DPJ host family | Two child victims of rape plan to file a complaint against the CIUSSS

(Montreal) A lawyer representing two women sexually assaulted by the father of a foster family 16 years apart plans to sue the integrated university health and social services center (CIUSSS) of the Capitale-Nationale.

Valérie Assouline said the CIUSSS, which oversees youth protection in the region, must be held accountable for ignoring the first victim when she reported her assault and for placing other children in the home for many years. His testimony was reported by The Press Wednesday.

“I want to make sure that (youth protection) knows that this will not happen again,” said M^e Assouline in interview.

The lawyer claims that one of her clients was drugged before waking up naked in the house of Eric Jean, the father of the foster family in question, on two occasions in 2004 at the age of 12. The child reported the facts to a member of his family, who simply advised him not to drink the coffee served by Mr. Jean.

The victim was then raped a third time, while she was fully conscious, says M^e Assouline.

The little girl reported her third attack to the CIUSSS, but was not believed. Instead, she was placed in a youth center after the foster mother told authorities she was using drugs.

Children continued to be placed in this foster family until M’s other client^e Assouline, who was nine years old when she was first attacked, reported the abuse she suffered in 2021.

M^e Assouline claims that the CIUSSS must be held responsible for its failure to protect the two girls and that she is waiting to see if other victims come forward before taking legal action.

Eric Jean was sentenced to 10 years in prison in November after pleading guilty to assaulting the two girls.

The CIUSSS says it first became aware of the situation in 2021 and immediately launched an investigation.

Another man, Steve Hudon, faces charges related to the sexual abuse of the two children. Mr. Hudon is expected to return to court in May. A third man, a minor at the time the girls were raped, has been charged.

“It’s an unfortunately systemic failure,” lamented Valérie Assouline, describing the case of a seven-year-old girl in Granby, who was killed in 2019 by her stepmother, with the help of the child’s father. . In this case, family members had expressed their concerns to the Youth Protection Directorate (DPJ), which did not intervene.

“It’s the same thing (which is repeated), we don’t listen and we don’t believe (the victims), declared M^e Assouline. And that’s what leads to disasters. »

The case of the little girl from Granby is not the only time where a child was killed by a parent after the DPJ received warnings without acting, she said, referring to two boys murdered in 2020 by their father in Wendake, and another case involving a little girl killed in 2020 by her mother in Montreal.

Valérie Assouline’s clients, who are now 32 and 17 years old, are traumatized by their experience, she emphasizes.

Quebec police said their investigation into the sexual assaults at the foster home remained active, but declined to comment further.

Lionel Carmant, the Quebec minister responsible for social services, said he was horrified by the situation. “It’s abominable,” he admitted to journalists on Wednesday.

Mr. Carmant said he would ask the director of the DPJ to investigate the case of the two girls. He stressed that Quebec law has changed since a reform in 2022.

Valérie Assouline said Lionel Carmant should have ordered an investigation in November 2023, when Éric Jean was convicted.

“I think it’s a lack of courage to change things, to change things at the source,” she argued.