Care home asks court to keep details around woman's fall, death out of police hands

A Winnipeg personal care home is going to court to try to prevent police from obtaining details from a critical incident report after a 90-year-old woman died at the home a week after falling out of her bed. 

According to a notice of application filed in the Court of King's Bench on July 9, a critical incident at Concordia Place occurred on Oct. 9, 2024, when a 90-year-old resident of the personal care home fall out of bed. A health-care aide attended to the resident and lifted her back into bed, the application states. 

At the time of the incident, the woman was suffering from dementia, and was said to have been experiencing an overall general decline in health in the year preceding the fall, according to the application. 

The morning after the incident, skin changes and swelling were observed on the woman, and an X-ray confirmed she had a fractured leg, but due to her age and other existing medical conditions, she was not considered for surgery to repair the fracture. 

The application says the woman died a week after the incident, but added there is "no evidence the fall caused the woman's death." 

The critical incident was reported and investigated by a critical incident review committee, but pursuant to the Manitoba Evidence Act, Concordia Place is prohibited from disclosing any records or information that is prepared solely for the use of a critical incident committee, or that is used solely in the course of an investigation.

But Winnipeg police began looking into the incident, as the application states that Winnipeg Police Service Det. Parnelli Parnes sought a production order, seeking the disclosure of reports, communications, contact information and investigative reports relating to the incident. 

On Feb. 24, 2025, a Manitoba judge issued the production order, which required Concordia Place to disclose occurrence reports and all communications stemming from the investigation, including emails and digital communications. 

The order also required the disclosure of photos, X-rays, and other information from the investigation. 

On March 26, Concordia Place advised Winnipeg police that it could not disclose the information being sought in the order, because it was statutorily prohibited from doing so under the Manitoba Evidence Act. 

Concordia Place, which is operated by the Concordia Hospital under an agreement with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, is now asking that the production order be quashed.

It claims the authorizing judge failed to impose "adequate conditions to minimize the risk of disclosing privileged information."

The application also accuses the production order of being "overly broad" because it seeks all communications made during the investigation, seeks disclosure of documents which are "statutorily privileged," and goes beyond what is "reasonably necessary to gather evidence concerning the commission of the crime under investigation." 

According to the application, the woman had fallen twice in the previous quarter and was on a fall protocol, which involves implementing specific clinical practices for fall prevention and management.

In the application, Concordia Place states that "there is no basis to support a reasonably grounded belief that the critical incident caused the woman's death."

The first court hearing before a judge related to the application is scheduled to take place on Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. at the Law Courts Building in Winnipeg.