“It is a crisis: our emergency departments have reached a boiling point, and government needs to act now,” said NSGEU President Jason MacLean.

At the Halifax Infirmary Emergency Department, beds are now routinely closed due to staff shortages. The proper staffing for an ED shift normally includes 17 nurses (including the charge nurse) and four paramedics. However, that staffing complement is now routinely down to 9 nurses and as few as two paramedics.

Staff informed NSGEU that 25 nurses have left within the past two and a half months. Some have walked away without having new jobs lined up.

“Nova Scotia’s nurses were stretched thin before the pandemic. Now, they’re starting to break,” said MacLean.

The NSGEU has sounded the alarm on the situation in the ED before. We published two reports on the issue in 2017 and 2018 respectively: “Code Critical” and “Code Crisis.” That situation has only gotten worse, due in part to staff being redeployed to assist with the pandemic response.

This ED is chronically understaffed, which means members cannot take breaks, or get vacation approved. Furthermore, the ED is a particularly stressful area of the healthcare system: there are typically many patients who need to be seen each shift, and their medical complaints are more complex than ever, partially because so few Nova Scotians have access to a family physician.

Government has focused its attention on addressing patient flow in an effort to clear the backlog in the ED. While patient flow must be addressed, it cannot be addressed without also ensuring the employer can attract and retain workers to care for these patients.

Government needs to immediately develop a program that will attract nurses to work in this high-acuity, stressful environment.

President MacLean has reached out to management to try and identify some solutions, and has written to the Premier, Minister of Health & Wellness, and Opposition leaders in an effort to ensure workers’ concerns are heard and addressed.

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union represents over 31,000 workers who provide quality public services Nova Scotians count on every day.

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KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – An open letter to Minister Zach Churchill of the provincial department of Health and Wellness asks that the province remove barriers that may stop migrant workers with temporary status, refugee claimants, and others with precarious legal status from accessing a COVID-19 vaccine.

The province has already said that everyone who wants to will be vaccinated, including migrant workers and people without permanent residency status, and that a provincial health card isn’t required. But the letter points out that in practice there are still many obstacles that make getting the vaccine very difficult.

For example, the website where you make your appointment to get vaccinated still requires your MSI, but refugee claimants and migrant workers aren’t eligible for MSI. 

“People making refugee claims are used to being denied access to healthcare because they don’t have MSI. When they see that website they’re going to assume they don’t have access to the vaccine either. The message is not really getting out to those who need it. The process isn’t clear, it’s confusing,” says Gillian Smith, Settlement Coordinator with the Halifax Refugee Clinic.   

“Just this past week, a client emailed me and told me that she couldn’t get the vaccine. She’s a frontline worker in a hospital, and she was instructed by her employer to get the vaccine. But when she clicked on the link, she was unable to register, because she doesn’t have a health card, and her employer did not indicate to her that she could call a number to get a booking,” Smith says. 

The open letter is signed by groups such as the Halifax Refugee Clinic, No One Is Illegal Halifax/Kjipuktuk, the Immigrant Migrant Women’s Association of Halifax, and the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS), as well as a long list of physicians and academics. 

“Making a phone call often has its own challenges”

The letter calls for targeted outreach to people without permanent residency status and migrant workers in their own languages, and to make sure that employers and frontline health workers are aware of the arrangement. The group also wants the province to make clear that personal information will not be shared with other government bodies. 

Making a phone call often has its own challenges, Smith says, and the group is also asking that accommodations are made for people who for instance may need the help of an interpreter.

The province must also send a clear message that there will be no information sharing with other governmental bodies such as the Canadian Border Services, the letter states. 

Many of the people we work with who are going through the refugee claim process come to us initially without status. We’re concerned about their access to vaccines because of the fear of interacting with government institutions, says Smith.

Most of the changes the letter suggests are small fixes, but will make a big difference, says Catherine Bryan, an assistant professor at Dalhousie’s School of Social Work, and another signee of the letter.

“We’re just trying to ensure that the people who are charged with managing the vaccination effort have a clear understanding of what is required, or not required, and that they communicate that effectively to people,” Bryan says.

“And the people themselves need to know that they can get the vaccine, and that it’s going to be free of charge. And also that they can do so safely, knowing that, if their status is up in the air, that they’re not going to be arrested, they’re not going to be detained. There need to be some kind of assurances, so that people feel secure as they’re accessing the vaccine.”

