Call for Access to Justice – Watch Today’s Press Conference on Bill 218

Posted: November 11, 2020

(November 11, 2020)

WATCH THE VIDEO OF OUR PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY to stop the Ford government’s new law that indemnifies long-term care homes against lawsuits for negligence resulting in harm and death in COVID-19 pandemic.

It is fundamentally unjust. Families seeking access to justice for their loved ones who have died, many of them in appalling conditions in long-term care homes and retirement homes are now faced with the added injustice of Bill 218. The Bill protects negligent long-term care and retirement homes, and has been forced through legislature at a breakneck pace. Only 15 of 58 people, including families of those who have died, were allowed to appear before the Standing Committee of the Legislature last week. The rest were cut out and the Ford government MPPs refused one more day of hearings to hear from them. More than 2,000 residents in long-term care have died of COVID-19, with more every day. Their families deserve access to justice, at the very least.

In a last ditch effort to get retirement and long-term care homes carved out of the Bill, the Ontario Health Coalition held an online press conference today where Natalie Mehra the executive director, legal experts from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and Will Davidson LLP, and family members of deceased long-term care residents with COVID-19. We can not let this affront to the memory of all the elderly who have suffered needlessly to stand.

Please contact your MPP as soon as possible and tell them to carve out long-term care and retirement homes from Bill 218. 

The Bill is going to third and final vote in the Legislature on Tuesday.

You can watch the media questions and the presentations in the video here.