The Constitution & Honouring the Elderly

Michele Campeau, left, visits with her mother, Ruth Poupard, 83, at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare where she is recovering from a broken hip, in Windsor. on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Poupard also suffers from dementia and requires 24-hour care. (Dax Melmer/The Canadian Press)

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 20: 12 NRSVue

 I hope we will all pay close attention to the challenge to the consitutionality of an Ontario law that treats frail and sick elderly people like chattel. The legislation is called the More Beds Better Care Act is one of those chilling, Orwellian double-speak terms (think 1984) designed to take away the rights of our elders and their families.  I have nothing but disgust for the current government which grossly neglected the elderly living in institutions during the COVID epidemic resulting in a disproportionate number of deaths. Below is a description of what is unfolding in this challenge, according to a CBC report. 

Seven years ago my late mother's cognitive and physical health declined because of Parkinson's Disease and we had to make decisions about moving her from assisted living to nursing care. My brother was a friendly but firm advocate for her care and fortunately a helpful administrator and a social worker heard our mutual concerns. We were able to move her into an excellent nursing home situated between the two of us which kept the drive to half an hour for each.

Our elderly loved ones need the support of family and friends and moving them far away from support is cruel, especially when they are confused or infirm. They also benefit from the practical compassion of their faith communities. In many congregations there are wonderful individuals who visit what we once termed "shut-ins" and there are still clergy who visit in care homes, including our son, Isaac and our nephew Michael. They are both in their 40s but they understand the importance of this aspect of ministry. 

In several of the congregations I served we had a schedule for nursing home worship services and I was touched that a number of choir members would faithfully attend, along with pastoral care team members who would make sure our folk were brought from their rooms. In one home in Sudbury we learned to be careful not to schedule services that would coincide with Happy Hour! Words would often put residents to sleep but hymns and the sacrament of communion touched a deep place for many. 

What happened to honouring our elders, a biblical commandment? I wish that the days would not be long for this government but they seem to make these decisions without consequence.  I hope that at the very least this consitutional challenge will bring attention to those who are so often "out of sight, out of mind." 

A new charter challenge set to get underway on Monday will test the constitutionality of a controversial Ontario law that allows hospitals to place discharged patients into long-term care homes not of their choosing or face a $400-per-day charge if they refuse.

The Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and the Ontario Health Coalition argues the law, known as the More Beds Better Care Act or Bill 7, violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The province disagrees.

One core item the court will address is whether the new law has fulfilled its purpose by improving the flow of patients. Documents filed with court reveal the two sides have reached different conclusions on that question.

Premier Doug Ford's government rammed Bill 7 through the legislature within days in September 2022, bypassing public hearings. The law allows hospital placement coordinators to choose a nursing home for a patient who has been deemed by a doctor as requiring an "alternate level of care," or ALC, without consent.

They can also share the patient's health information to such homes without consent. Patients can also be sent to nursing homes up to 70 kilometres from their preferred spot in southern Ontario and up to 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario. The law sparked outrage among seniors.