The report of the Laurent Commission, set up in the wake of the death of the little girl from Granby, “is very complex and very dense”, and the monitoring committee which should already have made a first analysis of the realization last November or not of its recommendations will finally unveil it “at most in a year”.
This is what Martine Desjardins, president of the monitoring committee, told La Presse in an interview.
Because there was a delay in the delivery of her final report and because she felt that certain actions had to be taken quickly, Régine Laurent, president of the Special Commission on Children’s Rights and Youth Protection, had unveiled in November 2020 some first priorities. They focused in particular on the priority to be given to the interest of the child (rather than on keeping them in the biological family), on the need to better help young people when they leave youth centers and on the need to appoint a commissioner to the well-being of the child.
The final report, tabled in May 2021, ultimately had 57 recommendations and 300 “courses of action”.
Which of these recommendations and courses of action have been implemented? Which ones are on the way?
“Everyone was expecting a report in November” on what the government has achieved or not achieved so far, noted Martine Desjardins.
But the monitoring committee had to face the facts: it was far from having the tools to say so. “We realized that we had to identify indicators and that it took time,” she continues.
In addition to the computerized pregnancy notification that has been created throughout Quebec, we therefore do not know what real changes have been made to better protect children at the DPJ, in the education and health networks.
In an interview, Ms. Desjardins said and repeated that a first analysis would be done in May, in a year.
As the follow-up committee is in place for 10 years and because it absolutely wants to avoid “that the report be shelved”, it was necessary to make sure to start on a good basis, concluded Ms. Desjardins.
