Child services seek removal of all children from Lev Tahor community.
Quebec youth agency fears community planning exodus to Central America
Quebec and Ontario’s child protection services will ask for the removal of all 127 of the children from the Lev Tahor community, The Gazette has learned.
The 250-member community moved en masse from Ste-Agathedes-Monts last November ahead of youth court dates in Quebec. They relocated in Chatham-Kent, Ont., but 13 children were ordered to be placed in foster care in a Feb. 3 judgment that upheld a Nov. 27 ruling in Quebec. Youth protection officials have alleged neglect, child abuse and squalid living conditions. On Wednesday, when the appeal of the Ontario order was set to be heard, it was discovered that all 13 children had left the country.
In an interview Thursday, Denis Baraby, the director of Quebec’s Department of Youth Protection for the Laurentians region, said he’s concerned the group is planning another exodus.
“I think the community is preparing a mass move,” Baraby said. “If we want to protect the children that are in the community, we need to start working on the exit of the 114 other children.”
On Wednesday morning, a group of nine members of the community were found at the Piarco International Airport in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. They had flown from Toronto, and were in the process of buying tick- ets for a flight to Guatemala, in Central America, when local authorities intercepted them. Among the nine were six children ordered into foster care.
They are staying in a hotel and have refused to return to Canada. Through a lawyer, they are working to negotiate passage to Guatemala.
Another six children are already in Guatemala, while a 6-month-old baby is with her 17-year-old mother in New York, Baraby said.
On Wednesday evening, Ontario’s Superior Court issued an order that the children be apprehended and returned to Canada, where they will be placed in the custody of Chatham-Kent Children’s Services.
A spokesperson for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said the children will be placed in homes in Toronto while they go through court proceedings. The appeal that was to be held Wednesday has been rescheduled for next month.
“This will be for a short time until the Quebec order (is evaluated by an Ontario judge),” said David Ouellette, director of public affairs for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. The centre has helped identify families in Montreal that could accommodate the children and their unique needs. They have strict dietary restrictions, and most speak only Yiddish.
As for the children who have fled, Canadian authorities are working with their counterparts in Guatemala and Trinidad for their return.
Baraby said police and Crown prosecutors are preparing to lay criminal charges against the guardians of the children who took them out of the country.
He said because they defied a court order issued f rom youth court, they could be charged with kidnapping.
If that happens, an international treaty called The Hague Convention would make it fairly straightforward for the families to be returned, explained Howard Barza, a Montreal family lawyer. Both Guatemala and Trinidad respect the convention, which secures the prompt return of children wrongfully removed or retained.
As for the other 114 children in the sect, Baraby said authorities need to act quickly.
“We don’t want them all to leave in the middle of the night to go to Guatemala,” he said. “It will be a bit late to act at that point.
“We want a regular surveillance of the community, but my colleagues in Ontario will have to take certain measures in order to give more powers to police to prevent people from leaving.”
If all the children are ordered by a judge to be removed from the community, Ouellette said there is a plan to welcome them all.
“There is a contingency plan, because this isn’t the first time this possibility has been raised. But I can’t discuss that contingency. Obviously, it would no longer involve families.”
He said the children would be placed somewhere in the Laurentians.