(Quebec) The Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, will finally testify before coroner Géhane Kamel, has learned Press. She will defend her management of the crisis on January 13.
His testimony will be eagerly awaited. The version of the facts presented so far by key players in the Legault government has raised controversy and has even been contradicted in certain respects.
It’s quite a turnaround. On November 8, Me Kamel had announced that Marguerite Blais would not be able to testify as scheduled due to health concerns. The 71-year-old minister has been on sick leave due to burnout and persistent leg pain since October 29.
Everything suggests that Mme Blais is doing better, at least well enough to answer Coroner Kamel’s questions.
Moreover, in the government, information circulated Monday according to which Marguerite Blais could be able to resume her functions after the Holidays. That comeback wasn’t on the radar screen just last week. She was also not expected to testify at the coroner’s inquest.
Testimony postponed, but not canceled
In a press release released on October 29, Mr.me Blais specified that she ceased her functions “temporarily” on the recommendation of her doctor. Prime Minister François Legault declared on the same day that he had “suggested [à Mme Blais] to take a little time and then get back in good shape ”. He expressed the wish that she could complete her term.
In November, in the National Assembly, the opposition suggested that the minister’s testimony be postponed instead of being canceled, while she recovers her health.
Following revelations in recent weeks, pressure has increased for Marguerite Blais to give her side of the story.
Emails filed with the coroner’s office show that private CHSLDs had alerted the Ministry of Health and Minister Blais’ office in mid-March that a disaster was brewing due to a lack of protective equipment, the movement of staff from one establishment to another and the transfer of patients from hospitals. All of these factors contributed to the crisis in CHSLDs, where nearly 4,000 people died from COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
In November, before Coroner Kamel, the former Minister of Health Danielle McCann maintained that the CEOs of CISSS and CIUSSS had been asked in January to prepare their plans to fight the pandemic, including in their CHSLDs. .
The Deputy Minister of Health at the time, Yvan Gendron, also explained that the order to prepare had been sent in January. They added that the CEOs were responsible for preparing the CHSLDs. The national director of public health, Dr Horacio Arruda, had made remarks along the same lines.
Devastating report
However, the version of these key government players was contradicted by the Ombudsperson, Marie Rinfret, in a devastating investigation report on the management of the pandemic in CHSLDs during the first wave.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS
Marie Rinfret, Ombudsperson
“The facts don’t lie,” said Mme Rinfret. It was not until mid-April, when it was already “chaos”, that “actions [soient] taken ”by Quebec for CHSLDs. “It was an incredible amount of failure to take into account, and that is why we conclude that the CHSLDs were not taken into account in any of the pandemic preparation scenarios,” she said. spear.
It demonstrated that CHSLDs were not at all at the center of concerns in January 2020 and that there was no directive or initiative from Quebec concerning them at that time.
Marguerite Blais will also be called upon to unravel the whole story surrounding the inspection reports in CHSLDs produced following the Herron scandal.
Before the coroner, his deputy minister Natalie Rosebush said that the inspectors presented their recommendations mainly verbally and that versions of the few written reports were “overwritten” in the computer system, which made them difficult to find. After publicly expressing his dissatisfaction with the first documents submitted by the Ministry, Géhane Kamel finally received the reports in question. She decided to postpone the continuation of the hearings until January, the time to take cognizance of this evidence.
“Limited power”
The coroner’s hearing schedule shows that representatives of the Ministry of Health will be heard on January 13, but Marguerite Blais’s name is not there yet. It will be added soon.
In an interview with the show Investigation A year ago, Marguerite Blais admitted having “lost the battle” for CHSLDs and took her “share of responsibility”. However, she scratched the national director of public health, Dr Horacio Arruda, and François Legault – by suggesting that his power was limited and that it is the Prime Minister “who has the power and who decides the orientations”.
She noted that she had unsuccessfully recommended the creation of a committee on seniors at the start of the pandemic. Still according to her words, she had asked to put efforts in CHSLDs during meetings of the crisis unit, but her opinion was not always taken into account quickly because of a hospital-centric approach.
“I was on the phone at 7 am in the morning. I gave my point of view. Maybe what I said was taken into consideration a week or two later, but I said it, ”she argued.