Despite requests to this effect from the three opposition parties, the Quebec government will not ask the coroner’s office to launch a public inquiry into the fire that killed seven people and injured nine in a building in Old Montreal, mid-March.
The office of the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, says it trusts the ongoing investigations, that of the Montreal Police Service and those – non-public – of coroner Géhane Kamel. The Coroner’s Office maintains that it is “too early to comment” on this subject.
“We are closely following the evolution of the file and must let the authorities do their job,” said Minister Bonnardel’s office to the DutyTHURSDAY.
In Quebec, however, the three opposition parties say they are in favor of launching a public inquiry, which allows a coroner to hear a multitude of witnesses and experts during public hearings — the name says it —, and to clarify the circumstances surrounding one or more deaths. Such a tool had been used in particular to shed light on the thousands of deaths observed in CHSLDs during the pandemic or to look into the murders of little Norah and Romy Carpentier by their father, in Saint-Apollinaire.
“Bereaved families have a right to know what really happened,” said Liberal MP and Official Opposition Public Safety Critic Jennifer Maccarone when asked about the 16 March in Old Montreal. “This is why we are calling for a public inquiry to find out the flaws [et] so that such a tragedy never happens again. »
“We absolutely have to get to the bottom of the matter,” added Québec solidaire press officer Sandrine Bourque, while confirming the party’s support for such an approach.
According to elected Parti Québécois Joël Arseneau, public safety critic, the context surrounding the tragedy, which raged in a heritage building housing several illegal short-term rental units, only adds to the need for go forward.
“The magnitude of this tragedy […] as well as the public debate this has generated about illegal accommodation and the application of fire safety rules [justifient qu’]we shed full light on the events through a public coroner’s inquest,” said Mr. Arseneau.
“Not excluded”
In Quebec, only two people can request an inquest of this type: the Chief Coroner and the Minister of Public Security. Contacted by The dutythe Coroner’s Office stressed Thursday that “it is not excluded that a public inquiry may be ordered by the Chief Coroner depending on the progress of the case”.
“The Coroners Act provides that ‘if, during or following his investigation, the coroner is of the opinion that an inquest would be useful, he immediately recommends it to the Chief Coroner, setting out his reasons'” , wrote the coroner’s office communications manager, Jake Lamotta Granato.
However, the fire is still the subject of investigations by coroner Kamel, he recalled. In time and place, “the coroner will write detailed reports in which she will set out the causes and circumstances that led to the deaths. It can also make recommendations aimed at avoiding similar deaths,” said Lamotta Granato.
The coroner’s office had launched a public inquiry in 2014, when a fire took the lives of 32 tenants of the residence for the elderly in Le Havre, in L’Isle-Verte. In his report, drawn up after hearing about fifty witnesses, Quebec coroner and fire commissioner Cyrille Delâge deplored that “we often only take fire safety seriously in the aftermath of major disasters”. “And, we know that memory is a faculty that forgets,” he wrote.