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Are you an adult living in Canada and over the age of 65?
You are invited to participate in a meaningful research study focused on improving police interviews conducted with older adults. Participants are not required to have experience being interviewed by the police.
Share your thoughts and preferences through a 30-minute online survey. Participants will have the chance to win a $50 gift card. Your input can make a difference!
How to participate:
Please click on this link to complete the survey: https://uoitsocialscience.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_56GI04OJcBUunvE
For more information:
Contact Cassandre Dion Larivière by email at
Principal Investigator : Dr. Joseph Eastwood,
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Ontario Tech University
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2025 Canadian Federal Election
An Open Letter to Political Parties
As organizations that support older adults in Canada, we call on the political parties contesting in the 2025 general election to commit to establishing a dedicated federal Minister for Older Persons (Seniors). This portfolio would champion the rights of older Canadians across departments and promote their inclusion in the many decisions that directly impact them. The Minister would be supported by a dedicated staff and a discrete funding envelope.
As Canada rapidly approaches “super-aged” nation status, with Canadians aged 65+ soon comprising nearly a quarter of the population, it is critical that our government be prepared to meet the needs of older Canadians.
While various departments touch on issues that affect older Canadians — including health, housing, employment and skills development, finance — there is no single office ensuring that Canada’s policies are coordinated and responsive to the coming demographic shift.
A Minister for Older Persons would provide focused leadership in addressing these pressing issues, ensuring that the voices of older Canadians are not just heard but leveraged to actively shape critical policy decisions.
Older Canadians consistently turn out to vote at the highest rates and deserve to know where each party stands. Will you commit to establishing a Minister for Older Persons?
The sector eagerly awaits a response.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Brierley, Executive Director
The National Institute on Ageing
Margaret Gillis, Founding President
International Longevity Centres (ILC) Canada
Jim Grieve, Chief Executive Officer
Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTOERO)
Kahir Lalji, Chief Executive Officer
HelpAge Canada
Liv Mendelsohn, Executive Director
Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence
Bénédicte Schoepflin, Executive Director
Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse
Laura Tamblyn-Watts, Chief Executive Officer
CanAge
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PRESS RELEASE
3 April 2025
On 3 April, UN Member States in the Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted a landmark resolution[i] to create a new intergovernmental working group to draft an international legally binding instrument (UN convention) on the human rights of older persons. This milestone is the culmination of many years of advocacy and campaigning by older persons, civil society and other advocates around the world, including CNPEA. The evidence compiled over this period has demonstrated that the best solution to the deficiencies and fragmentation in the international human rights system is a dedicated convention.
A new UN convention will have a positive impact on the lives of older persons around the world today, and all of us as we age in the future. It will provide greater clarity and essential guidance to States on how to better promote and protect older persons’ rights. It will help eliminate ageism and age discrimination and ensure that older persons can seek redress for violations of their rights. This important political decision brings us closer to making this a reality.
Elijah Mwega, founder of KARIKA Kenya and Global Alliance Steering Group member, travelled to Geneva to participate in the UN Human Rights Council session. As the resolution was adopted, Elijah said ‘This feels like my dream has come true. Our voices have been heard and governments have now recognised at the global level that they need to develop a dedicated UN convention. I stand in solidarity and celebrate with older people around the world who have been pushing for this decision for a long time. We are ready to work with our governments to ensure that this UN convention delivers for older persons everywhere.’
The next steps at the UN level will be to determine how the new intergovernmental working group will be resourced and organised.
Ina Voelcker, co-chair of the Global Alliance, was also in Geneva this session and said ‘We commend the work of the core group of States who led this resolution. We will continue to advocate for the full, meaningful and effective participation of civil society, especially older persons and their representative organisations. It is vital that this new drafting process is as inclusive and transparent as possible. We look forward to engaging with the new working group and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to achieve this.’
Further Information
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council: https://docs.un.org/A/HRC/58/L.24/Rev.1
About GAROP:
Established in 2011, the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People (GAROP) was born out of the need to strengthen the rights and voice of older people globally. Today, GAROP is a network of over 400 members worldwide, united in our work to strengthen and promote the rights of older persons. Our mission is to support and enhance civil society engagement with Member States and National Human Rights Institutions at national, regional and international levels around a UN convention on the rights of older persons. www.rightsofolderpeople.org
[i] The resolution was proposed by a core group of Member States comprising Argentina, Brazil, the Gambia, the Philippines and Slovenia.
