Crown stays assault charges against health-care aides

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This article was published 27/07/2023 (821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two health-care aides accused of assaulting residents at a Winnipeg personal care home have had charges against them stayed.

Stays were entered against the two women May 30 in Winnipeg provincial court.

The women were arrested in September after a whistleblower complaint to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority prompted a police investigation into allegations of abuse at Oakview Place on Ness Avenue.

In February 2022, care home staff informed Ontario-based operator Extendicare Inc. as many as 15 local residents had been mistreated. The allegations weren’t made public until the WRHA held a news conference in June 2022.

At the time of their arrest, police alleged the two women used “inappropriate physical actions” to “gain the compliance” of five residents while caring for them between August 2021 and January 2022.

The accused were originally each charged with five counts of assault, with prosecutors ultimately authorizing one assault charge for each woman.

Prosecutors requested further information from investigators, the receipt of which caused them to re-evaluate whether there was a likelihood of conviction and whether it was in the public interest to proceed, Crown attorney Marnie Evans told provincial court Judge Dave Mann at the May 30 hearing.

“After a further review, it was determined the matter no longer meets our charging standard, as there is no longer a reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Evans said.

Neither of the accused were present for the hearing.

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News of the stayed charges comes one day after the release of a damning Manitoba auditor general’s report that found the Protection for Persons in Care Office had dismissed several allegations of sexual assault and physical and verbal abuse at personal care homes as “unfounded,” saying they didn’t meet its definition of abuse.

Auditor general Tyson Shtykalo said in the 41-page report the processes used by the PPCO were “flawed and failed to reach reasonable conclusions.”

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Wednesday the office will be disbanded and replaced with an independent body that reports to the legislature.

“There are few things more important in society than protecting vulnerable persons,” he said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.