P.E.I. Opposition wants RCMP investigation after photo of deceased care home resident shared on Snapchat

P.E.I.'s Opposition health critic James Aylward says the provincial government should have turned an investigation involving a photo of a deceased resident at a government-run long-term care home over to RCMP.

• Care home employee fired after photo of deceased resident shared on Snapchat

"I don't feel that the gravity of this issue should have been left with Health PEI," James Aylward told CBC News. "I honestly feel that as soon as these accusations came forward the file should have been turned over to the RCMP."

If criminal charges are seen fit to be laid, then I think the full extent of the law should be exercised in this case.- James Aylward

A resident health care worker at the facility was fired after "a picture was taken of a deceased resident with a very inappropriate caption and then forwarded to someone outside the workplace" using the Snapchat app, according to documents obtained by CBC.

Health PEI conducted an investigation, interviewing more than a dozen workers at Margaret Stewart Ellis Home in O'Leary, P.E.I., as well as members of the community.

The documents provided to CBC News do not connect the employee who was fired withactually taking the photo of the deceased resident.

'The full extent of the law should be exercised'

RCMPtold CBC News they were not aware of the incident, and had not launched any investigation.

Aylward said while the incident occurred more than a year ago, in the spring of 2015, he doesn't believe it would be too late to turn the case over to police.

"If criminal charges are seen fit to be laid, then I think the full extent of the law should be exercised in this case," he said.

"When you're invading somebody's privacy, especially insuch a grave matter as this, then there has to be repercussions. Simply being reprimanded and or even being terminated from your employment I don't think speaks loud enough to the indignity that was taken in this case."

'We need to ensure that all employees know the ramifications'

Health PEI director of human resources Tanya Tynski would not confirm the incident had occurred.

TynskitoldCBC News in an interview that an incident of this nature would be "grossly inappropriate, and it goes against the code of conduct for which employees at Health PEI are held accountableIt's very concerning, and we would, at Health PEI, investigate that thoroughly and ensure that we take appropriate action to ensure it never happened again."

Aylward said he isn't convinced the necessary steps have been taken to ensure this doesn't happen again.

"We need to ensure that all employees know the ramifications of a situation such as this," he said.

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