Good enough to work, good enough to stay

The requirements listed in the letter serve an immediate purpose, to get people vaccinated even if they don’t have a health card. But much more needs to be done, Bryan says,

“At the end of the day the province needs to commit itself to ensuring more equitable access to health care, regardless of people’s immigration status. Extending coverage to people who are not permanent residents would be a good start,” says Bryan. 

“Many temporary workers who come to Nova Scotia year after year are saying  that they would like to stay. There should be a mechanism to more effectively transition people to permanent residency, regardless of educational attainment, training, and all of those sorts of criteria that we tend to apply in immigration,” she says. 

“It’s that old adage, good enough to work good enough to stay. These folks have been in so many ways on the front lines of COVID. They’ve been doing the work to ensure that we can access food, that things are clean and sanitary, that we are cared for, that our elderly are cared for. They’ve been carrying the burden of the pandemic, and that needs to be recognized.”

Response from the province

On April 9, one day after publication of this story we received a response from Tracy Barron, a spokesperson for the province.

“We are in discussion with groups that support newcomers to understand their concerns and identify how best how to support their vaccine confidence. Based on these discussions we have been translating materials into other languages and ensuring all materials in English are written in plain language and/or with pictorial descriptions.  We are staying in close contact with these groups to identify any issues with the rollout. If it is determined that newcomers are not booking appointments, we will continue to explore new ways to increase their access to the vaccine,” Barron writes.

“Our frontline health care staff are prepared to vaccinate anyone with an appointment regardless of whether they have a health card or not. We take privacy and the protection of personal health information seriously. Information is only shared with other agencies as it relates to the immunization and this does not include identifying information,” Barron writes.

We have asked the province to comment on the issues raised in the open letter, and we will update this article when we receive the response.

See also: COVID-19’s impact on migrant workers adds urgency to calls for permanent status

The post Too many barriers to vaccine access for migrants, open letter states appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Kudos to the union leaders who spoke up at the recent Health Committee meeting of the Nova Scotia Legislature. They raised several points, most of which they have been raising well before the pandemic. Here is the video to that meeting:

Nationally, about 81 per cent of COVID-19 related deaths were residents of long-term care homes. In July 2020, a paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that for-profit long-term care homes had a significantly greater number of COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths than non-profit homes. Our seniors deserve better. They deserve better than 2.45 hours of care per day they get today in our province.

The unions have been advocating for a long time to raise that to 4.1 hours of care. Frankly, the deputy minister’s response to that issue was more about looking to justify the government’s inaction on the subject. The system was broken before COVID, but the pandemic has significantly impacted long-term care residents in Nova Scotia.

The system of long-term care in our province is, for the most part, a private for-profit system and that must end. I think it’s fair to say that the residents and staff in long-term feel neglected, based on their treatment and working conditions.

The Liberals have reduced the budget for long term care in Nova Scotia which makes it difficult to ensure that adequate staff and proper infrastructure needs for residents are met.

Numerous reports have called for enhanced staffing levels and more beds in long-term care for years – all ignored by the government.

The Deputy Minister’s comments at that Health Committee meeting at the Legislature are reflective of that failure. Until there is enough staff to meet the need in long term care homes, seniors will continue to suffer.

If our elected leaders won’t fix the problems in long term care now, then it’s time for them to take a walk in the snow. All Nova Scotians know that care for our seniors is an urgent matter, that needs action now.

The pandemic has exposed what’s under the surface, and it runs deep in a system that’s been broken for a long time. The Federation and its affiliated unions will intensify their lobbying to ensure that long-term care must be offered as a public service under the Canada Health Act.

Priorities must be:

– Removing private, for-profit businesses from the sector.

– Bringing long-term care into the public system and regulating it under the Canada Health Act.

– Requiring proper staffing and health and safety protections for workers; and

– Permanently raise wages and benefits for long-term care workers to match the value of the work.

We hope that you will join as we build a campaign to improve long-term care in Nova Scotia. Our Federation will do all we can to make sure our seniors get the care and the respect they deserve when they are in a care facility and make sure governments make better choices when it comes to our seniors.

Danny Cavanagh is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour

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December 17, 2020

Dear Premier McNeil,

As you leave your role as Premier, we write to ask that you re-consider the decision to build a $30 million dollar, 8-storey, 500-stall parking garage on one of the last remaining public open green spaces on the Halifax Common. Approximately 20% of the Common is used as parking, almost all for provincial health care facilities. The 1000-stall parking garage planned for the former CBC building site will certainly provide enough parking for years – build it first and the parkade on the Museum of Natural History grounds becomes unnecessary. The decision for the Museum property parking garage taken by Minister Lloyd Hines, requires careful second sober thought.

