Justice committee  Yes. My clients had been asking for coroner investigations even long before COVID happened. In fact, it's sometimes one of the only ways we can even determine what happened, because they have access to records that my clients don't. Many of my clients who lost loved ones in long-term care homes as a result of COVID are currently fighting with the coroner's office to try to figure out what the actual cause of death was.

Justice committee  Mr. Garrison, you said it. I think it's tantamount to wilful blindness. I don't think there's any answer other than that. You hear people pointing the finger at the government, but as I said, accountability needs to be bookended. There needs to be accountability by the homes that have the power, by the government in enforcing and with actual penalties at the end of it, financial and otherwise, including jail if necessary.

Justice committee  Absolutely, yes. COVID has highlighted what has already been true in the public versus private. I can tell you that from the Toronto, Ontario experience, our councillors voted I think unanimously to put the additional funding into the municipally run homes, as an example, to come up to the four hours of direct care per day.

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  I couldn't answer that if I wanted to, because it's so variable across even Ontario, let alone Canada. That's the problem. There isn't any standardized training. That is fundamental to improving care across the board. There needs to be training. There needs to be licensing of these workers and they need to be paid properly.

Justice committee  Thank you so much for that question, Mr. Garrison. I couldn't agree more with that comment. It's a comment from Pat Armstrong, one of the leading experts in long-term care. I see it, unfortunately, every single day of my practice. I held a series of town halls with my group, Canadians for long-term care standards, and we had PSWs and nurses come and speak.

Justice committee  Absolutely, and that's extremely variable from province to province and territory across Canada. In Ontario, for example, prior to the pandemic, we were at 2.75 hours of direct care per resident per day, and now we're at 2.45. The experts unanimously agree across the board that the bare, bare, bare minimum should be four hours per day, although we do have some provinces that have over five hours per day or even closer to six.

Justice committee  If you ask most experts, and I have—as I said, I did a series of town hall meetings—most of us agree that the Canada Health Act should stand alone and that a separate piece of legislation should be legislated incorporating the five governing principles in the Canada Health Act with some additional principles.

Justice committee  I do, yes. I think both are critically important, especially the whistle-blower protection. Again, we're talking about the usually racialized, lowest-paid women who are working at these long-term care homes. They feel they can't say anything or they're going to lose their job or get in trouble.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Cooper. I think it's a combination of factors, to tell you the truth. The police oftentimes are not quite sure how to investigate these cases. So much of this happens behind closed doors. For example, with child abuse we have the Children's Aid Society that investigates cases independently.

Justice committee  Yes. Of course there are some difficulties around that, but I think we've seen over the last year while investigations have been under way that we do have enough evidence. Certainly what we learned over the last year.... Take an instance of dehydration. That was extremely common in my practice, even pre-COVID.

Justice committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak today. I am a personal injury lawyer with a focus on nursing home litigation. I sue long-term care and retirement homes for elder abuse and neglect and have been doing so since long before COVID.