Page - 341 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

341Fault Lines: COVID-19, the Charter, and Long-term Care readiness efforts on maximizing the capacity of hospitals to treat those who fell critically ill.5 In pursuit of that objective, non-emergency sur- geries (including for cancer, cardiac, and other serious illnesses) were cancelled, and diagnostic testing, clinical trials, palliative care, medi- cally assisted death, and other hospital services were suspended.6 The resulting costs to life and health are only now being calculated.7 Beyond hospitals, the pandemic also deepened pre-existing access problems within the broader health care system. As other chapters in this book document, long-standing inequalities in health services for Indigenous people on reserves and in rural and remote areas were amplified,8 as were barriers to prison health,9 5. Kelly Grant & Thu Thanh Ha, “How Shoring up Hospitals for COVID-19 Contributed to Canada’s Long-term Care Crisis”, Globe  and  Mail (20 May 2020), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-shoring-up-hospitals- for-covid-19-contributed-to-canadas-long/>; Karen Howlett, “With an Early Focus on Seniors’ Residences, Kingston Has So Far Avoided the Brunt of COVID- 19”, Globe  and  Mail (28 April 2020), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/ article-with-an-early-focus-on-seniors-residences-kingston-has-so-far/>. 6. Avis Favaro, Elizabeth St Phillips & Ben Cousins, “Canadian Hospitals Take Drastic Measures Amid COVID-19 Crisis”, CTV News (16 March 2020), online: <www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canadian-hospitals-take-drastic-mea- sures-amid-covid-19-crisis-1.4855849>; Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, Ontario  Health  Sector:  A  Preliminary  Review  of  the  Impact  of  the  COVID-19  Outbreak  on  Hospital  Capacity (Toronto: Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2020) at 9; Charlie Pinkerton, “Ontario Inches Closer to Allowing More Doctor Support at Long-term Care Homes”, iPolitics (6 May 2020), online: <ipolitics.ca/2020/05/06/ ontario-inches-closer-to-allowing-more-doctor-support-at-long-term-care- homes/>; Tom Blackwell, “In Scramble over COVID, the Patients We Forgot”, Ottawa  Citizen (9 May 2020) NP1, 3. 7. Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, supra note 6; Blackwell, supra note 6; Sandie Rinaldo & Jonathan Forani “Provinces Begin to Address Backlog of Surgeries in Wake of COVID-19”, CTV News (9 May 2020), online: <www. ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/provinces-begin-to-address-backlog-of-surger- ies-in-wake-of-covid-19-1.4932424>. 8. See Anne Levesque & Sophie Thériault, this volume, Chapter D-6; Aimée Craft, Deborah McGregor & Jeffery Hewitt, this volume, Chapter A-2; “Assembly of First Nations Declares State of Emergency on COVID-19 Pandemic” (24 March 2020), online: Assembly  of  First  Nations <www.afn.ca/assembly-of-first- nations-declares-state-of-emergency-on-covid-19-pandemic/>; Teresa Wright, “First Nations Health Authorities Tell Commons Committee They Need More PPE” (24 May 2020), online: Times Colonist <www.timescolonist.com/first-nations- health-authorities-tell-commons-committee-they-need-more-ppe-1.24140363>. 9. “COVID-19 Status Update” (23 April 2020), online (pdf): Office  of  the  Correctional  Investigator <www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/rpt/pdf/oth-aut/oth-aut20200423-eng.pdf>; “COVID-19 et prisons provinciales – Les données doivent être rendues publiques” (22 April 2020), online: Ligue  des  droits  et  libertés <liguedesdroits.ca/prison-covid19- transparence/>; Adelina Iftene, this volume, Chapter D-5.