Quebec human rights head resigns amid sex-assault allegations
In 1983, Picard allegedly assaulted 16-year-old boy, according to La Presse
The head of Quebec’s human and children’s rights commission has resigned after a report that he was the focus of a police investigation into allegations he had sex relations with a teenage boy and later paid $50,000 to the alleged victim to settle a lawsuit.
Camil Picard, a trained psychologist who has been working for Quebec’s Director of Youth Protection since the 1990s, was named to the Quebec’s Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse in 2013 as vice-president responsible for youth issues. He was named interim president of the human rights commission last November.
His resignation as interim president was announced Thursday morning by Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée.
“The facts that were revealed this morning are extremely troubling,” she told reporters in Quebec City.
Aspokesperson for Vallée told the Star in an email that the government later learned Picard had also resigned his post as vice-president.
According to a report in La Presse, Picard was alleged to have had sexual relations with a 16-year-old boy in 1983, offering him a job at a Quebec City group home for troubled youth, as well as cocaine, red wine and gifts such as a leather jacket, a watch and ski tickets.
Over the course of about 10 months, Picard and the boy allegedly had sexual relations “seven or eight times.”
The newspaper obtained its information from a sworn declaration that Yvan Côté, the alleged victim, made to police in 2007. Côté died in 2012.
According to La Presse, the Quebec City police investigation included a hidden-camera conversation between Côté and Picard.
The results of the probe were submitted to the Quebec Crown Prosecutor’s office, which decided against laying criminal charges against Picard.
Côté then had a lawyer threaten Picard with a civil lawsuit over the abuse, though one was never filed because an agreement to pay $50,000 to the alleged victim was reached in 2010. The Quebec human rights commission did not respond to arequest for comment from the Star Thursday.
Picard denied the allegations to La Presse: “I don’t know where you’re getting this from. I’m surprised and unsettled by what you are telling me. You can’t accuse someone of something they haven’t been charged with and didn’t do.”
The newspaper said it also received a lawyer’s letter on Picard’s behalf in which he “categorically denies” the allegations.” The Quebec government was apparently not made aware of Picard’s past when he underwent a background check before being named to the human rights commission, which is a government appointment.