This text is part of the special notebook Listening to social causes
An independent organization founded in 1974, the Council for the Protection of the Sick has been campaigning for 50 years to defend the rights of users of the health system and ensure that their dignity is respected. An action which has made it possible to achieve valuable victories, even if there is still a way to go to promote the liberalization of speech for the most vulnerable people.
Throughout his life, Claude Brunet fought, despite his disability, to improve the humanization of health care in Quebec, and to promote access to dignified and adequate treatment. Suffering from irreversible meningitis which left him quadriplegic at a very young age, the illustrious Montrealer found the strength to rely on his unfortunate destiny to fight an exemplary fight until his last breath in 1988. His brother younger, Paul Brunet, has since taken up the torch to continue the commitment of the iconic “patient protester” at the head of the Council for the Protection of the Sick (CPM).
Created in 1974, the independent non-profit organization has fought many battles in its fight to enforce the rights of users of the Quebec health system. Reached by telephone, Paul Brunet is proud to list the victories obtained by the Council for the Protection of the Sick over the years. “We were the first organization to take collective action against a union for an illegal strike in a accommodation center in 1978. Since then, we have won all our appeals,” underlines the trained lawyer, who acts as a president and spokesperson of the CPM.
Notable progress
If public and private CHSLDs under agreement no longer have the right to charge laundry fees to residents, because they are already included in the accommodation contribution, it is thanks to the action taken over the years 2000 by the CPM. More recently, the organization also obtained the implementation of a new criminal offense of mistreatment in order to strengthen the protection of seniors and any other adult in a vulnerable situation. “We have made a lot of progress on the issue of user care,” summarizes Mr. Brunet.
In 2020, the pandemic was a turning point in the CPM’s action, while COVID-19 exacerbated cases of mistreatment. Following the numerous abuses observed during this dark period, the Council for the Protection of the Sick was the only organization authorized by coroner Géhane Kamel to testify at the inquiry into the tragedy that occurred in public CHSLDs and in private residences in first hours of the pandemic. On this occasion, the organization was invited to make recommendations in order to learn lessons from this deplorable tragedy.
Since the first struggles led by Claude Brunet, in the early 1970s, to defend patients who were victims of illegal strikes at the CHSLD Saint-Charles-Borromée, the CPM has carefully taken care to call the authorities, health establishments or professional orders. “We regularly denounce situations which, sometimes, are corrected,” confides Paul Brunet. Over time, I began to have a little more direct contact with certain ministers’ offices. And I don’t hesitate to tell them that while they make announcements which can be very interesting, the “machine” unfortunately often does what it wants. »
Breaking the omerta
The CPM can process up to 400 complaint files per year, proof that many things still need to be improved. In carrying out its mission, in 2016 the organization launched an individualized service, Health Protection, giving the right to a few hours of legal assistance for a modest contribution. This support program currently has some 300 subscribers across Quebec. But the law of silence remains, in many cases, difficult to break. “People are still afraid to complain, for fear of suffering reprisals and seeing their care cut or reduced,” laments Paul Brunet.
In fact, the fight for the liberalization of speech is still far from won. Just like that of the very survival of the CPM. Entirely dependent on private donations, the organization relies on 200 committees of users and residents of health establishments, but must fight to continue to be the voice of the most vulnerable. A new fundraising campaign aimed at raising $500,000 has just been launched to consolidate an endowment fund valued at $450,000. “We are the least well funded of the so-called rights defense organizations,” notes Paul Brunet bitterly. I am starting to understand that the more we criticize, the less we are helped. »
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