Ontario’s NDP leader is calling for a police investigation of the Rosslyn Retirement Residence in Hamilton.
Andrea Horwath, who is also the MPP for Hamilton Centre, has sent a letter to Hamilton police Chief Eric Girt asking him to reopen any investigations into the operations of the facility and potentially other retirement residences that are operated by the same owners.
She says it’s time to send out “a clear signal that this kind of lack of attention to the needs and the quality of life, and just the well-being and safety and health of people who live in these facilities has to be priority #1.”
Residents of the Rosslyn account for one-third of Hamilton’s 42 deaths related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In May, the Hamilton Police Service began an investigation into the neglect of one senior who was left behind when the facility was ordered to be evacuated due to precarious short staffing and its residents were moved into the care of local hospitals.
Horwath calls the Rosslyn a “house of horrors”, citing media reports in recent weeks of seniors left in filth, mouse droppings and bedbug infestations.
At some point, she says, “this is not just about bad business practices, it’s not just about not being poor managers of the facility.”
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