# Just So Everyone Is Clear On Who The Ontario Govt. Thinks Is More Important



## Bruce Monkhouse (30 Oct 2009)

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/10/30/11575836-sun.html

Cons to get shots, but not guards
Decision to snub staff 'ridiculous'

By SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 30th October 2009, 4:55am


Inmates at Ontario jails and correctional centres will be vaccinated for the swine flu Monday, while the guards protecting them have been told their clinics have been cancelled, the Sun has learned.

"This puts us at risk," says Matthew Duffy, an officer at the Toronto West Detention Centre who's a shop steward for OPSEU Local 517 and a "wellness" representative.
"They've told us they are holding a clinic for the inmates Monday, Nov. 1, but not one for us? It's ridiculous," he said yesterday.

The decision to take care of the health concerns of the inmates and not the officers is "insulting," Duffy said.

'POOR TURNOUT'

To suggest the clinics were cancelled because "there was poor turnout" in other years is ludicrous, he said.
"I mean this year there's a pandemic, isn't there?" Duffy said. "It's a little different."
And to add insult to injury, he said, the guards will be part of the security for the clinic.

"They want us to help put the clinic on and we're not getting the vaccine?" said Duffy, a 23-year veteran. "We have pregnant women on the job. It's not right."
The correctional services ministry couldn't be reached for comment last night.

MEMO

A memo sent to staff said the decision to not give flu shots to staff was based on poor turnout in other years.
"While inmates will be vaccinated at all institutions, the decision was made to not hold staff vaccination clinics at institutions this year due to the small uptake by staff in previous years," says the memorandum from Loretta Eley, of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

Also, a memo from Nancy Ogden, a nurse adviser in the ministry states: "Over the last three years of collecting data on our flu clinics, it was identified that in the majority of facilities that conducted flu clinics the employee turnout was poor and some cited this as 'disappointing,' not cost effective, etc." 









Of course it escapes the 9 to 5er's who run Corrections, and are so far removed from what working on a jail floor actually consists of, that at any one time only about 20% [or less] of your Correctional Officers are actually on duty. So if you schedule a clinic for a day, and then between those that decide not to get a shot and those that never get a chance to leave their post to get a shot, say less than half of those workers might actually get vaccinated.

Great way to justify stating very few show up...............I guess they got tired of trying to bash us with the Auditor's report about our 32 sick day average, oops, no wait, I forgot, the contracts been signed, now the average is magically 12 days.


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## OldSolduer (30 Oct 2009)

Typical decision of a bureaucrat who only cares for the "bottom line".

Fire her.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (30 Oct 2009)

OldSoldier said:
			
		

> the "bottom line".



This is a whole lot more than just about the bottom line........its all part of certain small folk's vendettas.


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## mariomike (30 Oct 2009)

It says, "Inmates at Ontario jails and correctional centres will be vaccinated for the swine flu Monday,"

That's nice.
Question: When are they going to start school vaccinations? 

P.S. I read "Hundreds of U.S. schools closed because of swine flu":
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091029/schools_091029/20091029?hub=Health

They found during SARS when that happened was that the kids just hung out at the malls.


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## Steel Badger (30 Oct 2009)

Bruce....

Too right! I am missing out. I am going to cut short my vacation here at CFRC and go back to the jail where I can be ignored, minimised, endangered and regarded with indifference and disdain by my employer just like any other good Correctional Officer....


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## CountDC (30 Oct 2009)

Wonder if they will have to wait in line just to be told they had to be there earlier to get a number so they can't get the vaccine.

Great system - the inmates won't get sick so that they can walk out when all the guards are sick. Love the Ontario government about as much as a hole in the head.


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## mariomike (30 Oct 2009)

CountDC said:
			
		

> Love the Ontario government about as much as a hole in the head.



