Who will step up to speak for the elderly in long-term care?

Let us suppose for a moment that you, reading this, have achieved the ripe old age of 92: You are bedridden. You are sick, hungry. You have been abused. You are laying in your own filth. You are frightened to go through another night in this abusive long-term-care facility. You haven’t seen a care worker for hours. You have bedsores. You’ve noticed the person next to you has died and, despite repeatedly calling for help, no one hears you. Think this can’t happen? It is happening in some form right across this country. Who is your watchdog? Is it the people who own this facility? The health inspector? Some form of government bureaucracy ( a committee or an inquiry formed at a time in the distant future in order to look into the matter)?

If you were in charge, would you impose a heavy fine to those responsible? Or would you put them in jail? Or simply take away their licence? Who will step up to help me?

Ron Gobeil, Parksville, B.C.