A foster family is demanding more than half a million dollars from the Lanaudière Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS) for the alleged “abuse” and “neglect” suffered by a little girl in the company of workers in the months following her birth (DPJ).
Le Devoir was able to see this application to initiate proceedings before the Quebec Superior Court, filed last Friday at the Joliette courthouse and signed by family lawyer Anne-France Goldwater, who has more than 40 years of experience.
The document tells the story of a little girl, currently less than four years old, who was the subject of a complaint to the DPJ in 2021 because her biological mother was unable to care for her due to a mental disability. The child was then placed in a foster family with five other small children who were allegedly mistreated there. The household in which it was received was unable to meet its needs, claim the two plaintiffs behind this lawsuit, whose identities have not been disclosed to preserve that of the little girl protected by the court.
“These children were deprived of care, food and supervision by their foster parents who were clearly overburdened, resulting in several [enfants] suffered bodily harm,” write the plaintiffs, who are now looking after the little girl in their home in a town in Lanaudière.
The little girl thus remained in a home where she was poorly fed for three and a half months, claims the couple, who regret that a DPJ employee visited the shelter where the little girl lived in 2021 together with several other children would then have found no deficiency in the treatment reserved for the small child. “It is developing well and there are currently no difficulties observed. It follows its growth curve well and responds to it Developmental stages of a baby her age,” this spokeswoman explained in writing.
This DPJ report was later deemed “inconsistent” in 2022 by Quebec Court Judge Luc Joly, who instead concluded that “the environment.” “The place where the child was entrusted was not adequate for her needs” in view of the report of a pediatrician at Joliette Hospital who consulted her after her release from that foster home. “Sure, that [DPJ] did not act in the best interests of the child,” concluded Judge Joly, who made another ruling in the case earlier this year.
The couple therefore claims that Lanaudière's DPJ “deliberately turned a blind eye to the basic needs of the little girl” who was left “in an environment where children were left to fend for themselves, without supervision and without food, without “no food “. “The violations are determined by the organization,” the lawsuit states.
It was a nightmare and it was the little guy who paid for it
“It was a nightmare and it was the little guy who paid for it,” noted one of the two applicants in an interview with Le Devoir on Tuesday.
Fragile health
After the little girl was reported for “physical abuse,” she was removed from her first foster family. She was then briefly welcomed into two other homes before being entrusted to the Lanaudière couple at the end of 2021, who had communicated to the DPJ their desire to adopt a child for whom they would be responsible until they came of age.
However, the couple was not informed by the DPJ about the little girl's fragile state of health before being admitted to their home. “It then quickly became clear to the plaintiffs that the placement would be far from what the DPJ had announced, as the child would require numerous medical treatments throughout his life,” the lawsuit states.
The DPJ subsequently created “numerous obstacles for the little girl to receive the necessary health care,” claims the couple, who particularly regret that the organization waited almost a month before authorizing an operation that urgently needed to be performed on the child .
Then, at the beginning of the year, employees of the DPJ Lanaudière, accompanied by two police officers, came to the complainants' house “to take the child away by force” and without warning the couple beforehand. “As victims of blatant procedural abuses and blatant bad faith, plaintiffs asked the undersigned attorneys to ensure that the child was able to reintegrate into the environment that best suited his needs,” the lawsuit states.
“For us she is like our daughter. We care for it like the apple of our eyes; We offer him all medical services. And for us it was as if we had kidnapped our child when she was taken away by the police like that. […]. We were demolished,” admits one of the plaintiffs behind this lawsuit.
Custody was confirmed by the court
The couple then obtained a Quebec court ruling this year that said they could care for the little girl until she turned 18.
“The plaintiffs therefore allege that the DPJ's conduct was not only negligent but also malicious, since its actions were justified only by its antipathy towards the DPJ [d’un des demandeurs] and that these had a direct impact on the child’s well-being,” the lawsuit adds. When the little girl returned to the couple's house, they noticed this She had lost weight, stopped smiling and wanted to be at the couple's side all the time, “obviously she was afraid of abandonment”.
“She has changed her environment so much that it has completely destabilized her,” admits one of the applicants.
The couple is therefore seeking damages from the CISSS de Lanaudière totaling $558,000 in moral and punitive damages, including $105,000 to compensate for the “legal damage” suffered by the child, who was in a first foster family for several months was “unable to meet his needs.” The couple is also seeking $100,000 in financial compensation for the pain they suffered when the DPJ deprived them of access to the little girl for several months, as well as more than $163,000 in legal costs. The lawyers have so far demanded, among other things, compensation.
The CISSS de Lanaudière did not want to comment on this court case on Tuesday.