(Montreal) The collective action that we would like to take against public CHSLDs which have experienced outbreaks of COVID-19 would be too broad in scope and would not distinguish between the different homes, the establishments’ lawyer argued on Thursday. health.
Jonathan Desjardins-Mallette argued in Superior Court in Montreal that the request to initiate a class action against the government and the establishments should not be authorized because the proposed group of representatives includes too many people who do not have grounds for pursue.
The proposed suit, said Me Desjardins-Mallette, frequently refers to major outbreaks of COVID-19 in very specific long-term care centers (CHSLDs), then asks the court to “infer” that the problems of these establishments would apply to the entire network, regardless of the seriousness of their situation.
He argued before Judge Donald Bisson, of the Superior Court in Montreal, that there was no “systemic nature” in these outbreaks, contrary to what the plaintiffs claim. He felt that, on the contrary, each CHSLD had experienced a unique situation.
Me Patrick Martin-Maynard, who is leading the request for authorization to bring the class action, argued Monday that the inability of the Quebec government to predict and plan for the arrival of the new coronavirus, when it began to circulate in other parts of the world, had led to preventable deaths during the first waves of COVID-19.
If collective action were authorized, Me Martin-Ménard said the suit would also include family members of residents who died in the outbreaks, and could also include tens of thousands of people seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
More than 5,000 residents died in Quebec CHSLDs during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jean-Pierre Daubois is the main representative of the request to take collective action. His mother, Anna José Maquet, aged 94, died in April 2020 at the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée, in Laval, during an outbreak which infected a total of more than 200 people; 101 residents died from the disease. This CHSLD experienced a serious staff shortage during this period.
Me Desjardins-Mallette argued Thursday that the major crisis at the CHSLD in Sainte-Dorothée was not representative of what happened elsewhere in Quebec. He argued that the experience of these residents could not be extrapolated to that of other establishments which experienced outbreaks sometimes involving only two cases.
The lawyer also challenged the proposed period covered by the class action request, namely between March 2020 and March 2021.
Some CHSLDs, such as the De Chauffailles Accommodation Center, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, experienced no cases of COVID-19 during the first wave and two cases during the second wave, he said .
However, no evidence presented in the application for authorization to bring a class action suggests that any fault was committed against the two residents who contracted the virus during the second wave, declared Mr.e Desjardins-Mallette, who praised the way the pandemic had been managed in this establishment.
Any class action must first be authorized by a judge before moving forward.
Lawyers for the Attorney General of Quebec are expected to oppose this authorization on Friday.