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CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Calls to amend Criminal Code amid violence against first responders, health-care workers
Firefighters at the scene of a fire in Winnipeg. Uploaded July 29, 2025. (CTV News Winnipeg) An increase in violence against Manitoba first responders and health-care workers has sparked a call to the federal government for assistance. In a joint letter to Attorney General Sean Fraser, two provincial ministers are expressing support on behalf of the Manitoba government for amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada. 'Recent incidents in Winnipeg involving violent attacks against firefighters, paramedics and nurses underscore the urgent need for enhanced legal protections for all first responders and care providers,' reads the letter signed by Matt Wiebe, Manitoba's Minister of Justice and Uzoma Asagwara, Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care. The letter references Bill C-321, federal legislation that aimed to include assaults against health-care workers and first responders as an aggravating factor during sentencing, adding it 'would have been a step toward addressing these concerns.' Though the legislation received support from the House of Commons in the previous Parliament, it never completed third reading in the Senate prior to prorogation, according to the letter dated July 24. 'This important work ought to be urgently considered for re-introduction,' reads the letter. 'Such an amendment would signal national support for the health, safety and dignity of first responders and healthcare providers and provide a stronger legal foundation to deter violence and safeguard the functioning of essential health and emergency services.' The letter notes that the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg called for legislative amendments to ensure that 'the penalties for offences against first responders properly reflect the seriousness of these acts.' In a statement from the Department of Justice, a spokesperson acknowledged the proposal for legislative changes but said sentencing courts already take such circumstances into consideration. 'Sentencing courts recognize the need to appropriately denounce and deter acts of violence against firefighters, health-care workers and emergency responders and have considered such circumstances to be aggravating for the purposes of sentencing,' said the statement. 'The Criminal Code further provides it is an aggravating factor for sentencing where an offence was committed against a person who, in the performance of their duties and functions, was providing health services, including personal care services (paragraph 718.2(a)(iii.2)).' -With files from CTV's Daniel Halmarson
CTV News
09-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
No records kept on assaults on B.C. health-care workers, despite daily incidents
Despite several unions and advocacy groups repeatedly raising the issue of violence in health-care settings, CTV News has learned that no policing or government agencies keep track of assaults or criminal charges. In trying to get statistics about the conviction rate for the rare charges laid against suspects who stand accused of assaulting health-care workers on the job, the Attorney General's office said a freedom of information request was required. However, that filing resulted in zero results because the JUSTIN criminal record-keeping system does not allow prosecutors to flag or categorize a case as relating to a medical professional. 'Even with the wealth of information that (JUSTIN) provides, it is unable to capture nuances in terms of offences, victims and accused, such as the scenario you are enquiring about,' wrote BC Prosecution Service communications counsel, Damienne Darby in an email. When CTV News asked if there were any plans to update the system to identify cases where medical providers – who are typically in a vulnerable position assessing or treating patients – are assaulted, she said that 'under our current fiscal pressures, this initiative, however worthwhile, is not something the BCPS could propose for prioritization.' In an email statement, the health minister insisted that 'ensuring hospitals are safe for staff and patients is a top priority of our government.' Josie Osborne went on to reveal that she has directed ministry staff to examine 'feasibility of putting in place AI weapons detection technology at emergency rooms – something many hospitals across Canada are now starting to consider.' Other solutions In 2022 the province announced it would be replacing guards hired from private companies to provide security at hospitals struggling with patients angry about pandemic health measures or otherwise displaying aggression. These 'relational security officers' were slow to be hired and trained, and they opposition claims they aren't certified to detain anyone who's disruptive or threatens patients and staff. 'They are not actually licensed to deal with the type of violence and the weapons that are actually coming into hospitals,' explained Elenore Sturko, a former RCMP officer and current Conservative critic for public safety. She's urging the provincial government to consider emulating Alberta's model of hospital safety after speaking with their public safety minister during a trip there over the weekend. 'Not every hospital, but in those high-risk hospitals, they actually employ peace officers,' Sturko said. 'So they have the higher level of training, and they do have the ability to intervene in violent situations.' She estimates the cost for B.C. to make that kind of change would cost each hospital another $1.5 million per year. Osborne insists that with 781 relational security officers hired in the past three years, they already 'have specialized training to prevent and respond to violent situations in hospitals, and are often required to use force, restrain and detain violent individuals as needed' and are licensed and trained to use handcuffs if de-escalation is unsuccessful. Violence takes its toll For years, frontline sources have expressed frustration to CTV News about the way administrators and law enforcement respond to assaults in the workplace. Doctors have found themselves in a position where they must physically restrain patients striking nurses, while it's not unusual for paramedics to be groped while tending to patients. Some walk away from the profession altogether, while others go on leave when the stress or trauma become too much. The BC Nurses' Union cites WorkSafeBC data that found 26 nurses a month were off the job due to violence in 2022, with that number soaring to 46 a month in 2023. Like much of Canada, B.C.'s health-care system has been grappling with emergency department closures and other service interruptions in recent years and struggling to recruit new staff to replace those taking early retirement or choosing to walk away due to burnout or abuse. Several tell CTV News retaining those experienced workers already on the job by making it safer would do more to keep them in the field, while sending a message to prospective recruits that their professions are both safe and sustainable.
