THE SUPERIOR COURT HAS AUTHORIZED A CLASS ACTION REGARDING CONFINEMENT AND LOCKING-UP MEASURES, SEXUAL ASSAULTS AND THE USE OF FORCE IN YOUTH PROTECTION CENTRES

MONTREAL, June 8, 2023 /CNW/ - On September 7, 2022, the Superior Court of Québec authorized a class action for damages against the Government of Québec (represented by the Attorney General of Québec) and sixteen (16) integrated (university) health and social services centres (also known as IHSSC, IUHSSC, CISSS and CIUSSS). This class action concerns abuses which are alleged to have occurred in youth protection centres throughout the province of Québec since 1950.

A person is automatically a member of this class action if they meet all of the following criteria:

• They were born on or after October 2, 1932.
  
  
• They are not a member of a First Nation, an Inuit or a Métis.
  
  
• They were under 18 years old when they were placed in a centre as per a youth protection law. For the purposes of the class action, the centres notably include youth protection schools or youth protection centres, reception centres, transition centres and rehabilitation centres. Hospital centres, group homes and foster families are not concerned by the class action. Mont d'Youville reception centre is also excluded from the class action as it is already concerned by a separate, ongoing class action. Finally, a person who was placed in a centre following youth criminal justice proceedings is not a member of the class action.
  
  
• During their placement at the centre,
• they were sexually assaulted; and/or
  
  
• they were subject to one or several of the following measures:
  
  
• they were placed in solitary confinement;
• they were confined in a common area of the centre;
• they were locked up in their room;
• they were locked up in another room or in a cell;
• they were subject to the use of force, with or without the use of mechanical devices (for example, a straitjacket, handcuffs or shackles), of medication or of other chemical substances.
  
  Some of the above measures may have been referred to as the "quiet room", the "QT", the "hole" or "arrêt d'agir".
  
  
• They did not receive financial assistance and sign a release pursuant to the National Program of Reconciliation with the Duplessis Orphans or the National Reconciliation Program for Duplessis Orphans Who Were Residents of Certain Institutions. However, in some circumstances (explained in the full-length notice to the class members), a person having signed such a release may still be a member of the class action.

The Superior Court appointed Ms. Eleanor Lindsay as the representative of all class members. On their behalf, Ms. Lindsay claims that the Government of Québec and the defendant centres are responsible for the systemic detention and abuse of children admitted into centres. She asks that the Superior Court order the Government of Québec and the defendant centres to pay damages to the class members, including herself.

Those allegations and the defendants' purported liability remain to be proven. In the coming years, unless the parties enter a settlement, the Superior Court will therefore be required to decide, following a trial, whether the defendants were at fault and whether and to what extent damages should be paid to the class members.

If they do not want to be included in the class action and to obtain a payment if the class action is settled or granted by the court, class members may opt out of the class action at the latest on July 9, 2023, at 4:30PM. The means of opting out are specified in the full-length notice to the class members. All class members who will not have opted out prior to the expiry of this deadline will be bound by any judgment rendered in the class action.

For additional information about the class action, please consult the full-length notice to the class members available at the following address:

https://www.registredesactionscollectives.quebec/fr/Consulter/Apercu
Demande?NoDossier=500-06-001022-199

Counsel for Ms. Eleanor Lindsay and all class members, identified below, may also be contacted by the following means:

Another notice to the class members will be published if any settlement is entered into by the parties or once a final judgment is rendered on the class action.

THE PUBLICATION OF THIS PRESS RELEASE HAS BEEN ORDERED BY THE COURT.

SOURCE Borden Ladner Gervais LLP