Quebec youth protection: 1 in 10 children subject of call to DPJ

In 2022-2023, Quebec’s youth protection (DPJ) handled 135,839 reports, which they find “very worrying”.

In other words, almost 1 in 10 young people aged 0 to 17 were the subject of a call to youth protection and the proportion is similar in Montreal said Assunta Gallo, Director of Youth Protection at CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’île-de-Montréal, at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Reports are still on the rise in the metropolis,” Gallo stressed. In her CIUSSS alone, the increase is 13 per cent, or 14,649 reports processed.

The DPJ attributes the situation to various factors, like domestic and intra-family violence, family distress, housing problems and economic difficulties.

The Laurent Commission, which was set up following the tragic death of the Granby girl, has also raised public awareness of the issue of child abuse, says the DPJ.

The “good news,” however, is that many reports are not retained after analysis of the file. Gallo notes that in her CIUSSS alone, over 10,000 reports were not retained.

Sometimes, the person making the report simply doesn’t know which organization to contact when faced with what they see or observe, so they contact the DPJ. Many organizations can offer food or clothing assistance, for example, or refer people to more appropriate resources to find housing.

Lack of staff

In general, DPJs are currently struggling with staff shortages, reported Linda See, from CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. And the situation is particularly problematic at the orientation-assessment stage.

“The waiting list gets longer and longer,” adds Gallo. She reports that in her CIUSSS alone, “we have 30 unfilled positions out of a pool of 101”.

Quebec has also announced an incentive measure in this context, temporarily paying a sum of $900 to compensate for membership of a professional order for workers who carry out this assessment-orientation.

Young offenders

As part of their annual review, this year the DPJ chose to focus on another aspect of their work: that with young offenders, or juvenile delinquents.

Gallo pointed out that 8,554 adolescents received services under the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act in Quebec.

“In Montreal, 1,222 teenagers receive support to ensure that their future is not crystallized in delinquency. Their recovery is often a complex path with many detours and obstacles,” explained Gallo.

“Society as a whole needs to take a stand, not trivialize violence. There’s a sense of trivialization of violence, even glorification of violence, among young teenagers today. For example, they’re going to have a gun in their hand and they’re going to be filmed and they’re going to put it on the intranet site. It’s important to pay attention to this, because in the beginning, it starts with minor offences and slowly becomes major offences, in which there’s no turning back,” described Gallo.

To read more on the annual report, click here.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 13, 2023.