Conservatives move to fast-track aggravating factor for healthcare-worker assaults

Conservatives are demanding swift action to protect frontline healthcare workers, calling for the immediate passage of a bill that would make assaulting medical staff a factor in criminal sentencing.

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Conservatives are demanding swift action to protect frontline healthcare workers, calling for the immediate passage of a bill that would make assaulting medical staff an “aggravating factor” in criminal sentencing.

During a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Conservative health critic Dan Mazier and addictions critic Todd Doherty, along with healthcare worker advocates, called on Parliament to fast-track Bill S-233, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (assault against persons who provide health services and first responders).

Doherty had introduced an identical bill in March 2023, which passed its third reading unanimously in the House of Commons in February 2024. Conservatives said the bill would have become law last Christmas had Parliament not been prorogued ahead of the federal election.

“Bill S-233 would require courts to treat an assault on a health care worker or a first responder as a more serious offence at sentencing. Right now, a nurse can be assaulted at work, and the justice system often treats it no differently than a bar fight. That is wrong,” Mazier said. “There is no excuse for delay. So today, we are calling on every member of Parliament from every party to put politics aside and fast-track this bill.”

He said assaults on healthcare workers are driving Canadians out of a profession the country can’t afford to lose, noting Canada reports a shortage of 60,000 registered nurses.

Last month, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship released a study which found that over a third of immigrant healthcare workers in Canada leave the country within five years of arriving.

Mazier referenced a recent survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, which surveyed 4,700 nurses and found that 60 per cent of nurses experience job-related violence or abuse at least once in the previous year. Nearly half of the respondents said they faced physical violence, and nearly one in five reported sexual abuse.

“Behind these numbers are human beings, a nurse who goes home wondering if they can face another shift, a student watching all this and deciding I’m not going into health care. Our health care workers have cared for us. It is time politicians cared for them,” Mazier said. “There is no excuse for delay. So today, we are calling on every member of Parliament from every party to put politics aside and fast-track this bill.”

Doherty said the bill would introduce immediate safeguards for Canada’s “frontline heroes.”

“How far we have fallen where a paramedic can be attacked, thrown downstairs, their ankles broken, sexually assaulted in the back of an ambulance, and our system allows this to take place,” Doherty said. “Our frontline heroes are being hunted and attacked, and yet there’s no protection in place. Transit workers have more protection than our frontline heroes.”

Kim LeBlanc, president of the Canadian Nurses Association, which represents over half a million nurses in Canada, said the bill was necessary and should be passed urgently.

“Far too often we hear that nurses are encouraged not to report, or as was alluded to, when sentencing does occur, it’s a very minor sentence,” she said. “This is a concrete and necessary step towards addressing what has become an alarming and unacceptable rise in violence directed at nurses and other health care workers and first responders across Canada.”

She said the bill aligns with the nursing association’s “policy roadmap,” which calls for stronger enforcement and federal protections to prevent harassment and violence in healthcare workplaces.

“Measures like those proposed in Bill s2 33 send a clear message,” LeBlanc said. “Nurses deserve safety, dignity and respect in every setting where we provide care.”