Seniors who dine in the cacophony of the television while the attendants chat among themselves; prisoners forced to wait several weeks before getting a change of underwear; congested services where every call lands in a voicemail: case by case, the Québec Ombudsman paints a portrait of a State that “dehumanizes” its population in the accomplishment of its missions.
The shortage of manpower is afflicting public services and compromising the “concern for humanizing services” expected of the State, deplores the Québec Ombudsman in its annual report. The slowness of ministries to implement recommendations made sometimes several years ago further aggravates problems that are getting worse due to a lack of personnel.
“It is unacceptable that some sectors experience interminable delays,” Marc-André Dowd emphasizes at the start of the 121-page document, “or even refuse a legitimate urgent request because the person’s profile does not fit perfectly into the small box on the form.”
In the midst of a housing crisis, the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) is still leaving many people hanging at the end of the line, deplores the Québec Ombudsman. This backlog, denounced in one report after another by the organization, remains intact and is growing, notes the organization.
A son had to wait more than 70 days after his father’s death before obtaining a death certificate. The Québec Ombudsman had already denounced the undue processing delays of the Director of Civil Status in 2018-2019. “Since then,” the report notes, “they have increased.”
In prisons, basic dignity is sometimes violated due to the labour shortage that leaves 20.5% of correctional officer positions vacant. An inmate admitted to the detention centre with only “the clothes he was wearing when he arrived” had to contact the Québec Ombudsman and wait nearly a month to get new ones.
Another prisoner had to wait twice as long for a second pair of underwear. The detention facility was aware of the situation, the report notes: “however, it took the intervention of the Public Protector for the man to finally receive the clothes provided by the center.”
The Ministry of Public Security set the deadline for granting a change of clothes in prisons at eight hours this summer. The Québec Ombudsman was already asking for such guidelines “in 2018-2019,” the report recalls.
Administrative rigidity sometimes cruel
Administrative rigidity also gives rise to absurd situations. The Ombudsman recounts the case of a man at the end of his life, with very limited mobility and only a cat to relieve his loneliness. The home helps refused to empty the cat’s litter box on the pretext that the task was not theirs.
“The user’s particular situation – his distress, his loneliness, his attachment to his cat and the medically approved decision regarding short-term assistance in dying – called for a different response,” the protector lists in his report.
“This year,” writes Marc-André Dowd, “we have had to intervene regularly to focus public services on their raison d’être: the needs of people.” He illustrates this gap in particular with the story of a CHSLD where seniors had to eat dinner to the din of a television “at high volume” while the staff “meant to feed the residents mechanically while talking to each other.”
“A distressing dehumanization and a loss of meaning, according to the Protector of Citizens, in relation to the vocation of these places described as “living environments.”
Marc-André Dowd’s office processed 13,358 requests relating to the provision of public services — a number never seen before.
More details to come.