Ambrose: Trudeau is a “Cottage Coward” for letting seniors down

Trudeau’s supporters were out in full force as they blindly defended him last week after the military report on long term seniors care in Ontario was released. 

We all understood the report and were angered by its findings. I almost cried when talking about the bedridden veteran in last week’s video, where he told two army medics, “I knew you wouldn’t leave me behind. I knew you would come for me.”

As a military veteran myself, I swore to protect all Canadians and lay down my life if it ever came to that. And, to hear that story was heart-wrenching. I was sick to my stomach

Fortunately, former and current colleagues felt the same as I. This war hero, like so many others, was left behind by the system, and we held them accountable.

Recently, I received private messages from people with loved ones in long term care facilities. They provide direct insight into the dire state of long-term senior care in Canada.

One page supporter said their family was devastated, as they could not get in to see their father. A few weeks ago, the care home arranged for families to visit their loved ones by designating a room on the ground floor where the family could see and talk to their loved ones through the window.

She went to see her father, where he looked exhausted and stressed. He was complaining that his feet hurt, so his daughter asked him to remove his shoes and to show her his feet. It turns out his toenails had not been cut in months, and they were ingrown so bad his feet were bleeding.

Some of their loved ones were drugged so they would sleep all day and be easier to handle.

One family went to visit their mother on mother’s day, and the facility workers brought the wrong senior into the room. The senior was very happy to be visiting someone, but the family never did get to see their mother, and she passed away three days later from non-COVID-related health issues.

Another commented in frustration, stating the prime minister was a “Cottage Coward.”

We have remained far too quiet while thousands of our seniors are neglected, abused, and have died as a result.

In Ontario, 82.5 per cent of eastern Ontario’s COVID-19-related deaths from long-term care facilities occurred in for-profit homes, which are regulated by the provincial government.

While less than 40 per cent are private, for-profit projects, funding at the provincial level has been insufficient, according to advocates, citing far too many beds per room, amongst other factors.

China owns dozens of long-term care facilities across Canada

Concerns over the purchasing of infrastructure, including mining companies, oil companies, and farming, by the CCP have been outlined and banned in a new Conservative motion. 

Seniors’ homes have also been purchased by ‘independent’ corporations influenced by the CCP.

In a 2018 Financial Post article, reports indicated that the Chinese government seized control of the largest owner of retirement homes in British Columbia, Anbang Insurance Group.

That same year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians that senior facilities would be regulated by the BC government, “ensuring the rules for the care of seniors continue to be followed.”

An investigation of the private insurer’s former chairman, Wu Xiaohui, was launched and later uncovered that he fraudulently raised billions from investors. 

He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and had $1.6 billion US in assets seized.

In British Columbia, the CCP owns more than 20 homes, where at least three have been subject to dozens of complaints about “neglect, emotional abuse, staffing shortages, health and hygiene issues and dangerous facilities.”

According to the National Institute on Aging, 82 per cent of all COVID-19-related deaths by early May were of long-term care residents. That amounts to 3,436 of 4,167 deaths nationwide.

In British Columbia, 111 long-term care patients, from all ages, died from COVID-19, which is a far cry from Ontario and Québec, where over 1,500 and 2,500 have perished.