Long Term Care Inquiry Continues

Wednesday, 18 July 2018 12:15

Elizabeth Wettlaufer's crimes continue to be examined at the Public Inquiry being held in St.Thomas.

ST.THOMAS - The Public Inquiry into Elizabeth Wettlaufer's crimes continues at the St.Thomas Courthouse. The hearings have been live streamed for media and the public as there has been a heightened interest in the case of the former nurse from Oxford County.

In the recent weeks, the hearing has been examining the various long term care facilities Wettlaufer has worked at. Appointed Co-lead Commission Counsel, Mark Zigler says the inquiry will now shift gears.

"Currently the coroners are giving their evidence, and some of that is looking forward in terms of what can be done."

Each and every death in a nursing home was examined carefully by a coroner up until 1995 when government budget cuts came in to effect. Changing the statistics to one in every 10 deaths now being investigated.

The Inquiry is being executed under Justice Eileen Gillese as Commissioner, who was appointed to Ontario's highest court in 2002. Gillese has been mandated to ensure that not only the details of Wettlaufer's crimes be examined, but the contributing circumstances surrounding the murders as well.

Zigler says there hasn't been a lot of new information to surface and he is confident that any recommendations will come in a fair manner from Justice Gillese.

"Our investigators did a lot of work going through hundreds of thousands of documents before we started the public hearing, and it is the Commissioner's judgment ultimately to determine what is learned from it and where we go moving forward."

Public hearings will continue for the next three and a half weeks in St.Thomas; with testimony from local Coroners, Chief Pathologist, representatives of the College of Nurses, and representatives from the Provincial Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

The current phase of the hearings will wrap up on August 10th, followed by three more days of hearings in Toronto with additional experts providing evidence. All parties will return to St.Thomas near the end of September for the participants to make their closing submissions and their recommendations to the Commissioner.

The Commission then goes in to the consultation/writing and report stage, with a full report published by July 2019.

The goal of the Public Inquiry is to make recommendations of policy and procedural changes to avoid similar tragedies from happening in the future.