(Quebec) Marguerite Blais denies having wanted to protect the CAQ government during the public inquiry by coroner Géhane Kamel, as accused by the opposition. The minister assures that she would answer in the same way if “the coroner asked her the same questions”.
Posted at 3:32 p.m.
At the center of a new controversy after the publication of a book looking at the carnage in CHSLDs, the minister responsible for seniors defended her version delivered before coroner Géhane Kamel last January. “If I had to go back to the coroner and if she asked me the same questions, I would answer in my soul and conscience in the same way,” pleaded the minister on her arrival at the Blue Room.
The work of the journalists of The PressKatia Gagnon, Ariane Lacoursière and Gabrielle Duchaine, nevertheless reveals unpublished interviews with Mme Blais and his chief of staff, Pascale Fréchette, who contradict the story of the minister during the public inquiry. It is revealed in particular that the two women “screamed” in the crisis unit to stop transfers to CHSLDs in the spring.
However, before the coroner, she rather affirmed that the CHSLDs were not on anyone’s radar at that time.
Was he asked to protect the government in his testimony, as the opposition suggests? “Never, never,” said Minister Blais in a press scrum. She reiterated that transferring patients from hospitals to CHSLDs was “the right thing to do” at the start of the pandemic when “all eyes were on Europe where hospitals were overflowing”.
I answered all the coroner’s questions in my heart and conscience. I came out of my sick leave and went there because I thought it was important for seniors, for families and for the work of the coroner.
Marguerite Blais, Minister responsible for Seniors, in a press scrum on Tuesday
These answers did not calm the Liberal Party or the Parti Québécois, who hounded the minister in the Blue Room.
“A book comes out where the minister defends herself by saying that the crisis unit continued to transfer patients to CHSLDs even if she and her team were screaming,” said Liberal MP André Fortin.
“We have two choices. Believing that the minister changed her version for the coroner […] or believe that the Minister was shouting from the rooftops that the transfers had to be stopped, but that the crisis unit, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health ignored her. […] Which version should you believe? “, he added.
Minister Blais replied: “At the beginning of April, there is a directive to stop transfers to CHSLDs. I learned through my office that there were still transfers going on and that’s what we’re talking about today. This is where I objected. »
In the press scrum, she clarified that it was at this time that she “screamed”.
The PQ MP for Duplessis, Lorraine Richard, accused him in the House of having “changed his version” because it had “been very well prepared by the CAQ’s communications team”.
Marguerite Blais insisted that she had answered “honestly” before the coroner. She also indicated that “when there is a crisis, there are debates, debates are something healthy”.
The opposition parties are calling for the launch of a public and independent inquiry into the management of the pandemic by the Legault government.
Mme Blais was not present Tuesday during the unveiling of Minister Christian Dubé’s Health Plan since she was awaiting a test result for COVID-19. Her result being negative, the minister was able to attend the question period in the afternoon, in Quebec.