Long-overdue protections for Manitoba seniors finally in place

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2024 (614 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new provincial law to protect seniors in care is finally on the books. But it took some prodding to get it enacted.

The former Progressive Conservative government passed a bill last year that made important changes to how abuse against seniors in care is defined. Prior to the changes, attacks against seniors in personal-care homes and other residences were often swept under the carpet because of a faulty legal definition of abuse and neglect.

Bill 23, which made sweeping changes to the Protection of Persons in Care Act, was passed by the legislative assembly on May 30. Most of it was proclaimed into law upon royal assent. However, the most important part of the bill — proposed changes to the definition of abuse and neglect — was not.

That section of the bill had to be proclaimed by cabinet to take effect. The Tories failed to do so prior to the Oct. 3 provincial election. Apparently it wasn’t a priority, even though last summer former Tory justice minister Kelvin Goertzen described the abuse against seniors as “sickening and repulsive.”

A Manitoba auditor general investigation released last year found widespread physical abuse against elderly people in care. The abuse included residents being sexually assaulted, kicked in the shin, hit in the face, pinned down and verbally abused. In many of those cases, the allegations were deemed “unfounded.”

That’s because under the former legislation, attacks on residents in seniors homes had to cause death or psychological harm to be considered abuse. It was a ridiculously outdated and flawed statute that should have been changed years ago.

However, even though the province (under both former Tory and NDP governments) was aware of the faulty legislation, it took years to change it, mostly because it was not a priority.

The former Tory government claimed the delay in proclaiming the full act last year was because regulations had to be updated to align with the legislative amendments. However, those changes could have been made months ago.

Instead, the “sickening and repulsive behaviour” against seniors cited by Goertzen may have continued for months without detection. We may never know because the faulty definition in the act often prevented legitimate cases of abuse and neglect from being fully investigated.

Meanwhile, two months after the NDP was sworn into office, the full bill had still not been proclaimed into law. The NDP government gave the same excuse as the Tories when asked in early December by the Free Press why that section had not been enacted: regulations had to be updated. No timeline was given as to when that may occur.

Nine days after I wrote about it on Dec. 11, cabinet passed an order in council proclaiming that section into law. It came into effect Jan. 1. Coincidence? You be the judge.

The regulatory changes were hardly extensive — they were only three pages long. Those amendments could have been drafted before Bill 23 was passed so they were ready for immediate cabinet approval.

Under Sec. 79 of the new legislation, the definition of abuse has been changed and expanded to include “physical force resulting in pain, discomfort or injury, including slapping, hitting, beating, rough handling, tying up or binding.” It also includes “the intentional causing of emotional or psychological harm, including through threats, intimidation, humiliation, harassment, coercion or restriction from appropriate social contact,” as well as “sexual contact, activity or behaviour between a patient and an individual in a position of trust or authority” and “non-consensual sexual contact.”

The abuse will not have to cause “psychological harm” to be considered abuse, as it did under the previous legislation.

Similar changes were made to The Vulnerable Persons Living with a Mental Disability Act.

The NDP government should be applauded for proclaiming the relevant sections of Bill 23, even if it did take some prodding from a newspaper columnist.

Big picture: it’s time for governments of all political stripes to make the protection of seniors in care a much higher priority. Elderly people in personal-care homes and elsewhere have been abused for far too long and government’s response to it has been dreadful.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca