Father who forced child to sit 13 hours sentenced

MONTREAL • A Quebec man was sentenced to four months in the community after forcing his eight-year-old daughter to sit at the dinner table for 13 hours over uneaten brussels sprouts.

In a case described by a judge as “aberrant and disturbing,” the court heard that both sides dug in their heels over the meal in January 2016. The daughter was not permitted to go to the bathroom or change her clothes after she’d soiled herself. The father described the girl as shivering and suffering from hypothermia. The court heard she eventually agreed to eat what was left on her plate after a sleepless night, only to vomit right after. According to a judgment handed down last January by Quebec court Judge JeanFrançois Gosselin, only then did the 42-year-old father from Gatineau allow the girl to have a shower and sleep. Facing four charges, he eventually pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful confinement and was sentenced to four months to be served in the community. He also had to pay a $500 charitable donation and perform community service.

The judge described the father’s actions as gratuitous cruelty and said some methods, such as depriving the girl of sleep, could be considered a sort of torture.

“You do not deprive a child of sleep for an entire night or forbid them from going to the bathroom,” the judge wrote. “And we do not let an eightyear-old child sit for hours in soiled clothing. When we do so, we violate their integrity and dignity.”