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Quebec government seeks answers from youth protection after 7-year-old girl dies

Quebec Junior Health and Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant responds to reporters questions Thursday, December 6, 2018 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The province’s junior health minister has ordered a report into the case of a 7-year-old girl whose death raised questions about whether Quebec’s youth protection system failed to help her.

Lionel Carmant says he’s asked the regional health authority to investigate the actions of youth protection services and report back to him.

It’s one of three investigations into the girl’s death: the province’s human and youth rights commission will conduct a separate probe, and a criminal investigation is being led by Quebec provincial police.

Carmant said youth protection officials had been aware of the girl’s case from a very young age, and their last interaction with the child was last month.

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He says information so far clearly shows there were problems with the management of the girl’s case, but he says the reports will shed further light on what happened.

The young girl was found at a home shortly before noon on Monday in Granby, Que., about 80 kilometres east of Montreal. She died one day later.

READ MORE: Majority of families denied Quebec supplement for children with exceptional needs

Two adults — identified by people close to the family as the girl’s father and his partner — were both charged with unlawful confinement while the partner was also charged with aggravated assault.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said the case returns to a Granby courtroom on Thursday but couldn’t say if new charges would come during the hearing.

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