‘Intolerable’: Quebec puts youth protection office branch under trusteeship after shocking report

The Quebec government has placed a branch of the province’s youth protection office under trusteeship following a report by the province's human rights commission, which identified numerous violations of children’s rights.

This decision, made on Wednesday, followed a La Presse report that revealed an internal document from the human rights commission. The report found that the youth protection office serving central Quebec and the Mauricie region was removing children from their families too hastily. According to the document, government statistics show that this office, covering areas like Trois-Rivières and Drummondville, puts three times more children up for adoption than more populated parts of Quebec.

Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant addressed the issue in the provincial legislature, calling the situation “intolerable” and stating that the branch would remain under trusteeship “for as long as it takes.” He added that he was awaiting the final report from the human rights commission on the region’s issues.

“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 for six years, I’ve said we need to focus more on prevention,” Carmant said. “Parents must be supported. We must not remove the parents from the children.”

La Presse reported that many children in the region were put up for adoption without meeting all legal requirements. The document also highlighted that caseworkers, often undertrained, held biases against parents who had grown up in Quebec’s youth protection system. In some instances, these parents had their children taken from them without a fair opportunity to demonstrate their ability to care for them.

Additionally, the report noted that caseworkers sometimes left errors in court reports and frequently requested no-contact orders between parents and children without proper justification.

Carmant indicated that this issue appears to be isolated to the one region. “This is the only place where we have heard of such practices,” he told reporters.

The human rights commission, which is still investigating, declined to comment on the case. In a statement, a spokesperson clarified that the document obtained by La Presse “does not constitute the final report of the investigation.”

Quebec’s opposition parties were quick to respond on Wednesday.

Liberal youth protection critic Brigitte Garceau, in a press release, noted that she had called for the Mauricie and central Quebec youth protection branch to be placed under trusteeship back in June 2023. This was after the human rights commission launched its second investigation into the office within four months. She criticized the government’s delayed response, saying the decision “comes much too late.”

Garceau accused Carmant of downplaying the seriousness of the situation last year, despite “clear warning signals,” and demanded comprehensive reforms to prevent further abuses.

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

Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis also expressed concerns about staff retention and training issues within the youth protection office. “We’re learning that people may not have had the training or the necessary parameters to make the right decisions,” he said.