Ontario

Thursday August 27, 2020

August 27, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 27, 2020

Doug Ford praises appointment of ‘amazing’ Chrystia Freeland as federal finance minister

“Amazing.”

“Incredible.”

November 21, 2019

Those were just two of the adjectives the Progressive Conservative premier of Ontario used to hail the new federal Liberal finance minister.

“I absolutely love Chrystia Freeland. She’s amazing. I’ll have her back, I’ll help her any way we can,” an elated Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday.

As first revealed by the Star’s Susan Delacourt in April, the COVID-19 pandemic has forged a close friendship between Ford and the deputy prime minister.

The premier was visibly delighted that Freeland, who represents University-Rosedale in the House of Commons, is succeeding departing Toronto Centre MP Bill Morneau as federal treasurer.

December 11, 2019

“I want to congratulate my good friend Chrystia Freeland. An amazing person. I actually texted her this morning to say congratulations. I don’t know how she’s going to do it. She’s working around the clock now,” Ford told CityNews’s Jamie Tumelty in Scarborough.

“There’s no one that would be better in that role than Chrystia Freeland,” he said, pointedly declining to comment on the WE Charity scandal that triggered Morneau’s resignation.

“I’m not going to get into that federal politics. That’s up to the prime minister to deal with. We’ve been working very collaboratively together.”

The premier predicted Freeland would be a good partner for Queen’s Park, which is seeking additional federal funding for infrastructure projects.

“If there was one person, I have confidence in, it is Chrystia Freeland. She’s going to do an incredible job,” said Ford. (Toronto Star) 

March 27, 2020

Now this just in: With less than two weeks to go before most schools are set to welcome back students for the fall term, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced more than $2 billion in funding to help provinces and territories re-open their schools and economies safely.

The announcement comes as some provinces are reporting increases in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The funding is meant to allow provinces and territories to work with local school boards to implement measures to protect students and staff from COVID-19. The money can be used to help adapt learning spaces, improve air ventilation, increase hand sanitation and hygiene and buy extra personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies. (CBC) 

Saturday July 25, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 25, 2020

Announcement coming next week for plan to reopen Ontario schools

January 31, 2020

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says that the government is “finalizing the health protocols” for the resumption of school in September and that an announcement could be coming as soon as next week on what it will look like.

Back in June the Ford government asked school boards to prepare three separate plans for the resumption of classes – online learning only, a hybrid model with children attending classes in-person on alternating days or weeks and the fulltime resumption of in-person instruction.

The boards still have until Aug. 4 to submit those plans but Lecce revealed on Thursday that an announcement could be coming before then on the various regulations and rules that schools will have to follow.

April 30, 2020

A spokesperson for the education minister later clarified to CP24 that the announcement will pertain to “consistent standards” that will be put in place at schools across Ontario on things like seating arrangements and the wearing of masks.

The decision as to which model a particular board follows will still be left with local public health officials, the spokesperson said.

“We are finalizing the health protocols and working very closely with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and some of the best pediatric minds in the nation that are informing the plan,” Lecce said during a press conference in Brampton. “We believe we will be able to unveil it next week. That will include additional supports and resources to enable our boards to succeed.”

May 26, 2020

Lecce initially said that individual school boards would be able to choose which plan they want to follow based on the risk posed by COVID-19 to their communities.

Premier Doug Ford has since said that he wants students to return to school fulltime in September provided it is safe to do so.

Yesterday, Ford said the public should be open to unorthodox ideas to keep kids safe, such as holding class outdoors.

Life in a Pandemic

“The premier and the government continue to be focused on a safe, conventional, day-to-day return to school,” Lecce said Thursday. “Maybe a new conventional where kids still can go to school five days a week.” (CTV) 

 

Friday July 17, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 17, 2020

Heavy lifting for long-term care awaits Doug Ford

In the 100-kilometre journey to deliver a decent long-term-care system for Ontario, Doug Ford took a baby step forward this week.

June 17, 2020

By offering a 10 per cent subsidy hike to private-sector nursing home operators who open new beds, the premier should rid the province of at least some of those disgusting, overcrowded, four-person wards that became death-traps in the COVID-19 pandemic. 

That change alone represents welcome, if overdue, progress. Indeed, the Ontario Long Term Care Association, which represents 70 per cent of the province’s 630 long-term-care facilities, applauded the changes Ford’s making.

But there’s less in the government’s new funding formula than meets the eye. If the goal is rebuilding an entire long-term-care edifice, Ontario’s stuck at the stage of digging the new foundation.

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the serious, even shameful, deficiencies in a vital part of Ontario’s public health-care system. The province’s nursing homes have witnessed the deaths of 1,730 elderly residents and eight workers since the outbreak began in March. That’s almost two-thirds of Ontario’s officially reported COVID-19 fatalities.

May 27, 2020

The fact that the Canadian military had to be ordered in to save seven nursing homes that were overrun by the disease proved beyond any doubt that this province had turned a blind eye to grave systemic failings. The abuse, neglect, bug infestations, bleeding infections and the residents crying for help for hours that the army discovered should have no place in this affluent, supposedly caring country. 

Correcting that, along with improving homes that if not as bad are beneath basic, acceptable standards, is a monumental challenge. What Ford did this week was simply provide new details about a previously announced $1.75-billion infusion into long-term-care facilities. 

When that money was first committed, the government promised 15,000 new beds and renovations of 15,000 existing beds over the next decade. It’s unclear if that bold commitment still stands.

April 9, 2020

Ford did say this week that his new funding changes mean 8,000 new beds and 12,000 redeveloped beds are in the works. Air conditioning and improved ventilation is on the way for many nursing homes. Safer, more comfortable facilities will benefit nursing home residents and staff alike.

