The Glone and Mail - 01.08.2019

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OTTAWA/QUEBECEDITION ■ THURSDAY,AUGUST1,2019 ■ GLOBEANDMAIL.COM

RCMP are scaling back their

search for two men wanted in

the killings of three people in

British Columbia after nine days

of scouring the northern Manito-

ba wilderness.

In the small communities of

Gillam and Fox Lake Cree Na-

tion, where dozens of police offi-

cers descended into the streets

and surrounding forests in

search of Bryer Schmegelsky and

Kam McLeod, residents were un-

sure what to make of the police

retreat.

With no confirmed sign of the

homicide suspects in more than

a week, many aren’t sure wheth-

er they will be able to return to

their old routines and allow their

children to play freely.

“It would be nice to know

what happened to them, wheth-

er they are dead, whether we

don’t have to lock our doors any

more,” Gillam resident Joyce Ir-

win said.

Mr. Schmegelsky, 18, and Mr.

McLeod, 19, haven’t been spotted

since the evening of July 22,

when the grey Toyota RAV4 they

are believed to have been driving

was found burning in a ditch

near Fox Lake Cree Nation.

They are suspects in the

shooting deaths of American

Chynna Deese, 24, and her 23-

year-old Australian boyfriend

Lucas Fowler, whose bodies were

found near Liard Hot Springs,

south of the B.C.-Yukon bounda-

ry, on July 15.

And they are charged with

second-degree murder in the

death of Vancouver resident Leo-

nard Dyck, 64, a lecturer at the

University of British Columbia’s

botany department.

MANHUNT, A

RCMPscale

backmanhunt

forfugitives

wantedin

B.C.killings

RENATAD’ALIESIOGILLAM,MAN.

IANBAILEYVANCOUVER

The Ontariogovernment paid

$40,000 for the search that led to

the hiring of Premier Doug

Ford’s friend, Toronto Police Su-

perintendent Ron Taverner, as

the province’s top police officer –

an appointment that was later

aborted amid allegations of cro-

nyism.

Records obtained by The

Globe and Mail through the Free-

dom of Information Act show

that a “flat fee rate” of $40,

was paid to Odgers Berndtson,

the recruiting firm contracted to

help find a new commissioner of

the Ontario Provincial Police in

the fall of 2018.

An investigation by Ontario’s

Integrity Commissioner later

found that although the Premier

did not improperly intervene in

the hiring of Supt. Taverner, the

process was “flawed.”

The probe heard evidence

that Supt. Taverner’s name was

not included on an initial list of

30 candidates and that a key

member of the two-person hir-

ing panel, then-secretary of the

cabinet Steve Orsini, was sup-

plied with Supt. Taverner’s name

by Dean French, Mr. Ford’s then-

chief of staff.

The probe also found text

messages – which the Integrity

Commissioner described as “dis-

concerting” – that showed Mr.

Orsini knew Mr. French was

“rooting for Mr. Taverner’s suc-

cess.”

TAVERNER, A

Ontariopaid

$40,000for

searchthatled

tohiringof

Ford’sfriend

GREGMcARTHUR

PatriciaHoudewipesawaytearswhilelisteningtothepublicinquiry’sreportonWednesday.

Hermother-in-law,HelenMatheson,waskilledbynurseElizabethWettlauferin2011.

FREDLUM/THEGLOBEANDMAIL

A failure to imagine that a trusted

nurse could become a serial killer

within the Ontario health-care sys-

tem allowed Elizabeth Wettlaufer’s

crimes to go undetected, a public in-

quiry has concluded.

Pointing fingers at anyone other

than Ms. Wettlaufer – who was sen-

tenced to life in prison in 2017 after

she pleaded guilty to murdering

eight of her nursing-home patients –

would not fix the “systemic vulnera-

bilities” that let Ms. Wettlaufer clan-

destinely inject seniors with lethal

doses of insulin, Commissioner Ei-

leen Gillese said.

As a result, Justice Gillese, a mem-

ber of the Court of Appeal for Onta-

rio, elected not to make any findings

of “individual misconduct” against

the players in the province’s long-

term care system who might have

prevented Ms. Wettlaufer’s murders.

“Itappearsthatnooneinthelong-

term care system conceived of the

possibility that a health-care provid-

er would intentionally harm those

withintheircare,”JusticeGillesesaid

assheunveiled91recommendations

designed to protect residents of On-

tario’s 626 nursing homes.

“Ifyoudon’tconceiveofthepossi-

bility, you don’t look for it and you

don’t take steps to prevent it,” she

said.

Ms. Wettlaufer, now 52, confessed

in the fall of 2016 to murdering eight

of her patients and trying to kill sev-

eral others over nine years while

workingforfourdifferentemployers,

includingtheCaressantCarenursing

home in Woodstock and Meadow

Park nursing home in London.

She pleaded guilty to eight counts

of first-degree murder, four of at-

tempted murder and two of aggra-

vated assault. She confessed to kill-

ing a ninth patient after the inquiry

began, but police elected not to pur-

sue charges in that case.

Justice Gillese unveiled her nearly

1,500-page, four-volume final report

at a hotel in Woodstock packed with

relatives and friends of Ms. Wettlauf-

er’s victims.

WETTLAUFER,A

Inquirysaysnoindividualtoblame

forfailuretostopWettlaufer’skillings

Reportonmurdersofeightseniorsovernineyearsconcludesthatnoonein

long-termcaresystemcouldimaginethattrustednursewouldkillpatients

KELLYGRANT

HEALTHREPORTER

ECONOMY

U.S.FederalReserve

lowersinterestrates

forthefirsttime

since2008 B

HEALTH

Moreyoungadults

diagnosedwith

colorectalcancer,

Canadiandatashow A

FILMFESTIVAL

TIFF’sCanadianlineup

isamixoffamiliarfaces

andfreshrookies,Barry

Hertzwrites A

E

lizabeth Wettlaufer, a rogue

nurse, made countless medi-

cation errors, routinely stole

drugs to feed her addiction,

murdered at least eight vulnerable

patients and tried to kill a handful of

others under her charge in long-

term care homes.

Despite being an incompetent

employee who racked up com-

plaints, she never wanted for work,

received positive letters of recom-

mendation when employers wanted

to be rid of her and, despite multiple

red flags, never would have been

caught had she not confessed to the

killings. (Ms. Wettlaufer killed the

patients, aged 75 to 96, by giving

them overdoses of insulin, a drug

that is commonly used in the long-

term care setting.)

And it’s nobody’s fault.

Nobody’s damn fault.

There were no acts of “individual

misconduct” by employers, supervi-

sors, union reps, Ministry of Health

inspectors, nursing regulatory bod-

ies, coroners and so on. The litany of

screw-ups was due to “systemic vul-

nerabilities.” All the failings that al-

lowed murders, and lord knows

what other abuse to happen, were

apparently not the failings of people

• they were attributable to the
  dreaded, amorphous, anonymous,
  responsibility-free system.
  PICARD,A

Thesystemfailedtopreventeightmurders.

Theinquiryfailedbynotholdinganyoneaccountable

ANDRÉPICARD

OPINION

[CRIME]