Horacio Arruda

Biography Born in 1960 in Sainte-Thérèse to parents from the Azores, Portugal, who immigrated to Quebec in the late 1950s, Arruda obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Université de Sherbrooke in 1983.

During his first years of practice, Arruda worked at the Public Health Department in Laval. From 1998 to 2012, he was an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He was director of public health protection at the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services from 2000 to 2012. In early May, Justin Trudeau disapproved of his advice to re-open Quebec's elementary schools and daycares.

On January 10, 2022, Arruda resigned from his position as National Director of Public Health in Quebec and admitted to an "erosion" of public trust. On January 11, Premier François Legault named Luc Boileau Quebec's interim National Director of Public Health.

Personal life Arruda is married to Nicole Mercier, a family physician in Blainville, Québec.