The responsibility of François Legault’s government in the CHSLD crisis is coming back to the fore. On Tuesday, the Liberal Party of Quebec demanded that the Prime Minister go and defend his decisions before the coroner.
Coroner Géhane Kamel heard last week from several senior officials of the Quebec government about their role in the crisis that has left thousands of people dead in homes for the elderly. Minister Danielle McCann and several senior officials gave their sides of the story.
The Assistant Deputy Minister of the Directorate General of Seniors and Caregivers, Nathalie Rosebush, notably stated last Tuesday that there were no inspection reports on the CHSLDs affected during the first wave of the pandemic. Inspectors, she said, were entering information into a file that “overwrites” findings from previous visits.
However, Tuesday morning, Radio-Canada reported that the reports existed and were systematically sent to the CISSS and CIUSSS.
“What we are witnessing today is a real camouflage operation”, indignant the leader of the Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade, Tuesday. She demands that Prime Minister Legault himself go and answer the coroner’s questions.
“He was the one who made the decisions. This is information that is not available today. Clearly, there is someone who is not telling us the truth, ”she thundered directly from the National Assembly.
For months, opposition groups in Quebec have been demanding the launch of a public inquiry into the pandemic storm. On Tuesday, Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon reiterated the demand, adding that the revelations from the Coroner’s Office threatened to create a crisis of confidence.
“It raises the question of the confidence we can have in this government. Is this government trustworthy if it is prepared to lie to the coroner and then destroy documents to evade its responsibility? He wondered aloud.
Hiding or destroying evidence, he commented “it is a very serious act”.
At Québec solidaire, we also believe that the Prime Minister must accept some of the blame in this affair. “The Prime Minister, clearly, is responsible for what happens. He made the decisions in the pandemic and then he cannot, like that, sacrifice ministers by throwing the responsibility on them, ”indicated the solidarity spokesperson for the elderly, Sol Zanetti.
The testimony in front of Me Kamel will continue next week.