The CHSLD Saint-Charles-Borromée scandal, the death of Joyce Echaquan, the Rivière-des-Prairies hospital affair, medical assistance in dying: lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard was (almost) all major legal disputes on health in Quebec.
Our colleague Ariane Lacoursière had the good idea to write the biography of this feared, but respected lawyer. But beware, this book is not only a biography of the most renowned lawyer in health law in Quebec. It is also a review of several of the less glorious episodes of our health care system since the 1980s.
With her lively and precise pen, Ariane Lacoursière tells us about the most important disputes in Ms.e Menard. Litigation where vulnerable patients had to go to civil courts to enforce their rights.
For example, when 88 patients with an intellectual disability at the Saint-Théophile pavilion were victims of abuse by employees in the 1980s. There reigned a “system of financial and psychological exploitation of the beneficiaries”, ruled the court.
When there was the sad scandal of the CHSLD Saint-Charles-Borromée, in the mid-1990s. About 600 residents were badly treated in this public institution. After an out-of-court settlement, they shared $10 million.
When the government of Quebec conducted an investigation in 1999 on the practices at the Rivière-des-Prairies hospital with 500 vulnerable patients represented by the Public Curator. The expert group’s report concluded that we were not in a psychiatric hospital but in a “prison” universe.
When Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw mother, died in disturbing circumstances in 2020, under the insults of nursing staff at Joliette hospital.
When Nicole Gladu and Jean Truchon appealed to the courts in 2017 to obtain medical assistance in dying. This judgment made it possible to extend medical assistance in dying to eligible patients who are not at the end of life.
Ariane Lacoursière, however, goes beyond legal proceedings, public inquiries, famous press conferences at the Ménard Martin law firm, and court decisions. Throughout the pages, she also succeeds brilliantly in introducing us to a gruff, stubborn, but sympathetic being.
Raised in a popular environment in the east of Montreal (his father was a truck driver), Jean-Pierre Ménard has an atypical background for a recipient of the Médaille du Barreau du Québec. He was not top of the class, but a college dropout. Did the army. Got fired from Miracle Mart because he wanted to improve working conditions there. Started law school as a mature student at age 22. Never worked in a large firm in downtown Montreal, having instead established his practice specializing in health law in Hochelaga with his wife, Ms.e Denise Martin.
The book also devotes a chapter to the hardest battle led by Mr.e Ménard: the one against his cancer in 2018. Initially, the doctors gave him two months. He is still alive.
This book is exciting. Because the causes are very well popularized. And because we discover the life of an extraordinary lawyer, as well as the story of the vulnerable patients he defended during his career.
Extract
“The start of the class action hearings [dans le dossier de la légionellose] is scheduled for September 2018. […] Negotiation of the agreement will not take place under normal conditions for Me Menard. “I was in the hospital, I was negotiating with the syringe in my arm. I didn’t tell them. I didn’t want it to be known,” he said. In the greatest secrecy, the lawyer is fighting cancer at this time. He is in full treatment, but he does not tell anyone. “I don’t want to attribute bad intentions to my adversaries, but if you know that the other is in bed, you are not making gifts”, he remarks. »
Who is Ariane Lacoursière?
Investigative journalist at The Press, Ariane Lacoursière has been covering the health sector for 15 years. In 2021, she won the E. Cora Hind Award for Specialized Journalism at the Canadian Newspaper Competition for her coverage of health and COVID-19. She co-wrote the book 5060: the carnage of COVID-19 in our CHSLDspublished by Boréal in 2022.
Jean-Pierre Ménard – The Missionary of Law
Ariane Lacoursiere
Editions La Presse
253 pages