Quebec’s youth protection agencies need help, managers say after girl’s death
MONTREAL — The heads of Quebec youth protection agencies are highlighting a shortage of qualified case workers and calling for changes to prevent tragedies like the recent death of a seven-year-old girl that has shaken the province.
“Since the announcement of this young girl’s death, we have all been deeply affected and troubled, as is each worker and manager in our services,” the agency directors say in an open letter published Monday. “Our thoughts are with this child, and we offer our sympathies to her family and relatives. Such tragedies should never happen.”
The provincial agency has come under scrutiny and faced criticism following the death of a girl in Granby, Que., whose case had been on the radar of youth protection officials from a young age.
The girl, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was found badly injured in her family home and died in hospital on April 30. Before she died, her father, 30, and stepmother, 35, were charged with unlawful confinement, while the stepmother was also charged with aggravated assault.