Warning: graphic depictions below. Read at your own discretion
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A 23-page military report was made public Tuesday by the Canadian Armed Forces following personnel being dispatched in Ontario and Quebec due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report outlines the horrifying living conditions experienced by some of Ontario’s “Greatest Generation,” residents from the five homes in which military personnel were stationed in the province.
Inside the walls of Brampton’s Holland Christian Homes, staff allegedly left food in a resident’s mouth while they were sleeping, “aggressively repositioning a resident,” and not helping residents during meals. The CAF members also noted in certain situations, staff would write a resident refused a meal, rather than assisting them.
At the Altamont Care Community in Scarborough, most residents were not getting three meals a day due to “significant staffing issues,” according to the report. The CAF also reported a ‘significant’ number of the residents had pressure ulcers due to prolonged bed rest, in certain situations they were bedridden for several weeks, with the report continuing “No evidence of residents being moved to wheelchair for parts of day, re-positioned in bed, or washed properly.”
Part of the report outlines a sense of fear in workers. According to the military members, workers at the Eatonville Care Centre in Etobicoke were “afraid for their jobs,” there was a lack of personal protective equipment, and “COVID-19 positive residents allowed to wander.”
At least 30 residents have died at Eatonville.
Armed Forces members also outlined a fear from staff to use supplies because they cost money, and “expired medication,” was allegedly used on patients.
In addition, if residents became soiled, they weren’t allowed to have an extra soaking pad for their beds.
“Cockroaches and flies,” were commonplace inside Orchard Villa in Pickering, the report stated while patients were “left in beds soiled in diapers.”
In addition the CAF reported inadequate oxygen was made available for the residents.
Cockroaches were also spotted in North York at the Hawthorne nursing home, alongside ants.
“Numerous fans,” were blowing in the hallway which assisted the spread of COVID-19 within the facility, and residents were having “skin breakdown” from lying in soiled diapers. There were also cases of residents having bed sores caused by not being turned over as often, similar to what some residents allegedly dealt with in Altamont.
It also details “forceful feeding (of residents) observed by staff causing audible choking/aspiration” — with the same notation for forceful drinking, and some residents who were “crying for help,” were often not attended to by staff for “30 minutes or two hours.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called reading the CAF report over the weekend, when it was sent to the province “the hardest thing I’ve ever done as Premier.”
He said police will be asked to investigate the homes, and noted it was important to make the report available to the public.
“As hard as it might be to read…you must know exactly what I know as Premier.”