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The Advocacy Centre for the Elderly is a community based legal clinic for low income senior citizens. ACE is managed by a volunteer board of directors at least half of whom are seniors. ACE is funded through Legal Aid Ontario and is the first legal clinic in Canada to specialize in the legal problems of seniors.

ACE provides direct legal services to low-income seniors, public legal education, and engages in law reform activities. ACE services and activities are in relation to areas of law of special importance to the seniors' population.

Residents and staff at long-term care homes have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

The Ontario government launched an independent commission to investigate the spread of COVID-19 within long-term care homes.

The Commissioners of Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission have a mandate to investigate how and why COVID-19 spread in long-term care homes, what was done to prevent the spread, and the impact of key elements of the existing system on the spread.

It has the power to consider any further areas where the government should take action to help prevent the future spread of disease in long-term care homes. Above all, the commission is expected to provide the government with guidance on how to better protect long-term care home residents and staff from any outbreaks in the future.

On Wednesday, September 23rd ACE Executive Director, Graham Webb, and Institutional Advocates, Jane Meadus and Alyssa Lane, made oral and written submissions to the Commission. 

Click here for the complete transcript of ACE's oral submissions.

The commissioners are expected to deliver their final report by April 30, 2021.

What's New? 

• Benefits of Legal Clinics for Ontario, April 29, 2019
• See our Spring/Summer 2018 Newsletter
• ACE's submission to the Standing Committee on General Government on Bill 160, Strengthening Quality and Accountability for Patients Act, 2017
• Notice re Chronic Care Co-Payment Calculation since September 1, 2017
• Short-Term Transitional Care - A Flawed Model - Spring/Summer 2017 Newsletter
• See our Spring/Summer 2017 Newsletter 
• ACE made submissions on the Rental Fairness Act, 2017 before the Standing Commitee on General Government on May 10, 2017

ACE in the News

• CTV News - St. Jacobs retirement home issued licence revocation by governing body - February 22. 2020
• Global News - Family takes on Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care at Human Rights Tribunal - January 7, 2020
• Hamilton Spectator - Hamilton families say vulnerable seniors ‘paying the ultimate price’ in Conservative cuts to long-term care - August 16, 2019
• CBC News - 'Bed blockers' ate up 298 years of bed time at LHSC
                       over 4 years - Nov 5, 2018
• CBC News - Staff, not studies, needed to fix gaps in long-term care, says nurses
                       union - Oct 9, 2018
• CBC Listen - Seniors' Safety Follow - Sept 5, 2018
• TVO - How can home-care users hold personal-support workers to account
           - Aug 7, 2018
• CBC Listen - The height of the heat wave has passed, but with a high of 33 degress
                       forcasted for today it's still pretty tough - Jul 9, 2018
• CBC News - Heat wave drives elderly couple from sweltering nursing home - Jul 5, 2018
• Toronto Star - Hospital failing seniors, retirement home officials say - Jul 3, 2018
• Ottawa Citizen - When dementia patients commit crimes: Can Canada's justice
                            system handle the 'grey wave'? - Jun 22, 2018
• The London Free Press - 'Worldwide attention': What to expect as killer nurse
                                           inquiry starts - Jun 5, 2018
• Toronto Life - Hallway Health Care - April 16, 2018
• The Sudbury Star - Inquest jury in Sudbury wants action - April 12, 2018
• Ottawa Citizen - Quebec sets rules for use of surveillance cameras in long-term
                             care homes - Feb 13, 2018
• CBC News - St. Thomas hospital denies using threats, pressure tactics to toss out
                       grandma - Feb 1, 2018
• Toronto.com - ALC patients, known as 'bed blockers', straining Scarboroug 
                         hospitals - Jan 29, 2018

Previous Stories

These documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print these publications. [Free Download]. If you are using a visual reader and cannot read PDF documents, please contact ACE for a hard copy of the document.

This site is maintained by the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (“ACE”). If you have any questions or comments about this website, please contact ACE at (416) 598-2656. Persons contacting ACE do not become clients unless and until ACE agrees to act for the person as confirmed in a retainer agreement or retainer letter. The publications and other information at this site are provided as a public service. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information found here. However, this information is not legal advice. Persons using information or links from this website do so at their own risk and release ACE from any liability for injury or damages resulting from such use.

If you are not already a client of ACE, no information provided to ACE (including to any staff, students, or volunteers of ACE) will be considered confidential. Confidential information should not be provided to ACE without the prior agreement of ACE. If you have a legal problem, see a lawyer or contact a community legal clinic. Persons wishing to obtain legal assistance from ACE should telephone ACE and proceed through the client intake process, through which ACE will determine whether it is able to provide legal assistance.

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