he massacre in long-term care centers has taken over the Salon Bleu in recent weeks, on the occasion of the end of the parliamentary session. The opposition parties pounded the Prime Minister with questions about his management of the crisis, a “hard” period in the opinion of the principal concerned.
The duty compiled and analyzed the 283 questions asked in the House of the government between the resumption of parliamentary activities on November 23 and the holiday break on Friday. Among them, 165 related to residential and long-term care centers (CHSLDs), or 58% of the total balance sheet.
Quite rare in parliament, the sessions of 23 November and 7 December dealt with only one and the same subject: the management of the crisis in homes for the elderly. “I will not hide from you that I found it hard, agreed the Prime Minister Friday, when returning to the session. It reminded me of difficult times. The time when we had to announce the number of deaths every day, the nights to wonder what more we could have done. “
“It obviously always hurts,” said the head of government, who continues to “take [sa] share of responsibility ”in the crisis, which killed more than 4,000 people in the spring of 2020.
On the carpet
During the last eleven question periods, François Legault has been questioned 99 times. On 65 occasions, he had to explain his government’s strategy in CHSLDs. In his last speech of the session, Friday, the Prime Minister agreed that he had lived a “tough” session.
“It’s normal, when you’re passionate, when you defend cases, it’s normal. It’s part of democracy, ”he said in his end-of-year greetings at the Salon Bleu.
But the opposition believes they have been able to shake it. “We saw that it was an Achilles heel, the CHSLDs,” said Jeremy Ghio, communications director of the liberal leader Dominique Anglade, in an interview with The duty.
The latter does not hide it: the official opposition wanted to put the Coalition futur Quebec at the foot of the wall following the revelations of the coroner and the Ombudsperson on the spring crisis. Of the 171 questions asked by the liberal deputies since November 23, 120 concerned the hecatomb in CHSLDs. On several occasions, elected officials have traded the ball in the House to keep the pressure on the government.
In eleven days, Dominique Anglade will have questioned Mr. Legault 40 times about CHSLDs. “Was the Prime Minister, who was head of the crisis unit, the only one not aware that we were going to the slaughterhouse? She thundered on Wednesday.
“We had it, with the CHSLDs. Mr. Legault got angry more often, ”observed Jeremy Ghio on the phone.
Tricephalic attacks
François Legault had to face a tricolor sling this fall. In the last three weeks, the solidarity and PQ parliamentary leaders, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Joël Arseneau, respectively asked 7 and 18 questions on the crisis in eldercare.
“I have bad news for [la CAQ] : Quebeckers will not forget. […] They will not forget what happened in the CHSLDs and the refusal to launch a public and independent inquiry into their management of the health crisis, ”insisted the co-spokesperson for Quebec solidaire, Manon Massé, Friday, on the occasion of the session report of his training.
Earlier this week, the three main opposition groups went out of a rare joint outing to urge Quebec to launch a public inquiry as soon as possible. This request, which they each repeated on their own until then, monopolized the last parliamentary session of the year, Friday.
“Beyond the speech, what do you propose? »Retorted an annoyed François Legault, behind his desk in the Blue Room.
” Not finished “
The parliamentary leader of the Parti Québécois, Martin Ouellet, hopes that the new approach of the oppositions in the last days has made a flaw in the primoministial armor of François Legault. “We hope that before Christmas, he will give this gift to Quebeckers: that all the light can be shed, so that those who have had to go through mourning can one day turn the page”, a- he said, Friday.
According to the director of the Department of Political Science at Laval University, Thierry Giasson, nothing excludes that the end of the session has had its effects on a government that is still solid in the polls.
“They are overtaken by events. There, they have to be accountable, and they seem to have a little difficulty in doing so, ”he analyzes.
By being thus “assaulted”, François Legault’s team will have more and more difficulty in justifying its refusal to launch a public and independent inquiry, affirms the expert in political communication. Especially if the oppositions continue to hit the nail on the head at the start of the next session.
“This story is not over,” he emphasizes. Quebeckers will continue to hear about it. And that may not be good news for the government. “