Sexual misconduct in youth centers | Cité-des-Prairies is the tip of the iceberg

Our journalists lift the veil on other cases of sexual misconduct involving employees occurring in youth centers in several regions.

At least 19 youth center employees – including educators – have been fired or resigned during an investigation in the last five years for sexual misconduct in several regions of Quebec, it has been discovered The Press. They are in addition to the nine employees involved in the Cité-des-Prairies scandal.

These 19 employees of youth rehabilitation centers are located in Laval, Outaouais, Abitibi, the Capitale-Nationale region, Montérégie and Chaudière-Appalaches.

Seven other CISSS/CIUSSS refused to answer questions from The Press and asked us to go through the law on access to information.

In Laval alone, we are talking about seven educators and school supervisors, including two women, according to a compilation provided by the local CISSS. Of these, four have been fired and three have resigned during the investigation since 2019.

But these seven cases represent a cautious assessment, since two other situations were confirmed The Presswhere female employees were reported for sexual misconduct even though they had already resigned or been fired for other reasons.

In the first case, an educator who was fired from the Cartier rehabilitation center in Laval even tried to return to work there through a personnel placement agency, according to a source who requested anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media. After his departure, allegations of inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature were reported to authorities.

However, internal people recognized her during her return attempt and denounced her, again according to our information.

Without wanting to give details on this case, the director of youth protection (DPJ) of Laval, Jean-François Payette, affirms that the “vigilance” of the staff made it possible to prevent his return. “A flag has been raised”; someone said “it seems to me that we have seen this person, and she is trying to come back”, he describes. “It allowed us to quickly investigate and act,” specifies the DYP of Laval.

In his eyes, this is proof of the change in “culture that we are trying to install” to encourage employees to denounce “everything that is unacceptable in terms of behavior” – a change “supported by senior management “.

The DYP of Laval “insists” the fact that any sign of neglect, mistreatment, “physical or sexual abuse” committed against a young person must be reported. This repeated directive seems to be bearing fruit, he believes, if he is based on the “high” number of educators denounced in recent years.

“Marked” information sharing

In the second situation reported to The Pressan educator who completed an internship at the Cartier center in Laval, in 2023, managed to be hired at the Cité-des-Prairies rehabilitation center in Montreal – a center which also accommodates adolescents – after being denounced for inappropriate behavior towards young people during his internship in Laval, according to our information.

This example tends to demonstrate the problems of transmitting information between establishments, while the rules for protecting employees’ personal information do not allow it. In other words, in the absence of criminal convictions, the CISSS have their hands tied by confidentiality rules.

“The sharing of information is very well defined, very regulated on a legal level,” confirms the DPJ of Laval, Jean-François Payette. [Avec] the arrival of Santé Québec – that’s the good side of things – it will become more difficult for someone to navigate from one environment to another, since there will now be a single employer. »

With Santé Québec, “employee information will be more easily shareable,” adds the head of the labor relations department at the CISSS de Laval, Amélie. Plouffe Deschamps. Even if an educator resigns during an investigation, traces remain in the file, specifies the manager.

However, if an educator engages in inappropriate behavior such as “staying alone in a room with a young person for too long”, although it is “shady”, it is not enough to trigger a multi-sectoral agreement (during which the police are necessarily involved), nuance M. Payette. This requires a denunciation of an alleged crime, for example a teacher who allegedly performed fellatio on a young person, he specifies.

However, this does not mean that the CISSS does nothing in cases where there is no report to the police; disciplinary measures may be imposed, up to and including dismissal, adds M^me Plouffe Deschamps.

None of the employees involved in Laval have been criminally charged. Amélie Plouffe Deschamps affirms that a multisectoral agreement was triggered in three out of seven cases.

Coded exchanges between CISSS

André Brunelle, retired general director of youth centers, explains that “it has always been an obligation to maintain confidentiality on this type of file”.

There was, however, a somewhat coded way of proceeding, he said.

