senior citizens

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) 

 

 

Tuesday August 20, 2013

Tuesday August 20, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 20, 2013

National health care strategy needed for ‘silver tsunami’

Most Canadians think this country needs a national strategy for seniors health care, believing such a plan would help keep seniors in their homes as long as possible, according to a new poll released by the Canadian Medical Association.

The Ipsos Reid poll was released along with the association’s annual report card on health issues. It found that nine out of 10 Canadians feel that the entire health care system could be improved by keeping seniors at home as long as possible, to help lighten the load on hospitals and nursing homes.

It also revealed that only 37 per cent of Canadians have confidence in the ability of the current system to care for our aging population. As well, three-quarters of respondents said they were concerned for themselves about whether they would have access to high-quality health care in their retirement years.

Almost 80 per cent said they were concerned about having access to an acute care system, such as good quality hospital care, while almost an equal number worried about finding home care and long-term care.

Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, says she’s not surprised the poll revealed so few Canadians feel confident about how they will be cared for in their senior years. “It shows there’s an anxiety about what’s happening now and what’s going to happen in the future about the availability and quality of the health care that we’re expecting for our seniors,” she told CTV’s Canada AM Monday.

Meadus says there are a lot of vulnerabilities in the current health care system when it comes to seniors, including a shortage of long-term care beds in most provinces and an insufficient system of home care. (Source: CTV News)

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tuesday, February 12, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Planning for papal retirement

When a parish priest retires he’s supposed to head for the hills. His successor doesn’t want him hanging around the parish undermining the new regime.

It’s much the same with the handover of power in any organization. The one leaving is supposed to do just that. When you step down you should lay low and let the new guy strut his stuff.

But what happens when a pontiff exchanges the white soutane for an old black cassock? What happens when he puts aside the miter and crozier for an old felt hat and a walking stick? What’s to do when he swaps the throne of Peter for an easy chair?

We’ve never seen anything like it. A pope retires. First he’s headed off to the papal mountain retreat Castel Gandolfo. Then we’re told that he will live in monastic type setting within the Vatican. He will revert to his previous status as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Then what? What must it be like for a new vicar of Christ to have the former head of a billion Catholics living on his doorstep? Won’t it be a strain to have Joseph Ratzinger around? Will he slip into a side door of St Peter’s to say Mass every morning? Will he worship at the high altar with the other bishops? Will he sit in the consistory to vote for his successor? Won’t he be looking over the shoulder of his successor every chance he gets?

I don’t think so. Knowing the man as we have come to know him, we have seen a truly humble and gentle person. Joseph Ratzinger is essentially a shy and retiring scholar. He’s a musician and yet the quintessential quiet man. (Source: Washington Post)

FEEDBACK

Letter to the Editor:

We subscribe to The Hamilton Spectator and a national daily newspaper. The treatment of the resignation of Pope Benedict was treated quite differently.

The Spec introduced the story at the bottom of the front page. The other paper treated it as the main story on the front page, followed by two full pages inside.

The Spec editorial cartoon pictured the Pope being pushed into a coffee shop on a small, wheeled platform toward a table with three seniors, one of whom declares “Better shove over and make room for Mister Infallible.” The other paper pictured St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A hand reaching from the clouds above posted a sign “Help Wanted.”

It should be noted that although I am retired, nobody told me Pope Benedict made even one infallible statement or decision in his almost eight years of leading the Catholic Church.

(Rev.) R. Cote, Hamilton

* * * * *
I believe in freedom of expression, but the Feb. 12 cartoon of Pope Benedict was a despicable, outrageous, disrespectful rendering of a holy, learned man who heads the Catholic Church and has spoken and written to rulers and peoples everywhere calling for peace, justice and recognition of the dignity of every human being.

N. Winslow, Beamsville

* * * * *

The cartoon portraying Pope Benedict in an unflattering way did a disservice both to the Pope and the many Catholics who respect his decision to step down. The decision was courageous and reflects the Pope’s clear understanding of himself and the needs of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict has championed the Christian principle of forgiving, and he would no doubt feel compelled to forgive the editorial cartoonist and the editorial board. The Pope and The Spectator’s readers deserves better.

M. Ronney, Hamilton

* * * * *
From a clergyman to the Spectator Publisher…

The Cartoon in Tuesday’s Spectator portraying Pope Benedict in an unflattering way was in my opinion, unfair and disrespectful to a Pope who has served his Church and the world well. I cannot understand what the Spectator thought they would achieve by printing that cartoon. Pope Benedict deserves better. My first reaction was to say “enough is enough”…time to cancel my subscription to the Spectator, and to encourage many others to do the same.

Why Sir did you and your colleagues permit this cartoon to appear?

Michael Ronney, Hamilton

In response, from Spectator Editor-in-Chief:

First, thank you for letting us know your thoughts on this cartoon. To be sure, it was not to everyone’s liking, and we apologize for upsetting your sensibilities. The cartoon was meant to be playful and humorous, but I accept that you (and others) did not find it funny. Personally, I saw the cartoon not as disrespectful, but as humanizing the Pope, in a way that many of our readers can relate to. Like most newspapers, we give editorial cartoonists wide latitude to comment on news events.

Thank you again for letting us know your thoughts. We appreciate it.

Paul Berton

* * * * *
 
PAUL BERTON: Satire and Pope a volatile mix
If you ask some Catholics, The Spectator has always had a bias against their religion.

Apparently, we demonstrate this regularly in our coverage of everything from high school sports to homosexuality to condom use.

