One death is a tragedy; thousands remain a statistic. We have been by turns numbed and horrified by the scale of the novel coronavirus’s carnage in long-term-care facilities, but the shambles of this past year, suggests the veteran health journalist André Picard, isn’t really the story at all, just the lead. The full truth is that Canada, which vaunts its social safety net with righteous satisfaction, has far too often pushed inconvenient elders into the shadows. The infection that has slashed through our LTC population like a scythe is only the most recent reminder:
Since the advent of medicare, there have been countless examinations of the inadequacies of eldercare. Politicians have been far more eager to order investigations than act on the problems that have been exposed.
More shocking than the sheer number of reports is their remarkable consistency.
Somewhere along the line, we sacrificed the...
John Baglow is the author of Murmuration: Marianne’s Book, a collection of poetry.
Advertisement
Advertisement