Novel based on experience in youth protection system
Two weeks before her 18th birthday, Jane Powell attempted suicide while she was living in a group home in Montreal under Quebec's youth protection system.
When Powell returned to her group home from the Montreal Children's Hospital, she says, she was not offered any support.
“I remember going back to my room so angry and confused,” said Powell, who was first admitted into a group home when she was 16. “I almost died because of neglect while in care. The support I'd hoped for in the system wasn't there.”
Powell, now 47, said the effects of being neglected in the youth protection system for almost two years have followed her throughout her life.
Her experience resulted in Butterflies in the System, a novel that follows a year in the life of five teenagers as they struggle through the youth protection system in Montreal.
Powell will go on a book tour in Montreal from Sept. 10 to 17 to share her experiences. Her stops include Concordia University, L'euguélionne Librairie Féministe, Dawson College, Outreach High School and Lake of Two Mountains High School.
The book is based on her own experience and that of others she interviewed. It highlights issues including the effects of child trauma, lack of resources, poorly trained staff, systemic abuse and neglect, and the lack of an aging-out plan.
“There are so many stories, and I wanted to take readers on a journey of what it's like to be in the system, and I didn't think that I could do that from just one perspective,” Powell said.
Prior to being admitted into youth protection, Powell was raped at 13. Because she received no support at home or at school to help cope with severe anxiety, depression, PTSD and nightmares, her life took a dramatic shift.
She started to skip class, her grades plummeted and the relationship with her parents became more difficult. She was expelled from school and transferred to another high school. Eventually, it was decided she would be admitted into a group home.
Coming into the system, she thought she would finally get the support she needed. But Powell said she hardly ever saw her social worker, and attempted suicide because of the persistent neglect and lack of support.
“The youth protection system doesn't only need more funding — it needs better trained staff,” she said. “You shouldn't get a mixed bag; everyone should receive the right training and know how to interact and care for a kid with trauma.”
The conception of Butterflies in the System occurred in 2019, when Powell heard about the widely reported death of a seven-year-old girl in Granby.
“The youth protection system failed her, and everyone knew there were problems, and they were not addressed,” Powell said. “I felt like that with me, too: everyone knew that I had been raped and it ended with a suicide attempt because of lack of resources and neglect. After hearing that story, I knew I had to write about this.”
On Oct. 2, 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed at the Montreal courthouse seeking $500,000 in damages, not yet considering punitive damages, for all the children who spent time in so-called reception centres and suffered abuse while under government care. Eleanor Lindsay is the lead plaintiff in the case.
Lev Alexeev, the lead lawyer, said the lawsuit is still in the preliminary procedural stages. After that, they will move on to the motion for authorization of a class action.
“We hope that the motion for authorization will be heard by the court this year or early next year,” he said.
Alexeev said the COVID -19 pandemic delayed the process of the class action, as legal proceedings were halted by the government at the beginning of the pandemic.
The abuse taking place in the centres was revealed by former Montreal Gazette reporter Gillian Cosgrove in a series of articles published in early 1975, when she went undercover as a child-care “educator” and started working at the Maison Notre-dame-de-laval youth centre in December 1974.
Her investigation led to a provincial inquiry, known as the Batshaw report, which confirmed the abuse taking place.
The Granby case in 2019 prompted another provincial inquiry into the youth protection system, known as the Laurent commission. The commission's report confirmed that the Quebec youth protection system is failing vulnerable children, and the government has since promised to table reforms to overhaul it this fall.
“Things haven't changed a lot over the last decades despite all the reports, all the inquiry commissions,” Alexeev said. “We want this class action, and what Ms. Lindsay wants is to contribute to making a change in the system.”
Powell said it was therapeutic to reflect while writing her book, and to connect with others who had similar experiences in Quebec reception centres.
“I have this support network I didn't know was there before,” she said. “I hadn't talked about my experience in youth protection for so many years. I didn't want to be unknowingly judged because of my past.”
Her book will be incorporated into associate professor Patti Ranahan's Fundamentals of Child and Youth Care Work course this fall at Concordia University. Powell will also join the class once they finish reading the book to discuss it.
“It's important that the students who will read my book are students who are studying social service and can read a perspective coming from a kid and have empathy and see behind the front they put on,” she said.
“I'm hoping this book can be used as a tool to fight for change with awareness.”
Everyone should receive the right training and know how to interact and care for a kid with trauma.