More than two years after former nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to murdering eight seniors in her care at two long-term care homes in southwestern Ontario, the findings of a public inquiry aimed at preventing future such deaths are about to be released.
The long-term care homes public inquiry report and its recommendations will be made public at the Holiday Inn in Woodstock at 12 p.m. on July 31.
Inquiry Commissioner Eileen Gillese, an Ontario Court of Appeal Justice and a former Western University law dean, will deliver remarks at that time before co-lead commission counsel Will McDowell and Mark Zigler lead a question-and-answer session with the media.
The release of the inquiry findings is open to the public.
Wettlaufer pleaded guilty in June 2017 to eight counts of first-degree murder, four counts of attempted murder, and two counts of aggravated assault for injecting helpless seniors in her care with fatal doses of insulin. The murders occurred between 2007 and 2014 in nursing homes in Woodstock and London. Wettlaufer's crimes did not come to light until she confessed to them while at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in 2016. The 52-year-old ex-nurse is currently serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. She is considered the worst health care serial killer in Canadian history.
The inquiry into the safety and security of residents at Ontario’s long-term care homes was announced on the same day Wettlaufer was sentenced. Its formal hearings began last June and lasted nine weeks. Among those granted permission to speak at the hearings was Beverly Bertram, who Wettlaufer admitted trying to murder in her home. Several family and friends of Wettlaufer’s victims also spoke at the inquiry.
The purpose of the inquiry was to examine the circumstances surrounding Wettlaufer's crimes and the policies and procedures that may have allowed them to continue without detection for such a long period of time.
