Caring should never come with a threat

Bill S-233 would send an overdue message to Canada’s healthcare workers: violence is not part of the job.

A healthcare worker’s shift should end when they leave the hospital. For some, the fear does not.

As one HealthCareCAN member told us, healthcare workers live alongside the patients and families they serve, without the anonymity available in a large urban centre. When a worker is personally threatened, that threat can follow them beyond the hospital doors and into their homes, families and daily lives.

This is the reality behind the rise in workplace violence across Canada’s healthcare system.

Healthcare workers are estimated to experience workplace violence at four times the rate of any other profession. They are being threatened, harassed and assaulted while providing essential and lifesaving care. Yet a rooted culture continues to tell them that violence is simply “part of the job”. 

It is not. And accepting it comes at an enormous cost. 

Violence can cause physical injury, but its effects often last longer. Healthcare workers who experience violence report anxiety, depression, disrupted sleep, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, burnout and moral distress. It can erode their confidence, engagement and sense of safety at work.

For a health system already struggling to recruit and retain enough people, the consequences are serious. Violence contributes to absenteeism, disability claims and workforce departures. It also compromises patient safety. Workers cannot provide the safest, highest-quality care when they are exhausted, traumatized or afraid.

One HealthCareCAN member recorded 837 workplace-violence incidents in 2025–26. Incidents were most prevalent in emergency departments, mental health and addictions services, medicine, care of older adults and long-term care.

Behind every one of those incidents is a person who came to work to care for someone and faced harm instead.

HealthCareCAN, the national voice of hospitals, health authorities, health research institutes and healthcare organizations, recently surveyed members of its Health Human Resources Advisory Committee to better understand the violence occurring in healthcare workplaces and what organizations are doing in response.

More than 90 per cent of respondents have introduced de-escalation training and education and Code White procedures. Several have security guards stationed in emergency departments, while others have implemented panic alarms with geolocation, patient-flagging processes, centralized incident-reporting systems and behavioural emergency response teams.

These efforts matter. But our members are clear: they are not enough.

“Despite significant organizational investment in violence-prevention and response training, alerts and technology, many healthcare workers continue to work in fear for their safety,” one member told us. “This has a serious impact on staff engagement, retention and attendance and ultimately, on the care that patients and communities receive.”

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton has brought important public attention to this reality through a campaign featuring its own staff and their experiences of workplace violence. A photo exhibit displayed across its hospital campuses makes the human consequences impossible to dismiss. The hospital reported a 30 percent increase in violence in the last year. 

Healthcare organizations must continue strengthening prevention, training, reporting and support. We must also recognize the complex health and social conditions that can contribute to violent situations and ensure patients experiencing illness or crisis continue to receive compassionate care.

Compassion, however, cannot mean accepting violence.

That is why HealthCareCAN supports Bill S-233. The legislation would amend the Criminal Code to require courts to consider an assault against someone providing health or personal care services as an aggravating factor at sentencing.

Its predecessor, Bill C-321, received unanimous support in the House of Commons before dying when Parliament was prorogued. Bill S-233 now gives parliamentarians another opportunity to finish the work.

Passing it will not prevent every incident, nor will legislation replace the responsibility of healthcare organizations to provide safe workplaces. It will, however, provide explicit recognition that violence against people delivering care is a serious offence with consequences.

Workers must also feel safe reporting every incident. What remains unreported remains too easily unseen and what remains unseen is too easily normalized.

There is no healthcare system without the people who care for Canadians. Parliament should pass Bill S-233 and affirm that caring for others should never require sacrificing one’s own safety. 

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