MONTREAL -- Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Quebec, Dr. Horacio Arruda, the province’s public health director, was out of the country for 12 days.

The Canadian Press learned he was on a working holiday, but most of it was for pleasure – he left for Marrakech on Feb. 26 and returned to Montreal on March 8. 

Politicans are beginning to wonder whether his prolonged absence illustrates the Legault government’s blindness to the severity of the COVID-19 virus in January in February. By that point, it had already spread around the world. 

The PQ opposition isn’t sure it was wise for Arruda to behave this way, and thinks this could have affected Quebec’s ability to anticipate the looming danger of the COVID-19 virus, as the health network could have been better prepared for what was to come. 

Before travelling abroad, Arruda made sure to get authorization to leave the country from Deputy Minister Yvan Gendron and the Minister of Health, Danielle McCann. 

When Arruda returned from his trip, he participated in a press conference with McCann on March 9 prior to alerting Premier François Legault of the severity of the situation. A first meeting with him resulted in the creation of a crisis unit at the highest government level. 

The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Quebec during Arruda’s absence, on Feb. 27. Just three months later, the virus has claimed upwards of 5,000 lives in Quebec, accounting for more than 60 per cent of the deaths in all of Canada. 

NONCHALANCE? 

In the context of the pandemic, Arruda’s vacation has left the PQ perplexed. PQ health spokesperson and deputy for les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Joël Arseneau, is convinced measures were taken too late, meaning Arruda’s absence had a direct impact on the progression of the pandemic.

In an interview, he said he was surprised at the apparent nonchalance on Arruda’s part. He said the government could have acted “a month earlier,” particularly when it comes to supplying personal protective equipment to healthcare workers and recruiting staff to work in the province’s long-term care homes. British Columbia and Alberta placed orders for equipment in late January.

Arseneau wonders if things would have been different if Arruda had been present in Quebec. 

“If we had grasped the extent of the crisis that was coming, obviously, the director of public health would not have granted himself these vacations, knowing that he was the conductor,” he said, adding that the government didn’t hesitate to cancel holidays among healthcare workers. 

Arruda declined a request for an interview and McCann refused to comment, but in an email, the ministry’s spokesperson said that even though Arruda was on vacation, he remained in touch with his team. 

“Throughout this period, he was in constant contact with the department of health and social services to monitor the situation," said communications director Catherine Gauthier.

Arseneau says, nevertheless, that if measures had been taken earlier, “maybe we wouldn’t be here.” 

The end of February is when the COVID-19 pandemic became a big enough threat to necessitate keeping to population informed regularly. With Arruda being absent, he was replaced by Dr. Yves Jalbert, the province’s deputy director general of public health protection. Jalbert filled in for Arruda alongside McCann between Feb. 27 and March 6. 

NO QUARANTINE

Shortly after spring break, on March 12, Legault and Arruda ordered government employees to isolate for 14 days if they’d just returned from abroad. But by resuming his duties upon returning from Marrakech, Arruda ignored his own instructions. 

“If he had had the slightest symptom, he would have been placed in isolation immediately," Gauthier said of the contradiction. 

Morocco is one of the countries that has been hit with the virus. In early March, a few cases had already been registered, including one in Marrakech. It wasn’t the pandemic that drove Arruda to Morocco, though – it was cannabis. 

He was invited by organizers of the Officine Expo 2020, held “under the high patronage of his majesty King Mohammed VI” to deliver a conference on the legalization of cannabis in front of a few thousand African pharmacists. The congress spanned two days, from Feb. 28 to Feb. 29. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2020.