Are ‘granny cams’ in nursing-homes okay?

TORONTO – Employees at the Chester Village Long-Term Care Centre, Scarborough, Ont., had been finding an increasing number of surveillance devices installed without their knowledge. Sometimes a person on the other end would even surprise an employee by talking to them using two-way audio.

Is it legal for families to place surveillance devices in the rooms of their loved ones? The Globe and Mail reports that when the nursing home’s CEO, Cynthia Marinelli (pictured), researched the laws surrounding such technologies, she couldn’t find a clear answer. She wound up piecing together a policy based on what she could decipher from the Criminal Code of Canada. So now, video cameras are allowed at Chester Village, but not audio recorders.

As the use of video cameras (sometimes referred to as “granny cams”) grows in care homes, so too does confusion over their legality. Ontario’s Fixing Long-Term Care Act does not have specific language around recording devices, leaving LTC centres to navigate the balance between protecting the rights and concerns of residents and their loved ones with respecting the rights and privacy of staff.

“I understand why people do it – they want to make sure their relatives are getting good care,” Ms. Marinelli said. But, she added, “I’m just trying to give the staff a little protection.” Of Chester Village’s approximately 200 residents, she knows of about 20 who have cameras installed.

“Do I wish there was a clear law or standard to fall back on?” she said. “Yes.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Long-Term Care declined to say whether any such plans are in the works.

As it stands, the rules are all over the place. Some centres take the approach of Chester Village, allowing video cameras but prohibiting audio recording. Others tell residents that video cameras aren’t allowed at all. Others ignore them altogether.

Jane Meadus, a lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly in Toronto, said she regularly fields calls from residents and their relatives about the use of video cameras. The advice she typically gives is that there are no laws prohibiting them in resident rooms, so long as they are placed with the consent of the occupant (or by someone with the authority to consent on their behalf). In instances of shared rooms, she said, the cameras must be focused on the device’s owner only and maintain the privacy of others.

Audio recording is more complicated. According to the Criminal Code of Canada, recording private conversations is legal if at least one party is aware of it. If the resident leaves the room, the concern is that a camera could capture a conversation between two members of staff, or between roommates and their guests. Because of this, Ms. Meadus usually advises families to use cameras that don’t record audio.

Despite the laws, Ms. Meadus said, the ACE regularly hears accounts of LTC staff telling families that installing any sort of video camera is illegal.

In 2018, the Quebec government introduced regulations addressing how cameras can and can’t be used in care homes. They can’t, for instance, capture images from a bathroom. But above all, the rules make clear that cameras are legal – with or without an LTC’s permission.

Ms. Meadus said a similar directive – at the very least some communication from the government clarifying that LTC residents can use cameras – would be helpful.

Camille Parent, who has been watching the issue closely for the past decade, echoed this. In 2013, Mr. Parent began noticing bruises on his mother, Hellen MacDonald, who was 85, had dementia and was a resident at a long-term care centre in Peterborough, Ont. He flagged the black and blue marks to staff, but says he was told they had likely been caused by another resident.

In the years since discovering his mother was being abused, Mr. Parent has regularly received messages from people concerned about the well-being of their loved ones in LTC centres.

Mr. Parent installed a video camera in his mother’s room, and within the first week was stunned to find footage of employees grabbing, shoving and otherwise mistreating her. He took the video to news outlets, and the case made national headlines. (His mother died in 2016.)

In the years since, Mr. Parent said, he regularly receives messages from people concerned about the well-being of their loved ones in LTC centres. He often advises them to put cameras in their relatives’ rooms.

“You have cameras at hockey rinks, in plazas, in shopping malls and on the streets,” he said. “So why are we trying to stop families from having cameras in long-term care?”