Left unanswered is how Ford plans to provide the 30,000 beds he originally pledged for the coming years. That’s a nagging question that will not go away. There are 36,000 seniors on the waiting-list for long-term care in Ontario. Ford needs to show us all his road map for moving forward.

COVID-19 Cartoons

He needs to say if his nursing home system overhaul will include providing more hands-on, daily care for residents. It should. And what about the personal support workers who provide such essential services? They receive miserable wages for a demanding job that offers minimal security. Ford needs to increase staffing levels but also the pay and working conditions for that workforce.

In addition, the Ontario government needs a detailed plan for improving the oversight of the province’s nursing homes. If Ford is content with allowing the long-term-care system to rely so heavily on private providers, he must ensure proper transparency and accountability. That could come from the independent commission Ford wants to investigate the system. But he has yet to say when that commission will begin its job.

Not every long-term-care facility does a bad job. Too many do. Ford has signalled that transforming the system is one of his highest priorities. But what he announced this week will raise red flags that suggest he’s content with superficial fixes. We need him to completely re-invent how we care for our elderly. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Wednesday July 8, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 8, 2020

Ontario plans to stop Grade 9 students from streaming into applied or academic tracks

Series: Young Doug Ford

The Ontario government plans to stop its Grade 9 “applied” and “academic” track streaming, a spokesperson for the ministry of education confirmed Monday.

High school students in Ontario typically have to choose between more practical, hands-on applied courses or more theoretical academic courses in core subjects.

“Students, families and staff deserve an education system that is inclusive, accountable, and transparent, and one that by design, is set up to fully and equally empower all children to achieve their potential,” Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

December 5, 2019

“This government will move quickly and decisively to combat systemic racism so that every child – irrespective of colour of skin, heritage, faith or ability – can have a fighting chance at success.”

The streaming process was developed in the late 1990s as a way to cater to students with different learning styles, but experts say that streaming has disproportionately impacted racialized and low-income students, affecting graduation rates and test scores.

Advocacy group People for Education has long been calling for an end to the streaming process. They argue that it ends up dividing students rather than providing them with more options.

January 25, 2019

“There as a high disproportionate amount of kids in the applied stream who were Black, who were Indigenous, who came from low-income families,” Annie Kidder from People for Education said. “All of the research, every single year when it was looked at on who goes to applied found a disproportionate portion of kids from certain backgrounds.”

Kidder said that while eliminating the practice is the right thing to do, she wants to know more about how students with different learning styles will be supported during the transition as well as teachers.

“You can’t just flip a switch,” she said. “You have to be willing to do the other part of the work.”

Five years ago People for Education called on the Liberal government to merge the two levels of Grade 9 math classes after a survey found that students in the applied version of the course were less successful on EQAO tests, less likely to graduate and less likely to go on to post-secondary education. (CTV) 

 



 

Wednesday June 17, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 17, 2020

Rosslyn residence was literally a house of horrors

The story of the Rosslyn Retirement Residence, as reported by Spectator journalist Steve Buist, is by turns sickening, heartbreaking and infuriating.

May 27, 2020

It is also, in a way, indicative of what is wrong with Ontario’s long-term-care system. But it is so egregious, so extreme, that it is in a class by itself. Buist’s series was entitled House of Horrors, and that’s not an overstatement, at least not for victims and their families.

Yes, victims is the right word. Rosslyn residents were subjected to chronic bedbug infestations. Photos showing the result of those infestations will make your stomach turn. Medication was often not administered properly. Residents wandered in unsafe conditions. There were mouse droppings and black mould in food storage areas.

Management and ownership of Rosslyn received repeated notices, from public health and the provincial oversight agency, and warnings about health and safety infractions. And these infractions were not all new and related to pandemic staffing. Between 2018 and 2020 public health inspections found bed bugs, mice and cleaning issues. According to former staff members, operators of the home portrayed it to residents’ families as having a “secure memory unit” that didn’t actually exist.

There’s more. You could fill this space three times over just with the disturbing findings and stories uncovered by Spectator reporting. Fourteen residents of the Rosslyn have died from COVID-19, 22 staff members became infected and more than 60 residents were hospitalized by the time the pandemic eventually emptied the facility last month.

Now let’s add insult to injury. The owners of this facility, and seven other retirement homes and residential care facilities in the Hamilton area, are no strangers to the business. The Martino family owned the Royal Crest Lifecare chain, which collapsed in bankruptcy in 2003. They cried poor at the time but were found to have access to four homes, five SUVs, three Mercedes, a Hummer and a 42-foot cabin cruiser. When the dust settled on the commercial and business bankruptcies, nearly $200 million in liabilities were left, and $18 million left owing to taxpayers.

April 1, 2020

And now, the questions. How was it that the Martino family was able to continue in the business of running retirement homes so easily given its terrible track record? Why would they be given a licence by the provincial oversight agency, the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA)?

In the past 18 months, the city’s bylaw enforcement department has registered 28 violations of property standards against the Martinos’ care homes in Hamilton. There is a litany of horror stories from former staff and families of former residents RHRA. Why did it take so long to act? The RHRA revoked the Rosslyn’s licence this week, but what took so long?

Then there’s the oversight agency itself. The RHRA is essentially a self-governing industry body charged with enforcing the provincial Retirement Homes Act. Given everything we now know about LTC in general and Rosslyn specifically, why should we trust an industry body to oversee the sector?

Last but not least is the prospect of criminal charges. Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has asked Hamilton police to conduct a complete investigation. Good for Horwath, but why didn’t the government do that first?

If an investigation finds the Rosslyn horror story involves criminal behaviour, charges must be laid and those responsible must be prosecuted. The Rosslyn travesty and others like it should be rallying cries in the call for complete reform of long-term care. Rosslyn’s victims deserve nothing less. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)