Compendium of Media Coverage on Elder Abuse, March 2011

A particularly vicious incident in early March had the public eye temporarily fixed on elder abuse issues. CARP got on top of the issue by releasing our recommendations, previous research and challenging the Ministers of State for Seniors and Justice to take a tougher and more comprehensive approach to detecting, investigating and punishing the most egregious manifestations of elder abuse and to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place.

CARP’s evidence based position captured media attention and we were seen to be the leading voice on the issue. CARP received saturation coverage and successfully made elder abuse a front-page issue.

CARP calls for a comprehensive response to address elder abuse, including:

• Detection (CARP calls for a National hotline and duty to report)
• Investigation (CARP calls for specialist investigators)
• Prosecution (Better use of the existing law)
• Deterrence (CARP calls for stiffer sentences and new legislation if necessary)
• Support for the victims (CARP calls on the government to make victim services and elder shelters available)

Susan Eng’s whirlwind media tour included several interviews including the CBC, City TV, CTV’s Power Play, Zoomer Radio, OMNI News as well as over 30 media hits in National newspapers and local dailies and Chinese language media across the country.

CARP’s media release and open letter to Ministers Julian Fantino and Rob Nicholson were quoted and repeated in almost all articles concerning the issue. This compendium includes a selection of the media coverage the issue received in the first week of March 2011.

Click here to see a full pdf copy of the compendium

Keywords: elder, abuse