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A CANADA FOR ALL AGES:
CNPEA calls for action to make aging a safe and fulfilling experience in Canada
The Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (CNPEA) is urging all political parties to make the well-being and safety of older adults a priority of their election platforms.
CNPEA calls on all political parties to take a stand against discrimination, violence and neglect facing older people. These forms of violence, coercion, and financial exploitation have a devastating impact on our families, our communities, our healthcare system and our economy.
1 in 10 older people experience mistreatment each year.
A recent Canadian study estimates that 1 in 10 older adults experiences abuse or neglect each year. This is likely a low estimate, due to underreporting, and fragmented or inconsistent monitoring across the legal, health, and social systems. Financial abuse, fraud and exploitation are among the most common forms, representing enormous financial losses.
Elder abuse is not an isolated, individual issue that can be chalked up to a few “bad apples”, it is a wide-spread, systemic issue with deep connections to ageism, ableism, gender-based violence, and economic disparity. Elder abuse rates have been on the rise since the pandemic. Across communities, older people are trapped in abusive situations, feeling ashamed and isolated. They often feel unable to reach out for help or are faced with insufficient, inadequate support services. This is an ongoing crisis that affects us all. We all deserve to live free from abuse, at every stage of our lives. CNPEA is calling on our leaders to support and enact a comprehensive, meaningful plan to tackle ageism, mistreatment and neglect against older people and help us all age with safety, dignity and meaning.
CNPEA’s Calls to Action:
In Future Us, a Roadmap to Elder Abuse Prevention in Canada, CNPEA outlined what a national action plan on elder abuse and neglect prevention could look like, articulated over three key priorities:
- Prioritize elder abuse prevention in every community.
- Establish and support elder abuse prevention networks at local, regional and national levels.
- Teach everyone to recognize warning signs of abuse and neglect, how to respond safely and effectively and where to refer in the community to find help.
Now we call on our leaders to commit to the following actions to support safe and healthy aging in Canada:
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Develop stronger legal protections & accountability
- Establish new offences and penalties in the Criminal Code related to elder abuse and amend existing legislation to protect all older adults;
- Develop strategies to better safeguard seniors from fraud and financial scams;
- Increase resources to public safety agencies to support the prosecution of repeat offenders targeting older adults, particularly in cases of fraud and financial abuse;
- Improve reporting mechanisms and standardized data collection on mistreatment of older adults.
- Establish a Federal Seniors’ Advocate Office.
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Create a comprehensive plan to tackle ageism, elder abuse and neglect and address the needs and rights of older people in Canada.
- Reinstate a Minister to look after the seniors’ portfolio and expand the position to that of Minister for Older Adults and Intergenerational Equity;
- Develop and implement a national elder abuse prevention strategy;
- Incorporate approaches based on the human rights of older adults and people living with a disability into service delivery policies and legal frameworks;
- Support the development of an U.N. Convention on the Rights of Older People.
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Place the focus on wide public education and awareness.
- Develop national multimedia campaigns on elder abuse and ageism;
- Mandate elder abuse and ageism training (using the Public Health Agency of Canada’s trauma and violence-informed principles) for police officers, first responders, health care professionals, and other professionals who serve older people in any capacity;
- Educate public servants in all departments on elder abuse and ageism.
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Invest in the elder abuse prevention infrastructure
- Sustained funding for elder abuse prevention networks and response organizations will strengthen networks and improve coordinated community response, facilitating help-seeking process and improving data collection at the same time.
- Fund 'Community Seniors' Navigators to support local Elder Abuse Prevention Networks (volunteer-based networks) in outreach, education, and navigation of community safety, health and legal services.
- Leverage expertise of existing organizations like CNPEA to develop effective education, prevention and intervention strategies.
Noone should be scared to grow older. The cycle of abuse can be stopped.
Our next federal government must recognize that the mistreatment of older people is a quiet epidemic that demands urgent action. Older people currently represent one fifth of our country’s population, one fourth by 2030. They are a demographically significant and politically active group that requires our leaders’ attention. We will be closely monitoring candidates’ platforms this coming election and we will be ready to engage with each of them to ensure that elder abuse prevention and the well-being of older people are prioritized.
