Biting, choking and even murder are some of the brutalities residents of Ontario nursing homes have inflicted on each other, according to government documents that show a tripling in such violent acts in the past few years.

A report by CBC-TV's consumer program Marketplace on Wednesday evening said Ontario is part of a trend of increasing violence among residents in nursing homes across the country.

In the span of three years, the number of violent incidents among residents reported in the province more than tripled, with 446 such incidents in 2003 compared to 1,416 incidents in 2006, according to government documents.

That rise to an average of four violent incidents per day has nurses struggling to keep up.

Nurse Marie Haas says she regularly breaks up fights, sometimes as many as one per hour, and recalls a recent incident where one resident ripped off the scalp of another.

"It's what I go to every day. It's what I live," Haas told Marketplace 's Erica Johnson.

She blames understaffing. Often, only one registered nurse on a shift looks after 100 or more residents.

Deadly attack

Penelope Petrie knows about such violence all too well. Her 85-year-old aunt, Ruth Smith, died in a nursing home in Hamilton after a floormate with severe dementia attacked her in 2005.

The roommate clubbed Smith on the shoulder. The stress of the surgery she needed as a result brought on an ulcer that eventually perforated and killed her.

The coroner ruled the death a homicide because of the attack that sparked Smith's final illness.

The home seemed idyllic to Petrie when her aunt moved in, and she was shocked when she learned of her death.

"I don't know how to describe the feeling," she said. "You just sort of feel sick."

The person who is alleged to have killed her aunt was eventually moved to a psychiatric ward after she attacked a nurse, Petrie said. She was never charged with any crime because of her dementia.

Hidden cameras captured attacks

Such brutal attacks were also documented by Marketplace 's hidden cameras.

In one Toronto-area nursing home, cameras capture a resident screaming as a floormate kicks him out of her room.

"You're lucky I didn't turn around and pack you one right in the face," the man screams.

The cameras also record a fight between two female residents. One woman takes off her shoe and begins hitting the other one, with the two fighting until the TV crew breaks them up.

Nursing beds cheaper

"The pushing and the shoving, when you're dealing with frail, elderly people, will often end up in serious injury or death," said Jane Meadus, a lawyer who has fought to keep violent residents out of nursing homes.

She says an increasing number of people with violent dementia and other illnesses are ending up in the residences because nursing beds are much cheaper and governments have shut down more expensive psychiatric beds.

"The nursing home beds are definitely the cheapest beds around. And they are what I would say is the dumping ground," Meadus said.

During the past 15 years, numerous Ontario coroner's reports have issued warnings that the provincial government should build special facilities to treat elderly people with severe aggression, a suggestion Meadus agrees with.

But Health Minister George Smitherman doesn't support the idea.

"I know that some people might be proponents for elderly jails, but that is not the model that we are building upon," he said.

Those who work with seniors warn that violence within the population is only going to continue climbing as the population ages and funding fails to rise.