(Quebec) Lionel Carmant says he is “scandalized” by the revelations of The Press on the nightmare experienced by adolescent girls in a DPJ foster family for more than 15 years. The minister believes that the revision of the Youth Protection Act will help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
“I am scandalized, it is abominable and there are accounts that will have to be brought before the courts,” argued the Minister responsible for Social Services upon his arrival at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Lionel Carmant intends to ask the national director of youth protection, Catherine Lemay, to investigate why adolescents continued to be entrusted to this foster family until 2021 despite the denunciation of a first victim in 2004. According to him, the police authorities must also continue their work because “what this host family did is criminal”.
“I don’t have the information, there are things that are confidential in there, but it is certain that we will ask the national director for an investigation into this, who will have to look at what is happening. », added the minister in the press scrum. The latter did not want to say that this was an isolated case, saying he was “putting everything in place to prevent this from happening again”.
“Cases of sexual abuse of children, it’s not just the DPJ… and it’s a case that goes back a long way,” lamented Mr. Carmant, maintaining that he had never been made aware of a similar case.
The Press revealed Wednesday that in 2004, a teenage girl denounced sexual assault by the father of a DPJ foster family. She was not believed and the DPJ continued to send vulnerable young people there until 2021. It took the denunciation of another young resident, this time in 2021, for Youth Protection to act.
An investigation of The Press reveals six victims and eight attackers and alleged attackers, including three adult men, over a period of 16 years, in this Quebec foster family where nearly 70 children and adolescents were housed.
“Where was the DPJ? Nobody saw anything? My daughter, she will be marked until the end of her days,” the mother of this victim confided in an interview.
Lionel Carmant believes that the modifications made to the Youth Protection Act (LPJ) in 2021 will help avoid a similar tragedy. “By modifying the law, we freed up the speakers so that, when precisely [la sécurité] children is compromised, so that information can be exchanged, which was not done in the past,” illustrated the minister.
The stakeholders can speak to the school, to the police so that these matters are known
Lionel Carmant, Minister responsible for Social Services
He notes that children’s files under the DPJ are now kept 25 years after reaching maturity. “The file of the first young girl since it dates back to 2004 was no longer available,” he lamented.
Transfer of powers
The matter arose during question period when the Liberal spokesperson for social services, Brigitte Garceau, pressed the minister to entrust the future commissioner for children’s well-being and rights with the powers of the Commission human rights and youth rights (CDPDJ), which can receive complaints and investigate.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Brigitte Garceau, Liberal MP for Robert-Baldwin.
“Why is [le ministre] hesitates to transfer all the powers and responsibilities of the CDPDJ to the new commissioner? This is a key recommendation [de la commission Laurent]. There are, at the moment, major failings by the CDPDJ in the execution of its obligations arising from the Youth Protection Act. We have children, they are suffering, we must act,” thundered Mme Garceau.
The minister is not considering this option while the bill for the creation of the position of commissioner is still under study. “It is not by transferring from the CDPDJ to the commissioner that we are going to change things, it is by resolving the problem of the CDPDJ,” said the minister on Wednesday.