Dr. Nadiya Sunderji
Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, Ontario.
Connected Scandals
Ontario's only maximum-security psychiatric hospital has kept severely mentally ill patients locked alone in rooms for years — one man for about 20 years — in conditions an independent reviewer found akin to what the UN "deemed to constitute torture." The Ford government was warned in 2018 and responded with a single phone call.
As Waypoint’s president and CEO, Sunderji says the hospital "categorically" disagrees with the independent review’s findings, arguing there is a "significant difference" between seclusion in a hospital and solitary confinement in a prison. The creators of the "six core strategies" she says Waypoint has adopted say that claim is not true.