The family of the little girl from Granby is demanding accountability from the many authorities that escaped the follow-up of the 7-year-old child, who died in disturbing circumstances on April 30, 2019.
Posted at 11:51 a.m.
A lawyer specializing in family law, Ms.e Valérie Assouline, filed Monday morning at the Granby courthouse a lawsuit worth some $3 million against, in particular, the CIUSSS de l’Estrie, head of the local Youth Protection Department (DPJ), and the Center de services Val-de-Cerfs school.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the child’s mother and paternal grandparents.
The girl was discovered by first responders on April 29 in the family home. She had been immobilized with duct tape that completely wrapped her upper body, including her head. She had died the following day, in the hospital, of suffocation according to the autopsy report.
An escaped file
However, she had been the subject of several reports to the DPJ – who had kept her in the custody of her father and his spouse – and workers at her school had also been made aware that she was suffering home violence.
It is for having neglected to take charge of the child despite a situation of known violence that the family is suing the authorities concerned.
This death had upset Quebec and led to a commission of inquiry chaired by Régine Laurent, whose report had highlighted in broad strokes the flaws in the youth protection system.
The guilty stepmother and father
Last December, the child’s 38-year-old stepmother was found guilty of the unpremeditated murder and forcible confinement of the child. The jury had taken only five hours to deliberate on his case, an exceptionally short time. She had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 13 years by judge Louis Dionne. She appealed the verdict and sentence.
The father, meanwhile, had pleaded guilty last December to the lesser charge of forcible confinement, his plea leading to the dropping of the much more serious charge of criminal negligence causing death, which could have earned him the life imprisonment. Judge François Huot had sentenced him to four years in prison, not without scolding him severely when pronouncing his sentence.
None of the intervenors in the file can be named pursuant to a Court order aimed at protecting the identity of another child in this file.