As I am sure you are aware, the Halifax Common was granted “for the use of the inhabitants of the town of Halifax as Common forever” (1763-2020). Of the 245 acre grant, less than 20% remains as public open space. Please consider better options for dealing with parking beyond expanding onto greenspace. For example:

• The parking lot next to the Veteran’s Memorial Hospital should be where a robotic parking garage is built. This turnkey build would be a cheaper, more compact, more efficient, less polluting, provide faster parking delivery and pick-up service than a conventional parking garage and is near the hospital entrance. It is an option that is technologically proven and is used in many North American and European locations with a similar climate to Halifax. This option was investigated and put forward to John O’Connor by the QEII project’s lead engineer and architect. Yet, for no apparent reason the robotic parking garage option was explicitly excluded as an option in the RFP without a legitimate consideration.

• Work to provide other transportation options. Over 50% of hospital parking users are hospital staff who work between 8am – 5:30pm. Over 50% of those surveyed as part of the re-development work agreed that they would consider other transportation options. This is such a wonderful opportunity to support citizens willing to reduce their reliance on individual car use. Many options are possible for incentives (i.e. free fare transit passes, preferred parking for car pools, car-share, park and ride, showers and lockers for active transportation etc.)

• Many of the traditional ways that health care is delivered are changing. A certain amount of new work and healthcare solutions such as telecommuting, e-appointments and consultations will continue to reduce overall parking demand.

• Consider the health and safety impact of over 1500 vehicles arriving and leaving within the same small area as the Citadel High, the NS Museum, the hospitals, the skate park, the aquatic centre, the Oval, the playing fields and hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists commuting to and from downtown. Traffic emissions are a principal source of air pollution and the leading cause for Canada having one of the world’s highest rates of new childhood asthma. It is also linked to other lung diseases, higher risk of dementia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and MS.

We ask you, as the Premier who has successfully and with care led Nova Scotians through the COVID crisis, to carefully reconsider the placement of the parking garage and show the same kind of leadership ability by choosing better solutions. We want you to cancel this parking garage and instead make beautiful again the space around the Museum, including restoring the Freshwater Brook that is now uncovered where this garage is planned.

The FHC is a non-partisan, volunteer-sector organization, with a membership and contact list of some 3,300 persons. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Peggy Cameron, Co-chair, Friends of Halifax Common (by email)

Cc: Dr. Brendan Carr, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Randy Delorey, Labi Kousoulis, Iain Rankin, Gary Burrill, Tim Houston, Andy Fillmore, Shawn Fraser, Mayor Savage, FHC Membership

Peggy Cameron is Co-chair of the Friends of Halifax Common  www.halifaxcommon.ca. twitter- @FriendsHalifax    facebook- halifaxcommon

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How well is Nova Scotia’s health system serving the Black community during the pandemic?

Not well at all, says Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, who is the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology.

We spoke about the province’s refusal to collect disaggregated race-based data, the impressive mobilization against COVID by members of the North and East Preston communities, and the challenges of vaccination. More than anything, we spoke about racism.

I’m hesitant to ask, because it’s such a huge topic, but here goes. How well is the Nova Scotia health system serving the Black community? 

Everything we’ve seen from studies shows that African Nova Scotians and Black people in Nova Scotia have relatively poor health outcomes, and that there are disparities in the health system. 

If we draw from that research, then I would say Nova Scotia is not doing a very good job. If Nova Scotia actually respected that research then they would engage in collecting disaggregated race-based data so that they themselves can identify where they need to do better, and possibly where they’re already doing a good job. 

One of the reasons why they don’t collect such data, we’re told, is this claim that they’re colorblind, that they don’t see a person’s colour. This false belief exists not just in Nova Scotia but across the country. They believe that being colourblind means they’re acting in an equitable way.

How does this racism manifest in the health system when we think about the pandemic?

Both Dr. Strang and Premier McNeil have said that now’s not the time to collect race-based data. They make these claims that COVID doesn’t discriminate, and neither does the health system. 

However, data that’s now being collected nationally, in Toronto, in Manitoba, in the United States, and in the UK, show that in fact COVID is very discriminating. COVID looks for the most vulnerable individuals who live  in the most precarious circumstances, and  pounces on that population. For instance, even though Black people in Toronto only make up 9 percent of the population, they’re making up 30 percent of COVID cases. 

