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In the final episode in our series about the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in long-term care, we're going to tell you a different kind of story. A story of hope. About how the people we treat as disposable, can have lives of joy and dignity. And about one place where they were given exactly that.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Moira Welsh (Toronto Star), Mary Connell

To learn more:

"The Fix" by Moira Welsh in The Toronto Star

"To Fix Long-Term Care, Homes Must See Residents As People, Not Patients" by Sherina Harris in HuffPost

"We Must Do More To Protect People With Dementia" by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

Additional music from Audio Network

"I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor" by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.

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Four months after the first outbreak in a Canadian nursing home, over 7000 long-term residents have died of COVID-19. But if you look at the news or social media or our political debates, it seems like we've already moved on. Maybe that's because it feels like this kind of tragedy was inevitable during a pandemic. It wasn't. And we know that because in some places in Canada, politicians and public health officials made decisions that saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Samir Sinha, Isobel Mackenzie, Michael Schwandt, Kieran Moore

To learn more:

"If you can get your relatives out of seniors' homes, try to do so as fast as you can" by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

"With an early focus on seniors' residences, Kingston has so far avoided the brunt of COVID-19" by Karen Howlett in The Globe and Mail

Luck and timing: How B.C. has managed to avoid the worst-case COVID-19 scenario by Briar Stewart in CBC News

This episode is sponsored by Rotman's MBA Essentials Online

"Clean Soul" by Kevin Macleod, adapted.

Additional music from Audio Network

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Jonathan Marchand is one of the thousands of young disabled people living in long-term care. But Marchand doesn't want to fix the system. He doesn't think it can be reformed. Marchand is an abolitionist. For a century and a half, Canada has hidden away disabled people in institutions where they were neglected and abused. Is long-term care just the latest incarnation of this dark history?

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Jonathan Marchand, Sharon J. Riley (The Walrus), Kenneth Jackson (APTN News), Madeline Burghardt, Dustin Galer

To learn more:

"When Is a Senior No Longer Capable of Making Their Own Decisions?" by Sharon J. Riley in The Walrus

"'Sitting duck': Disabled woman, 27, lives in Toronto seniors home with COVID-19 outbreak" by Kenneth Jackson in APTN News

Working Towards Equity: Disability Rights Activism and Employment in Late Twentieth-Century by Dustin Galer

Broken: Institutions, Families, and the Construction of Intellectual Disability by Madeline Burghardt

Hope Is Not a Plan

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

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After a stroke left him locked in his own body, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana has found ways to lead an incredibly full life. Then the pandemic came. It swept through Quebec, leaving a trail of devastation. Today, Rabbi Cahana is one of the thousands of Quebeckers left stranded in the middle of one of the worst disasters in modern Canadian history.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Aaron Derfel (Montreal Gazette), Tamara Sussman, Kitra Cahana, Ronnie Cahana

To learn more:

"Once a retirement plum for Quebec elders, nursing homes are now symbols of neglect" by Les Perreaux in The Globe and Mail

"The incredible stupidity of not putting Dr. Joanne Liu in charge of Quebec's response to the coronavirus" by André Noël in Ricochet

"How Montreal's CHSLDs mirrored the Diamond Princess outbreak" by Aaron Derfel in the Montreal Gazette

This episode is sponsored by Wealthbar

Additional music from Audio Network

"I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor" by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.

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Innis Ingram's mother is his hero. But today, she's living in one of the worst hit long-term care homes in Ontario. She has a terminal illness. Dozens and dozens of people around her have died, including her friend and roommate. And she's had minimal human contact for three months. But even though he can't be there with her, Innis is determined to get her the care she needs.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Innis Ingram, Nathan Stall

To learn more:

"Ontario LTC whistle-blower saw many incidents of verbal abuse and forced feeding" by Jill Mahoney and Karen Howlett" in The Globe and Mail

"It's time to let families visit long-term care homes" by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

"Some Ontario doctors, families worry rules for care home visits causing harm to residents" in CBC News

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

"Western Shores" by Philipp Weigl, adapted

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We take a break from our PANDEMIC season with an extended interview with Damian Abraham, a guest from our episode about Canada's wrestling dynasty, The Harts. Damian explains the art of juggling the real and the fake, wrestling's dying language and how Canadians helped build World Wrestling Entertainment.

