Manitoba Nurses Union reacts after 3 workers were assaulted at Grace Hospital last week
Posted May 4, 2026 6:09 pm.
Last Updated May 4, 2026 6:41 pm.
After three healthcare workers were threatened and assaulted at Grace Hospital last week, the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, Darlene Jackson, is frustrated with the normalization of abuse towards frontline workers.
“We need to address this. We need to address it very loudly and very clearly that this can not happen again and they will be kept in a safe environment,” said Jackson.
Jackson expressed her disappointment with how Grace Hospital handled the situation and said nurses are incredibly frustrated.
“They feel as if no one’s actually checked on them since this happened. No ones come down and said are you guys ok? What’s happened here? It’s basically business as usual, carry on. And this is not part of their job,” said Jackson.
A statement from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) reads, “Violence is something no staff member, or anyone who enters our facilities, should have to worry about, let alone experience.”
Jackson says she’s asked Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara to attend a meeting with the nurses to listen to the realities they are facing on the front line, and to up security measures.
“Nurses at the Grace have been advocating for quite some time to have institutional safety officers at that facility, and right now they have guards that are private company guards that have a very limited scope of practice, I’ll say,” Jackson explained.
In a statement to CityNews, Minister Asagwara said, “Manitoba nurses, like all healthcare workers and workers across this province, deserve to be safe at work. Mis-treating healthcare workers is unacceptable. It is not acceptable for people to abuse nurses or healthcare workers. We take that very seriously, which is why we’re taking measures to make nurses safer in their workplaces. And we’re gonna keep doing everything we can to improve safety and security for nurses and all healthcare workers.”
Amidst Seven Oaks Hospital already considering grey-listing, Jackson would not be surprised if Grace Hospital becomes the next.
“This is definitely what the culture of what nurses are dealing with. And that culture needs to be fixed. You can’t say to your employer, we’ve had this horrible incident, someone’s been sexually assaulted, nurses have been hit, bitten, and spat at. And have an employer totally ignore the situation. That is the culture we are dealing with, and that is the culture that needs to change. I would not be at all surprised if we see the grace come forward and consider grey-listing,” said Jackson.
