Lev Tahor families scolded for fleeing before ruling

TORONTO — Families from an ultraOrthodox Jewish sect who fled the country last month in the midst of a child custody case were chided by an Ontario judge on Friday for not allowing the country’s courts to do their work.

Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton — who will be deciding whether the children in the case should be reunited with their parents or remain in foster care — told the members of the Lev Tahor community that she was concerned about the kid’s legal rights, not their religious affiliation.

“Your children are not Lev Tahor children to me, they are just children,” she said in Chatham, Ont. “I don’t see them as religious entities or gender entities. I do not see them as any other entity than small human beings that have rights.”

“Your children are not Lev Tahor children to me, they are just children.”

SUPERIOR COURT JUSTICE LYNDA TEMPLETON

The appeal being heard by Templeton relates to an order by an Ontario judge, who upheld a Quebec court order that forced 14 children into foster care. Certain families in the community face unproven allegations of mistreatment, forced marriages and child marriages.

A previous session of the appeal had been disrupted last month when it was discovered the families involved in the custody case had fled, which prompted Templeton to order the apprehension of all the children.

Six children were stopped in Trinidad and Tobago and were brought back to Canada, and two were taken into custody at the Calgary airport. Six others remain in Guatemala, where they are reportedly seeking refugee status.

On Friday, Templeton allowed parents supervised access to the children who were in care over the weekend. A 17-year-old girl, however, was released from care.