Damian Abraham is the host of Turned Out A Punk Podcast, the creator and host of The Wrestlers, and a member of Toronto hardcore band, Fucked Up.

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Long-term care workers are in the vanguard in the war against COVID-19. They're not the kinds of workers who get movies or TV shows made about them. In fact, their stories are rarely told. But not only are they battling heroically against this pandemic. They're fighting for recognition and respect within a system built to marginalize them.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Joadel Concepcion, Joanna Bulatao, Lisa Burke, Naomi Lightman, Zaid Noorsumar

To learn more:

"'We are dropping like flies,' says Ontario home care nurse" by Zaid Noorsumar in Rank and File

"Fear and exhaustion: Working as a PSW in long-term care during the coronavirus" by Alanna Mitchell in Maclean's

"Comparing Care Regimes: Worker Characteristics and Wage Penalties in the Global Care Chain" by Naomi Lightman in Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

$5/month for-adree COMMONS by clicking here.

Over the last two months, Nova Scotians have endured tragedy upon tragedy. The worst mass murder in modern Canadian history. A helicopter crash and the death of a Snowbirds' pilot. And all the while, COVID-19 ravaged the biggest long-term care home in Atlantic Canada.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Jennifer Henderson (Halifax Examiner), Janice Keefe

To learn more:

"Nova Scotia's lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic" by Taryn Grant, Cassidy Chisholm, Elizabeth Chiu and Alex Cooke in CBC Nova Scotia

"The Northwood board has been expressing "grave concern" about double occupancy rooms for years" by Jennifer Henderson in the Halifax Examiner

"Strang, union clash over COVID-19 concerns at Northwood" by John McPhee in The Chronicle Herald

This episode is sponsored by Wealthbar

Additional music from Audio Network

"I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor" by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.

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Tracy Rowley lost her surrogate mother to COVID-19 in a long-term care facility. But she's determined that Shirley Egerdeen doesn't become just another statistic. Tracy's suing the company that runs the home. But one of the strangest things in this story is exactly who owns them.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Tracy Rowley, Sherina Harris (HuffPost Canada), Emma Paling (HuffPost Canada), Zaid Noorsumar To learn more:

"COVID-19 Has Killed 164 At Revera's Care Homes. Their Families Want Answers" by Emma Paling and Sherina Harris in HuffPost Canada "Is it Time to Care Yet?" by Zaid Noorsumar in Rank and File

"It is time to forget the profits and fix long-term care" by Geoffrey Stevens in The Waterloo Region Record

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks and The Jerry Cans

Additional music from Audio Network

Over 1700 Ontarians have already been killed by COVID-19. And the vast majority of them died in long-term care. But if you live in a private, for-profit home, you're much more likely to die from this virus. The for-profit long-term care industry is politically powerful and deeply entrenched. Is this their moment of reckoning?

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Sharleen Stewart (SEIU Healthcare), Natalie Mehra (Ontario Health Coalition)

To learn more:

"Party of Profits: Ontario Tories and the profit motive in long-term care" by Zaid Noorsumar in Rank and File

"For-profit nursing homes have four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes, Star analysis finds" by Marco Chown Oved, Brendan Kennedy, Kenyon Wallace, Ed Tubb and Andrew Bailey in The Toronto Star

"40 Ontario nursing homes with the highest rates of reported abuse" by Valérie Ouellet, Dexter Brown in CBC Marketplace

This episode is sponsored by WealthBar

This show was brought to you by our patrons. Please consider becoming a monthly supporter.

Additional music:

I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque

"Clean Soul" by Kevin Macleod, adapted.

The McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre has experienced the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in Alberta. But some people say that their loved ones were killed by neglect at McKenzie Towne long before the pandemic even began.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Breanne Sinclair, Shauna Parks

To learn more:

"'I'm numb': families beg for help as care home outbreak spreads" by Timm Bruch in CTV News Calgary

"Grieving granddaughter exposes history of McKenzie Towne continuing care home by Jill Croteau in Global News

"Nurses allege lack of cleaning and isolation contributed to deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Calgary care home" by Jennifer Lee in CBC News

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

This show was brought to you by our patrons. Please consider becoming a monthly supporter.

Additional music:

"Unanswered Questions" and "Clean Soul" by Kevin Macleod and "I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor" by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.