Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “What offends me the most is that it goes against the guidelines we've put in place,” Minister Lionel Carmant said Wednesday morning.
Katrine Desautels – The Canadian Press in Quebec City
Published at 10:04 a.m. Updated at 6:56 p.m.
- Quebec City
Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant has placed the Mauricie-et-Centre-du-Québec Youth Protection Department (DPJ) under supervision.
This decision follows the shocking report by La Presse published Wednesday morning and reporting several serious failings on the part of the DPJ in this region. It is reported that the rights of dozens of children were violated. The daily newspaper cites a document produced by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec (CDPDJ) according to which children were placed in a mixed bank with a view to being adopted without however respecting all the criteria for finding themselves in this situation.
For the minister this situation is “intolerable”.
He also indicated that the DPJ would remain under supervision “as long as it takes.” Mr. Carmant said he was waiting for the report of a CDPDJ investigation into the issues in Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec.
“What upsets me the most is that it goes against the guidelines we put in place. I've been here for six years and I've been saying for six years that we need to do more prevention. We need to support parents. We must not take the parents away from the children and I read this this morning, I am disoriented,” he said in a press scrum Wednesday morning at the National Assembly.
Repairing the damage that has been caused will be difficult, says Jade Bourdages, professor at the UQAM School of Social Work. She emphasizes that the blow will be hard, especially for the children who will once again be uprooted from their family environment.
“We are obviously talking about the damage to biological families and children, and there is also the damage to the families who welcomed these children in good faith, thinking that the criteria had been respected,” she added.
Ms. Bourdages thinks that we could see legal proceedings. “There are allegations made in this report of false, manipulated information. What was revealed to the public this morning is serious,” she said.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Mr. Carmant does not seem to fear that this type of situation will be widespread elsewhere in Quebec, saying that the problem is local. “This is the only place where we have heard of such practices,” he said.
Ms. Bourdages does not believe that the problem is limited to this region alone.
“It's just that we haven't heard about it yet or that there aren't any investigations that have looked into the other DPJ cases.”
“We receive testimonies, whether as researchers, from lawyers who work at the Youth Chamber, from families who have adopted through a mixed bank. Testimonies of experiences that have been had in contact with this institution. Everything indicates that it is not localized,” the expert argued.
A decision that comes too late
The opposition reacted strongly to the news this morning and several members argued that the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) government must have a plan to resolve the situation.
In a press release, the official opposition’s youth protection critic, Brigitte B. Garceau, recalled that she had requested in June 2023 that the DPJ of Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec be placed under guardianship. This is a decision “that comes far too late,” she criticized.
She believes that Minister Carmant minimized the urgency of the situation at the time “despite the clear warning signs.”
“It took months, and the publication of a shocking document from the CDPDJ, for the government to finally deign to act. These revelations show that children were placed in a mixed bank for adoption without the appropriate criteria being respected, and that false or manipulated information was filed in court. “This is an affront to the fundamental rights of children and parents,” she denounces.
Ms. Garceau is calling for “profound reforms” to prevent such abuses from happening again.
Solidarity MP Ruba Ghaza asked how the problem could be solved in the long term ? She said it was important to know whether it was a procedural or manpower problem. “The government will have to have a plan to stop this kind of story that undermines public confidence in the DPJ,” she said.
Liberal Monsef Derraji also pointed out that there are multiple issues, including staff turnover and poor planning. “It’s deplorable that with everything we’ve done at the DPJ, we’re seeing situations like this again,” he said.
Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis echoed his opposition colleagues by raising issues of staff retention within the DPJ and gaps in training. “We learned that people may not have had the training and all the parameters to make the right decision,” he explained.
No accountability
Ms. Bourdages is pleased that government authorities are starting to wonder whether this is not a structural problem. “We're going to have to reopen the investigation books because there have been many investigations into the DPJ's practices and the structural problem still seems latent to me,” she says.
The expert deplores the fact that the issue of structure is being overlooked, thinking that it's only a personnel problem. “All the reports tell us that it's been much deeper than that for a very long time,” she emphasizes.
Ms. Bourdages proposes that an organization independent of the government be responsible for monitoring, implementing control and accountability mechanisms that are currently absent from this public institution.
With information from Thomas Laberge
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