The Legault government is tackling long legal delays in matters of youth protection.
Quebec announced on Saturday the establishment of a table of partners to improve the current process.
The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, and the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, want to “optimize each step from a report to the Directorate of Youth Protection (DPJ) until the end of the legal process,” we told The Canadian Press.
Mr. Jolin-Barrette is thus applying the recipe which allowed him to present a 2023-2024 action plan with the partners of the Table Justice-Québec with a view to shortening delays at the Criminal and Penal Chamber.
The table of partners working in youth protection will first take care to draw up a portrait of the current situation. It will develop an action plan to improve the current system by proposing measures. There will also be a review of best clinical and legal practices to shorten delays.
In addition to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the table of partners will be made up of the Court of Quebec, the Bar of Quebec, the Legal Services Commission, the Human Rights Commission and youth rights, as well as representatives of the DPJ and youth litigation departments.
In December 2022, the newspaper The sun raised the problem of delays in processing cases in the Youth Chamber. Lawyers then indicated that trial dates were set in December for six months later, in June.
Following the Laurent Commission on the problems of the DYP, the Youth Protection Act was amended and nevertheless addressed the issue of delays for the child in its preamble.