By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Brigitte Garceau, Liberal MNA for Robert-Baldwin and official opposition critic for youth protection, says the sense of urgency to repair the broad array of youth protection system failures by Minister Lionel Carmant and Deputy Minister and National Director of Youth Protection Catherine Lemay is virtually non-existent.

Garceau’s view is shared by journalist and author of two books on youth protection, Nancy Audet, who recently additionally denounced the fact that 20% of the establishments that house children under youth protection in the province are dilapidated. “Nobody should be living in establishments like Mont St-Antoine which are totally uninhabitable, and it is also reprehensible that any establishment have isolation cells as was recently discovered at the Cartier facility in Laval,”Garceau said.

Garceau has hammered home the fundamental issue of mothers losing custody of their children to violent fathers due to inadequate training of social workers in conjugal violence cases where social workers mistakenly and unilaterally accuse mothers of parental alienation. She has asked Minister Lionel Carmant to launch an investigation. “There was a motion that the government did not support. It is obvious that this issue is not a priority to the Minister nor to the government.”

In 2016, nearly 52% of reports to the Department of Youth Protection concerned children exposed to conjugal violence. Following the Laurent Commission report, Regine Laurent stated to media that parental alienation findings by unqualified social workers and other matters related to conjugal violence was the subject, by far, that generated the greatest number of calls and emails to the Commission.

Garceau told The Suburban that,”I don’t understand the logic of maintaining a dysfunctional ‘status quo’. The efforts are placed on protecting the system instead of protecting the rights of the children. One of the main recommendation’s of The Laurent Commission was the creation of an independent Commissioner for the Welfare and Rights of Children. The government in its proposed Bill 37 has failed to integrate all of those powers and responsibilities recommended into the position of the Commissioner. This call for change is fundamental and necessary if we are to reform the system so that it is fully accountable. It is imperative that a commissioner has the ability to investigate and to intervene with watchdog powers. The DPJ must be under supervision and held accountable and exercise its duties with full transparency.”

Almost three years after she was appointed, Lemay was quoted defending youth protection and her mandate saying, “The attacks on youth protection certainly affect me. It is an essential sector for our society. When things are bad, I tell myself that I am in the right place to make changes.”

Garceau insists that it is high time to see some concrete action, investigation and reform. n