COVID-19. But no one is tracking the number of fatalities from other causes during the pandemic.

The reports on Downsview and Hawthorne were submitted to the independent commission that examined the devastating impact of the coronavirus on residents in long-term care homes but have not been made public. ...

Sixty-five residents of Downsview died of COVID-19 last spring, ranking the home the third-hardest hit in Ontario.

“We will always grieve for those who died last year,” said Mr. Balcom, adding that the home now has a new senior management team. “We never want anyone – residents, family members and staff – to experience what happened at Downsview and across the province last year.”

At Hawthorne Place, residents have died because of dehydration and malnourishment, the military says. When members of the Armed Forces arrived at the home, the report says, they found “feces and vomit” on the floors and walls, two residents with dried feces under their fingernails and management that was “non-existent.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadian-military-report-...

Ford's humungous omnibus Bill 197 that rewrites environmental assessment laws is heading to court because he did not consult with Ontarians as required by law. It is being challenged in three ways including by an indigenous group for failing to consult them.  

Hearings will begin Monday for three court challenges of the Ontario government’s contentious rewrite of environmental assessment rules.

The Ford government passed the omnibus Bill 197 last July without public consultation, despite a warning from Ontario’s auditor general that doing so could be “not compliant” with the law. The suits, launched by a group of First Nations and two separate coalitions of environmentalists last summer, will be heard at the same time this week.

“Whether Doug Ford likes it or not, the laws of this province require his government to consult Ontarians before making changes that impact our environment,” said Priyanka Vittal, who is legal counsel for Greenpeace Canada, one of the environmental groups challenging the law.

Bill 197, which the Ford government said was aimed at kick-starting Ontario’s economic recovery from COVID-19, tweaked 20 different pieces of legislation, including the changes to environmental assessments. Critics said the changes to environmental assessments amounted to a significant rollback of environmental protections.

The bill also expanded the province’s power to use minister’s zoning orders, or MZOs, a special directive that allows Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark to make an unappealable decision about how land can be used. From 2018 to 2020, the Ford government has used MZOs to fast-track developments on sites involving environmental concerns 14 times, a National Observer investigation found earlier this year.

Under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, the government must consult the public for 30 days about measures that impact the environment. It’s also required to post notices of such changes on the province’s environmental registry.

The government posted notices on the registry, but did not hold consultations about Bill 197 before passing it, writing a clause into the legislation that would retroactively exempt it from the requirement. 

The first court challenge of Bill 197 was filed by the environmental law charity Ecojustice, which is representing Greenpeace and the Wilderness Committee. The groups are asking a judge in Ontario Divisional Court to find that the province acted illegally and order Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives to go back and consult the public. ...

“This government has repeatedly pushed an anti-environment agenda while cutting Ontarians out of the decision-making process,” Ecojustice lawyer Ian Miron said in a statement.

A second court case was filed by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), which is representing the conservation group Earthroots, non-profit Ontario Nature, a 16-year-old climate activist named Cooper Price, and Michel Koostachin, who was born and raised in Attawapiskat, a First Nations community in northern Ontario. Earthroots is led by Gord Miller, who was Ontario's environmental commissioner from 2000 to 2015.

The third challenge was filed by the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, Attawapiskat First Nation, Chapleau Cree First Nation, Eagle Lake First Nation, Fort Albany First Nation, Magnetawan First Nation, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Temagami First Nation and the Teme-Augama Anishnabai community. 

The groups are arguing that the government’s decision to push through Bill 197 without consulting First Nations violated treaty rights. 

“What makes this historic for First Nations is that we are saying the new laws are unconstitutional, not just because we were not consulted, but because the new law sets back reconciliation, harms First Nations, and violates the honour of the Crown,” says Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians Grand Chief Joel Abram in a statement.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/17/news/ford-government-first-n...

Doug Ford announced that he will use the notwithstanding clause to restore changes to election finance law that a judge declared unconstitutional this week. This would be the first time in Ontario's history that the notwithstanding clause has been used. Aimed at unions and activists opposed to the government, the law would extend the restricted pre-election spending period to 12 months, making it impossible for them to use their right to free speech in spending for a year before the election.

The Ontario government will invoke the notwithstanding clause to restore changes to election finance law that a judge declared unconstitutional this week, a move critics quickly labelled as a power grab intended to sway next year's provincial election. Government House Leader Paul Calandra said legislators would be recalled from their summer break on Thursday so the government can introduce legislation on the matter. ...

Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan ruled on Tuesday that it was unnecessary to amend the Election Finances Act to extend the restricted pre-election spending period to 12 months. His ruling meant sections of the law involved in the court challenge were no longer in effect, with the next provincial election scheduled for June 2, 2022.

