(Quebec) If the Legault government had “provided adequate protection” for health care workers, “massive deaths” in CHSLDs could have been “avoided”, declared in May 2021, the new CAQ candidate in Marie-Victorin, Shirley Dorismond. The remarks taken from a video available on YouTube were quick to invite themselves to the Blue Room, on the first day of the resumption of work.
Posted at 3:20 p.m.
The May 26 video was first released by the Liberals on Tuesday. The one who was at the time vice-president of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) then participated in a debate on inequalities in times of pandemic, organized by the Institute of Health and Society of UQAM.
“If we had provided adequate protection from the start, N-95s, gloves, uniforms… since the beginning of the crisis, and this, in all sectors, and precisely to have started with the community sector, I believe and I sincerely believe that we would have avoided all of these massive deaths in CHSLDs,” says Ms.me Dorismond in front of the participants.
Prime Minister François Legault presented his candidate for the Marie-Victorin by-election on Sunday. He then recalled the recent past of the ex-unionist stressing that it is “therefore possible that you will find traces where we did not always agree”.
The Liberals did not fail to hound the Legault government on the previous remarks of Mme Dorismond and those held in this new video. “Does the Prime Minister agree with his candidate,” launched the Liberal leader, Dominique Anglade.
“Shirley Dorismond was until December, so a month ago, vice-president of the FIQ union and when you are vice-president of a union, well, you defend the demands made by a union,” said argued Mr. Legault.
What is important to say is that since the time these remarks were made, there has been an agreement signed with the FIQ, between the government and the union. Mme Dorismond chose to come and work with the CAQ government to continue to improve things in health, that’s the reality.
François Legault, at the Blue Room
The Liberal MP, Marc Tanguay, recalled for his part the remarks of Mr.me Dorismond on systemic racism. The parliamentary leader of the government, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said he saw “a feeling of panic” from the Liberal troops in front of this “excellent candidate” from the CAQ.
In October, in a letter co-signed with the interim president of the FIQ, Nathalie Levesque, Ms.me Dorismond addressed Mr. Legault forcefully deploring that “despite advances in women’s rights in recent decades, we still feel the weight of the double standard for healthcare professionals”.
“Maintaining an abusive mode of management, which keeps us captive to our work, makes you, Mr. Legault, an accomplice in organizational violence”, she also hammered. On Twitter, she also indicated in July 2020 “that there will be no social justice as long as systemic racism exists”.
On Sunday, the main interested party, who grew up in Marie-Victorin, justified her choice to join the CAQ by speaking of a “team of change and action”. The date of the by-election in Marie-Victorin is still unknown.