Irish Times
26-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Long Covid support scheme will end this month, Minister for Health confirms
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has confirmed that the special scheme for healthcare workers with long Covid will end at the end of June. Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Ms Carroll MacNeill said a temporary scheme was put in place in 2022 for healthcare workers who 'went beyond the call of duty, working in frontline environments'. She said the scheme had been extended four times, most recently at the end of June 2024. The Minister understood that approximately 159 employees 'are currently on the special scheme, the majority of whom have been supported on full pay for almost five years'. READ MORE But, she added: 'I understand the Department of Public Expenditure has been clear, and was clear at the time, that this is the final extension that would be granted. As such, the special scheme will conclude on June 30th, 2025.' The Minister was responding during Dáil health questions to Labour spokeswoman Marie Sherlock , who said that 166 employees in section 38 organisations, not directly employed by the State, and HSE staff are in receipt of the payment. Ms Sherlock described the response to the workers as 'downright disrespectful and degrading to those who gave so much and risked so much at a time of such uncertainty and risk in this country'. The Minister said that the role of healthcare works during the pandemic 'cannot be overstated, particular at the very early stage of it'. 'They went beyond the call of duty, working in front-line environments, treating Covid-19 positive patients, particularly in the early days when the control mechanisms were what they ultimately became and while the risk was extraordinarily great,' Ms Carroll MacNeill said. 'I reassure, to the extent that I can, those 159 employees who have been supported by the scheme for up to five years now that they will continue to be supported.' [ Jennifer Carroll MacNeill in the spotlight as health controversies intensify Opens in new window ] The public service sick leave scheme will apply for anyone who remains unable to return to work, she said. 'People's lives have been turned upside down by long Covid,' Ms Sherlock said, adding that this is not any 'ordinary type of illness' and was contracted in the workplace. 'The crucial point is that these workers have ultimately been told they are five years on and to get over it, but that is not their lived reality,' Ms Sherlock said. She said the government gave 'false hope' last year that some sort of scheme would be put in place. 'Now those hopes have been dashed,' she said, appealing for the Minister to introduce a new scheme. 'It is shameful that people have had to go to the High Court and that unions have had to go to the Labour Court to try to get respect for those workers who contracted this illness in the workplace,' Ms Sherlock said. [ My battle with Long Covid: I was in disbelief. Was I making it up? How could I not stand up while the kettle boiled? Opens in new window ] Ms Carroll MacNeill said she was aware that the findings of the Labour Court are still awaited. She stressed the terms of the sick leave scheme. 'Having been on full pay for five years, the healthcare workers may receive further full pay for three months, half pay for three months, temporary rehabilitative remuneration for 547 days of paid leave and the critical illness protocol that forms part of the sick leave, which provides additional support for up to three years,' she said.
CTV News
20-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Ontario's measles outbreak through the eyes of front-line workers
Emergency department charge nurse David Lambie outside the emergency entrance of the Woodstock General Hospital in Woodstock, Ont., Thursday, May 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne ST. THOMAS — Health-care workers battling measles in southern Ontario say they think about the outbreak from the moment they wake until the moment they sleep. They say treating and tamping down the surge of a disease most have never seen in their lifetime is constant. Some have even been infected by patients who unwittingly spread the highly infectious illness while seeking help for early but general symptoms — fevers and coughs are common before the telltale rash appears days later. Measles has spread to more than 3,000 people in Canada this year. More than 2,000 of those infected are in Ontario. Here's a look at caregivers on the front lines of an outbreak that has particularly struck a region south and east of London. 'The unlucky ones' Carly Simpson considers herself one of the 'unlucky ones.' Five days after developing a sore throat, body aches and fever, the nurse practitioner gazed at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, stunned to see red splotches all over her body. 'Oh my gosh this is measles,' Simpson gasped. She said measles never crossed her mind when she first fell ill mid-March, suspecting a more likely cause was her autoimmune disease, ankylosing spondylitis, which leads to chronic pain and inflammation. After all, the vast majority of cases had been among the unvaccinated and Simpson said she had been inoculated three times — including a booster in 2015 after a test revealed her previous two shots didn't lend full immunity. Simpson said she had been assured at the beginning of the outbreak that three shots would be enough to protect her. She still got sick and was essentially bedridden for days, only mustering enough energy to walk to the bathroom. But she said the rash only lasted a day and never spread to her husband or kids. 'I had a mild case because I've been vaccinated,' said Simpson, among five per cent of the outbreak's cases to involve vaccinated people. She suspected she was infected by a patient who came to her clinic with virus symptoms a couple of weeks earlier. Early symptoms can seem like other illnesses until the rash appears, leaving health-care workers who examine them vulnerable to exposure. 'Is this just a common cold? Is it just some viral infection?' she said of the questions that dog caregivers. Shawn Cowley was unlucky, too. He noticed white spots inside his cheeks in late April, and then a red blotchy rash on his forehead that migrated down his face, and onto his shoulders and arms. 