NEW DATE!

Mon. October 4, 12 p.m.

CROSS-ONTARIO LTC PROTESTS

No More Profiting from Pain

Please read the update below and reply with your information as soon as possible — with a HUGE thank you:

As the opening day of the Ontario Legislature has moved from September 13 to October 4, we have had to make the difficult decision to change the date of the long-term care rally initially scheduled for September 13.

We have also been nervously watching the case count increase this summer. With the Delta variant proving to be extremely transmissible and case count much higher than we anticipated, we cannot put people at risk and break public health guidelines which limit outdoor gatherings to 100 people.

In light of this, we need to shift our plan of action for the big protest on Monday September 13 to a 100-person media event on October 4 when the Ontario Legislature re-opens. We want to send the strongest message possible and we urgently need your help to make it happen.

We will still be holding a media event on Monday October 4 in Toronto at Queen’s Park with spokespeople from residents, families, advocates, and care workers. We are aiming to have 100 people there. 

We will keep it safe with social distancing, outside, with masks and a limit of 100 people so we MUST hear from you if you are coming.

•  If you can come out to the event at Queen’s Park, please RSVP to ohc@sympatico.ca with the subject line “Oct 4” and let us know. If you are a family member or resident who can be a speaker at the event about conditions in LTC (as we previously asked) and are still able to come please indicate this clearly in your email.

We will also still be holding the events in Thunder Bay at noon at the mini-Queen’s Park on South James St. 

and in Ottawa at noon at the Human Rights monument by City Hall, Elgin and Lisgar.  

Again, events will be held safely in accordance with public health guidelines, outside, with masks and social distancing and will be limited to 100 people max.

• If you can join the event in Thunder Bay please RSVP to Jules Tupker, co-chair of the Thunder Bay Health Coalition, at jtupker@tbaytel.net with the subject line “OCT 4” and let him know. If you are a family member or resident and able to speak at the event about conditions in LTC, please also let Jules know.
• If you can join the event in Ottawa please RSVP  to Ed Cashman, co-chair of the Ottawa Health Coalition, at ed.cashman.ottawa@gmail.com with the subject line “OCT 4” and let him know.

NEW EVENT LOCATIONS ON MONDAY OCTOBER 4 at NOON

New local events will be held in the following locations:

DURHAM Noon at LTC Minister Rod Phillips’ Office, Corner of Rossland & Harwood, 1 Rossland Rd, Ajax 

To RSVP: Email Charlie Courneyea at wccourneyea@gmail.com

SUDBURY Noon at Front Gate of Civic Memorial Cemetery, 365 Second Ave. 

To RSVP: Email Dot Klein at dot.klein@persona.ca

 CHATHAM Noon at MPP Rick Nicholls’ Office, 111 Heritage Rd. 

To RSVP: Email Shirley Roebuck at goddess@bell.net

WOODSTOCK Noon at MPP Ernie Hardeman’s Office, 12 Perry St.

To RSVP: Email Bryan Smith at bryasmit@oxford.net

HAMILTON Noon at Gore Park, Corner of King and James St. 

To RSVP: Email Janina Lebon at jlebon@sympatico.ca

NIAGARA Noon at MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s Office, King St and Wagner Lane, Beamsville 

To RSVP: Email Sue Hotte at suehotte@yahoo.ca

KINGSTON Noon at Princess and Concession OR Princess and Gardeners OR Sydenham Rd and 401.

To RSVP: Email Matthew Gventer at birms@kos.net

The reality is heartbreaking and unforgivable: for-profit LTC operators continue to profit from pain. Over the course of the pandemic, Ford’s government has funded these companies millions of dollars that they have taken in dividends (profits) and for executive bonuses, rather than actually improving care. Systemic underfunding for long-term care has failed Ontario’s long-term care residents and for-profit providers have continued to profit from their pain. On October 4, we’ll make a clear statement that for-profit “care” must come to an end and the government must act now to build capacity in our not-for-profit and municipal long-term care homes.

 

We do not accept any more false promises and crocodile tears for the devastation in Ontario’s long-term care homes.

Instead, we DEMAND:

• Immediate action to fast-track improving care levels to 4-hours of care per resident per day.
• Enforcement of standards through annual surprise inspections, fines, license suspensions and revocation of licenses for non-compliance.
• Accountability for the terrible operators who facilitated the preventable deaths of thousands of the vulnerable residents in their care
• That Bill 218 passed by the Ford government last fall to shield long-term care owners/operators from liability for their negligence be repealed.
• An end to for-profit long-term care, and that the Ford government reverse its plans to hand thousands of new beds and expansions to the same for-profit chains responsible for gross negligence, horror and death.
• That families and caregivers be allowed full access, and that the isolation, unlawful detention and human rights violations of long-term care residents be stopped.

Let’s have a strong show of support across the province to make a statement that holds this government accountable. We will honour the thousands of lives terribly lost during this pandemic, and ensure that this will never happen again. 

 

#CareCan’tWait

T-shirt, hat, and button orders

Merchandise orders are available for pick up at Queen’s Park in Toronto and can be ordered here: https://store.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/collections/all. We still have lots but some t-shirt sizes are selling out (we are out of small and medium shirts) so please order your sizes as soon as possible. They look great! Please show your support by ordering buttons, baseball caps and t-shirts if you can

Ed in Ottawa and Jules in Thunder Bay are collecting orders for their communities and we will get those orders to them in time for October 4. Do get in touch with them asap if you want to order t-shirts, hats or buttons in Ottawa or Thunder Bay. We have to have time to ship them so it is urgent.

** Now that we have a series of events happening across the province, if you are able to help collect orders in your community, we can make arrangements to ship or deliver orders you have gathered for your community. (Note: we cannot ship individual orders to people all across the province. It is too expensive, so we are asking you if you are organizing an event in your community to collect orders and we will get them to you for your event.)

• If you are able to collect orders in your community, please email us at ohc@sympatico.ca and use the subject line “MERCHANDISE ORDER” with the order from your community.

.      .

The order form is in this email below. Please email it to ohc@sympatico.ca with OCT. 4 ORDER FORM in the subject line.

ORDER FORM 

Name: 

Email Address: 

Picking Up on Oct. 4 at (please tell us which of these three: Toronto @ beside Queen’s Park / Ottawa @ City Hall / Thunder Bay @ Mini Queen’s Park):

Method of Payment: (Pay in advance by cheque / Pay on Oct 13 when picking up)

 

Quantity ‘Rise ↑ For LTC’ T-Shirts: 

L ($17.50) x ____ = $

XL ($17.50) x ____ = $

XXL ($17.50) x ____ = $

XXXL ($17.50)x _____ = $

 

Quantity ‘Put the TLC in LTC’ Caps:

$17.50 x ______ = $

 

Quantity Button Bundle (1x ‘Put the TLC in LTC’, 1x LTC – Care Can’t Wait) 

$2.50 x _______ = $

 

TOTAL = $

Thank you so much for everything that you are doing to make sure that our collective voices demanding change in LTC cannot be ignored!  Please do not hesitate to contact Riley, our Campaign Director, at 647-617-1474 or by email at ohc@sympatico.ca if you have any questions or need any support organizing, let’s all work together and show Doug Ford that we are a force to be reckoned with and we will not back down until we get justice and change for our long-term care residents.