New details emerge in death of 4-year-old Inuk girl under care of Montreal youth protection services

Multiple investigations are now underway into the deaths of three children who were being followed by Batshaw Youth and Family Services. The Montreal Gazette initially reported in July on the three who died within weeks of each other last March. A 16-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy died by suicide. A 4-year-old girl died after an illness. The three cases weren't related. Our colleagues at Radio-Canada have been looking into this and have discovered new information about the four-year-old who died. She was Inuk and she'd been living under the care of Youth Protection for most of her life. At the time of her death, the girl had been returned to the care of her biological family after living in foster care for a few years. Sources told Radio-Canada the Batshaw social worker who last visited the family home reported that the girl was unwell and needed to see a doctor. And the sources told Radio-Canada that the family was reluctant to seek medical care because of mistrust of, quote, white doctors. No Batshaw worker returned for a follow-up visit before the girl's death. The Batshaw Workers' Union says there's a chronic staff shortage and that complex, tragic cases such as this only compound the problem. It puts an enormous amount of stress on people, and a lot of them sometimes end up going on sick leave. You go on sick leave when you already don't have enough staff to provide the service, creates a strain on the others that are staying there. Quebec's coroner's office is investigating the three deaths, and Santé Québec's national inspector's office has also launched an investigation and is already interviewing witnesses. And Radio-Canada says Quebec's Human Rights Commission is also looking into the deaths. In a statement, Batshaw refused to comment on specific cases, but said it has implemented several changes since the death to improve monitoring and support for children awaiting services.