MONTREAL – Quebec’s human rights commission is investigating reports that the province’s youth protection services failed to act on a suspected case of child genital mutilation.
The commission says in a news release today that it opened the probe on its own initiative after learning in the media about the case involving a two-year-old girl.
La Tribune reported Wednesday that a daycare worker in the Quebec City region discovered while changing a girl’s diaper that her clitoris had been removed – a practice that since 1997 has been recognized in Canada’s Criminal Code as a form of aggravated assault.
The worker alerted Quebec’s youth protection services, which reportedly replied that the case was too delicate for the agency to handle.
A request for comment to Quebec’s Health Department was not immediately returned.
The province’s human rights commission says its investigation will attempt to verify whether the alleged facts are true and if the child’s rights have been violated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2023.