Poverty is one of the main reasons for this. Working in multiple jobs, being unable to work from home, relying on public transportation, lacking paid sick days, not being adequately housed, living in food deserts. As well, systemic racism exacerbates chronic illness, and racism has a physiological response in the body. All these factors mean that you are more  susceptible to illness, and that it takes longer to recover. This is not  born of race, it is born of racism. 

So if Nova Scotia, were actually honestly concerned with how COVID is impacting vulnerable communities, then they would collect the data. Because we don’t know if African Nova Scotians are also 30 percent of the cases. And that’s such a significant number. It shows negligence on the part of the province, because on one hand they’re saying, look, we kept numbers low, we have the Atlantic bubble, our processes are working, but on the other hand, are refusing to consider any data that may contradict that.

Is this a case of systemic racism?

People are often confused about what systemic racism is. They believe that racism consists of individual actions and individual beliefs, and they are unable to identify that the very structure which the system is operating in is created out of racism. Trying to get people’s head around that is daunting, it’s so much easier to claim that these are individuals acting in isolated moments.

I’ve tried hard to find any statements where Dr. Robert Strang ever mentioned African Nova Scotians or health disparities, and I can’t find them. That is actually an indicator of systemic racism, the fact that he seems to refuse to engage conversations around Black people in Nova Scotia. It’s astounding to me that somebody in a position like his would continue to refuse the conversation around experiences of African Nova Scotians. When Dr. Strang held that public town hall with the African Nova Scotian of the North Preston rapid response team, he was so belligerent. It was the classic demonstration of white fragility. He certainly never apologized to the North Preston community. 

Meanwhile, we witnessed folks in North Preston and East Preston mobilize against COVID  very early on and take charge. How significant was that? 

The North Preston rapid response team has been amazing. Community members saw what was happening as early as January, and they came together to make sure their communities were taken care of. Knowing that public health didn’t care about what could happen, they effectively became public health workers. They knocked on doors, they held meetings, they hosted all of these events. They insisted that public health clinics be held in North and East Preston, making sure that there were culturally representative posters. 

See also: Miranda Cain on COVID-19 and the Prestons: “The little we do have, we have done it ourselves”

They did all that work, even after Strang and McNeil publicly attempted to stigmatize them and of course harm them. They stood up against that. They demanded a meeting, they demanded an apology, something they didn’t get, and still they worked in the community. It is because of their work that not one person died. Nobody has thanked them for that work.

See also: Open letter demands the Premier and the Chief Medical Officer apologize to African Nova Scotian communities

There’s now a  province-wide African Nova Scotian rapid response team, to really make sure that the work of public health is ethno-racially responsive. This is all directly because of what’s happened in North Preston.Their work is resonating with Black communities across the country.

Now there is talk about potential hurdles among some in the Black community when we turn our thoughts to vaccination.

It will help nobody if public health were to attempt to shame people, claim that Black people are simply being anti vaxxers. For the vaccine to be distributed effectively, there need to be four simultaneous actions taken by public health. 

One is a provincial health promotion piece that not only talks about the safety of the vaccine, but demonstrates an understanding of why Black people and Indigenous people would be suspicious about a vaccine. There is a reasonable suspicion because of how historically Black people often have been thought of as test subjects and not as patients in need of care. 

Second thing is that public health workers must partner with community members, knocking on doors and holding information clinics together.

Thirdly, they need to make sure that they have clinics in rural communities, so people don’t have to travel long distances. And again, those clinics need to be populated with community members to facilitate that process. 

Finally, there must be a commitment that marginalized populations are supported through the long haul, to respond to anything that may come up once the vaccine has been taken. 

All this illustrates how urgent it is that public health has these very conversations around systemic racism that they refuse to engage in. Public health is supposed to be well versed in the social determinants of health. One of those social determinants of health is racism. And if a public health body cannot acknowledge how racism is impacting African Nova Scotian communities, then why would African Nova Scotians trust that public health would be able to care for them during a pandemic?

See also: Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data

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Media Advisory – Sept 27, 2020 

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) Friends of Halifax Common (FHC) are calling on the Halifax Regional Municipal and Nova Scotia governments to scrap the $30 million dollar, 500-stall, 8-storey parking garage planned for the Nova Scotia Museum property as part of the proposed $2 billion dollar QEII hospital expansion. 

The province has recently come to the city with yet a fourth version of the parking garage and pedway over Summer Street, flipping the orientation and chewing up more of Halifax Common’s green space.

