GRANBY, Que. — A funeral is underway east of Montreal for a seven-year-old girl whose death has outraged the Quebec public and prompted an investigation into the province's youth protection system.
The ceremony began at around 11 a.m. as several dozen family and friends accompanied a child-sized wooden coffin into the packed St-Eugene Church.
Inside the 78-year-old building, some of the stuffed animals that had been left in the wake of the girl's death were perched in front of the ornate stained-glass windows.
The young girl died in hospital April 30, one day after police found her at a home in the city about 80 kilometres east of Montreal.
Two adults — identified by people close to the family as the girl's father and his partner — were charged with unlawful confinement. The partner was also charged with aggravated assault.
The Quebec government has ordered a public coroner's inquest into the death of the girl, whose case had been known to youth protection services for several years prior to her death.