Under pressure, Minister Carmant refuses to resign

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant

Supported by his “friend” François Legault, Lionel Carmant refuses to leave his position as Minister responsible for Social Services, despite the wave of criticism generated in recent days by his management of the Youth Protection Directorate (DPJ) network.

Under pressure following revelations of sexual misconduct in various youth and rehabilitation centres in Quebec, the CAQ elected official assured Tuesday that he was still “in control” of his network. “No, I’m not going to resign,” Mr. Carmant stated bluntly when approached by the parliamentary press early in the afternoon.

In a press scrum a few minutes later, Premier François Legault made a point of defending the minister responsible for youth protection. “I’ve known Lionel for a long time. As you know, he’s a friend. And if there’s one person who’s been working hard for young people in Quebec for the past six years, it’s Lionel,” he said.

Welcoming the decision taken the day before to ask for the resignation of the national director of youth protection, Catherine Lemay, Mr. Legault said he still had complete “confidence” in Mr. Carmant. Citing an “explosion in demand” caused according to him by “COVID,” “asylum seekers” and “significant drug problems among young people,” the Prime Minister spoke of the need to “increase even more” the budgets and staff of the DPJ.

“There are positions that are not filled,” Mr. Legault exemplified. “So the challenge is to train people, to attract them. As I was saying, we increased salaries, but we are having difficulty recruiting the qualified people [that] we need. »

Read also

• The big boss of the DPJ leaves her post
• “It's sickening,” says Carmant on the scandal at the Cité-des-Prairies youth center
• Editorial | Palpable disarray at the top of the DPJ

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Emergency debate accepted

In the morning, Lionel Carmant had been harshly criticized after a series of sex scandals were revealed in various establishments, such as the rehabilitation center for troubled youth in Cité-des-Prairies. “Our children deserve better than a minister who is constantly indignant but not in action,” thundered the interim Liberal leader, Marc Tanguay.

At the request of her party, the president of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, agreed Tuesday to organize an emergency debate on the issue.

Faced with the crisis, Québec solidaire has given Mr. Carmant “one last chance” to explain the state of the network. “I want to know what his plan is,” said MP Guillaume Cliche-Rivard. According to Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the troubling cases reported to the DPJ “raise the question: is there a pilot in the plane?.”

A new boss soon

In a press scrum on Tuesday, Mr. Carmant maintained that he did not wait to act when alerted to the troubling facts observed in Cité-des-Prairies, at the Cartier youth centre, in Laval and at the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est. “We are starting the major project of youth centres […] and when we need to have an investigation, it will be done,” he said.

The next box to check off on his list: the appointment of a new big boss of the DPJ. According to our information, this person will be chosen on Wednesday. And he will have to “share the same vision” as the government in addition to “communicating a lot more,” Mr. Carmant maintained on Tuesday.

According to the former vice-president of the Special Commission on Children’s Rights and Youth Protection, André Lebon, the departure of Catherine Lemay as national director can be likened to “the dismissal of a coach by the director general.” In an interview, the former psychoeducator and experienced manager was keen to give Minister Carmant the benefit of the doubt.

“Compared to the profile we would have liked to see at the national level, Ms. Lemay did not have the right casting,” he said. “In her defense, with all the reforms to Santé Québec, she had very little time to focus on her main mission, [but] I think the malaise was profound.”

In the fourth year of the CAQ reform of the DPJ, Mr. Lebon finds it hard to imagine another minister continuing Mr. Carmant’s work. In the immediate future, he would like to see the appointment of a national director who “listens” to the network. “It can’t just be someone who is strict with his people,” he said. “I think the network needs a pilot in the plane, who loves them, who invests in them and believes in the mission of the DPJ.”