MONTREAL - After failing to help the three Shafia girls in the years before they died, Montreal's child protection agencies are introducing a new system to work together and better respond to calls for help.
In 2008 the girls sought help at the Batshaw Youth and Family Centre, responsible for the island's English children, and a year later they went to the Centre Jeunesse de Montreal, responsible for French children.
Despite mounting an investigation, the Centre Jeunesse wasn't aware of the complaint filed a year earlier. The teenage sisters' claim of abuse was dropped after they recanted their stories in front of their parents.
"There is a now a provincial registry that allows each youth center in the province to have access to information and verify whether a child has been signalled before or is under the care of youth protection of another agency," said Madeleine Berard, Batshaw's director of youth protection.
"This allows for better communication and better wrap-around information about situations."
At the first-degree murder trial of Mohammed Shafia, 58, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and Hamed Shafia, 21, the jury was told of the second oldest daughter's threat to kill herself.
Sahar Shafia contacted Batshaw in 2008 after a teacher heard her suicidal thoughts. However Sahar soon recanted her story and the case was dropped.
A year later, the Centre Jeunesse was contacted after the girls called 911 and said they were fearful of their father. That case was soon dropped as well.
The information system has been online since May 2009.
