From the documents and information obtained, our analysis shows that the public health emergency in Quebec, which the Quebec government declared on March 13, 2020—nearly two months after the World Health Organization, or WHO, issued its first warning—did not include screening or testing in residential and long-term care centres, or CHSLDs, retirement homes or private seniors' homes.
However, by then, the WHO had already issued four warnings and Quebec's minister of health and social services had received a confidential memo on the concerns regarding seniors, not to mention the dozens of news reports around the world, including several in France and the United States, warning about the risks related to seniors and retirement homes.
The same documents and information obtained reveal that, prior to March 13, 2020, the health minister's own chief of staff, Mr. Valois, stated that, although preparations were beginning slowly, it wasn't an all-out effort to prepare for battle at that time.
With the public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda, on vacation in Morocco for a few days in late February, and even the premier, Mr. Legault, on vacation until March 8, it would seem that, in Quebec at least, COVID-19 was not considered a national emergency requiring that senior patients be identified, tested, isolated and treated.
At least, that is what the lack of screening, isolation and treatment measures recommended by the WHO since the beginning of February, particularly with respect to seniors in CHSLDs and retirement homes, suggests.
It was only three months later, on April 7, 2020, after four WHO warnings and a private memo to the health minister on the hundreds of news reports around the world, that the Quebec government finally decided to do something about seniors in CHSLDs and retirement homes. In Quebec, 81% of COVID-19 fatalities were residents of CHSLDs or private retirement homes.
On April 7, the Quebec government issued a news release in which Premier François Legault stated that his priority was to protect seniors. On April 10, 2020, as though they had been living under a rock, Mr. Legault's staff learned that COVID-19 was spreading like wildfire among seniors in CHSLDs and retirement homes. That was nearly three months after the WHO's first warning, the last of which came on March 1.
Moreover, “Early reports suggest that illness severity is associated with age...and co-morbid disease.” This is from the March 1, 2020.
In our view, the Government of Canada and the authorities responsible for the administration and health and safety of Quebec's CHSLDs, in particular, failed shockingly in their duty to prepare for health crises like COVID-19. They delayed introducing measures to test and treat the residents and staff of CHSLDs, as the WHO had been recommending since February 5 and March 1, 2020.
It is our position that they have violated the basic rights of thousands of Canadians and Quebeckers, people who were entitled to the right to life, including the right to receive life-saving care, to have bedsores treated, to be properly nourished, to be able to drink when thirsty and to be hydrated. Emergency doctors in Quebec told us that patients were hospitalized, not because of COVID-19, but because of dehydration and malnutrition.
These are people who had the right to integrity of the person, the right not to be housed with infected people, and when severely disabled, the right not to be lifted or changed by often well-intentioned but incompetent staff or volunteers. They had the right to dignity, the right to be treated like a human being, the right not to be left wearing a soiled diaper for days, the right to have assistance to use the toilet, the right not to be abandoned and the right not to die alone without dignity.
The authorities responsible for Quebec's CHSLDs were not prepared for COVID-19, despite recommendations by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the public health protection branch within Quebec's ministry of health and social services dating back to 2013.
How could the Canadian and Quebec governments have left seniors in these conditions and not responded sooner to the WHO's warnings and the information coming out of a number of countries around the world?
Thank you.