Time to fix all that’s broken
Re Fixing a broken system begins with more accountability, Cohn, May 12
I agree that accountability, inspection and responsibility are incredibly important and necessary to protect the most vulnerable people in our society. Relying only on complaint-based investigations is not adequate.
A return to spot checks, unannounced comprehensive inspections and complaint-based investigations is crucial to protect seniors and children.
Providing care to seniors, children and people with disabilities, is a very labourintensive service. High quality care is costly, and we must rely on the government to fund or subsidize it, so we can all count on a level playing field.
Public funding must stay in the public or non-profit system. The outcomes in profit versus nonprofit/public LTC homes is no surprise.
To make a profit, you must charge clients more for the same service to compete with non-profit/public and find places to cut the budget. Salaries, food, equipment, supplies are the only places to cut.
We need more public investment in LTC homes and child care. The only way to guarantee that is to run these services as not-for-profits or public entities. Janet Teibo, Toronto
Isolated and lonely, ‘caged’ seniors driven to despair, May 19
In April, Canada was forced to end extended solitary confinement in its prisons. Yet, this cruel and unusual treatment continues in Ontario’s retirement homes where there are no COVID outbreaks.
Healthy seniors are confined to their rooms, against their will and in violation of the Residential Tenancies Act, having human contact only when their meals are delivered and retrieved.
This article details the tragic consequences of this for the elderly, including loss of cognitive and motor skills, and even starvation.
One geriatrician described his patients as “caged” for no health-based reason.
Families pleading for compassion and a request from seven seniors advocacy groups for Ontario to follow Alberta in redefining what is an “essential visitor” were rejected.
The iron ring that was supposed to protect vulnerable seniors is actually a shackle. Kristina Bendikas, London, Ont.
I keep thinking of the brilliant 1951 sci-fi classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” In it, the alien (played by Michael Rennie) comes to Earth to warn us.
As we invented nuclear weapons, yet were still such a war-making species, Earth was now seen as a threat to other planets. Rennie’s alien came to tell us that if we don’t get it together, they would destroy us. To prove they were capable of it, he offered a demonstration by stopping the world, for one hour. Everything ground to a complete halt, the world over.
The parallels to this pandemic are striking. Since we are now a threat to the very survival of the planet, the planet has taken on Rennie’s role, and is warning humanity that if we don’t get it together, we will be destroyed.
And it offers a demonstration that it can do this: An invisible, ingenious virus that does one thing: it isolates every human from every other human in the world.
This is the year the Earth stood still. The warning is clear: change, the world over, or perish. Will we listen? Peter Dick, Toronto
I work as a supervisor at a homeless shelter in Toronto, and I barely make a living wage. In January, like many Ontarians, I lost my paid sick days due to Ford’s Bill 47.
Until my employer recently lobbied the city for paid sick days in our budget, I had to make the difficult decision to work with vulnerable individuals (some immuno-compromised) while sick, or work 16-hour shifts when I felt well again, to pay the bills.
If I can’t afford a sick day making nearly 60 per cent above the provincial minimum wage, what about those making less?
Ontario has the highest percentage of minimum-wage earners of any province and many of them have been on the front line of this pandemic.
If we aren’t paying these heroes a living wage, the least they deserve is the dignity of seven paid sick days, plus an additional 14 emergency leave days. Megan Brown, Toronto
Deferred rent and mortgages become overwhelming in very short order for most households and businesses. After a couple of months of missed payments, tenants and homeowners are looking at an insurmountable financial crisis.
If family or business cash-flow is sufficient to meet monthly liabilities, but not for an emergency as missed payments due to COVID-19, then the parties involved in the contract need to work out a solution. Landlords don’t want empty stores or office space and banks don’t want to own your house.
Now is not the time to panic. Now is the time to come together and work out an amicable solution. Doug Haughton, Caledon
Re Why streaming services need to rescue musicians, Opinion, May 16
As a member of the Music Workers Alliance, an organization based in New York City and representing indie musicians and DJs, I couldn’t agree more. Our live work is shut down and likely to remain so for 12 to 18 months. The market for our recorded work remains severely distorted by the mass infringement business models of Google/YouTube and their ilk.
Music Workers Alliance has launched a petition demanding major online corporations profiting from music donate one per cent of their income to relief efforts for the duration of the crisis.
So far, although Sony music and Netflix have stepped forward with generous donations, the response of other Silicon Valley corporations has been shameful, inadequate and self-serving. Marc Ribot, New York City
We all know for sure now that online learning cannot replace the magic of a caring, expert teacher. We also know that our schools are facing the challenges of a lifetime.
Teachers will need to find a way to heal the traumas left behind, re-establish the discipline, attention and motivation needed to learn, and lead students back to environments where they can truly work and learn together. All while protecting the health of their students and their own families. Who knows more about the true nature of the challenges ahead? Why is it that front-line teachers, the experts, are not involved in planning for opening schools in September? Sharon Craigen, Toronto
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