Looks like it's not just Ontario:

Government of Canada:
"Federal prison guards in the Maritimes want to get the flu vaccine, but they're being told they'll have to go to public clinics."
http://www.news957.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20091031_081417_11400

U.S.A.:
"While children, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems wait in hours-long lines for H1N1 vaccines, some of their counterparts behind bars have no such hassle.
"And while prisoners can get the first round of shots, their jailers cannot. The CDC's priority list includes medical workers who work in prisons, but not the rest of the correctional facility staff."
http://www.sphere.com/2009/10/28/fury-erupts-over-h1n1-shots-for-prisoners/?icid=main

P.E.I.:
"Inmates get H1N1 vaccine, children told to wait":
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=299166&sc=98

Manitoba:
"Police not on priority list for vaccine":
http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091030/wpg_police_vaccine_091030/20091030/?hub=WinnipegHome

Alberta:
Police officers and fire fighters not included priority group:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091028/CGY_front_line_091028/20091028/?hub=CalgaryHome

British Columbia:
"British Columbia's sheriffs and correctional officers were alarmed Monday to discover that the H1N1 vaccine is being made available first to prisoners and then to staff."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-inmates-to-receive-flu-vaccine-before-prison-staff/article1339295/

Canada / Ontario / Firefighters:
Not included in Priority Group:
http://www.opffa.org/content/h1n1/Response%20to%20MOH%20Oct%205.09%20ltr.pdf

Toronto Sun / Update / 31 Oct 2009:
"Laura Blondeau, a spokesman for Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci, said jail guards who fall into a high priority group can be vaccinated at community clinics, just like other Ontario public service employees and the general public."

P.S. I came across this in regards to inmate versus truckers' smoking rights.
FYI, if interested:
"It's an odd world we live in: Ontario inmates now have more rights than truckers.":
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=2149100


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## CountDC (2 Nov 2009)

beep beep beeping lunatics are in charge !!!

Here I read this morning that the supply is a lot shorter than expected so everyone will have to wait longer and the governments is doing this shyte??!???

Here's a guess - they want the inmates to stay healthy so they can be healed of what ever tortured their poor soul and made them committ crimes.  Then they can return to society as a productive member after serving 1/4 of their sentence.


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## mariomike (2 Nov 2009)

CountDC said:
			
		

> Here's a guess - they want the inmates to stay healthy so they can be healed of what ever tortured their poor soul and made them committ crimes.  Then they can return to society as a productive member after serving 1/4 of their sentence.



Strong enough to rape and rob, and the public too sick to resist.
Calgary, Alberta:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Calgary+first+responders+challenge+shot+priorities/2171515/story.html 
"A new plan for vaccinations will see shots given only to those considered high-riskregnant women, children between the ages of six months and less than five years, people under the age of 65 with chronic health conditions and medical workers, including paramedics."
"Police, firefighters say they should be next in line"

Edmonton, Alberta:
"Cops and firefighters have been relegated to the “second tier” of front-line workers who will be eligible for H1N1 shots, Alberta's chief medical officer of health said today.
Dr. Andre Corriveau said while paramedics have been singled out as a top priority for the vaccination along with front-line medical workers, other emergency responders will have to wait until those considered the highest risk have had their turns."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/swineflu/2009/11/01/11599461.html


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## Bruce Monkhouse (3 Nov 2009)

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/2009/11/03/11616276.html?comments_page=3&id=11616276#/news/columnists/mark_bonokoski/2009/11/03/pf-11613581.html

Guards protest vaccination
Upset inmates getting swine flu shots while staff goes without

By MARK BONOKOSKI

Last Updated: 3rd November 2009, 5:22am

The Toronto West Detention Centre went into brief lockdown yesterday as plans to immunize all inmates across the province with the H1N1 vaccine were unexpectedly nixed at the last moment -- leaving at least 43 vials of the vaccine in cold-storage limbo at the Etobicoke holding facility. 
In the end, only 70 inmates identified as high-risk flu candidates were eventually administered the vaccine, thereby using up seven of the 50 vials on hand, although a poll by the institute's nursing staff last week came up with 282 inmates requesting the vaccine. 

