(Quebec) The Coroner’s Office is postponing the “representation component” of the public inquiry into the deaths of elderly people in CHSLDs during the first wave of the pandemic to January 10. Public hearings were scheduled to resume on November 30. This turnaround comes as the testimonies of key players in the Legault government, including former health minister Danielle McCann, spark controversy.
In a press release sent on Wednesday, the Coroner’s Office confirms that the hearings on the representations component that were to take place as of November 30 will be postponed to the week of January 10. Details of these upcoming hearings will be communicated at a later date.
“Coroner Me Géhane Kamel thus wishes to have all the time required to assess the documentary evidence which is expected for November 29, in accordance with the various commitments made in recent weeks to certain witnesses, ”one indicates without further details.
The works scheduled for November 29 and 30 as well as the 1er December are kept on the calendar only to supplement factual and recommendation-related testimony.
The revelations of former Minister of Health Danielle McCann, Deputy Minister Nathalie Rosebush, former Deputy Minister Yvan Gendron and the National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Horacio Arruda, during the public inquiry last week caused some controversy. Tuesday, the Ombudsperson came to contradict the version of these key players of the first wave.
It concluded that there was no directive or initiative from Quebec at the start of 2020 to prepare CHSLDs for COVID-19. It is only in mid-March 2020, when Quebec decrees confinement, that the CHSLDs are part of a plan. However, the government claims to have sent a notice to health establishments as of January 28 so that they prepare for the arrival of a new coronavirus.
Minister Danielle McCann appeared to the media on Wednesday to defend her handling of the crisis. She admitted that efforts were initially concentrated on hospitals, but she denies having acted too late for the CHSLDs.