The Minister responsible for Social Services was reassuring on Wednesday about the possibility that Inuit children will be forgotten by the local DYP for years in inadequate families.
Lionel Carmant argued that the legislative changes made after the Granby girl tragedy in 2019 better protect children.
“The DPJ today is very different, assured Minister Carmant, arriving at the Council of Ministers. It also shows that we made the right choice by putting the child at the center of the law. »
Tuesday and Wednesday, The Press lifted the veil on the situation of Anna *, a young Inuit abandoned without service and without follow-up from 2006 to 2021 in a foster family where violence and alcohol reigned. She spent her entire early childhood there, when her file had disappeared from the radar screen of the DPJ in the far north of Quebec.
“If the situation of the teenager has been able to pass under the radar for all these years, despite the alerts that have nevertheless arisen at various times, we are entitled to think that several other children are in the same situation, writes the magistrate, wrote Judge Peggy Warolin of the Court of Quebec, ordering social services to pay $25,000 to the young Inuit.
Asked directly about the possibility that other Inuit children are indeed in the same situation, Minister Carmant did not answer the question directly. “Now the child is at the center of the law. Everything is done to prioritize the needs of the child,” he said.
* Name changed for confidentiality purposes.