“It is time for the Mayor and Council to say to the Province that no parking garage is needed at all, and it is time to say that HRM’s policies are for no more loss of green space on the Common,” said Howard Epstein, FHC director. “Finally, Council needs to remind the Province that under section 213 of the HRM Charter it has pledged to take HRM land-use policies into consideration.” Epstein is a former City Councillor, 5-term MLA and planning professor at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law.

FHC maintains that the QEII hospital re-development should be restricted to Halifax Common lands already assembled by the Nova Scotia Health Authority. The Authority already plans additional underground parking under the new hospital buildings and a second 1000-stall parking garage on the former CBC-TV site.  20-25% of the Halifax Common is used for parking, the majority by the Health Authority.

In February, FHC presented a ~3,000 signature electronic petition to City Hall and to the NS Legislature. The signatories opposed plans for a 7-storey parking garage and steam plant on the south side of the NS Museum. A second HRM Council “compromise” plan with the Province to instead build these on a western portion of Summer Street failed. Now the third 8-storey parking garage option needs more easement and a new orientation.

In a 2008 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) about land swaps between HRM and the Province it was agreed ‘as a condition of sale, (that HRM and the Province) approve the key Urban Design Principles and Site Planning Guidelines’ and Collaborative Planning.  So far the Province is not following that or any of the other conditions outlined in the MOU.

FHC believes that both levels of government need to work together and pursue better options to solve parking problems at the hospital. These could include park and ride, shuttle buses, employee e-passes, and car share arrangements.  

It is obvious that Lloyd Hines, NS’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal does not understand what a bad idea the new parking garage is. We are 10 years from a climate catastrophe, and the minister is fiddling while the city burns. The Mayor and Council should stop dancing to the tune.

~30~

Media contact:  Peggy Cameron     p.cameron@ns.sympatico.ca  

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Nova Scotians denied access to insured health services include undocumented residents, some temporary foreign workers, some international students and some asylum seekers.“We need COVID-19 assessment centres and related care to be explicitly accessible to all people, regardless of immigration status,” reads an excerpt from the open letter. “Beyond this, we must recognize that people experiencing symptoms associated with COVID-19 will seek care through community clinics and hospitals, and therefore these sites must also be free and accessible to all.” The open letter, with the full list of demands, can be viewed online here.

Ontario became the first province to announce that it would temporarily expand health insurance coverage to include all migrants in response to COVID-19. The governments of Quebec and British Columbia followed suit.

“In order to fight this pandemic we need to ensure everyone in Nova Scotia has the health care they need, regardless of migration status” said health care activist and NOII-Hfx member Chris Parsons. “We need to eliminate all barriers to people accessing care, and that’s even more important in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Health care professionals and concerned community members are encouraged to sign on to the open letter.

NOII-Hfx has also recently released a community advisory with information and resources for migrants needing support in the context of COVID-19.

NOII-Hfx calls for permanent residency status for all, including access to all public services such as health care.

Media ContactNo One is Illegal – Halifax/K’jipuktuk, NOII.Hfx@gmail.com

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 KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Just like people who are incarcerated in jails and prisons, the 800 or so people who live with developmental disabilities and are institutionalized in Nova Scotia are at high risk of being exposed to COVID-19. 

After all, whether incarcerated or institutionalized, outbreaks are very difficult to control as practicing social distancing in these places is pretty well impossible. 

Like jails and prisons, institutions for persons with developmental disabilities are under a lockdown order, meaning no visitors allowed and residents are not permitted to leave the premises.

See also: Government should do much more to protect institutionalized people with disabilities during the pandemic

The news we are hearing about prisons in the States and elsewhere in Canada is extraordinarily grim. In response, quite a few incarcerated persons are being released. In Nova Scotia residents of institutions are not so fortunate. 

COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between nursing homes and institutions

Many of the people who reside in institutions, and their loved ones, likely were not reassured when Dr. Strang addressed these risks at yesterday’s daily briefing.

To put it bluntly, he did a bad job of it.

The question around risks was posed by Tim Bousquet, who writes for and  runs the Halifax Examiner. Earlier this week the order under the Health Protection Act, the same order that mandates social distancing, was amended to provide further clarity and rigour on how the Medical Officer of Health wants to manage risks in nursing homes funded by the Department of Health and Wellness.

Why did the amendment not include the institutions funded and licensed by the Department of Community Services, Bousquet wanted to know.

