To fight the second-class children: FFARIQ and ten applicant families file a constitutional challenge to put an end to systemic inequality in youth protection

QUEBEC, Oct. 16, 2026 /CNW/ -- The Fédération des familles d'accueil et ressources intermédiaires du Québec (FFARIQ) and ten applicant families, collectively representing 19 children, are filing an originating application for judicial review at the Quebec Superior Court. This challenge contests the constitutionality of legislative and administrative provisions that, according to the applicants, create two categories of children taken into care by the Youth Protection (DPJ).

Human stories at the heart of the challenge

The ten applicant families joining FFARIQ in this challenge concretely illustrate this inequality: Some welcomed a child by court order without adequate compensation during months of assessment, with no retroactive compensation ever provided for that period. Others had their contracts terminated while the court maintained the children under their responsibility, forcing them to draw on their savings to cover the children's daily needs. In some households, two children placed by the same court do not receive the same care because an agreement was signed for one but not the other. And some young people learned, just months before their 18th birthday, that they were not eligible for the transition-to-adulthood support they had been promised for years.

"When the State entrusts a child to a relative, it should support them just as much as if the child had been placed in an accredited foster family. That is not what is happening today. Reaching out to a child should not lead to the impoverishment of those who take them in, nor should it make that child a second-class child," said Mélanie Gagnon, provincial president of FFARIQ and a foster family for more than twenty years.

"For years, we have made representations to the government, participated in consultations, sat at partner tables, and even attempted to have the rights of PFAPs recognized before the Administrative Labour Tribunal, without success in 2019 due to their non-recognition within the applicable associative framework. We could no longer wait," she added.

When the State creates two categories of placed children

The Youth Protection Act provides that when a child must be removed from their family environment, they must be entrusted as a priority to a person who is significant to them (a grandmother, an uncle, an aunt, a relative). This person is administratively designated as an applicant as a kinship foster family (PFAP). Yet, when the DPJ or the court entrusts a child to this relative, they may receive significantly less support than that provided to a family-type resource – foster family (RTF-FA). The State itself deems this environment to be in the best interest of the child, yet does not support it accordingly.

The contrast is striking. A child placed with an RTF-FA immediately benefits from a structured service network: clothing, school supplies, medical care, extracurricular activities, and clinical support. A child placed with a PFAP does not have access to the same conditions. This is not a question of money; it is a question of real support for the child and the family that takes them in. Same child, same placement decision, same State, but fundamentally different treatment. This observation also extends to the transition to adulthood: for family-type resources – proximity foster families (RTF-FAP) as well as for PFAP, follow-up under the Youth Protection Act ends at age 18, without any support measures at the age of majority. Behind these inequalities are families going into debt, into debt, abandoned activities, compromised life plans and destabilized placements.

These are not isolated cases. As of March 31, 2026, according to the 2025–2026 annual report of the DPJ-DP, 6,302 children under the care of youth protection were living with a third party, representing 18.3% of all children followed by the DPJ. It is these children, and the people who have opened their doors to them, that this challenge aims to better protect. By invoking the right to equality and the right to security guaranteed by the Quebec and Canadian Charters, the applicants are asking the court to declare the provisions in question unconstitutional and to order the Government of Quebec to make the necessary corrections.

The application only in French is available online at: Docurium

Are you in a similar situation? Find out more

For more information, or if you believe your story is relevant to this legal action, whether you are a PFAP, RTF-FAP, or facing the end of follow-up at age 18, please contact FFARIQ at: [email protected] 

About the Fédération des familles d'accueil et ressources intermédiaires du Québec

FFARIQ celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. It advocates for the rights and interests of childhood foster care resources, supports them in their commitment to young people, works to improve their working conditions, and promotes the partnership between them and institutions. Our primary mission is to support these resources, but since the well-being of children is their priority mission, FFARIQ cannot help but advocate for the well-being of our children.

SOURCE Fédération des familles d'accueil et ressources intermédiaires du Québec (FFARIQ)

Source: Mélanie Gagnon, Provincial President, FFARIQ; Media Information and Contact: Appolline Risacher, Senior Consultant, Burson, Cell: 418-559-8930, Email: [email protected]