TVO.org speaks with Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, about a 2019 report that outlined the violence LTC staff face — and about what needs to be done to keep them safe

The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged Ontario’s long-term-care homes. The majority of the province’s pandemic deaths have occurred in these institutions, where conditions became so dire the province was forced to call on the Canadian Armed Forces for desperately needed help. Those soldiers, in turn, observed conditions so appalling that a report was transmitted back to National Defence headquarters in Ottawa — a report so bleak that Premier Doug Ford has said reading it was the hardest moment of his time in office. The provincial government has pledged an independent commission to look into the LTC system; the provincial ombudsman has begun its own investigation. But Ontario’s LTC system has been extensively studied for years. The problems that made the pandemic so devastating had not been unknown. This week, TVO.org will catalogue just a few of the reports, papers, and other warnings regarding the state of our LTC system that were issued before the pandemic — and that we could have acted on. Today: Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and one of the authors of the 2019 report Breaking Point: Violence Against Long-Term Care Staff.

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