Canada: Quebec orders public inquiry into COVID-19 related deaths in long-term care homes

Quebec's public or private long-term care homes, known by their French initials as CHSLDs recorded a majority of the province's COVID-19 deaths.

"This entirely public process will allow the Quebec population to be informed of the facts raised during the hearings and to follow reflection on this important social issue," said Descary in a news release on Wednesday.

These CHSLDs had been experiencing a shortage of staff long before the province was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CHSLD Herron in Dorval, in Montreal's West Island, a private long-term care home, that recorded 31 deaths in less than one month is already being investigated by the coroner's office.

Lawyer Géhane Kamel, the coroner responsible for the CHSLD Herron inquiry, will preside over the larger inquiry.

Investigations by Kamel would form the basis of this survey, said the news release, which added "The analysis will, therefore, focus first on the facts surrounding the deaths recorded in this establishment. Subsequently,  Kamel and his team will select deaths in several types of residences and several regions in order to provide a representative picture of the situation at the provincial level." said Descary in the news release.

After determining the causes and circumstances of the deaths, the inquiry will then proceed to provide recommendations on how to prevent these types of deaths in the future.

"It is important to remember that coroners intervene in cases of violent, obscure, or death that could be linked to negligence. Deaths outside these tags, including those that esult solely from a coronavirus infection, are not investigated by the coroners," said the news release.

The deaths selected as part of the investigation must meet the criteria including the death occurred while the person was living in a CHSLD, private seniors' residence, or a residential institution for vulnerable people or those who have lost some degree of autonomy; the ones that occurred between March 12 to May 1, 2020.

The coroner's office was alerted to the death because of its violent nature or because of the possibility that negligence contributed to the death.

"To deal both with the complexity of the subject and a large number of deaths, a coroner with a medical background, Dr. Jacques Ramsay, was appointed to assist and enlighten Kamel throughout the process of public inquiry," said the news release.

A "vast public inquiry" was ordered by Descary in spite of Premier François Legault's resistance by saying the province was focused on addressing the immediate crisis inside the homes.

Ontario became Canada's first province last month, to announce a wide-scale investigation into its long-term care system as a result of a large number of deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)