Time for reckoning

Why does Quebec have the worst record in managing the pandemic? This is the question we have been hearing in all the forums for a week!

It is true that the statistics are murderous. With 22.5% of the Canadian population, Quebec has 47.2% of cases and 61.9% of deaths. And while denouncing Donald Trump for his record has become the new national sport, we forget that François Legault’s is even worse with 688 deaths per million inhabitants against 642 in the United States.

Shame

The political elite were quick to blame the people. If the figures are shameful, it would be because Quebecers have a “Latin character” that would make them less “docile”. It would also be because of the recalcitrant against whom it is necessary to be increasingly severe even if it means taking measures that break immediate family ties.

However, according to the INSPQ, 89.4% of COVID-related deaths come from CHSLDs (67.5%), seniors’ residences (16.9%) and intermediate resources (5%), as many establishments under the direct or indirect responsibility of the State.

Why do we have so many deaths? Because despite a health system that absorbs 46.5% of the budget, and although hospitals have largely interrupted their normal activities to accommodate patients with the virus, the system has been criminally incapable of protecting the most vulnerable.

Moreover, how can we forget that on March 25, Minister McCann would have asked the CHSLDs not to send residents suffering from the virus to hospital, if not “only exceptionally”.

M^me McCann should have been fired and carefully investigated. Rather, she was entrusted with the Ministry of Higher Education!

Reality

If making a population already terrorized by the virus feel guilty and disrupting the social fabric can temporarily distract the attention of the real culprits, reality always ends up prevailing. The hour of reckoning will not be long!