MONTREAL – Opposition parties’ expectations are high on the eve of the testimony of Quebec’s national director of health, Horacio Arruda, before coroner Gehane Kamel at the Quebec City courthouse.
On Thursday, the coroner will continue her inquest into the deaths that occurred in residences for the elderly during the first wave of the pandemic.
From March to August 2020, as many as 5,157 seniors living in residential facilities died, representing 90% of total COVID-19-related deaths.
Arruda’s testimony in this context is “extremely important”, considers the leader of the official opposition Dominique Anglade.
“I expect Dr. Arruda to be […] totally transparent about what happened and without any political influence in the answers he will give, “she said in an interview.
“There was a lack of masks, of equipment, there were instructions that were not clear, there were a lot of errors […] Now we need to have more details about the sequence of events.
She said she understands the coroner’s goal is not to point fingers, but to make recommendations to avoid future tragedies.
STAFF MOBILITY AND AEROSOLS
Arruda must explain two things: the “comings and goings” of nursing staff between establishments and the aerosol transmission of the virus, affirms Québec solidaire (QS).
“How come we don’t seem to buy into the fact that COVID-19 is airborne […] so we skimped on the N95 [masks]? “Asks QS health spokesperson Vincent Marissal.
“I think Mr. Arruda will definitely have pieces to put back into the puzzle,” he said.
QS parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois agrees.
“How is it that Quebec public health has had a different discourse on the specific issue of airborne transmission compared to other public health systems around the world?
“When you see the total fiasco of the issue of ventilation in schools, I think it underscores the relevance of this issue,” he added.
CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY
The Parti Québécois (PQ) wants to understand why Quebec has chosen to favor hospitals “by completely abandoning CHSLDs to their fate, or even by transferring patients to CHSLDs”.
A strategy that turned out to be “false”, lamented the PQ parliamentary leader Joël Arseneau in an interview.
“What we already knew at the time, especially in British Columbia, was that the elderly were the most vulnerable.”
“In British Columbia, measures had been taken to protect seniors’ residences […] in particular by completely prohibiting transfers of personnel, ”he declared.
According to Arseneau, Arruda will have to explain why Quebec was in “contradiction” with good practices in terms of labor mobility.
On top of that, the PQ would like Arruda to separate political decisions from public health decisions before the coroner.
“It’s still nebulous,” Arseneau said. “It has always been difficult to get clear answers as to whether decisions were always, or sometimes, or largely based on science.”
“It has always been the big flaw of the pandemic, that there was no complete transparency on the process which led to the action.”
WILL LEGAULT AND BLAIS SPEAK?
Next week, the coroner will also hear from former Minister of Health Danielle McCann and former Deputy Minister of Health Yvan Gendron.
Prime Minister François Legault was not called to testify, but should have been, according to the PQ.
“Can we go back to the most tragic part of the crisis without hearing from the man who was the commander-in-chief? It seems an incomplete exercise to me, ”said Arseneau.
The three opposition parties have the same wish: that the Minister responsible for Seniors, Marguerite Blais, who is currently on sick leave, can eventually come and explain herself.
His convocation is canceled for the moment.
–This report was first published in French by La Presse Canadienne on November 10, 2021.
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