When health care workers call a Code White, it’s an emergency response for a violent incident: a call for help. But it’s one that goes unanswered in hospitals, clinics, and long-term care homes across the country. Code White exposes a shocking epidemic of violence that’s hidden in plain sight, one in which workers are bruised, battered, assaulted, and demeaned, but carry on in silence, with little recourse or support.

Researchers Margaret M. Keith and James T. Brophy lay bare the stories of over one hundred nurses and personal support workers, aides and porters, clerical workers and cleaners. The nightmarish experiences they relate are not one-off incidents, but symptoms of deep systemic flaws that have transformed health care into one of the most dangerous occupational sectors in Canada.

The same questions echo in the wake of each and every brutal encounter: Is violence and trauma really just “part of the job”? Why is this going underreported and unchecked? What needs to be done, and how?

Margaret M. Keith is an occupational and environmental health advocate and researcher, focussing particularly on women and work. She earned a PhD from the University of Stirling. Margaret served as Executive Director of the Windsor Occupational Health Information Service before joining the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers in Sarnia. She and her partner, Jim Brophy, assisted the First Nation’s community of Aamjiwnaang near Sarnia in exploring health problems related to environmental pollution from the adjacent petrochemical industry. Margaret was co-author of an internationally recognized research article documenting a skewed sex birth ratio uncovered after examining Aamjiwnaang birth records. She lives in Emeryville, Ontario.

Margaret M. Keith's profile page

James T. Brophy is a career activist, researcher, and advocate focussing on occupational and environmental health. He received his doctorate from the University of Stirling on occupational risks for breast cancer. He is a former executive director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OCHOW) in Windsor and then Sarnia, where he and his partner, Margaret Keith, helped to document one of the largest cohorts of asbestos diseased workers in Canadian history. In recent years, he collaborated on research exploring violence against health care workers and on the lived experience of inadequately protected health care staff working during the pandemic. He lives in Emeryville, Ontario.

James T. Brophy's profile page

• Joint winner, Leo Panitch Book Prize