A Quebec court judge has issued a scathing decision identifying major long-standing problems in youth protection services for Inuit children in Quebec’s North, in a case where a teenage girl was sent to 64 different foster homes in less than 10 years.
For most of that time, the teen was placed in foster homes and rehabilitation centres in the South because of a shortage of services in the North.
In a decision April 24, Quebec Court Judge Peggy Warolin ruled the teen — who can’t be identified due to youth protection laws — “was thus deprived of her right to the preservation of her cultural identity.”
“The child had been so cut off from her culture that she found herself in a very advanced process of assimilation,” Warolin said.
In a decision April 24, Quebec Court Judge Peggy Warolin ruled the teen — who can’t be identified due to youth protection laws — “was thus deprived of her right to the preservation of her cultural identity.”
It’s one of two decisions recently issued by Warolin that she insisted be forwarded directly to the provincial ministers responsible for social services and relations with First Nations and Inuit.
“No other group of adolescents in need of rehabilitation services must submit to placement so far from their original environment,” Warolin said in the decision, concluding that such practices amount to systemic discrimination.
Warolin attributed the girls’ situation in part to territorial battles between the provincial Department of Youth Protection and local health authorities in Nunavik, the region encompassing Quebec’s Far North.
Once again in her decision, Warolin condemned the lack of services in the North, this time citing the 2019 Viens Commission report into the mistreatment of Indigenous people in Quebec.
Quebec’s Human Rights Commission issued a report last week on youth protection services in Nunavik that echoed Warolin’s conclusion.
The original article contains 874 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !canada@lemmy.ca
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a decision April 24, Quebec Court Judge Peggy Warolin ruled the teen — who can’t be identified due to youth protection laws — “was thus deprived of her right to the preservation of her cultural identity.”
It’s one of two decisions recently issued by Warolin that she insisted be forwarded directly to the provincial ministers responsible for social services and relations with First Nations and Inuit.
“No other group of adolescents in need of rehabilitation services must submit to placement so far from their original environment,” Warolin said in the decision, concluding that such practices amount to systemic discrimination.
Warolin attributed the girls’ situation in part to territorial battles between the provincial Department of Youth Protection and local health authorities in Nunavik, the region encompassing Quebec’s Far North.
Once again in her decision, Warolin condemned the lack of services in the North, this time citing the 2019 Viens Commission report into the mistreatment of Indigenous people in Quebec.
Quebec’s Human Rights Commission issued a report last week on youth protection services in Nunavik that echoed Warolin’s conclusion.
The original article contains 874 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!