Page - 481 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

481Occupational Health and Safety and COVID-19: Whose Rights Come First in a Pandemic? social workers and speech therapists, after two hours training, to work in seniors’ homes where COVID-19 was raging. If they refused, they were threatened with dismissal.36 Workers who accepted jobs in the hot spots were often the most vulnerable; unsurprisingly, the commu- nity spread is greatest in the poorest neighbourhoods, where precari- ous migrants are recruited as personal support workers (PSWs), often by temporary employment agencies (TEAs), to work in long-term care facilities where COVID-19 is rampant.37 Who Gets the Equipment When There Isn’t Enough to Go Around? We hear of workplaces where supervisors38 or doctors39 wear the pro- tective equipment to which the nurses and PSWs don’t have access, although they are the ones in closest proximity to the residents suf- fering from COVID-19. Evidence provided in the Eatonville injunc- tion proceedings showed that N-95 respirators were kept under lock and key and that employers refused to rely on nurses’ professional judgment as to the need for equipment, forcing them to comply with complex procedures to obtain permission to access a mask, a process that precluded effective access in a timely manner. The day after a clear statement was issued by Quebec profes- sional associations representing doctors, nurses, respiratory thera- pists, and nurses’ aides, demonstrating that they were not legally obliged to care for a patient suffering from COVID-19 without the 36. Kate McKenna, “Montreal Speech Therapists, Social Workers Threatened with Firing if They Refuse to Work in Seniors’ Homes”, CBC News (25 April 2020), online: <https:// www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/physios-social-workers-redeployed- montreal-1.5545292>. 37. Émilie Dubreuil & Romain Schué, “Covid-19: ‘C’est un peu hors de contrôle’ à Montréal-Nord”, Radio  Canada:  Ici  Grand  Montréal (28 April 2020), online: <https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1698270/coronavirus-cas-montreal-nord- quebec-covid-tests>; Agnès Gruda, “Préposées aux bénéficiaires  : la filière Roxham”, La Presse (2 May 2020), online: <https://www.lapresse.ca/debats/ editoriaux/202005/01/01-5271799-preposees-aux-beneficiaires-la-filiere-roxham. php>. 38. Sara Mojtehedzadeh, “‘Frontline Workers Do Not Have N95s but Supervisors are Wearing Them’: Troubling Allegations Emerge at Care Homes Hit by COVID-19”, The Star (22 April 2020), online: <https://www.thestar.com/business/ 2020/04/22/frontline-workers-do-not-have-n95s-but-supervisors-are-wearing- them-labour-board-documents-allege-shortages-exhaustion-and-fear-amongst- nursing-home-staff.html>. 39. Hachey, supra note 32.