I’m sorry, this may be a difficult column to read. But the subject matter is important.
A 69-year-old man in Saint John, New Brunswick has been charged with the sexual assault of 15 residents of a long-term care home. The victims ranged in age from their seventies to their nineties.
The suspect is related to a resident in the facility.
One sexual assault is a horrible crime. A series of assaults on 15 people is unspeakable, regardless of who the victims are.
Harassment, abuse, and assault are under-reported crimes in any setting: in people’s homes, schools, or workplaces, or elsewhere. Victims can be anyone regardless of age or any other characteristic.
A series of assaults on 15 people should generate outrage. Where is the prevention, what are the security standards, what support is offered to the survivors, what can we do better? Why don’t we do better?
Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos of Ontario Tech University is an expert on seniors’ care. She said this case, to her knowledge, is the largest of its kind in Canada.
“I’m happy to see police involvement,” she told CTV Atlantic. “Unfortunately we’ve seen a broader national tendency of treating, frankly, many crimes that occur in long-term care facilities as merely administrative rather than criminal.”
In a social media post, Stamatopoulos said the Saint John case “should be national news, yet barely anyone is talking about it. What if this happened in a daycare?”
A fair question.
And imagine how many such crimes have gone unreported; or worse, reported but ignored.
People living in care facilities need to trust that they are safe in their homes, that they are protected and taken care of.
Loch Lomond Villa in Saint John is where the assaults allegedly took place between December 2025 and January 2026. Staff at Loch Lomond notified the police about the complaints.
Crime of this sort is not specific to care homes, of course. But it’s by no means rare. The New Brunswick government is taking a look at security standards in long-term care facilities in light of this incident.
One could blame facility operators for inadequate security, and there are a great many that deserve such blame. In this case the accused was a visitor; often it’s a staff member or another resident who puts people in danger.
There are also positive examples of care and safety in residential settings. Security standards are just the beginning.
Sexual assault is a societal problem. So are ageism and neglect. If we can’t collectively muster more than a passing interest in how older adults live (your future, dear reader, and mine as well) nothing will change.
To report sexual assault, call 911 for emergency response; 811 for Alberta Healthline for referral to local resources; 211 for help navigating available assistance; or Dragonfly Centre at 1-866-300-4325 for survivor support.