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of the paid workers are women, 75 per cent of unpaid caregivers are
women, two thirds of people with dementia are women and two thirds
of people in nursing home are women. This is a highly gendered envi-
ronment and we cannot ignore that.”59 Coupled with age and sex, social
condition is, as Steven Lewis underscores, also a salient factor: “Less
prosperous seniors who far outnumber those able to afford upscale
alternatives are left to take their chances in the nursing home lottery.”60
Finally, a large majority of long-term care residents have physical
and cognitive illnesses and impairments. The multiple failures that
contributed to COVID-19 deaths and other harms in long-term care
are, as Tess Sheldon and Ravi Malhotra’s chapter (Chapter D-9 in this
volume) explains, manifestations of systemic discrimination based on
physical and mental disability that s. 15 prohibits.61
Charter rights are not absolute. Section 1 permits, “such reason-
able limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free
and democratic society.”62 Intensive hospital care or ventilation is not
the appropriate treatment in every COVID-19 case.63 Most long-term
care residents have pre-existing medical conditions, and many are in
their final years of life.64 In one Nova Scotia facility experiencing one
of Canada’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks, only 20 of almost 500 resi-
dents had not signed do-not-resuscitate orders.65 It is likely that only a
small minority of residents would opt for aggressive COVID-19 hos-
pital treatment, were it offered. But it is virtually certain that no one
would have chosen to be needlessly exposed to the virus, to receive
little or no palliative or comfort care, and to die in forced isolation,
leaving family and loved ones to cope with anger as well as grief.66
59. Michael Brown, “How COVID-19 Overwhelmed Canada’s Long-term Care
System” (22 April 2020), online: Folio <www.folio.ca/how-covid-19-over-
whelmed-canadas-long-term-care-system/>; Pat Armstrong et al, Re-imaginingÂ
Long-termÂ
ResidentialÂ
CareÂ
inÂ
theÂ
COVID-19Â
CrisisÂ
(April 2020) at 7-8, online (pdf):
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives <www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/
files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2020/04/Reimagining%20residen-
tial%20care%20COVID%20crisis.pdf>.
60. Lewis, supra note 18; Canadian Health Coalition, supra note 19; National Union of
Public and General Employees, supra note 19.
61. Tess Sheldon & Ravi Malhotra, this volume, Chapter D-9.
62. Colleen M Flood, Bryan Thomas and Kumanan Wilson, this volume, Chapter C-1.
63. Amina Zafar, “What Is a Ventilator and Who Gets One If COVID-19 Turns
Catastrophic in Canada?” CBC News (31 March 2020), online: <www.cbc.ca/
news/health/covid19-ventilators-1.5515550>; Payne & Duffy, supra note 25.
64. Canadian Institute for Health Information, supra note 15.
65. Rankin, supra note 28.
66. Grant & Ha, supra note 5; Reith, supra note 25; Payne & Duffy, supra note 25.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International