After making a film that deals with such a heavy topic, my first question is: How are you doing? It must have take an emotional toll.
For sure. I never expected to make a film on long-term care, actually. Although I’m always interested in people and how they relate to each other — and questions about care and power — I never never expected to actually spend four or five years on this subject.
But it’s like destiny sent Melissa [Miller] to me, because I was just on the internet, and I came upon this press conference, from 2019. It was before the pandemic, with [Miller] speaking about how there was so much negligence in long-term care. And I just knew that she was going to be the subject of my next film, so I called her. I didn’t have any money for the film — I just called her cold and said, “Do you want to make a film together?” So that was sort of the birth of the film. And being with [Miller], who fights against nursing home negligence, and represents some of the most vulnerable people in Canada — it’s a tough subject as you suspect, but just being with someone who has so much passion, and sort of a good righteousness in terms of fighting for justice, I feel very uplifted.
So she was already well into the fight when you made that call.
Yes. Melissa is a very charismatic person and a very devoted lawyer, in terms of seeking justice for her clients. They’ve tried everything — whether that’s writing to governments, or going through family councils or whatever — and Melissa is this sort of last-gasp stop to seeking justice. And I find those people that really want to change our society for the better very inspiring. She didn’t go into law thinking, Oh, I’m going to be a thorn in the side of corporate long-term care. But that’s what happened because she was receiving so many calls from clients who had very serious grievances.
What were some of the worst stories you’ve heard?
I think a lot of the worst things are a lot of little things that happen on a daily basis. What I heard — again, and again, and again — were that people will come into long term care being able to use the bathroom independently, but because there’s constantly staff shortages, there aren’t people to take them to the bathroom to prevent falls. So people are then put into diapers, and they’re left with their soiled diapers for hours on end. So that is a very constant story, which is so disheartening, because it’s just unthinkable for anyone who is healthy enough otherwise. But this is a very, very common occurrence.
The other thing I’ve heard is just wounds from a lack of movement and a lack of being turned. So there’s ulcers on the body with terrible bruising, and wounds that can become life threatening. And often, especially in corporately owned care homes, there’s a lot of people who end up being sent to hospitals with emergency injuries. People’s oral health is also not looked after. We hear a lot about overmedication. We don’t want to know that these things exist because the idea of us or our loved ones having to face these kinds of injustices is just beyond imagination. So I tried to make a film which allows us to look at these things, through the eyes of someone who’s fighting for justice.
Miller works in Toronto, but you’ve found it’s a Canada-wide problem, correct?
Yes, it’s a Canada-wide problem, but right now in Ontario, with the highest rate of privatization, it’s kind of the canary in the coal mine, because it’s telling us this is what happens when we have more and more privatization of health care. But I’ve just been on a meeting with representatives from elder-care organizations in the States, in Britain, in Europe, and everyone is saying that it’s exactly the same situation — not just in Canada or even United States, but in the world.
So is it safe to say that is your film’s conclusion — that where privatization goes, poor elder care follows?
It’s the main issue of the film. It’s what happens when care and profit go hand in hand. The film is not saying that all private care homes are bad. It’s more saying that corporate chains are really worth looking at, for what is happening, and asking what happens when that kind of corporate profit model comes into care, and particularly elder care, that results in these urgent cries from so many clients that are calling [Miller] every single day.
Do you find it’s part of a larger problem with capitalism? In the sense that the people running these corporations aren’t super villains who actively want to harm old people — they just really want to make profits.
I share that feeling. I think it’s not even a personal issue. I think it’s just the way that the system is working. It’s the logic of the system to make money. It’s the logic of the system to be answerable to shareholders. So that’s what we’re looking at in the film, and I was very surprised to learn that even a lot of pension plans are tied into the for-profit elder care system. It’s a bit ironic that a lot of pensioners are being rewarded by higher pensions, or for their investments, but at the same time, the long-term care is being diminished, and it’s where older people might end up. There’s something quite nonsensical about that.
The film shows footage of employees treating elder clients terribly. But it also points out that many employees are victims too, especially women of colour.
I think the motto of the film is that the conditions of work are also the conditions of care. And it’s true that we look at how the workers are not given proper contracts, and then they’re just not given the time and resources, training or respect that are needed to be a good caregiver. And I think anyone who’s ever cared for a child or an older person knows that care is a really hard job. You need time and support to do it well, and when we don’t support and respect our care workers, there’s going to be bad consequences.
And it’s true that — I’m sure it’s the same in Alberta as it is in Quebec and Ontario and other provinces — most of the work is going to racialized women of colour. In the film, I have a little scene of going to a college where care workers are being given education and training. And I was really surprised — even after all the reading and research I’ve done — I think there was, in class of hundreds, maybe one or two people who were not of colour.
One of the big conflicts in the film for Melissa is getting all the cases en masse to prove it’s a systemic issue, and successfully sue these companies. But then she expresses frustration at only being able to sue for money — which is often paid for by insurance companies — not compliance. It makes it sound like meaningful victories are few and far between.
I would say that the mass torts are one strategy in [Miller’s] toolbox. And since the film finished shooting, a lot of the cases in her mass torts have been settled off to the benefit of her clients. But that’s not to say that the companies or the courts have changed laws. So she’s forever working on new strategies, and ways to get at the highest levels of the corporate ladder of these long-term care companies to contest what’s going on, to build new laws and new protections, and to demand accountability.
Stolen Time, which is produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Intuitive Pictures Inc., runs March 24 and 26 at Metro Cinema.
