Page - 346 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE346 announce a plan to increase testing of staff and residents, restrict staff from working in more than one facility, and redeploy health care staff into long-term care homes.30 A week later, Ontario and Quebec called on the federal government for aid from the Canadian military.31 COVID-19, the Charter, and Access to Care By mid-April, governments across Canada recognized that long-term care homes were “facing unprecedented tragedy.”32 Ontario Premier Doug Ford admitted: “I know the system … is absolutely broken.”33 In Quebec, Premier François Legault asked: “How could we have got- ten into the situation we’re in, where we didn’t take care of our elders, the most vulnerable?” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confessed: “We are failing our parents, our grandparents, our elders.”34 What gov- ernments and health officials have not yet acknowledged is that this public health failure is an equally inexcusable violation of Charter and international human rights. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural  Rights recognizes the right of everyone in Canada “to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,”35 including to “medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness,”36 “without discrimination of any kind.”37 Although the Canadian Charter does not contain an explicit right to health care, com/canada/article-ontario-places-pause-on-transfers-from-hospitals-to- seniors/>. 30. Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, supra note 6 at 9, 20. 31. Lee Berthiaume, “Trudeau Says Military Is Short-Term Solution to Caring for Seniors”, CTV News (23 April 2020), online: <www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/ trudeau-says-military-is-short-term-solution-to-caring-for-seniors-1.4908602>. 32. “COVID-19 Action Plan: Long-term Care Homes—Version 1” (15 April 2020), online: Ontario  Ministry  of  Long-term  Care <www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-action- plan-long-term-care-homes>. 33. Antonella Artuso, “Ford Vows to Fix Broken Long-term Care System”, Toronto Sun (6 May 2020), online: <torontosun.com/news/provincial/ford-vows-to-fix- broken-long-term-care-system>. 34. Berthiaume, supra note 31. 35. International  Covenant  on  Economic,  Social  and  Cultural  Rights, 16 December 1966, Can TS 1976 No 46 at art 12(1) (entered into force 3 January 1976, accession by Canada 19 May 1976). 36. Ibid art 12(2)(d). 37. Ibid art 2(2). See generally Bruce Porter, “International Human Rights in Anti- Poverty and Housing Strategies: Making the Connection” in Martha Jackman & Bruce Porter, eds, Advancing  Social  Rights  in  Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2014) 33.