Quebec’s head of youth protection steps down after sex scandal at detention facility

Quebec’s national director of youth protection has resigned, days after a media report claimed that educators at a Montreal detention centre for troubled minors had sexual relations with detainees.

Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant confirmed to Radio-Canada today that he’d asked Catherine Lemay to resign and she had done so.

Her departure comes days after La Presse reported that nine female employees at the Cité-des-Prairies rehabilitation centre allegedly had sexual intercourse with at least five minor residents, and that one of the educators had a baby with a detainee.

Both the centre’s management and the police are investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct at the facility, which houses some of the most troubled young people in Quebec’s youth protection network.

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Carmant told Radio-Canada that he asked Lemay to resign over what he called differences of opinion on the direction of the network, adding that he wanted someone more aligned with the culture change needed in the system.

Earlier this month, the province placed a local office of the youth protection network under trusteeship following a report alleging that children in the central Quebec and Mauricie regions were being taken away from their parents too quickly.