“These types of homes don’t have the same level of nursing care, and many of the directives would not be applicable to those institutions,” Strang said. “They are certainly vulnerable, please don’t get me wrong, but they don’t have the same level of vulnerability as many of our frail elderly. Simply, it’s a different setting than a long term care facility.”  

Disregarding for now that many people would quarrel with the term homes for these very institutionalized settings, Strang’s response also ignores the fact that quite a few residents of these institutions are at risk because of their advanced age or medical conditions, no less so than residents of long term care facilities. 

Anyways, whether you are incarcerated, live with disabilities or are just old and in need of support, the risks of an coronavirus outbreak are equally terrifying.

Meanwhile, almost all of the new protocols that are now binding in nursing homes, protocols around screening, monitoring, new admissions, testing, notification and so on, are equally applicable to any facility in lockdown, whether its residents are old or not. 

Accountability is crucial, says human rights lawyer

Not including the DCS-funded facilities is a serious omission, says Claire McNeil. 

McNeil is a human rights lawyer who in a recent Nova Scotia Human Rights Tribunal represented the Disability Rights Coalition, a group of organizations and individuals advocating for community-based solutions such as small option homes, rather than institutionalization.

See also: Things I learned at the human right enquiry into supportive housing for people with disabilities, so far 

“This order has the force of a court order, there are consequences and punishments if the order is not followed. The department of Community Services is not taking responsibility in the same way that the department of Health and Wellness is,” says McNeil.

McNeil is especially worried about the plan to isolate people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 within the confines of the institution.

Joyce D’Entremont, chair of Diverse Abilities NS, an association of the large institutions in Nova Scotia, defended the practice when I spoke with her earlier this month.

“We deal with situations like this all the time in the Community Services sector. Influenza is around every year. We have very strict isolation protocols and processes where staff would wear Personal Protective Equipment and would limit you from going in other rooms, etc. We have very well defined processes,” D’Entremont said.

But for McNeil the risk remains a grave concern.

“The  model of isolating people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 within the confines of the institution, what we’re hearing from other jurisdictions, such as Italy, is that that’s a mistake. Within an institution the virus spreads so easily that even with best intentions and best effort, there’s a huge risk. You should not keep someone who has the virus in an institutional setting,  where as we know, there are shared bedrooms and so forth. Social isolation and physical distancing measures are pretty much impossible there,” says McNeil. 

“Especially at a time when you may find yourself short staffed  because of people having to self isolate and take time away from the workplace. It’s a perfect storm.”

Another new provision in the Health Protection Act order allows for the admission of new residents during the lockdown.

“The short term or temporary admission should be halted and suspended during this pandemic and provisions should be made for those supports and services to be provided in the community as a public health measure,” says McNeil.

Similarly, the people who are infected should be moved out of the facility, McNeil believes.

Accommodate infected residents in the community 

“There are lots of creative solutions. There is lots of empty hotel space and other empty spaces in the community right now as a result of the outbreak that would be available,” says McNeil.

“It’s very sad to say, but it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. The province hasn’t put a priority on building our community based support services systems, such that right now that creates a huge problem in terms of providing the kinds of support that people who are elderly or  who have a disability will require,” McNeil says.  

D’Entremont suggests that the institutions within her organization are well positioned to weather the pandemic.

“We are taking many, many measures within our four walls to ensure social distancing with our clients with disabilities. We have increased our cleaning, all high touch surfaces are being cleaned numerous times  each day,” D’Entremont says.

“We are screening staff now as they come into the facility. We take their temperature? Do you have flu-like symptoms? Have you traveled outside of the province? Have you been in contact with anybody who has been infected?  And we are assuring staff that if we mandate them to quarantine for 14 days, they will be paid, it will not be out of their sick bank,” she says. 

McNeil still wants to see accountability and transparency defined the same way Dr. Strang’s order did for the department of Health and Wellness. 

“We’re not clear what the mandatory requirements are of those institutions, and how they are enforced. We’re not questioning that people are having the best of intentions to run these organizations and institutions, that they’re doing their very best. We certainly recognize that this is a hugely difficult time for their staff and management. But that’s why we say, all the more reason for Community Services to show some leadership and create the framework that everybody’s looking for,” says McNeil.

See also: People with disabilities must be at the table to help guide us on this very scary path – An interview with Sherry Costa

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This article was originally posted on the website of the James McGregor Stewart Society. Re-posted with permission. 

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – In newspapers and on TV, Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s Chief of Public Health advocates strongly for preventative measures against Covid-19:

People are being urged to protect themselves through good hygiene like coughing into sleeves, not touching their face and washing hands often. Although Strang said those instructions sound basic, they are “really important.”