The last straw for some came this week with an editorial cartoon by The Spectator’s Graeme MacKay marking the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

It may have been the biggest news of the week, and so was predictably the focus of many editorial cartoons around the world.

Some readers I spoke with on the phone and corresponded with this week were less than impressed with The Spectator’s offering, to say the least.

MacKay’s cartoon, which you can view at thespec.com, imagined the Pope joining one of those ubiquitous coffee klatches where retirees gather at a diner to catch up, reminisce, discuss various ailments and gently poke fun at each other.

I have attended many such gatherings (as an observer or guest” and probably soon as a regular participant) and always find them heartwarming and fun in a mischievous way.

Indeed, I found the cartoon, in which the gang dubs their newest member “Mr. Infallible,” heartwarming, and as I said to outraged readers, I thought it humanized the Pope.

Admittedly, I am not Catholic, and some with whom I spoke did not agree.

Instead, they used words such as “disgusting,” “unfair,” “unflattering” “mocking,” “denigrating,” “disrespectful,” “mean-spirited” “derogatory,” “unacceptable,” “unprovoked,” “hate speech” “Catholic-bashing,” “petty,” “small-minded” …

It was not our intention to offend, but some wondered if we would have poked fun at other religious leaders in a similar way.

We asked ourselves that very question. The problem is, there isn’t exactly an equivalent of the Pope in other religions.

I suspect the Dalai Lama might have found the cartoon both funny and humanizing if he was featured, though I can’t say how Tibetan Buddhists would have reacted.

It’s not often a pope retires, but editors would have been comfortable if a cartoon had poked similar fun at the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It’s true, for all kinds of complex reasons, we do not depict Mohammed in cartoons. Nor, says cartoonist MacKay, would he have made fun of Jesus Christ.

That said, MacKay has had at least one of his pope cartoons in the past rejected by The Spectator, while others invariably cause reaction. And for the record, in past cartoons he has featured also the Dalai Lama, Islamic clerics, Muslims, Hindu gods and at least one Anglican archbishop, not always in a flattering way.

Meanwhile, there were many other cartoons this week marking the Pope’s unprecedented decision to resign.

Some were polite, but made no comment; they were merely illustrations marking a news event. That is not the point of an editorial cartoon.

Others were more critical indeed, though I won’t go into any details.

Meanwhile, this particular Pope has been subject to what can only be described as vicious attacks from cartoonists around the world over the years. Ironically, many of the most vicious come from cartoonists working for publications in predominantly Catholic countries.

I shudder to think what the editors faced following their publication there.

Paul Berton is editor-in-chief of The Hamilton Spectator and thespec.com. You can reach him at 905-526-3482 or pberton@thespec.com.

January 6, 2011

I often get a chuckle out of Mr. Mackay’s cartoons, but not today and certainly not on the topic of older people. That a newly elected inexperienced politician has been appointed as Minister of State for Seniors is a major issue for another day.

My point today is that such a negative, stereotypical depiction and assumptions about older people is not funny, but rather a classic example of ageism. Ageism is a term first coined by the brilliant Robert N. Butler, in 1968, who correctly defined it as another form of bigotry. He died last year but wrote extensively on ageing to educate us that this is a stage of life we need to learn about, and celebrate not to disrespectfully malign.

Older people want to be accepted for what they are, as thriving, energetic, skilled, interesting, experienced people who still want to participate in society in whatever capacity they so choose..be it in paid or unpaid work or policy decision-makers; to contribute socially, politically, culturally, whatever, wherever, should they choose to do so.

The task ahead is to raise awareness and educate the public and insist that all policies regarding older people must include input from those affected; in other words, ‘nothing about us, without us’. Growing older is a normal stage of life as described in Dr. Butler’s studies. The question is, are our elected leaders, and our media outlets wise enough to accept this and do they have the vision to plan and prepare for our society’s future?

Respectfully,

Thelma McGillivray
Advisor on Ageing, International Council of Women
Burlington, On L7N 2G8

Thursday July 23, 2009

 

The other day every media outlet carried a list of a bunch of places vying for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. It provided a nice diversion from the usual negative stuff happening in the world, but in particular filled a gaping hole that comes with the lack of news in the depths of the northern hemisphere’s summer.

So I thought I’d follow up the trivial fodder with my own. Old guys who dye their hair… it sure feels good to get that burning issue off my back.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 23, 2009

The best of a wonder-full world

The world’s most impressive tides. The highest waterfall on Earth. The tallest mountain in Africa.

A group called the New 7 Wonders has come up with a contest in which people can vote for the “new seven wonders of nature.”

The choices can be made over the next year-and-a-half from a list of 28 finalists, including the Bay of Fundy in Canada, Angel Falls in Venezuela and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The winning seven spots will be announced in 2011.

Many of the 28 finalists announced yesterday are traditional picks, such as the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest. But there are also a couple of lesser-known spots that might send folks scurrying for their atlases, including the Bu Tinah Shoals of the United Arab Emirates, the Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan and Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto.

Niagara Falls would be a no-brainer in many people’s eyes, but it didn’t make the cut because folks in the state of New York apparently didn’t want to spend any money to promote the cause. (One would have thought they could find money in President Obama’s bailout plan, but perhaps not).

Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, who started the New 7 Wonders group, says he expects a billion people will vote online and over the telephone in months to come.

Folks around the world came up with an initial list of 261 natural landmarks. That was pared to 77 top vote-getters, and a panel of experts whittled that down to the 28 finalists, using criteria such as geographical balance (you can’t have Canada hogging everything), diversity and the importance to human life. (Source: Toronto Star)