Lifelong community advocate Beverly Spanier wasn’t deterred when, in 2015, at age 70, she lost mobility and had no choice but to move into a nursing home in Montreal. She found meaning volunteering, writing and illustrating a digital booklet to provide comfort to others.
But when COVID hit the Maimonides Geriatric Centre in 2020, she became an outspoken patients’ rights activist, calling for additional medical support on-site and for those with COVID to receive care at local hospitals rather than at makeshift medical units in the building.
Spanier’s advocacy helped launch three provincial inquiries, including a coroners’ inquest and a report from the ombudsman that came out with 27 recommendations.
Spanier died on May 8 in Montreal. She was 78.
In Quebec, although only half a percent of the population lived in long-term care facilities or seniors’ residences, they represented 50 percent of the deaths from COVID.
At the Maimonides Centre, 67 residents died during the pandemic—and …