The government had doubled the restricted pre-election spending period to 12 months but kept the $600,000 limit on third-party political advertisement spending the same. Morgan wrote that the six-month period achieved the same aims and found that the government did not provide any justification for doubling it.

A group of unions had argued that the changes would restrict their free speech in the lead-up to the election, while the attorney general had argued that the changes were necessary to protect democratic elections from outside influence.

critics said the planned use of the notwithstanding clause by Doug Ford's government was undemocratic itself.

Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which acted as an intervener in the case, said the move amounts to an abuse of power not seen under any previous Ontario government."Given the subject of the law, and its impact on the next provincial election, this is a cravenly self-interested abuse of this extraordinary power," Bryant said. "Changing the election rules to favour an incumbent government is unconstitutional, and undemocratic."

Ford's government threatened to use the notwithstanding clause in 2018 over plans to cut the number Toronto city council seats but did not proceed because of how the court process on the matter unfolded.

Unions representing elementary, secondary and Catholic school teachers, which were involved in the court challenge, called the government's plan "an attack on democracy that should concern everyone. By invoking this rarely used clause to bolster their position, it is clear the Progressive Conservatives of Ontario are gravely concerned that their critics' voices will be heard, and that voters will be reminded of their repeated failures leading up to the June 2022 election," the group said in a joint statement. ...

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she was "shocked and disgusted" by the move, calling it a "desperate plan to override the rights of Ontarians" and silence Ford's critics while people in the province are still struggling through a pandemic. She said her team would meet on Wednesday afternoon to come up with a strategy. "We don't know what tools we might have, how long we might be able to keep up the fight, but we will fight for every minute of every day to try to prevent this from happening," Horwath said.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/doug-ford-will-do-anything-to-cling-to-power-...

The Ford government has also used the notwithstanding clause to push the controversial bill through the Ontario legislature that limits third-party election advertising for a year before the election despite it being found unconstitional. The law was primarily aimed preventing at union and social activist groups broadcasting ads against the Ford government. 

Bill 307, which used the notwithstanding clause to reintroduce parts of a law struck down by a judge last week, passed Monday by a margin of 63 votes to 47. The clause allows legislatures to override portions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for a five-year term. A judge found it was unconstitutional for the government to double the restricted pre-election spending period for third-party advertisements to 12 months before an election call.

The Progressive Conservative government argued the extended restriction was necessary to protect elections from outside influence. The bill passed Monday afternoon after a marathon weekend debate in which opposition politicians argued the government was trying to silence criticism ahead of next June's provincial election.

"It's obviously a move from a man who's desperate to cling to power," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. The New Democrats spent the day trying to drag out the process by introducing a variety of motions on pandemic-related issues they argued should be the focus of the sitting. Ford said earlier on Monday that he wouldn't be swayed. ...

Unions had argued the limit infringed on their rights to free speech, but the attorney general argued the changes were necessary to protect elections from outside influence. The government reintroduced the bill with the override clause last week, and held a marathon debate over the weekend.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/notwithstanding-clause-vote-ontar...

Calling math racist. How racist can you get? I guess the Ford government doesn't like what the numbers on income inequality, racial wealth gaps, and their programs say about them. So they invented a Grade 9 curriculum that said math is "racist and subjective". Fortunately,  after initially defending the statement, it didn't last long because they were looking like complete racist idiots.

The Ford government has quietly deleted a section of the Grade 9 math curriculum that said math was subjective and racist and requires a decolonial approach in how it is taught.

News of the radical language in the curriculum was first reported by the Sun on Saturday. At the time, the government defended the language that appeared in the preamble to the revised curriculum.

But by late Tuesday, it had been removed. A government official confirmed on background that the deletion had been made at the request of Education Minister Stephen Lecce.

The Ford government unveiled its new math curriculum on June 9. Part of the impetus was getting rid of the old method of academic streaming which too often saw Black students directed towards applied math instead of the academic stream.

That system was seen as discriminating against Black students.

A government official said that the language found in the preamble, which informs how teachers should present a subject, went too far.

“Mathematics has been used to normalize racism and marginalization of non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledges, and a decolonial, anti-racist approach to mathematics education makes visible its historical roots and social constructions,” the curriculum stated.

That language has now been removed along with claims that math is subjective rather than objective.

https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ford-government-drops-curriculum-...

Michael Moriarity wrote:

jerrym wrote:

Calling math racist. How racist can you get? I guess the Ford government doesn't like what the numbers on income inequality, racial wealth gaps, and their programs say about them. So they invented a Grade 9 curriculum that said math is "racist and subjective". Fortunately,  after initially defending the statement, it didn't last long because they were looking like complete racist idiots.

https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ford-government-drops-curriculum-...

