Opposition parties accused the former Minister of Health and senior officials of lying under oath, before the coroner, saying the network had been warned of the risks of the coronavirus in seniors as early as the month Of March.
“The facts don’t lie. […] The government lied to Quebecers, ”said Liberal leader Dominique Anglade, the day after a report from the Protectrice du citoyen was tabled.
The latter filed on Tuesday an investigation document in which it contradicts the version of the facts given by Quebec: Marie Rinfret argues that the government did not take “any concrete and specific preparatory action” of CHSLDs before mid-March 2020.
Last week, Ms. McCann nevertheless affirmed, during the coroner’s public inquiry into the deaths in CHSLDs during the first wave, that the CEOs of the CISSS and CIUSSS “had to set in motion” the fight plan. against a pandemic “from January”, to properly prepare the CHSLDs. Before her, deputy ministers of health and the national director of public health, Horacio Arruda, in turn insisted on their concerns for seniors in accommodation as early as January or February.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, François Legault, shed a different light. “I had no indications before the month of March that such a great drama was brewing in CHSLDs,” he admitted to the Salon Bleu. “I took my share of responsibility, I find it infinitely sad what happened. “
Referring to the testimony before the coroner, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon, launched that “ [ce n’est] not a single person who lied, [c’est] a possibly coordinated lie ”.
“In this context, there is a crisis of confidence, there is a questioning of the reliability and credibility of this government, because it is not the forgetting of a single person , it’s concerted. He asked the coroner, Géhane Kamel, to force Dr. Arruda, Minister McCann and two deputy ministers “to testify again to explain their lies”.
Solidarity MP Manon Massé sought to know “who is telling the truth”. “Who is telling the truth about the preparation of CHSLDs during the first wave? Is it the Ombudsperson? Or is it the minister? She said. Québec solidaire has announced its intention to table a motion – which will force a two-hour debate – to demand the holding of a “broader” public commission of inquiry into the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The party wants the exercise to also focus on the education or early childhood network, given “the interconnection of all aspects of the Quebec system”.
McCann defends himself
Ms. McCann then gave reporters an opinion from the Deputy Directorate General of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Health. In the letter dated January 28, this Directorate summarized the “ministerial expectations” to the civil security coordinators of the establishments in the network. Nowhere are CHSLDs or shelters for vulnerable people mentioned.
“It is a letter which speaks of establishments in the broad sense”, admitted the minister. “There is no mention of hospitals either, there is no mention of specific establishment components. It is a comprehensive plan. “
She acknowledged that the government has, “really focused [ses] efforts on hospitals ”, because he feared that a scenario like the one unfolding in Italy would happen again in Quebec. She said she was “ultimately responsible” for what happened in the CHSLDs. “Sensitivity, I have it, for CHSLDs. But I have to tell you, I’m so sad about what happened, it’s an unspeakable drama. With the information we had, we did everything we could. But we must also recognize the flaws in our system, ”she dropped. In English, she said “sympathize with the families” (“ I feel so much for the families “). “And I’m going to live with this for the rest of my life. “