REGISTER TO BID: Items are closing fast for CFJC TV Auction!

Quebec names new head of embattled youth protection agency amid multiple scandals

Oct 30, 2024 | 2:40 PM

QUÉBEC — The Quebec government has named Lesley Hill as the province’s new youth protection director, after her predecessor stepped down earlier this week amid a number of scandals plaguing the agency.

Hill is a longtime youth services worker who served on the Laurent Commission, a public inquiry that examined the state of the province’s youth protection system following the killing of a seven-year-old girl from Granby, Que., in 2019.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government has been in turmoil since a story emerged last week that nine educators at a Montreal youth detention facility were suspended or fired after having had sexual contact with five minors.

That’s in addition to a youth protection agency in the Mauricie region in central Quebec that was placed under trusteeship in October, after it was accused of taking children away too quickly from their parents.