Failing to immediately create a Charter of Children’s Rights, Quebec intends to make the child a “subject of law”. A measure which will have the effect of young people being listened to more in court, according to the former president of the special commission on youth protection, Régine Laurent.
As the study of Bill 37 on the Commissioner for Welfare and Children’s Rights opened Tuesday, Mr.me Laurent and the former commissioners of the Special Commission on the Rights of Children and Youth Protection have in turn pleaded for the preamble to the law to contain a direct reference to children as subjects of law.
“This would strengthen their capacity to defend themselves, to enforce their rights, and strengthen their participation in discussions on the rights that concern them,” said Ms.me Laurent in his memorandum submitted to the committee.
Visiting parliament a few minutes later, former commissioner Jean Simon Gosselin also stressed the importance of concretely including the child in the Quebec legal framework. Especially in the context where Minister Lionel Carmant postponed the creation of a Charter on children’s rights last fall. “In our conception, the commissioner and the Charter, they went together,” he agreed, before inviting the minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, to take a first step through his draft law.
In practice, the child is already a subject of law, in the same way as any natural person, but the law does not formally specify this. “It doesn’t seem like much, a little sentence, but to say that the child is a person in his own right and a subject of rights, that will reinforce what everyone is talking about: the child has the right to participate,” explained Mr. Gosselin in an interview with the Duty upon leaving the commission. “Basically, what tires us a little is that everyone speaks for the children. »
“It’s something that goes without saying”
For Mr. Carmant, the introduction of children as subjects of rights is “an achievement”. “I completely agree. It’s something that goes without saying,” he confirmed to Régine Laurent, who had just recommended it to him, via screens.
“I remember a closed hearing with a young person. I think he was twelve years old and he told us that he didn’t want to go to the other parent’s house, in this case the dad. But he said: I had to go,” she said. “So where is the child’s right? Where did we listen to the child’s words in this example? » she asked.
If she maintains that the State must develop a Charter of Children’s Rights “as soon as possible” – this was also one of the key recommendations of her report submitted in May 2021 – Ms.me Laurent claims to have found there a way to introduce the file in a preliminary manner to the legislative framework.
When tabling his bill in October, Minister Carmant confirmed the postponement of the development of a charter, pleading that the child welfare commissioner would be the best person to direct its drafting. “We’re going to see what [que le commissaire] will ask us. He will analyze the needs and we will see,” he said, even suggesting that it might never see the light of day.