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Introduction

Hesam Seyyed Esfahani and Carole C. Tranchant

La scolarisation des élèves en situation de handicap en contexte de pandémie : un révélateur des obstacles systémiques à l’exercice de leur droit à l’éducation

Daniel Ducharme
The health measures that were ordered during the COVID-19 pandemic have had considerable repercussions for the Quebec population, which has had to adapt to this exceptional situation. In many ways, the impacts of this crisis have been amplified for school-age children with disabilities. The health measures enacted by the Quebec government have profoundly changed the educational services they have received for more than two years. This article reports on the obstacles faced by these children in asserting their right to education, without discrimination, as documented by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec throughout the pandemic period. More importantly, they speak to the persistent systemic barriers that still hinder the adaptation of educational services for students with disabilities.

La pandémie de la COVID-19 chez les jeunes détenus et la justice adaptée aux enfants au Nouveau-Brunswick

Christian Whalen
This article offers a retrospective on the pandemic experience, identifying what health guidelines recommended by UN bodies to limit contagion in youth detention settings and how these implemented or disregarded in New Brunswick correctional facilities. The province implemented several health measures during the Covid-19 crisis. These were so effective that, towards the end of the health crisis, the province briefly had no youth in detention. However, many potential measures remained unimplemented. At the beginning of the crisis, there was no systematic effort to review all imposed sentences for potential early releases, nor was there any moratorium on new detentions. Additionally, youth participation in the development of health measures was very limited. In its second part, the article reviews the efforts to develop child-friendly justice standards in New Brunswick since the health crisis. Draft standards, adopted by an intersectoral working group led by the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, offer concrete ways to implement international law standards for protecting young people charged and detained in post-pandemic times.

Le principe du maintien du lien de l’enfant avec ses parents à l’épreuve de la pandémie de COVID-19 au Canada

Hesam Seyyed Esfahani and Carole C. Tranchant
The unusual and unexpected situations arising from the management of the COVID-19 pandemic by individual States and jurisdictions, including prolonged school closures and confinement, have affected multiple aspects of children’s daily lives. The case of children who have consequently been separated from one or both of their parents requires careful consideration to determine how best to guarantee the maintenance of their parental bonds, an important right of every child. This right has been compromised by the introduction of measures restricting travelling and free movement which have, in effet, hindered the implementation of this explicit right advocated by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (ICRC) in its article 9, unless the best interests of the child require otherwise. After examining the importance of these principles in the ICRC, we analyse their application during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, with a particular focus on New Brunswick.