'Fortunately for me, because I was fully vaccinated I didn't get the full brunt of measles,' he said, explaining that the rash otherwise would have covered his whole body. Still, it took about a week for his body to recover from the exhaustion. Cowley is a key player in measles containment as head of emergency management and preparedness at the local health unit, Southwestern Public Health. His case was traced to his son's hockey tournament. He eventually told his colleagues that he contracted measles but noted there is 'a stigma' associated with the illness. Cowley also felt guilty for going to the grocery store and filling up on gas before he was symptomatic, potentially spreading it to others. 'When you find out you do potentially have measles, and the number of people I've exposed, understanding how virulent measles is, that's a really hard thing to deal with personally because you put other people at risk.' 'Slow burn' Dr. Erica Van Daalen calls the outbreak a 'slow burn' but one that has required close collaboration among local hospitals to safely treat and isolate measles patients. The chief of staff at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital said she might see one to three patients in the emergency department on an average day, and often they are children. As of late May, three infected pregnant women had delivered babies and 15 kids had been admitted. Those include young patients transferred from hospitals in Woodstock and Tillsonburg, which don't have pediatric units. 'It's a lot of one-on-one bedside nursing,' Van Daalen said in an interview earlier this spring. 'When the days are busy, it wears on the nurses.' Less than seven per cent of Ontario's cases have ended up in hospital. But the logistics of safely admitting a measles patient is like expert-level Tetris. Masked patients are ushered through back doors to negative pressure rooms that keep contaminated air from escaping into other areas of the hospital and infecting more people. The room is sealed and has a system that filters and exchanges the air. Exposure risks are avoided as much as possible, even trips to the bathroom, said Sangavi Thangeswaran, a registered nurse and an infection control practitioner at both Alexandra Hospital Ingersoll and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital. 'We ask the patient to stay in there. If they need anything like using the washroom, we try to give them commodes or urinals, just to lessen the exposures,' Thangeswaran said. There are five negative pressure rooms at Woodstock Hospital. When they're full, patients are assessed in the ambulance garage, said David Lambie, a charge nurse in Woodstock's emergency department. It is an extra layer of logistics to navigate, said Lambie, whose hospital has cared for 108 measles patients since January, 55 of them kids. Once a patient is well enough for discharge, their negative pressure room is left empty for half-an-hour while contaminated air is expunged. Then it's deep cleaned for the next patient, said Thangeswaran. She said each of her Oxford County hospitals initially had just one negative pressure room in each emergency department but as cases swelled they created three more. As of June 12, her team had cared for 14 measles patients in Ingersoll and 64 in Tillsonburg. 'Inherent challenge' Van Daalen, of the hospital in St. Thomas, said deciding whether to discharge a kid sick with measles sometimes keeps her up at night. 'You hesitate to send them home because you're not quite sure how they're going to land,' she said. 'There are some later-term consequences for kids who have measles. It's a very rare complication, but we'll have to keep our surveillance up.' Dr. Ninh Tran said he felt like he was approaching burnout in late February. Ontario's weekly case count had nearly doubled to 177 over a two-week period ending Feb. 27, with almost half of the overall cases located in his southwestern public health unit. Pressure was high to trace cases, halt community spread and stop infections. Measles was on his mind every moment of the day and night. 'You could sense a bit of tension and anxiety in all this discussion,' Tran recalled in late May. 'It's always like a temporary feeling of doubt, fear, anxiety when we see numbers go up and there's just a lot of things coming right at you,' Tran said of the outbreak's early days. 'And then you have to step back and say, 'OK, it's not going to be helpful if I get stressed because I need to — and other leaders have to — figure out a way to move forward.' The spread of measles has ebbed and flowed, but Tran noted a steady decline of new cases mid-June. 'While it's still early to confirm a persistent pattern, the consistency of the decrease does suggest a potential shift in the trajectory of the outbreak,' said Tran. 'We are cautiously encouraged.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025. Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content. Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press
CTV News
17-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Risk of service disruptions again this summer in Quebec health-care network
The emergency waiting room at The Montreal Children's Hospital on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Montreal. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) As the summer season begins, Santé Québec has reported that there are 96 'service disruption situations' in the network, 13 of which have yet to be resolved. Historically, the summer season has been synonymous with service disruptions in the healthcare system due to health-care staff taking holidays. Despite this, Santé Québec insists that it is under control and that the 'situation should be relatively stable compared to last year.' 'There will be service reductions, just as there have always been service reductions during the summer period, but this year will be no different from previous years,' assured Santé Québec spokesperson Robin Marie Coleman at a press briefing on Tuesday. It is reported that so far, 80 per cent of the anticipated service disruptions have been avoided. Measures have been put in place to prevent them, including a mobile team for remote regions such as the North Shore, the Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue. This team, which was set up by the government to compensate for the withdrawal of independent labour, has 246 employees. In addition, Santé Québec indicates that the end or reduction in the use of independent labour in certain regions of Quebec will be an 'additional challenge' this year. It also states that the regions of Mauricie, Centre-du-Québec, Laurentides, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Côte-Nord are 'under surveillance.' Santé Québec was unable to provide the number of beds that will be closed during the summer. Last year, 1,500 beds were closed. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 17, 2025.