People should frequently wash their hands well, cough or sneeze into a tissue or their sleeve, avoid touching their face and give distance to people when socializing.  If a person is sick with a fever or cough, they should stay home for the duration of their illness or wear a mask if they need to go out in public. “These sound basic, but they’re really important and they actually work,” Dr. Strang told the Chronicle Herald. 

I wonder when Strang got hand washing religion. Four years ago, wheelchair users asked Strang to weigh in on enforcement of the province’s food safety regulation requiring “washroom facilities for staff and washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location” in restaurants.  He was indifferent:

“There is agreement that your concern is best handled through the NS Building Code. I suggest that you contact Mr. Joe Rogers, Building Code Coordinator, Office of the Fire Marshall in the Department of Municipal Affairs.” he wrote me in March, 2016

Thus began a four year detour through the depths of justice and human rights in Nova Scotia.  More on this later.  

So for most Nova Scotians, the very best antiviral measure is, “WASH YOUR HANDS”.  For wheelchair users, “Call Joe”. Why the difference? Wheelchair users are used to it, and we call it discrimination.

See also: Warren (Gus) Reed: Waiting 14 months and counting for the simple right to wash my hands

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The post Warren (Gus) Reed: The need to wash your hands before it became all the fashion appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Minister of Justice Mark Furey, Nova Scotia Department of Justice, markfurey.mla@eastlink.ca

Minister of Health and Wellness Randy Delorey, Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, Health.Minister@novascotia.ca 

Mr. John Scoville, Executive Director, Corrections, John.Scoville@novascotia.ca 

Mr. Colin Stevenson, NSHA Vice-President – Health Services, Quality and System Performance, Colin.Stevenson@nshealth.ca 

Ms. Samantha Hodder NSHA Director – Mental Health and Addictions Samantha.Hodder@nshealth.ca

Dear Ministers Furey and Delorey, Mr. Scoville, Mr. Stevenson & Ms. Hodder: 

RE: Actions urgently required to ensure health, safety and human rights of incarcerated populations as well as public safety during COVID-19 crisis 

We (East Coast Prison Justice Society, Elizabeth Fry Societies – Halifax Mainland and Cape Breton, NS Prisoners’ Health Coalition, and Women’s Wellness Within) are writing on an urgent basis. 

Provincial corrections and the NSHA — responsible, respectively, for the safety and health of prisoners as well as public safety — are well aware of the escalating crisis of COVID-19 and the importance of immediate measures to protect imprisoned populations (as well as staff working in provincial jails). 

We concur with the recent statement of Nicole Austin-Hillery of Human Rights Watch: 

“All governments . . . have an obligation to protect the rights of people deprived of their liberty, including the right to health, especially when custody heightens the risks they face. . . Officials . . . should take immediate steps to prevent transmission of the coronavirus and consider finding alternatives to custody for those who are at high risk should they become infected.”

Second, we endorse recent statements of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, on ensuring that actions aimed at mitigating risk of COVID-19 spread do not disproportionately burden vulnerable populations in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. As provincial jails disproportionately house “individuals protected from discrimination under the Code, including Indigenous and racialized people, people with disabilities and addictions . . . and other vulnerable groups,” it is essential that government’s mitigation plans “adopt a Public Health and human rights-focused approach to addressing evidence-based risks associated with COVID-19 in government- run facilities.” As the Ontario HRC further points out: 

“Individuals in these facilities also have the right to be free from discrimination including harassment related to COVID-19 in the provision of services on grounds under the Code. Under the Charter, these individuals have a right to privacy, liberty and security of the person and the right to protection against discrimination, arbitrary detention, and cruel and inhuman treatment, subject to reasonable limits.”

Given the importance of ensuring that rights-respecting measures are adopted to protect those in state custody at this time, we ask that you publicly indicate within a 48 hour period how you will exercise your joint responsibilities to respect human rights while assuring prisoner health and safety. Specifically, we seek responses on whether Nova Scotia will commit to the following calls for action (and if so, the timelines for action):

1 – As Ontario has done, grant all intermittent inmates temporary absence from custody until this public health response is no longer required;

