A proposed class-action lawsuit against long-term care homes that experienced COVID-19 outbreaks is being challenged by a lawyer representing Quebec’s health authorities. According to Jonathan Desjardins-Mallette, the application for the class action should not be authorized because it fails to differentiate between the most affected facilities and those with minimal infections. Desjardins-Mallette argues that the proposed suit attempts to generalize the problems faced by specific long-term care centers and assumes that they are applicable across the entire network. However, he believes that each establishment experienced a unique situation and there is no systemic character to support the class action.
The lawyer opposing the suit claims that it includes individuals who do not have grounds to sue. Desjardins-Mallette asserts that Quebec’s failure to plan for the arrival of the coronavirus resulted in preventable deaths during the initial waves of the pandemic. The class action, if approved, could encompass tens of thousands of people seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, including family members of deceased residents who passed away during the outbreaks. In Quebec alone, more than 5,000 people died in long-term care centres during the first two waves of COVID-19.
Desjardins-Mallette argues that the Ste-Dorothée outbreak should not be seen as representative of the entire province. He describes it as a major crisis and believes that the experience of residents there cannot be applied to other facilities with smaller outbreaks consisting of just two cases. The lawyer also questions the proposed time period covered by the class action, which spans from March 2020 to March 2021. He points out that some long-term care centers had zero COVID-19 cases during the first wave and only two cases during the second wave. Therefore, he believes it is challenging to find fault in the way the pandemic was handled in those specific care homes.
The authorization for the class action must be granted by a judge before it can proceed. Lawyers representing Quebec’s attorney general will present their arguments against authorizing the case on Friday.
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