(Montreal) The mother of two murdered boys whose father is accused of killing them is claiming 2 million from the Quebec government, alleging that the youth protection services have failed her family.
Posted at 4:25 p.m.
In a letter from a lawyer dated April 22, Émilie Arsenault accused the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse of not having acted despite the fact that the agency was contacted three times before the death of her children.
The letter addressed to the Ministry of Health and the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center of the Capitale-Nationale (Centre jeunesse de Québec) indicates that the provincial agency had been alerted by a hospital employee, the police and the mother, between May 2018 and January 2020.
Valérie Assouline, the lawyer representing Mme Arsenault says child protection workers did not visit the family at home after any of the calls, adding that the protection service decided to close the cases involving the family without taking further action. The system, she says, must be held accountable for its failures.
“I don’t think children should pay with their lives because the system didn’t work,” she said in a telephone interview on Monday.
The bodies of Olivier, 5, and Alex, 2, were found on October 13, 2020 in a house in Wendake, a territory of the Huron-Wendat First Nation near Quebec.
Their father, Michaël Chicoine, is charged with two counts of second degree murder.
Details about what led to the child protection appeals are subject to a publication ban due to the ongoing legal process.
In the letter, the mother said that “the willful blindness of the entire system cost the lives of Olivier and Alex” and caused irreparable harm to the children and their mother.
The Department of Health declined to comment on Monday, citing the ongoing legal process.
Mand Assouline represents other families who have gone through similar circumstances, including the mother of a seven-year-old girl from Granby, whose death in 2019 sparked a widespread review of the province’s child protection system. A commission on children’s rights and youth protection released a 552-page report last May, saying the girl’s death was a collective failure of Quebec society.
Mand Assouline stressed that the Minister Delegate for Health, Lionel Carmant, was “very aware” of the problems in the youth protection system, but did not act quickly enough.
“The lack of training for social workers,” she said. (Mr. Carmant) was aware of the delays which were unreasonable. He had to act immediately. »
Mand Assouline added that the system underestimates allegations of intimate partner violence, often categorizing it as “parental conflict” instead of the risk factor that it is.
She said she recognized that the 2 million requested by her client was a higher figure than is usually claimed in such cases, but she indicated that “exemplary” judgment was needed to ensure that a situation similar never happens again. Mme Arsenault, she added, is well aware that no amount of money can bring her children back.
“She’s not necessarily doing (this) for a question of money, but a question of accountability, of making sure that someone is responsible for not having protected the children,” said Ms.and Assouline. Because she tried. What more could she do? »
Mand Assouline specified that if the government does not respond to the letter of formal notice, the next step is to take legal action.