Head of DPJ resigns at minister’s request [Video]

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.

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 …