Actions and Commitments

Call to Action # 18 : Health (18-24)

Québec response to MMIWG Calls to Justice # 20 and # 21

December 8, 2020

Québec government directly responds to Calls to Justice 20 and 21 from the MMIWG Supplementary Report on Québec by tabling a draft Act to authorize the communication of personal information to the families of Indigenous children who went missing or died after being admitted to an institution.

 20. WE CALL UPON the Québec government to provide Indigenous families with all the information it has about children who have been apprehended following admission to a hospital or any other health center in Québec;

The Bill is designed to provide a practical way for Indigenous families to obtain information from a health and social services institution, an organization or a religious congregation about the circumstances in which a child disappeared or died after being admitted to a health and social services establishment up to 1989. Once passed the Act, will, under certain conditions, make it possible to disclose information to these Indigenous families. Specifically, the Act introduces exemptions from the current rules on access that prevent the release of information to families.

21. WE CALL UPON the Government of Quebec to establish a commission of inquiry on the children taken from Indigenous families in Quebec

It also gives the Minister a power of inquiry when elements shedding light on the circumstances of a child’s disappearance or death exist, but cannot be disclosed under current rules.

The MMIWG Supplementary report on Quebec reviews instances of Indigenous children including a number of Atikamekw babies disappearing with no explanation from institutions in Québec including from a hospital from Joliette