In Quebec and Outaouais too

Over the past five years, two employees of rehabilitation centers in the Quebec region have also been fired following inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature, according to the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale.

In Outaouais, four workers in rehabilitation centers have been targeted by an investigation for inappropriate behavior since 2019, according to the local CISSS. Three of them resigned during the investigation. In the fourth case, the CISSS ended the employee’s probation.

“As soon as we have doubts about an employee, a report to youth protection is made as well as the triggering of the multi-sectoral agreement which can lead to criminal investigations if necessary,” assures its spokesperson Camille Brochu-Lafrance.

Despite our request, the CISSS de l’Outaouais did not specify whether charges had been laid.

As “the employees involved in our situations resigned during the investigation, we are not able to provide the requested information,” indicates its spokesperson.

In Abitibi and Chaudière-Appalaches also

At the CISSS de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a situation related to inappropriate actions of a sexual nature committed by youth center workers has been documented for five years. The person “left his position during the investigation process,” mentions the CISSS.

At the CISSS de Chaudière-Appalaches, two administrative investigations have been launched since 2019 into youth center employees who have engaged in inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature.

“Although the number is small and these are isolated situations, [ces situations] were taken seriously and as soon as they were submitted to us were taken care of by the implementation of actions which were necessary in the circumstances”, affirms the spokesperson of the CISSS, Mireille Gaudreau, refusing to specify the nature of the measures taken for reasons of confidentiality.

On the North Shore, no cases have been recorded, according to the local CISSS.

Let us remember that The Press revealed in October that no less than nine educators were suspended or dismissed for having committed acts of a sexual nature against young people housed at the Cité-des-Prairies rehabilitation center over the past two years. . The youth protection departments of Laval and Montérégie are in the crosshairs of Quebec for sexual misconduct allegedly perpetrated by employees, including educators, we also learned.

In Montérégie, three employees resigned after engaging in inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature with young people since 2019, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est confirmed to us at the time.

The CISSS and CIUSSS which provided us with figures insist on the fact that they apply a “zero tolerance” policy and that investigation processes are quickly put in place, including police interventions, when a situation of a sexual nature is suspected.

The professional order, the solution to “lack of supervision”?

The Association of Specialized Educators of Quebec (AEESQ) deplores the fact that educators can be moved from one service to another, or even from one establishment to another, after having committed abuse and calls for the creation of a professional order.

“Generally speaking, we observe that educators can commit sexual or physical abuse in a department then be transferred from department or even resign and go to work elsewhere in the public network,” deplores the president of the AEESQ, Marc Sauvageau .

The field “lacks supervision” and would benefit from having a professional order, he has been arguing for more than 10 years. The sex scandal at the Cité-des-Prairies youth center is the most recent example of the need to better regulate the work of educators who work with vulnerable people, including children entrusted to the DPJ.

With a professional order, an educator who commits sexual misconduct towards a young person would risk being deregistered and thus no longer being able to practice his profession anywhere (during the time of his delisting), explains Marc Sauvageau, who is himself a specialized educator.

In the absence of a professional order to protect the public, problematic situations arise and will continue to occur, he laments. The latter gives the example of this specialized educator from the Philippe-Pinel Institute of Forensic Psychiatry who developed an inappropriate relationship with a young murderer incarcerated in an adolescent unit.

This educator resigned from her position in 2019, but she continued to see the young person and found a job in a school service center, says Mr. Sauvageau. In 2014, Kaven Sirois Fournier*, 16, and an accomplice broke into a house in Trois-Rivières to shoot two sisters and the youngest’s boyfriend at close range, in a context of jealousy.

The AEESQ already prohibits the development of any friendly, romantic or sexual relationship in the context of a helping relationship, however “we have very few legal levers to enforce this ban,” explains Mr. Sauvageau.

* The media can identify the murderer because even though he was a teenager at the time of his crime, he received an adult sentence.

Caroline Touzin, The Press