This hour, to bring you the Prime Minister’s daily briefing, which we’re told could be a little bit later than 11:15 eastern today. We’ll bring you up to date on that as soon as we can. Of course, the world now has surpassed two million cases of COVID-19, according to john Hopkins university, which has been tracking those statistics on a regular basis. Here in this country, the numbers remain high. But the point of focus and the area of vulnerability continues to be long-term care centers across this country, particularly outbreaks in Quebec and Ontario. and so we’ll talk a little bit more about how governments are moving to try and bring in additional support for some of Canada’s older Canadians in this country. Let me bring in Vassy kapelos and david Cochrane as we wait for the Prime Minister. We are expecting today, Vassy, that Prime Minister will fill in the gaps on the canadian emergency relief benefit because there were people that were left out and we have seen this with the policy the government pushes out the door very quickly that some people don’t get included and so the government goes back to try and fix those things and get those people the money.

Vassy:

Yeah, rosey, the government er and specifically the Prime Minister signaled that they would aim to do that in the coming days and My understanding is there will be some additional details provided about that. This has largely been driven by members of the opposition as well who have made sure to include the exclusions, if I could put it that way, in any kind of agreement they made to support, for example, the wage subsidy legislation over the weekend. They had the government, and the government was very willing, considering they signaled already, to be very specific about the need to address people not covered by the CERB. That is the $2, 000 you can access if you lost your job due to COVID-19, if you have to stay home because you’re sick or stay home to care for someone who’s sick or even if you have to stay home to take care of your kids because schools are closed. People who haven’t traditionally already been covered include students, for example, who had expected work this summer and though there’s some announcements geared toward students, many felt they were still missed by the government program. Student, for example. People who have lost the majority, but not all of their income, or have lost all of their income but anticipate some work in the further, just not enough to pay their bills. The second thing that I’m watching for is questions towards the Prime Minister on the W.H.O., the world health organization. Last night president trump announced that the United States was suspending its funding, was halting its funding of the W.H.O. Which amounts to about $400 million. He has concerns. About the reliance of the W.H.O. As he characterizes it on china and the data that came out of china. Of course, various leaders around the world relied on that data and, in fact, even the president said that china was doing a good job in late January. Obviously the opinion – his opinion and others have changed. So, I’m interested to see what the Prime Minister has to say about that action toward the W.H.O. and how reliable he feels the information coming out of china has been.

Rosemary:

Me, too. [laughter]Andrew Scheer was asked this very question and he seems to be more skeptical about the W.H.O. and certainly laying a lot of blame at the seat of china and the way it shared information and there was some reporting around that this morning that did raise eyebrows. But the president, as you rightly say, that the W.H.O. Took china’s information at face-value and didn’t ask enough questions and is now making the connection between that and why the W.H.O. Should continue to have funding from around the world. David, you know, this government has relied very heavily on the W.H.O. To explain why it is making certain decisionsful our own chief public health officer is an advisory member of one of their boards at the W.H.O. So I’m not sure it is going to go down the same path as donald trump. Need throws say there are certainly questions about how china handled the pandemic itself and what kind of information was shared.

Reporter:

Yeah. I don’t think there’s any real doubt amongst the international community that china was perhaps lying and completely covering up what was happening inside its own borders. There is a strong report by the associated press that they allowed lunar festival celebrations to happen in Wuhan when they were aware of human-to-human transmission and aware that there was an outbreak and waited six full days before they went public with that because of the secretive nature of the chinese regime and this is a problem in a time that calls for great transparency, openness and sharing of information so people can make key decisions and institutions and governments can respond. So, the culpability that exists with china has not yet been quantified but I think it has become evident to a lot of people. It is interesting to note, though, that the same president of the United States who attacked the world health organization for relying too heavily on china yesterday and cut off their funding was, in January, tweeting and praising president xi of china for his wonderful transparency and having control of the situation on the ground there. So not for the first time there’s some revisionist history being written by the official Twitter account of the president of the United States. None of that changes where we are today and how people are responding. and sort of the accountability that is happening in realtime is happening as each new slice of information becomes available. It is very difficult to get a complete picture as we get this information on the fly because what we believe today on some things could change, tomorrow could change next hour. That is just the way things have been unfolding here. Yeah. a big finger being pointed at china by the most powerful country on earth and by a lot of critics inside this country, like jason kenney and Andrew Scheer. It is a bit more challenging, I would suspect, for the Prime Minister and federal cabinet ministers to wage that sort of verbal battle with the chinese government right now. Because Canada needs personal protective equipment and they need to get a lot of it from china. and the time for accountability for china will come. It is very difficult for the Prime Minister to come down to that podium that we’re looking at right now and launch an attack on that when they’re trying to get air Canada and cargo jet planes into shanghai to get equipment out of china to get it to the front lines of canadian health workers. It is a very difficult challenge for the government to manage that at this point in time.