The three-hour lockdown, which effectively confined all 641 inmates to their cells and brought all visits to a halt, came into play at noon yesterday when guards initiated a "work refusal," citing the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Service for its failure to properly institute its contingency plan for an influenza pandemic. 
And the guards are not wrong. 
Objective No. 1 of the ministry's pandemic plan, as outlined in a document obtained by the Sun, promises to "protect the health and safety of staff, inmates and the general public by implementing infection prevention and control measures." 

Yet, in reality, the ministry not only cancelled the seasonal flu clinic held annually at the centre, as well as at all correctional facilities across the province, it has also excluded staff from swine flu inoculations. 
It's prisoners only. 
So, in the vernacular of the guards, it was "tools down, and shut them down," until a ministry labour mediator downgraded their actions to a "complaint" and ruled them back to work. 

The work protest came in the wake of a Sun exclusive last week that inmates at Ontario's jails were to be vaccinated for the swine flu -- beginning yesterday -- while the guards protecting them were told their clinics have been cancelled. 
One inmate at the Toronto (Don) Jail was purportedly diagnosed with the swine flu yesterday, leaving the guards' union feeling even more hung out to dry. 

"We have to deal with these guys every day," said Toronto West guard Matt Duffy, chief steward for OPSEU Local 517. "These guys don't wash their hands, they live in their own filth, and we have to work among them every day -- face-to-face, and breathing the same unventilated air that they breathe. 
"Yet they get slated for the shot and we don't." 
Dismal conditions at Toronto's detention centres, even in normal situations, are historic -- which is why two-for-one, at the very least, has so become the norm in judges' sentencing that they are rarely questioned by Crown prosecutors, the media or the attorney general's office. 

Last December, for example, Premier Dalton McGuinty asked Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci to investigate high absentee rates among provincial corrections officers after Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter's annual report indicated jail guards book off sick an average of 32 days a year -- almost three times the average threshold. 

In response, Don Jail guard Crystal Moore, a vice-president of OPSEU Local 530, invited Bartolucci to tour the Don with her, and not with the carefully managed group that took him on a clinical tour a few weeks previous. 
And she gave him some advice to prep. 

"Please make sure you get your blood tested, as inmates carry every disease known, including but not limited to, Hep A, B, C, HIV/AIDS etc.," she wrote. "Stock up on cold medicines, as you are liable to catch a cold or the flu, since you are 'in their face.' The air in the inmate living unit, by the way, would be unacceptable in your place of work." 
Bartolucci took a pass. 

Meanwhile, back at the West, while 70 inmates were getting inoculated yesterday, all because they supposedly qualified as vulnerable, jail guard Anita Mastracci, seven months into her pregnancy, was not allowed to get one of the doses being dished out at her very jail where she works. 

"Because my (family) doctor has yet to get the vaccine, I am going to have to stand in line at one of the public clinics," said the 36-year-old expectant mother. 
"Forget that I am pregnant for a minute, but if I don't qualify as being a frontline worker when the prisoners around me are getting the vaccine, then who does?" 

The 11th-hour cancellation of inoculations of all inmates came yesterday morning in a memo to all Ontario public service staff from Ron McKerlie, deputy minister of government services. 
He blamed the change of plan on the unexpected shortage of vaccine, and then listed those who would qualify for the shot until adequate supplies were ramped up. 
Among those who would qualify, of course, are pregnant women like Anita Mastracci. 

Unfortunately for her, she is on the wrong side of the prison bars for her government bosses to care. 

MARK.BONOKOSKI@SUNMEDIA.CA OR 416-947-2445


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## Steel Badger (4 Nov 2009)

"she is on the wrong side of the prison bars for her government bosses to care."


Sadly, that statement applys to almost all the issues within the Ontario system.


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## mariomike (10 Nov 2009)

"Ont. to broaden flu vaccine group to police, firefighters, ministry staff: TORONTO — Police, firefighters and Ministry of Health staff are among the groups that will be offered the H1N1 vaccine next in Ontario, the province's top medical health official said Tuesday."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iAp8-rLh4jxAOd13ukNT_bokSRkA


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