The CHSLD Herron, of sad memory, is this unconventioned private CHSLD which has come to symbolize the disaster of the management of the virus in the “living environments” for seniors, during the first wave of spring 2020.
Posted at 2:07 p.m.
Infected and frightened staff have been missing and abandoned residents have been swimming in their urine and feces, dehydrated and starving, for days…
Race score: 47 deaths.
The question then arises: who knew what, when, in government?
“Who”: it goes from the owners of the residence to the leaders of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île de Montréal, including the deputy ministers of health and ministers.
“What”: it goes from the discovery of a catastrophic situation to the management of said situation.
Ms. McCann and Ms. Blais – ministers of health (then) and seniors (present), respectively – have always claimed to have learned the extent of what was happening in Herron, when journalist Aaron Derfel published the frightening fruits of his investigation into The GazetteApril 10, 2020.
Now an email filed at the end of the work of the coroner Géhane Kamel’s commission of inquiry, unearthed by Radio-Canada on Tuesday, casts doubt on these claims. The offices of Mesdames McCann and Blais learned on the night of March 29 to 30 that Herron had been abandoned (1).
It was the West Island CIUSSS that notified Quebec that something was wrong in Herron on March 29. Deputy Minister Natalie Rosebush advised, on the evening of March 29 and shortly after midnight on March 30, the offices of the two ministers of the lack of personnel of a “very worrying” situation at the CHSLD Herron.
On the evening of March 30, the president of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île, Lynne McVey, informed Deputy Minister Yvan Gendron that “the situation is under control” at the CHSLD Herron.
It was false, archfalse. Nothing was “under control” then.
Who knew what, when, in government?
Not clear, two years later.
*****
On Tuesday, PM Legault blamed the CIUSSS, a creature of the Ministry of Health. And it is true that the CIUSSS (still chaired by Mme McVey) at best misled Quebec about the situation in Herron and, at worst, failed in its task of correcting the situation.
Then, on Wednesday, he blamed the management of the private CHSLD, the Chowieri family.
Seems like for the PM, it’s everyone’s fault except his ministers.
But what is particularly irritating with the Radio-Canada revelations is that they confirm that the chronology of what has been done – and not done – in CHSLDs (Herron included) too often differs from time to time, according to versions of the protagonists. The facts too often contradict the versions of senior civil servants and ministers.
For example, portions of the testimony of Ms.me McCann – now in Higher Education – before coroner Kamel were contradicted by the facts. Ditto for deputy ministers Gendron, Arruda and Rosebush, who delivered similar versions to the coroner on a supposed directive sent to the network, urging it to prepare for the coronavirus as of January 2020…
However, this directive of January 2020 absolutely did not say what the deputy ministers tried to make him say, before the coroner.
If one or other of the deputy ministers had said that to Coroner Kamel, one might think there was a misunderstanding, a memory lapse. But when three deputy ministers speak in the same way about a directive that does not say what it is made to say, then there we are in synchronized swimming.
I denounced these muddy testimonies of civil servants and ministers at coroner Kamel’s in November, here (2) and here (3).
Marguerite Blais, she changes her versions of her interventions in the CHSLD crisis according to the stands. She says one thing on the show Investigation ; says another to Alec Castonguay for his book The Longest Spring and yet another to the journalists of The Press Gagnon, Lacoursière and Duchaine for their book 5060: the carnage of COVID-19 in our CHSLDs…
Then, to Coroner Kamel, Minister Blais has yet another version.
And with the email revealed by Radio-Canada yesterday, this is another case where people at the top of the mammoth pyramid of Health are caught in the offense of not very clear testimony to coroner Kamel. It’s starting to do a lot.
Coroner Géhane Kamel, I remind you, despite a year and a half of work and 220 witnesses, declared in January that she was unable to have “a version that stands” concerning the management of CHSLDs in the first vague, both from elected officials and civil servants (4).
It is certain that from contradictions to omissions in the absence of written records, elected officials and civil servants have a beautiful canvas to rearrange the chronology of who knew what, when about CHSLDs like Herron.
****
A few questions, in closing.
Why was Marguerite Blais even selected for government, if only to play the politically endearing role of mascot for the elderly?
His multiple version changes are annoying. Its usefulness, more than debatable.
Why is Lynne McVey still president of the West Island CIUSSS?
She did not tell the truth to her deputy minister on March 30, saying that the situation was “under control” at CHSLD Herron.
And more broadly, why is the Legault government still refusing to launch a real public commission of inquiry into the pandemic?
I see only one hypothesis to answer this last question: François Legault resists it for the same reasons that explain why Jean Charest resisted launching a commission on financing scandals a decade ago…
Because it will inevitably hurt his government.