An Ontario health-care union is calling for criminal investigations and public inquiries into COVID-19-related deaths in the province’s long-term care homes. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare says Toronto and Peel Region police should open criminal investigations and the Progressive Conservative government and Ontario’s chief coroner need to do public inquiries. “Both frontline workers and the elderly in our long-term care system are saying the same thing: keep us alive,” the union’s president Sharleen Stewart said in a press release. “That’s why we’re calling for urgent investigations that will keep people alive and hold negligent operators responsible for the death of our healthcare heroes.” As of Tuesday morning, 1,003 long-term care residents had died with COVID-19 in Ontario. Courtesy SEIU Healthcare Christine Mandegarian and Arlene Reid both died from COVID-19 while working as personal support workers in Ontario's long-term care sector.

Source: Huffington Post May 05, 2020 19:07 UTC