2 – Using mechanisms such as temporary absences, move persons at heightened risk of complications from COVID-19 out of facilities into appropriate community settings immediately. Elizabeth Fry Societies Mainland and Cape Breton have increased capacity for this purpose; alternative forms of community release and supervision may be required in some cases, including release to private homes, to ensure the life and health of the most vulnerable prisoners is protected. This includes all persons over age 55 (arguably, the comparable age to 65 in prisoner populations is 50), those with compromised immunity, those with respiratory conditions and other chronic health conditions rendering them more vulnerable to complications from COVID-19, and pregnant people (who are likely to be immune-compromised); 

3 – Using mechanisms such as temporary absences, release from custody mothers and other primary support parents. This is required in order to ease the serious psychological stress of separation during a pandemic crisis, and to ensure safe supervision of dependent children who without a primary support parent may be in precarious living situations; 

4 – Ensure that health segregation is not used as an alternative to community placement per #1-2, and that no one is placed for any duration in the most oppressive of health segregation cells – in CNSCF, the windowless pressurized cell apparently intended for immunosuppressed or contagious prisoners; 

5 – Ensure that risk mitigation strategies are evidence-based and do not unduly restrict prisoners’ liberties – this means avoiding reliance on prolonged or indeterminate lockdowns / solitary confinement. Isolation / solitary confinement for any duration has been recognized to have profound, potentially permanent effects on the psychological and social functioning of persons with pre-existing mental health conditions. For other prisoners, prolonged and indeterminate isolation has been shown to have grievous effects on psychological and physical health and is recognized by Canadian appellate courts as contrary to the Charter; 

6 – Ensure that prisoners have regular access to phone communications with lawyers and family – e.g., through cost-free use of additional cordless phones. The recent statement of correctional responses to COVID-19, permitting two free phone calls per week, is a start, but two calls are inadequate during a time of public health crisis, during which concerns of and about family members are likely to be intensified, as is the pressure to use phones for communications with lawyers; 

7 – Ensure that prisoners have regular access to programming and other activities, modified as required by evidence-based public health considerations. We are concerned about the recent statement of correctional responses to COVID-19, placing a bar on visits from volunteer organizations. The role of organizations such as Elizabeth Fry Societies, Women’s Wellness Within, John Howard and others includes maintaining routine and enabling prisoners to focus on positive goals and relationships. This is critically important at this time of heightened stress. Justice and Corrections should work to identify ways of mitigating risk while maintaining volunteer access and programming (albeit potentially in altered forms) as far as possible. 

8 – More generally, identify and implement best practices to ensure that the highest public health standards are met in a manner that is least restrictive of residual liberties. This must include, at a minimum, increased rigour and frequency of sanitation measures. These responsibilities should not be delegated to prisoners but instead should be carried out by trained and adequately protected staff. At the same time, prisoners must have access to effective hygiene and sanitation products without cost; 

9 – Finally, make detailed action plans for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 among incarcerated populations available to the public in a transparent and accessible manner. 

We realize that a request for a response to these action items within 48 hours, on matters requiring coordination among multiple branches of government at the highest levels, would in ordinary circumstances be unreasonable. In the present context, it is the only alternative consistent with our organizations’ mandates to work with and for imprisoned populations to ensure their rights and safety are protected. 

If we do not hear from you within the time period noted, we will intensify our joint efforts to spur further public attention to these matters. However, as you know, with each day the challenge of taking an appropriate response escalates as do the consequences for the most vulnerable. 

We will be issuing a separate statement calling on the Minister of Justice, police, courts, Public Prosecution Service and other relevant justice system actors to coordinate efforts to expedite bail hearings and revisit court-ordered pre-trial custody, and otherwise make urgent efforts to prevent new admissions to jail and reduce the numbers of people currently incarcerated. This is required in light of the pressures facing provincial jails and the heightened individual and public health consequences of incarceration at this time. 

Again, we appreciate that these are trying times. As you know, it is in such times that our elected leaders and civil servants must do their utmost to safeguard human rights and protect the well being of those most vulnerable to discrimination and attendant disproportionate burdening. 

We look forward to your timely response. 

Yours, 

Sheila Wildeman

Sheila Wildeman, Co-Vice Chair, East Coast Prison Justice Society
for the Boards of East Coast Prison Justice Society, Elizabeth Fry Societies (NS Mainland and Cape Breton), NS Prisoners’ Health Coalition, Women’s Wellness Within

cc.: Deputy Minister of Justice, Karen Hudson; Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Kevin Orrell; Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Robert Strang; Director, Nova Scotia Correctional Services, Mr. Chris Collette; Superintendent, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Mr. Adam Smith; Superintendent, CNSCF East Unit, Eileen Collette

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