“This is the worst story that Quebec has seen in the last 100 years,” said in a somber tone the lawyer for the mother and grandparents of the “girl from Granby”, who filed Monday a civil lawsuit of more than 3.7 million for the death of this 7-year-old child in 2019.
“There was Aurore the child martyr and there is the little girl from Granby,” continued Ms.e Valerie Assouline.
The action is thus directed against those who “were supposed to protect the child”, she says: the CIUSSS de l’Estrie, which reports to the DPJ (Direction de la protection de la jeunesse), the Commission scolaire du Val- des-Cerfs, as well as three workers from the DPJ responsible for his file and one of his department heads.
The lawyer specializing in youth protection files alleged in her 57-page legal claim numerous reports made to the DPJ, the police and various stakeholders to alert them to the mistreatment that the girl was undergoing. Despite these efforts, the child was found lifeless on the floor of her bedroom while living with her father and his partner, and the forensic pathologist concluded that she died of suffocation on April 30, 2019.
There were shortcomings at all stages, decided Me Assouline, and this, for three years, despite calls for help from the girl’s mother and grandmother: “An unparalleled negligence. »
In the action, you can read many examples of abuse that had not been discussed during the criminal trial of the child’s stepmother, who was found guilty in December of her unpremeditated murder.
The child was beaten in the face and head, was sent to school with soiled clothes, was forced to urinate on the floor and eat moldy vegetables: for this reason, she rummaged through the garbage cans of the school for food, is alleged in the lawsuit filed at the Granby courthouse.
The child’s complaints had been recorded in various reports which could be entered into evidence, said Ms.e Assouline.
At the stepmother’s trial, her son testified that shortly before her death, the girl had been wrapped in duct tape from head to toe, “like a mummy. »
Compensatory and punitive damages are claimed on behalf of the deceased girl, her mother and her paternal grandparents. The latter were present at the press conference held Monday in a hotel in Granby, but a court order prevents them from being identified.
When it was the mother’s turn to speak, she sobbed for several minutes before she could speak.
She would have turned 11 this week, she said, before explaining all the interventions she made when she saw her child with bruises or burns on her body. But no one listened to her, said the 31-year-old woman positioned with her back to the media, who claims, even today, to still live all the suffering of the first days.
“The helplessness I felt was so deep. »
She repeated that she did not want to sue for the money: “I do it for all the children because I know the pain it can cause”.
The child had been followed by the DPJ since birth and had subsequently been entrusted for four years to her paternal grandparents, where she was happy, argued the lawyer.
The mother lamented that her little girl was removed from this environment by the DPJ to be forced to go live with her biological father and his new spouse.
“Overnight, she was uprooted to be placed with her executioners,” added Me Assouline who adds that the DPJ did not go often enough to see the conditions in which the child was living and did not put in place adequate protective measures.
These are reproaches made to the DPJ for which it will have to defend itself during a possible trial. As for the School Board, it is being held liable for having sent the child back to school “at home”, even though it was not convinced that her “dysfunctional” family environment was “safe”. “One last safety net was thus removed from him, indicated Me Assouline. A month later, she was dead.
As for the intervening parties prosecuted personally, they had a responsibility towards this child, underlines Me Assouline, but they are the ones who decided not to withhold the reports, not to remove the little girl from her father, not to believe her, any more than her mother and grandmother who reported abuse. These are choices that were inadequate from a clinical point of view, but also contrary to common sense, the lawyer intends to plead.
The girl’s mother-in-law was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole for 13 years. The father of the child avoided his trial by pleading guilty and will spend four years in prison for having kidnapped her shortly before her death. The stepmother has appealed her verdict and sentence.
The child protection system needs to change once and for all, said Ms.e Assouline, who wants all the recommendations of the Laurent Commission – created following the girl’s death – to be implemented and for a DPJ watchdog to be appointed.