Four years after the murder of her two children by their father in Wendake, Émilie Arsenault is demanding justice and $2.5 million from the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale. Without the “gross negligence” and “gross deficiencies” of its Youth Protection Department (DPJ), this bereaved mother believes that her two boys, Alex and Olivier Chicoine, would still be alive today.
The murderer, Michaël Chicoine, had been the subject of three reports during the two years preceding the double infanticide. The first, launched by a social worker at the hospital, took place in the hours following Alex’s birth after the father had written insults and threats of suicide to the mother.
The father’s behavior, relates the motion filed Thursday, became more and more problematic thereafter. 1er September 2019, the two parents, now separated, go together to a party where the father gets intoxicated and engages in another bout of violence on the way home.
The court documents list his actions: in the car and in the presence of the children, he empties a can of beer on the plaintiff’s head, hits the steering wheel, smashes the radio with his fists, opens his door by threatening to jump out of the moving vehicle on the highway and puts his hand down the underwear of the mother who is driving.
A month after this evening, on October 9, it was the police who made a report to the DPJ, concerned about the custody conditions of the father who suffered from drug addiction, mental health problems and who, moreover, posed risks of domestic violence and physical abuse, according to the motion.
Two months later, the DPJ ruled that the situation did not compromise the safety and development of the two boys. She closes the file.
At the beginning of January, the father found himself in hospital following a third suicide attempt in less than two years. Émilie Arsenault will launch a third report by explicitly mentioning her fears that Michaël Chicoine will attack her children. The DPJ nevertheless rules out the need to mark out the contacts between the father and the two boys.
Ten months later, Michaël Chicoine killed them in Wendake before turning himself in to the police. They were, at the time of their murder, five and two years old. Their father is currently serving a life sentence for this double infanticide.
Five investigations — two by the Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights (CDPDJ), one requested by the Minister of Social Services, Lionel Carmant, a fourth by the Sûreté du Québec and a last initiated by the Coroner’s Office – attempted to shed light on the events that led to the tragedy.
The motion seeks one million dollars in punitive damages and $1.5 million in compensation for suffering and loss of income caused by the tragedy. The maternal grandparents of the two children are asking for $400,000.