Rosemary:

The u. N. secretary-general said it was not time to cut funds to the W.H.O., that the international community should be working together to fight the virus. As Vassy pointed out, the United States funds the W.H.O. To a huge amount, $400 million. Canada is the 17th biggest donor just after china. So, the world essentially pays into the W.H.O. To help facilitate research, scientific research, development of vaccines and drugs and very particularly plays a role in developing countries. and making sure that they can contain the spread of other diseases and viruses. If that started to become an issue for many countries – and there are other countries other than the United States asking questions about the W.H.O., but if we got to a place where the W.H.O. Suddenly the funding fell apart, that, I think, would have immediate health ramifications around the world. and, you know, I’m not saying the W.H.O. is good or bad here, I’m just saying that, based on the things that they have done in the past, there may be an opportunity for questions. But the consequences of pulling out of the W.H.O. For the world I think would be quite deadly to be quite honest. We just got word that the Prime Minister will be a little bit late this morning. He will come at 1 1:30 eastern but he will get questions about the W.H.O., primarily because of donald trump’s decision to stop funding to the W.H.O. For a period of 60 to 90 days to review how it has behaved or dealt with china’s lack of information to the world health organization. We are, of course, still expecting him to give more information as Vassy explained there about some of the people that felt they were left out of the emergency relief benefit. They’ll make that clear as will officials at noon briefing. I want to focus in on one of the stories we’ve been following throughout the past couple of weeks now. It has become very clear that long-term care center and seniors homes in this country are being hit much harder with this virus than anywhere else. Dr. Teresa tam now saying that more than half of 800 cases in this country are inside those centers and that even as growth of COVID-19 starts to slow, it is not slowing inside retirement homes and long-term care centers. Moira davis recently lost her father and he was a resident of a montreal-area long-term care center for seniors. It is now under investigation by public health authorities and the police and moira is in creighton, Saskatchewan. Good to see you and My condolences about your father.

Thank you, rosey. Thank you for having me.

Rosemary:

You chose to put your father in this gnome hereon back in 2016. What was your impression of the place when you made that decision?

I toured five other residences. My dad had been in a previous residence that wasn’t meeting his needs. So, I wanted to move him. and Le hereon presented to me a community. I saw residents there interacting with one another, playing games, cards, laughing, all that sort of stuff. So I I thought oh, we have a community here where he’ll have mental stimulation, he’ll develop relationships and I didn’t see that interaction amongst residents at the other four places, private ones that I had gone and toured.

Rosemary:

So, he was there for a while. and when did you start getting the sense that maybe things were not going as well as you had hoped?

Initially we always had issues in terms of communication with respect to his medical care. But in terms of this latest COVID-19 outbreak, I knew things were going south after I received the second e-mail from the home on the 29th advising me that there were three cases and on the 30th, H spoke with the leasing agent there and specifically asked where the cases were and was one on My dad’s floor and she said yes. So, I knew then. Given what was going on in Ontario.

Rosemary:

and your dad was an older guy, 96, I believe. What kind of underlying health conditions did he have? did he need a lot of care? were you immediately concerned that he would be impacted?

