Ministers Marguerite Blais and Danielle McCann no longer deserve the confidence of the population, hammer the opposition groups in Quebec. Tuesday, they demanded in turn that someone bails out the reaction of the government in the file of the CHSLD Herron.
The West Island of Montreal residence quickly became the symbol of the meteoric first wave of infections in CHSLDs, in March and April 2020. Dozens of deaths were observed there in the weeks following the arrival coronavirus in Quebec, most of them in unsanitary conditions.
According to Radio-Canada, the Minister responsible for Seniors, Marguerite Blais, and the Minister of Health at the time, Danielle McCann, both learned that something was wrong ten days before the English-language daily The Gazette shed light on this information. However, during his visit to the public inquiry by the Coroner’s Office into the management of the pandemic, the former Minister of Health claimed to have been informed of the extent of the disaster on April 11.
Nothing says for the moment if the Prime Minister François Legault learned the news before reading it in the pages of the Gazette the 11th.
“Someone lied under oath,” PQ MP Pascal Bérubé dropped on Tuesday at the National Assembly. The elected official, who says he no longer trusts the two ministers involved, who may have presented erroneous information to the coroner.
” Ten days. What could we have done in ten days in Herron? he wondered.
According to Liberal leader Dominique Anglade, Ms.my Blais and McCann no longer have a place in the Legault government. “They lied, they should [démissionner] “, she said Tuesday. “And if the chiefs of staff haven’t passed on the information, I mean, they should have their heads ripped off.” This is the reality, ”she said.
For several months now, opposition groups in the National Assembly have been urging the government to mandate an independent commission of inquiry into the management of the pandemic. The government’s argument for not doing so: Inquiries into long-term care have increased between March 2020 and today.
Apart from coroner Géhane Kamel, both the ombudsman and the health and well-being commissioner have put their magnifying glass on pandemic management in CHSLDs and residences for the elderly. The first delivered a damning report last November. Inside, she was highly critical of the network’s lack of preparedness in its seniors’ accommodation centres.
“There is someone who lied, that’s for sure. The question is: who is it? That, I do not know, supported in the morning the co-spokesperson of Quebec solidaire Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. Then the way to have an answer to this question is a real public inquiry into the management of the pandemic in Quebec.
Further details will follow.