Angry in the Great White North

Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla has been accused of mistreating three different live-in caregivers in her employ. Her defence has been in three parts:

• She never interviewed, hired, or supervised the staff, so ask her brother or mother about any problems.
• The family home that she rarely stayed at was chock full of caring and love and respect.
• The caregivers left on good terms.

Here's what Ruby Dhalla said about the live-in caregivers leaving:

We've had two individuals and one of the individuals had an emergency and left.  I can check into the situation.  I think Magdelene left of her own willingness.  Sometimes these nannies leave on their own will.

Throughout Ruby Dhalla insists that there was no bad blood between her and the two caregivers she remembers meeting.  She seems to have forgotten the third caregiver who has since come forward to complain of mistreatment.

One happy caregiver or three, the Dhallas needed a caregiver for mother Tavinder Dhalla:

To provide care for my mother who has a disability which made it difficult for her to walk and stand for long periods.

How long did they need this in-home care?  The application was for a working term of 39 months.

Added up, the three caregivers worked for about five months.

So who is taking care of Tavinder Dhalla now?

It stands to reason that there is another caregiver.  Perhaps she can help shed some light on all this.

If there isn't a caregiver, why not?  Has Tavinder Dhalla suddenly gotten better? Is there any evidence of this recovery from this "disability"?

Because if it turns out that Tavinder Dhalla's condition has not changed much at all, and that she seems able to function without a caregiver, then it is fair to ask just what the original three caregivers were doing during those five months, and what they'd be doing right now had they not left, given that they were hired for a three-year stint, for what seems to have been a questionable medical justification.

On the other hand, if Tavinder Dhalla's condition was sufficiently debilitating to justify full-time live-in help, and if the previous three caregivers had it so well and were so well loved, then why not hire a fourth caregiver?  The application suggests that they expected to need help for over three years.  And yet we're expected to believe that after three wonderful caregivers came and went, the Dhallas suddenly decided that they did not need another caregiver, instead deciding to let Tavinder Dhalla struggle with her condition on her own.

Hypothetically, if the experience with the caregivers was not all that pleasant, and if Tavinder Dhalla's medical condition was more manageable than the application implied, that would explain why the Dhallas decided not to bother with caregiver #4.