(Montreal) A Montreal-based child and family services agency does not take improving care for Indigenous youth seriously, and no one is holding it accountable, an Indigenous peoples advocate said Friday.
Posted at 9:11 p.m.
Nakuset, director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, says that although the Batshaw Youth and Family Centers have received recommendations from Indigenous communities and the province’s human rights commission, they are not implementing them. implemented.
His comments follow an incident in April that only recently became public knowledge, in which an Inuit teenager at a Batshaw rehabilitation center north of Montreal was allegedly put in isolation while in pain and in need. of emergency surgery. The Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec began its investigation in early October.
“It’s atrocious what they did to this youngster, so you have to do something, but there’s a whole system that’s completely broken, and no one is doing anything about it,” said Nakuset, who uses only one name, during an interview.
Her organization began working with Batshaw Centers in 2013 to help them improve treatment for Indigenous children in care, but severed ties with them in September 2021.
Nakuset clarified that she does not believe Batshaw Centers has implemented any of the recommendations made by the Commission on Human and Youth Rights in the spring of 2021, after the watchdog found that young Inuit in care were sometimes prohibited from speaking their own language.
And, she said, Quebec Premier François Legault’s refusal to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism gives people in government institutions permission to ignore the realities around them.
“If nobody holds them accountable, they will never do it, nobody forces them, and that is why, when you have a government like Legault’s which does not believe that there is systemic racism, it continues. “, did she say.
Nakuset and Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, a civil rights organization in Montreal, called on the commission to launch a broader investigation into systemic racism at the Batshaw Centers, to both in terms of how it provides services to Aboriginal youth and the under-representation of Aboriginal staff within the organization.
Nakuset pointed out that although the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission opened an investigation, it should not have waited for the incident to receive media attention. Mr. Niemi, meanwhile, pointed out that the investigation is being conducted under the Youth Protection Act rather than the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms; therefore, he said, details of the incident will not be made public and the commission has no power to ensure the implementation of its recommendations.
“There is no oversight and there is no accountability,” he criticized. This is why these problems persist. »
Dalia Alachi, spokesperson for the commission, said in an email that she was following up with Batshaw Centers to ensure the recommendations were implemented, adding that they had taken steps to offer interpretation to youth in care.
Mme Alachi added that in the majority of investigations under the Youth Protection Act, changes are made while the investigation is ongoing. She said that while young people involved in cases cannot be identified, recommendations can be made public.
Mr. Niemi believes that the incident was not properly reported to the authorities in accordance with the Youth Protection Act and he wonders if the provincial government would have acted differently if the young person was not aboriginal.
“If it was a young white man with blond hair and blue eyes, believe me, the government would respond immediately and order an independent investigation and demand full answers from Batshaw Centers senior management as to what exactly happened. why this has been kept secret for so long,” he questioned.
Lambert Drainville, a spokesman for Lionel Carmant, the Minister Delegate for Health and Social Services, who is responsible for youth protection, would not comment specifically on the April incident, citing the investigation. of the committee. He said steps have been taken to ensure youth at Batshaw Centers can speak their own language and that “cultural safety” training for staff is ongoing.
“We do not tolerate any form of violence, racism or discrimination towards the young people under our protection and their families, wrote Mr. Drainville in an email. When allegations of these actions are brought to our attention, we take it very seriously and take immediate action to shed light on what happened. »
The CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which oversees the Batshaw Centres, declined to comment on Friday. He said Thursday that he has taken steps to protect the “cultural safety” of young people under his care, including hiring Indigenous staff and rewriting policies to affirm young people’s rights to speak Indigenous languages.