I was immediately concerned. He was 96. So wanted to make 100 to get that letter from the queen. [laughter]but he did have a host of health issues. He was wheelchair-bound, legally blind. Going deaf. They needed a lift to get him in and out of bed. I became very concerned after receiving the e-mail on the 27th when they told me they would be confined to their rooms. Because I knew that his world would be quite small and I couldn’t get information phoning and e-mailing to see if he ever got out of bed or was dressed or anything.

Rosemary:

and you paid additionally for some workers to come in, though, because you were out of the city and I believe your sister is, too. So you’re not there hands-on. You wouldn’t have been able to go in anyway. But you paid for additional support, did you?

Yes. I live in Saskatchewan. My sister lives on the east coast – west coast, I should say. and she made arrangements with a professional company that supports seniors to arrange for someone to visit My dad two to three times a week. They would do things like have conversations and listen to his stories, do cross word puzzles, that kind of stuff. As well, My dad had peripheral vascular disease and ongoing issues with his feet so My sister arranged for a foot care specialist to come in every few weeks to address his feet and to be able to provide her with an unbiased third-party analysis of how his feet were doing.

Rosemary:

and what happened the last time you spoke to your dad? what was he able to tell you or what was your sense of how he was doing?

He – he wasn’t doing well. I phoned every day after the first e-mail. I last spoke to him on Monday the 6th. the conversation was very brief. Three minutes and 20 seconds. He had difficulty speaking. He was very weak. I could tell that his breathing was very shallow so I did most of the talking. and at tend, as we always did, we just said we loved each other.

Rosemary:

He was not tested for COVID-19, but you do believe that that is probably what killed him.

We are unsure at this point whether or not he was tested. Because we can’t – again, information. We did request. We did request when we got the phone calls from the nurse and the doctors the night before that he be tested after he passed. We don’t have any true clarification.

Rosemary:

and now, of course, we know that 31 people have died in that residence, five of them from COVID-19. There is an investigation going on about how people were cared for. What are your thoughts now, seeing how the devastation just inside this one home?

Well, at the time when things were going south for My dad, we were completely unaware of what else had been going on in the home in the prior two weeks. When I spoke with the nurse the night before, I specifically asked if they thought he had COVID-19 and she basically said to me that they assumed everybody did. and that they had stopped testing. So that was after the government stepped in. I’m completely unsure as to how that decision was made. and then after My father passed, two days later reading the explosion in the Montreal gazette” and then the CBC about what was going on in the home prior, My question now is did he die of COVID-19, did he die of neglect or did he die of both?

Rosemary:

I’m just waiting for the Prime Minister, who’s now going to be on time I think, Moira. and I haven’t said your dad’s name. What was your father’s name?

Stanley.

Rosemary:

Now that you are seeing this outbreak across the country in long-term care centers, what would you like to see from government officials or public health officials to help people like your father stanley or other people that are stuck inside these homes right now? what is needed?

Oh, the whole system needs to be torn to the ground and rebuilt. You can’t patchwork this anymore. This is a ship that is sinking. You need to rebuild a new ship.

Rosemary:

and – go ahead, Moira. Sorry.

Honestly, they talked about the home being a red zone. It’s a crime scene. and now when everything hit the fan two days after My dad died, we have so many questions as to why things went the way it did. But I do have hope that between the investigation from the coroner’s office and the criminal investigation from the police, we will get reporting and answers that will develop a completely new framework going forward.

Rosemary:

As I’m waiting here for Prime Minister Trudeau, tell me one thing about Stanley. What kind of fellow was he? I know he was from Winnipeg, just like me. What else should I know about him?

Brilliant mind. Masters in physicsful could talk on any conversation. Loved to visit. Raised three kids after My mom died when I was 17. Took on three foster kids when their parents passed. Every person talked about his kindness and how he shaped their lives. My life and My sister’s life’s and foster-siblings and many other family friends, their lives are what they are now because of My dad. and I don’t ever want to think that he died as a number or a statistic. He was a human being. He had a busy life. He deserved so much better as did every other member who has passed in that home and every other home across this country.

Rosemary:

I’m going to go because the Prime Minister is speaking. Again, My condolences about your father Stanley and to your whole family. Thank you for speaking with us. Here is the Prime Minister of Canada.