Justice committee  What is happening in health care—the statistic was given here about the growth of the aging population—is going to have a huge impact. The way services are rolled out and implemented, waiting times, having enough resources and enough people to do the work—these things constitute

Justice committee  In our multidisciplinary team, we do get referrals passed on from the police asking us to go and knock on the door and check into a situation. If they say they don't wish to engage with us, then we step out. We are trying to get to an understanding if there is any concern, and ju

Justice committee  The other thing I would love to add about duty to report is that there has to be education so that they can see it in the first place. That's lacking. Once you talk about it with someone who calls or does intake, they think, “Right, I probably should have called a couple of month

Justice committee  I tend to agree. I would like to see the focus beyond the age, because someone was left vulnerable due to those factors and exposure to abuse, and maybe not so much on the significant....

Justice committee  Of course, especially because we work so closely with the police officer on the multi-disciplinary team.

Justice committee  I only have a hesitation because I'm scared that it would turn into a debate.

Justice committee  Well, it's people's perception. I've worked on a case where the son would come and borrow $100 to $200 a month and then she couldn't pay rent. That was extremely significant to her. In a court of law, is that going to be looked at when you have a comparison of the example I gav

Justice committee  I would agree with all the points you outlined. Our hotline is quite busy. We even get many professionals calling and saying, “I'm not sure if this meets the criteria” and “What do we do?” So it's supporting all of these things. Duty to report is an interesting one because there

Justice committee  Duty to report, especially for professionals, is something that should probably be highlighted and looked at. Then we should be looking at not just the federal level, but the provincial level as well, so there is pressure from above to make all of these changes.

Justice committee  Speaking from what our team does, we look at 65 and over, but we also look at the surrounding circumstances. We've accepted cases as young as—I think our youngest was 58—because of mental capacity, and well-being and what not, and the huge level of vulnerability.

Justice committee  You raise a very valid point, because when I read that, I did think of that myself. Does it open up the gates to a defence lawyer’s asking what “significant” is?

Justice committee  Right. I thank you for bringing that up because that did cross my mind as well. That's the last thing I would want to see as an amendment—that brings up more a sense of define this, define that, that doesn't quite meet our threshold. How do you create and define a threshold for t

Justice committee  Thank you. It is with great honour and humbleness that I present today in front of the committee on such an important matter, not only for the teams I represent, but for many elders across our nation. Catholic Social Services in Edmonton developed the elder abuse resource and