Quebec puts youth protection office branch under trusteeship after shocking report

Quebec Junior Health and Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant responds to reporters questions at the legislature in Quebec City on May 1, 2019. (Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press)

The Quebec government has put a branch of the province’s youth protection office under trusteeship following a report that Quebec's human rights commission has identified dozens of violations of children's rights.

The move Wednesday came hours after La Presse revealed that an internal rights commission document found the youth protection office serving central Quebec and the Mauricie region is removing children from their parents too quickly.

The news report cited government statistics in the commission document showing that the area covered by the branch, which includes the cities of Trois-Rivières and Drummondville, puts three times more children up for adoption than do more populous parts of the province.

In the provincial legislature on Wednesday, Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant said the situation is “intolerable” and the branch would remain under trusteeship "for as long as it takes." He said he was waiting for a final report from the human rights commission about the issues in the region.

"What bothers me the most is that it goes against the guidelines we have 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," he said. "Parents must be supported. We must not remove the parents from the children."

According to La Presse, the internal document shows that many children in the region were put up for adoption without all the legal criteria having been met. Case workers, who often lack sufficient training, also harbour prejudices against parents who grew up in Quebec’s youth protection system. Those parents sometimes have their babies taken from them without being given a chance to prove themselves, the report says.

The news article also says that case workers sometimes knowingly left errors in reports that were submitted to the courts and frequently requested no-contact orders between parents and children without sufficient justification.

Carmant said he believes the problem is confined to the one region. "This is the only place where we have heard of such practices," he told reporters.

The human rights commission declined to comment, saying its investigation is ongoing. In an email statement, a spokesperson said the document obtained by La Presse "does not constitute the final report of the investigation."

Quebec's opposition parties reacted strongly Wednesday.

In a news release, Liberal youth protection critic Brigitte Garceau said she had called for the Mauricie and central Québec youth protection branch to be placed under trusteeship in June 2023, after the human rights commission launched its second investigation of the branch in less than four months. She said the government's decision on Wednesday "comes much too late."

Garceau said Carmant minimized the urgency of the situation last year "despite the clear warning signals," and she demanded "profound reforms" to prevent such abuse from happening again.

"We had to wait for months, and for the publication of a shocking document from the (human rights commission) for the government to finally deign to act," she said. "This is an affront to the fundamental rights of children and parents."

Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis pointed to issues of staff retention within the youth protection office and gaps in training. "We're learning that people perhaps did not have the training and all the parameters to make the right decision," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2024.

– With files from Thomas Laberge in Quebec City

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.