For Media inquiries or to learn more, contact:
Benedicte Schoepflin, Executive Director, CNPEA
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By Heather Campbell Pope
Author’s note: This is an updated version of an article posted on the CNPEA blog in June 2015.
With Canadians heading to the polls on April 28, a common question is whether people with dementia are eligible to vote in the federal election. The answer is yes.
According to the Canada Elections Act, every Canadian citizen who is at least 18 years old on polling day is qualified to vote. The legislation places no restrictions on voting rights for individuals with mental disabilities, including those with neurocognitive disorders like dementia.
While many democracies worldwide deny the right to vote based on cognitive impairment, Canada is among a handful of countries that universally protect this sacred right for all adult citizens, enshrining it in section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and the rule of law and cannot be lightly set aside,” wrote former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice Beverley McLachlin in a 2002 decision on prisoner voting rights.[1]
Yet from time to time, and often influenced by American politics, voting rights for people with dementia are threatened. For example, concern surged after the 2000 U.S. presidential election, when George W. Bush won by just 537 votes in Florida, a state with a large senior population.
“Precisely because Alzheimer’s disease insidiously erodes the ability to make reasoned judgments informed by knowledge of recent and remote events, it is somewhat unnerving to consider that patients with dementia may routinely contribute to selecting the leader of the free world,” wrote two doctors in a medical journal.[2]
Others have expressed similar concerns. In New Zealand, for instance, a nursing home industry executive suggested it could be paradoxical for dementia unit residents to be registered to vote if they have been deemed unfit to make their own decisions: “To be able to determine someone has the will and ability to vote in an aged residential care secure dementia unit, I think, is a very high threshold. And I don’t see how it can be met.”[3]
Concerns about dementia and the capacity to vote are legitimate, but it helps to think about riding a bike. “Capacity to vote is much like the capacity to ride a bicycle, which can be determined accurately only by allowing the individual to mount a bike and start pedaling,” writes the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and the Penn Memory Center.[4] “If capacity is lacking, the task just won’t be completed.”
To be sure, there are genuine worries that long-term care residents will be exploited for partisan gain. Care homes are often heavily visited by candidates during an election, which is a good thing that facilitates political inclusion, but it can create situations where cognitively frail voters are unduly influenced and pressured into voting a certain way.
Family members and caregivers can also cross the line into undue influence, essentially voting twice and undermining electoral legitimacy.
Among seniors living at home, those who receive care from an adult child are at a heightened risk of being excluded from the democratic process. This population is less likely to vote than seniors who receive care at home from a spouse.[5] Oftentimes an adult child simply does not have the time to take their parent to the polling station, due to work, childcare or other responsibilities during the day, while others purposely prevent their older parent from voting.
What do voting rights have to do with elder abuse? In some cases, preventing a senior from casting a ballot can be about control and isolation, a common tactic of abusers that can include a pattern of deliberate behaviours like withholding medication, intercepting mail, denying visitors and restricting religious practices.
More often care partners are simply mistaken about voting rights, innocently assuming that people with dementia cannot vote. But this still undermines the person’s sense of dignity and self-worth—and violates their civic right and responsibility to cast their ballot.
To enhance political participation among people with dementia, let’s keep raising public awareness that Canadians with dementia have the constitutional right to vote in the federal election.
Heather Campbell Pope is founder of Dementia Justice Canada, a small nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the rights and dignity of people with dementia.
[1] Sauve v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer), 2002 SCC 58 at para. 9 [for the majority].
[2] Victor W. Henderson & David A. Drachman, “Dementia, butterfly ballots, and voter competence” (2002) 58:7 Neurology 995.[3] Martin Taylor cited in RNZ, “Dementia patient vote questioned” (8 September 2014).
[4] American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and the Penn Memory Center, “Assisting Cognitively Impaired Individuals with Voting: A Quick Guide.”
[5] J. H. Karlawish et al., “Do Persons with Dementia Vote?” (2002) 58 Neurology 1100, cited in Michael J. Prince, “Electoral Participation of Electors with Disabilities: Canadian Practices in a Comparative Context” (Prepared for Elections Canada, March 2012) at 19.
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