Drouin should be praised, not thrown under the bus
Criticism was justified as things improved once Arruda and Legault came to Montreal
For all his charm, funky dance moves and humorous one-liners, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s director of public health, has a bit of a temper.
And it tends to flare when he has been contradicted.
It first flashed earlier this month when Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s top scientist, criticized Quebec for repeatedly missing its own target of conducting 14,000 COVID-19 tests a day. It was a legitimate question that many journalists also had asked. But Arruda’s curt dismissal of Nemer raised eyebrows.
“I don’t owe an explanation to that lady,” he quipped.
It was more than the usual federal-provincial political rhetoric. Referring to someone of Nemer’s stature as “that lady” was disrespectful, though in the throes of a global emergency people let it slide.
Fast-forward a few weeks and Arruda was challenged by another “lady.” This time, she’s one of his underlings: Montreal’s director of public health, Dr. Mylène Drouin. Arruda did not take kindly to this friendly fire.
In an interview with La Presse, Drouin said she voiced concern back in March that Quebec’s public-health response was being run out of Quebec City rather than Montreal, which stood to be hard-hit. Indeed, Montreal went on to become the epicentre of the COVID -19 epidemic not only in Quebec, but in Canada. Though improving, the situation remains fragile.
“He should have been there, where it was going to flare first. I’m not afraid to say it,” Drouin told La Presse. “And if there’s a second wave, it’s going to be big again in Montreal. I think (my concern) was well-received and I was heard for the second wave. Things will be put in place to allow us to co-ordinate.”
But if Drouin’s behind-thescenes concerns were well-received by her boss, her public ones were not.
“I don’t think distance penalized Montreal,” a clearly irritated Arruda said during a news conference in the city on Friday. “When you try to find one guilty party, one cause, it’s off base ... Me, my concentration is everyone together fighting this damn COVID -19.”
Whenever this government finds itself on the defensive, it blames the messenger. When a poll showed anglophones and allophones were more worried about COVID -19 than francophones, Premier François Legault suggested it was the Montreal Gazette’s fault.
Now Drouin is the one being thrown under the bus for saying what many have said already. Quebec didn’t give Montreal the attention it deserved when COVID-19 was running rampant. It took Arruda and Legault two months to leave their crisis cell in Quebec City to visit ground zero of the pandemic. Only once they showed up did the situation start to improve.
Through the thick of the pandemic this spring, Drouin took the initiative of sending public health teams to Trudeau airport to urge arriving travellers to quarantine and to deploy mobile testing clinics in city buses to vulnerable neighbourhoods. She should be lauded for her tireless efforts when public health budgets have been slashed by 30 per cent while health system reforms have severely complicated her job.
Instead, Drouin was singled out for speaking up.
Though she may be right, Drouin issued a statement late Friday, nuancing her earlier statements, reiterating her confidence in Quebec’s public health authorities and promising to co-operate better in the future.
A united front is important among those managing a crisis of this magnitude to avoid mixed messages that undermine public trust.
But equally dangerous is turning a blind eye to problems or failing to learn from mistakes. Since COVID -19 is not going away soon, there is no time to waste bickering, stabbing each other in the back or jockeying for influence.
Public health officials should welcome constructive criticism and humbly improve their strategies in preparation for the next wave, which is coming whether we like it or not.
Drouin clearly hit a nerve. But is it because she got a little too close to the truth or bruised an ego?