![](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5531981.1587608869!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/16x9_780\/eatonville-care-centre.jpg\")
<\/p>\n(November 11, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: CBC News<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Outside Toronto’s Eatonville Care Centre, a body wrapped in a white sheet is rolled out on a stretcher, pushed by a woman dressed head to toe in protective gear.\u00a0(Chris Mulligan\/CBC)<\/em><\/p>\n A group of advocates, lawyers and families with loved ones in long-term care have\u00a0issued a joint call to the Ford government to amend legislation they say makes it “significantly harder” to hold homes responsible for illness or death stemming from exposure to\u00a0COVID-19.<\/p>\n The Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, a community legal clinic focused on seniors’ issues, along with the Ontario Health Coalition and a law firm representing families impacted by COVID-19 held a press conference Wednesday to voice their concerns over Bill 218. The groups say\u00a0it creates a barrier to justice for residents and their families\u00a0to hold\u00a0homes accountable for neglect or disregard amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n The bill, introduced in October, would\u00a0provide liability protection to various businesses, non-profits and workers against COVID-19 exposure-related lawsuits.<\/p>\n If passed, Attorney General Doug Downey said last month, it would ensure anyone making an “honest effort” to follow public health guidelines\u00a0would not be held liable for harms related to exposure to the virus in civil proceedings.<\/p>\n The government has said the legislation will not protect “bad actors” who willfully, or through “gross negligence,” endanger others.<\/p>\n Critics\u00a0say the move creates a higher threshold for families of residents \u2014\u00a0who already face an unequal power dynamic with the homes they entrust with their care \u2014 requiring them to prove not only negligence but gross negligence, without\u00a0financial resources of multi-million dollar long-term care and retirement home companies.<\/p>\n Greg McVeigh is one of those family members. His\u00a0parents died\u00a0just nine days apart.<\/p>\n “My parents both served their communities with honour,” he said.<\/p>\n “Throughout this pandemic, hardworking people like my parents due to their age and disability were treated like second-class citizens. They were an afterthought, expendable,” he said.<\/p>\n “If it wasn’t bad enough that their rights were diminished while alive, the province wants to remove rights away from their estates.”<\/p>\n “The hurt is immeasurable,” he said. “Taking away rights from their estate only amplifies this pain.”<\/p>\n Bill 218, he said, prevents families like his from finding some form of justice and ultimately closure for deaths, he says were preventable.<\/p>\n In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Attorney General Doug Downey said:\u00a0“We want all Ontarians to know that individuals and organizations that deliberately ignore public health guidance or act with gross negligence or intentional misconduct will not be protected by this legislation.”<\/p>\n “The narrow, targeted, civil liability protection in this legislation has only to do with the inadvertent transmission of COVID-19, and will provide protection only to those who acted in good faith and made an honest effort to follow public health guidance and laws respecting COVID-19,” the statement said.<\/p>\n “This legislation does not protect any other type of negligence, like if a resident is malnourished and is not given proper medication, or if a long-term care provider fails to provide the necessities of life, have adequate staffing, or communicate adequately with families.”<\/p>\n “For those individuals that are unable to prove gross negligence, there is no accountability, no responsibility,” said Gary Will, managing partner of Will Davidson LLP.<\/p>\n The\u00a0legislation provides long-term and retirement homes with “a powerful weapon” to fend off lawsuits from family members, he argues.<\/p>\n “The Conservative government is more concerned with their friends in the long-term care industry and insurance industry than they care about residents and the elderly in long-term care,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\nMove ‘only amplifies’ pain of loss, says family member<\/h3>\n
His father, Joseph McVeigh, was a soldier in the British Army and a Toronto police detective, he said. His mother was a childcare worker.<\/div>\n‘No accountability, no responsibility’<\/h3>\n