Daycare operator in Baby Mac case admits to having deceived parents
The unlicensed daycare operator convicted in the so-called Baby Mac tragedy admits she deceived the parents of the children in her care about the care she provided to their kids, according to a document filed at a sentencing hearing.
In April, Susy Yasmine Saad pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life for nine children, including Mac Saini, a 16-month-old boy who died at the Olive Branch Family Daycare on Kitchener Street in Vancouver on Jan. 18, 2017.
A sentencing hearing is underway for Saad in B.C. Supreme Court with Crown counsel having filed a number of documents including an agreed statement of facts signed by Saad. The statement says that while caring for the children at her unlicensed daycare, Saad did not intend to be bound by the child-care legislation and regulations in B.C. but intended to regularly care for more than two children. The limit for an unlicensed child-care operator is two kids.
For the purpose of facilitating her deceit, Saad provided services only to children too young to communicate with their parents the nature of the care being provided.
She also admitted to prohibiting parents entry to the three-level duplex during operating hours while she claimed she was doing so for the safety of the children.
The deceit also included requiring parents to give 15 to 20 minutes' notice for dropoffs and pickups of their children and requiring the dropoffs and pickups to be quick, generally not allowing parents past the threshold nor to see inside the home. She delayed pickup times and provided false explanations such as not wanting to interrupt the child while engaged in an activity.
Many of the parents signed up on waiting lists for daycare when pregnant or soon after the birth of their child, and felt “desperate” to find care as their return-to-work date approached, with searches turning to unlicensed homebased care, according to the statement.
The statement also details Saad's actions on the day she discovered the toddler unconscious and blue in his playpen, with a string of lights wrapped around and embedded in his neck, after he had been put down for a sleep. Saad called out to a family member of hers to call 911, unwrapped the lights from around the boy's neck and then performed CPR on the child while getting instructions from the 911 operator.
The boy's mom, who had called earlier to say she was picking up her son, entered the residence with the first medic and ran through the residence to the kitchen, where she saw one child strapped in a booster seat behind the couch and a second child strapped in a booster seat in the kitchen.
Noticing that neither child was her son, she ran to the stairs, catching up to the first medic, who after arriving on the third floor, found a hysterical Saad performing CPR on the boy in the middle of the room. The mom saw her son on the floor and screamed and Saad told her, “he moved the playpen and grabbed a cord that was nailed to a wall and strangled himself,” according to the statement.
Saad kept saying that the child had strangled himself and yelled repeatedly that he was wrapped in a cord, and had wrapped it around his neck.
She said she had just left him for a little while and had just brought him up to the room to go to sleep.
Attempts to revive the boy failed and he was pronounced dead at the scene.