This all seems very strange to me. The problematic statement is "Mathematics has been used to normalize racism and marginalization of non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledges, and a decolonial, anti-racist approach to mathematics education makes visible its historical roots and social constructions". If I read that statement without any attribution, and tried to say who disagreed with it and why, I would say that conservatives were complaining. Their complaint would seem to be the common one, that wokeism and critical race theory were being used in schools to make white kids feel guilty and hate their parents.

But the article doesn't put it that way. Instead the language, which had the stated intent of decreasing race based streaming in math, is regarded by the author, and the poster, as being racist. I don't understand this whole situation.

I think the clue to the strangeness of the quote is twofold: the PC government didn't want it to sound to Trumpite and the article itself is from the Toronto Sun, hardly noted for being anything but conservative and therefore tried to give the government the best of possible spins. 

Ford has been seen less in publicly recently in an effort to protect his image among voters. 

Premier Doug Ford’s notable absence from the public eye over the past few weeks is part of an effort to protect him from negative pandemic news and rehabilitate his image, CTV News Toronto has learned, after the government suffered severe blowback from recent third wave decisions.

Multiple sources, speaking confidentially to discuss internal strategic thinking, say the Premier’s Office has been looking to change the channel on Ford’s pandemic faults by allowing ministers and public health officials to “wear” the decisions that they make or recommend.

The effort has led to scant appearances from a premier who had captured the public’s attention throughout the pandemic with months of daily news conferences long after his federal and provincial counterparts had pulled back on their public announcements.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/protect-the-king-why-ontario-premier-doug-for...

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario received more than $50,000 in party donations from a single developer through a fundraiser dinner, raising strong questions about cash for access politics. 

It's a revelation that an opposition critic is calling a sign that the cash-for-access fundraising scandal has returned to Ontario, and comes on the heels of the PC government changing political donation laws earlier this year to allow bigger-money contributions.

An analysis of Elections Ontario's political contributions database by QP Briefing shows eight people with names matching those of executives at Empire Communities each donated an amount equivalent to two tickets to a June fundraiser — $3,200 — shortly before it was held, and another eight people who share a surname with the brothers who serve as president and CFO of the company did the same. The deposits were made over 11 days, from June 14 to 24, and total over $50,000. An ad for the June 24 fundraiser promised paying guests "an intimate and candid discussion" with Premier Doug Ford and MPP Rod Phillips over Zoom. ...

the NDP and the advocacy organization that helped uncover the pattern say it raises red flags.

"It would seem with these specific donations coming to light, that Doug Ford's found a backdoor way to allow his deep-pocketed donors to max out contributions, essentially, making it almost unlimited around how much these folks can donate to Doug Ford and his PC party," said ethics critic MPP Taras Natyshak, who described the situation as "super fishy. It just goes to show you who he's working for, and whose connections get access to the premier. First and foremost, it's those who are willing and able to pay those huge prices." Natyshak said he's concerned about the apparently co-ordinated pattern of the donations and he's calling on Ford to explain exactly what his relationship is with Empire Communities.

To be clear, there's nothing illegal under Ontario's campaign finance laws about co-ordinating donations. A spokesperson for Elections Ontario said that while donations from corporations are now illegal, contributions are allowed if they come from an individual who is "normally a resident in Ontario [and] using their own funds." ...

The Ford government eliminated a requirement brought in by the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government following its cash-for-access scandal that donors certify that the funds they've donated are their own. Elections Ontario will only investigate the source of donations if a complaint is made.

"This is a classic case of why we were concerned with those changes in the first place," said Natyshak. He also said the fundraiser in question is the same kind that caused the cash-for-access scandal for the last Liberal government — just on Zoom. "It's $1,000 to get face-to-face with the premier," he said. ...

Empire Communities is a residential developer that has built over 28,000 homes over the past 28 years in Ontario and the U.S. It recently announced plans to develop, build and operate purpose-built single-family and multi-family homes in Georgia, Texas and Ontario. The company was involved in a political donations controversy in Toronto when the premier's brother Rob Ford was mayor. The city's lobbyist registrar found the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) placed Rob Ford in a conflict of interest when it held a fundraising event at the home of Paul Golini Jr., a co-founder of Empire Communities and then chair of BILD, and collected about $20,000 in cheques to the mayor's campaign fund as part of its lobbying strategy. ...

Executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC), Natalie Mehra, said what her group found is still concerning, including connections to developers, financial services companies and law firms, some of which have done work in the for-profit long-term care industry. That's why she sees a problem with the Ford government's decision to increase donation limits and loosen the campaign finance laws. ...

https://www.qpbriefing.com/2021/07/16/super-fishy-donations-linked-to-de...

Doug Ford has announced a non-mandatory mandatory vaccination policy, which is typical of him. 

Some Ottawans are questioning whether Ontario's new rules requiring COVID-19 vaccination go far enough and were announced early enough to make a difference. The Ontario government says it will require vaccines in high-risk settings by Sept. 7 — but there's an opt out option. Those who choose not to be vaccinated will instead face regular testing to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The decision, announced Tuesday, focused on encouraging educators and healthcare workers to be vaccinated and comes as the government prepares for a fourth wave caused by the highly infectious delta variant.

The new policy falls short of the robust mandatory vaccine plan that many health experts, like Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth had been expecting.  "We're mandating vaccines, but if you don't want a vaccine, it's not going to actually be required of you in order to go to your job,"said Kaplan-Myrth, a family physician in Ottawa. "It makes no sense." ...

While Premier Doug Ford's government said it's making vaccination mandatory, if people in those high-risk settings, whether it's teachers, nurses or long-term care workers don't want to be vaccinated, they can opt for testing instead. They'll have to undergo regular antigen testing and complete a "COVID-19 vaccination educational session" according to a press release.

For Kaplan-Myrth, encouraging a vaccine is not actually a mandate and equating the two "is a false notion".  She said the provincial government had the opportunity to follow the federal government's lead, but instead chose what she says is a half-baked mandate. "It's coming from a place of hope and wishing, but it's not a piece of planning that is going to be effective," said Kaplan-Myrth. ...

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said case numbers will likely rise as people go indoors again.

And Kaplan-Myrth says allowing unvaccinated people around students and in hospitals could cause a further swell of cases this fall. "If we look at what's happening in the United States, we look at what's happening overseas, we know the variant is making more and more children sick," she said. ...

The fear of her children falling ill is something that concerns Navneet Bhandari. The mother of two is preparing to send her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to school.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-family-doctor-vaccine-manda...

There is a nursing crisis in Canada, but especially in Ontario. Many are leaving the profession because of burnout that is compounded by those who have already quit with no replacements coming. 

After working through a pandemic on the frontlines of the health-care sector understaffed and overworked, Umaigba said that nurses are at the end of their rope.

“There are not enough ICU nurses in Ontario and [many] existing, experienced nurses are taking some time off or people are just quitting because of the stress of the pandemic and very, very poor working conditions,” she said. ...

A Georgian Bay area nurse who chose to remain anonymous for professional reasons told CTV News Toronto that the hospital he works at is currently going through “a huge staffing shortage. Last week, our ICU had only two nurses for one-on-one care overnight, so they couldn’t leave their unit to get to the lab, etc.,” he said. “Regular units are just as bad. Our census is full for our 36-bed unit. Night shifts [have had] a single RN, with the remaining nurses managing eight to nine patients.”

He said that he noticed an increase in colleagues leaving their positions starting in the spring and that at least 16 staff have left since, adding that "the replacement process has been slow and painful."

According to recent data by Statistics Canada, the health-care and social assistance sectors had more vacancies than any other sector in January 2021. Additionally, health-care workers reported working more hours in April 2021 than in April 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic.

Umaigba described spending the last year overworked, missing breaks and fielding injuries and exhaustion. “We are taking on more than we can handle because these are our patients, and life-support machines and life-saving medications, so like, you have to,” she said. An understaffed unit has a direct impact on patient care, Umaigba said. “If you overstretch yourself, those moments when you're rushing, that's when mistakes happen,” she said. “You just hope that [two patients] just don't start deteriorating at the same time because you can only be in one place at one time.” Ultimately, Umaigba said that care can’t be administered efficiently in these conditions. “Care is delayed. You try to prioritize as much as you can, but care is definitely delayed.” ...

A recent survey put out by RNAO claimed that the profession is experiencing “an alarming exodus.” The survey, conducted between Jan. 29 and Feb. 22, captured responses from more than 2,100 registered nurses, nurse practitioners (NP) and nursing students working in Ontario. Just over 95 per cent of nurses surveyed said the pandemic has affected their work, with a majority of nurses reporting high stress levels and at least 13 per cent of RNs aged 26-35 reported that they were very likely to leave the profession post-pandemic. “Losing so many nurses at an early stage in their career would have a profound and lasting effect on how our health-system functions so we need to take this very seriously and act immediately,” Grinspun said.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/an-alarming-exodus-ontario-nursing-sector-sla...