www.michaeljournal.org By Alain Pilote
No, Premier Legault, the child does not belong to the State
On December 1, 2021, Lionel Carmant, Quebec’s Minister of Health and Social Services in Premier François Legault cabinet presented Bill 15, an overhaul of Quebec’s Youth Protection Act at a news conference. This was a follow-up to the recommendations of the Laurent Commission tabled six months earlier.
The commission was created following the tragic death in April 2019 of a 7-year-old girl who had been subjected to repeated abuse despite being monitored by authorities at the DYP (Director of Youth Protection is the provincial agency involved when a child is determined to be “at risk”).
On March 23, 2021, Minister Carmant was questioned in French by a journalist from CBC television regarding the follow-up from the Laurent Commission report. He replied: “The well-being of the child comes before everything. Science shows us that things have changed; one does not necessarily need a biological family: the child must be in a loving environment. That’s what’s really going to move our work forward this fall.”
