As the holiday season approaches, former TVA journalist Harold Gagné wishes to highlight the difficult, but sometimes magical, reality of children and adolescents who are housed in Quebec youth centers.
• Also read: Record number of Christmas baskets: organizations faced with heartbreaking choices
Nearly 15,000 different children were the subject of at least one report in Montérégie in 2023, confirmed the man who is now spokesperson for the CISSS de la Montérégie-Est.
Of this number, 4,000 reports were retained, 1,300 young people are in foster families and 1,000 others are housed.
Mr. Gagné spoke with some teenagers as part of his web series. In the last episode, which highlights testimonies from children who will spend the holiday season at the DPJ, a young woman affirms that the best gift that could have been given to her is “to have had a best childhood for Christmas, for real, just happiness.”
Another 17-year-old girl says her parents haven’t celebrated Christmas since she was 10 years old. “We opened our presents, but it always ended in complaining, because we didn’t like our presents,” she mentioned in the video. “It happened one year too long that we complained, and then it was over.”
Magical moments
Although the holiday season can be difficult for these young people, some people offer them magical moments.
Guy Lafleur, late Canadian star player, has already given around ten signed hockey team jerseys to young people at the Rehabilitation Center for young people with adjustment difficulties in Cité-des-Prairies, in the “east of Montreal,” said Harold Gagné.
Company presidents sometimes offered hockey tickets to children so that they could attend games at the Bell Center.
The ex-journalist decided to start a series of documentaries 20 years ago, when he met Jocelyne Boudreau, a former educator at the DPJ, who claimed that their budget was $20 per child.
“I said, let’s see, that doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Gagné said in an interview with LCN on Saturday. “That means we started a campaign.”
This year, Harold Gagné is asking the population to make donations to the Suzie’s Christmas Baskets website, in collaboration with the Fondation du Center jeunesse de la Montérégie.
Screenshot, TVA News
“Suzy Roy started a program in 2007 to help families,” he explained. “This year, we are going to help 1,000 families, thousands of children.”
The organization supports families in Montérégie, but also those in the regions of Drummondville, Granby, Laval, Lévis, Montreal and Repentigny.
An amount of $843,990 was also donated during the day on Saturday, the Suzie Christmas Baskets organization confirmed in a press release. This amount made it possible to provide personalized groceries and gifts to 1,000 families and 5,000 children in need.
A situation that is changing little
Harold Gagné, who has been involved in this environment for the last 20 years, affirms that the situation in youth centers has changed little.
“It’s always the same stories,” he stressed. “When we talk about neglect, there may have been abuse […]. Unfortunately, there are children who do not have the childhood they would have liked. The important thing is to help the children and also to help the parents.”
He also wants to point out that we should not only place the blame on the parents regarding the young people who end up at the DPJ. “There are all kinds of stories. It could be children who turn bad, consumption problems, psychiatric problems, psychological problems,” he listed.
To watch the full interview, click on the video above.
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