The Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) is opening an investigation to determine how a teenager was able to form a couple with a specialized educator from a school in eastern Montreal in full view of their entourage without the situation being reported to the Department of Youth Protection (DPJ).
The triggering of this process follows the guilty plea recorded by the educator in question, Véronie Campeau, 41, on March 8, at the Montreal courthouse.
She was then facing charges of sexual interference with a minor under the age of 16, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation.
“The investigation aims to verify whether the alleged facts are true and whether the rights of the teenager have been respected. It also aims to ensure that measures are taken so that such a situation does not happen again, ”said the CDPDJ, in a press release.
Injuries to rights?
The CDPDJ adds that it has “reasons to believe in lesions of rights” of the teenager since adults informed of the situation, including a teacher, would not have fulfilled their duty to alert the DPJ. “The Commission recalls that the protection of children is everyone’s business in Quebec,” it says.
The progress of the investigation will not be public, specifies the CDPDJ, adding that it could make public the “systemic” recommendations which result from it. As for the conclusions or recommendations concerning the situation of the adolescent, they are not made public, just like any individual file of a child.
Remember that the CDPDJ is responsible for ensuring respect for and promotion of the principles set out in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, as well as the protection of the interests of the child, respect and promotion of the rights are recognized by the Youth Protection Act.
“It was known”
The day after Véronie Campeau’s guilty plea, Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy had asked for an administrative inquiry to shed light on the reasons why the teenager had been able to confide in a teacher about this relationship without there is no follow-up.
“It was known. It was not done on the sly, ”summarized Véronie Campeau’s lawyer, Ms.e Gary Martin, in a press scrum, last week.
Court documents revealed that many people, including the victim’s family, knew that the special education teacher had sexual contact with the teenager.
“All looked down for different reasons,” a police report said. Very disturbing fact: the directorate of youth protection (DPJ) even entrusted custody of the teenager to Véronie Campeau, who then pretended to be a “friend of the family”, according to another court document.