Judge to lead inquiry into seniors’ murders
TO R O N T O • An appeal court judge will head a sweeping public inquiry into systemic issues at Ontario’s long-term care homes that may have contributed to the murders of eight seniors at the hands of a longtime nurse.
The province announced Tuesday that Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Eileen Gillese will review policies, procedures and oversight of long-term care homes and will file a report to the Attorney-General by July 31, 2019.
The inquiry was triggered by the case of Elizabeth Wettlaufer, who pleaded guilty in early June to eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. In all those cases, Wettlaufer deliberately overdosed her patients with insulin.
The judge who presided over her criminal case said the 50-year-old would never have been caught if she hadn’t confessed while at a psychiatric hospital in Toronto last September.
“My team and I will do our utmost to determine how these events could occur and to make recommendations so that the tragedies of the past are not repeated in the future,” Gillese said in a statement.
Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, applauded the broad range given to the inquiry’s commissioner. “My colleagues are crying for an in-depth look at nursing homes to ensure that resources are put in place so that they can deliver the care that they want to deliver,” she said.
The Ontario Health Coalition, a public health advocacy group, is concerned however about the duration of the inquiry.
“The government’s mandate for the inquiry gives it two years to conduct its work, pushing the final report and recommendations until well after the next election and media interest has died down,” executive director Natalie Mehra said.
“This is too long. It means that recommendations will not be forged and acted upon for years.”
One of the areas likely to be scrutinized by the public inquiry is the role Ontario’s nursing regulator played in the Wettlaufer case. The college knew Wettlaufer was fired from the Caressant Care nursing home in Woodstock, Ont., for a medication error in 2014, but she continued to work — and harm patients — until she resigned as a nurse in September, 2016.