LIBERALS CALL ON NDP GOVERNMENT TO IMPLEMENT KENDRICK REPORT
Date: Monday December 7, 2009

(Halifax, NS) Liberal community services critic Manning MacDonald is
calling on the NDP government to immediately adopt the recommendations
of the Kendrick Report to help eliminate abuse in adult residential care
facilities, a move the NDP continually endorsed while in opposition.

“The Minister of Community Services has known about these issues -
concerns about abuse were brought up in the House of Assembly in
September,” said MacDonald. “Her claims that she was shocked by
these reports are disingenuous at best.”

The Cape Breton South Liberal MLA is also critical of the minister’s
pledge to “overhaul legislation that governs the facilities”.
MacDonald says any legislation that gives the minister direct
supervisory power simply fails to address the root cause of the abuse -
lack of safety in large scale institutions.

“It is clear that large institutions can never effectively safeguard
against abuse - an institution is no place for anyone to live,”
MacDonald says. “British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland have all
moved away from the large institution models - the Kendrick Report
itself urges a shift from large facilities to more community based care.
Still, the NDP government refuses to listen.”

“If the government of Nova Scotia doesn’t follow through on its
commitment to adopt the Kendrick recommendations, shamefully these
instances of abuse are going to continue.”

“As a society, we can’t continue to allow the victimization of
those most vulnerable among us. We need the Minister of Community
Services and her government to do the right thing.”

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