Abusive mother’s name kept secret
Lawyer questions why woman’s identity being shielded by court
He went into the fridge without asking permission to get a prepackaged pancake because he was hungry.
His punishment: His mother pressed a hot iron against both his arms. He was 10 years old and crying, and he blamed himself.
Ontario’s top court dismissed the 45year-old Toronto mother’s appeal late last month to reduce her 20-month jail sentence for aggravated assault to five months, which means she will likely be deported to her native Nigeria upon her release.
She can’t be named due to a publication ban imposed by the trial judge in January 2013 and maintained by the Court of Appeal. It is unclear who requested the ban at trial, whether any evidence was given to support the ban and if the media was notified, as is typically required. The ban was intended to cover the names of the victim and his siblings, who share an uncommon surname with their mother.
The Court of Appeal’s Jan. 27 ruling in R v. N.F. came just days after a Brampton Superior Court judge lifted a publication ban at the Star’s request on a couple convicted of manslaughter in the death of their 2-year-old daughter. Parties in support of that ban had argued that it should be maintained to protect the identities of the surviving siblings of Matinah Hosannah because her family also has an uncommon surname, but Justice John Sproat disagreed.
“The routine granting of publication bans on the identity of adult accused persons and offenders would be a radical change in the law,” he wrote in his Jan. 23 decision.
“If a publication ban is necessary in this case, it would be necessary in any case in which a heinous crime was committed by a person with children and an uncommon surname.”
Lawyer Iris Fischer, who has represented the Star in past cases, said the publication ban in this latest case is concerning, especially given the recent ruling in the Hosannah case.
“The public has a right to know the names of adults convicted of crimes, especially when they are serious crimes,” she said. “An accountable and transparent justice system does not allow convictions for child abuse to happen under a cover of anonymity.”
The details of the N.F. case, pulled from various documents filed with the Court of Appeal, could be described as heinous, or as the trial judge, Faye McWatt, put it: an “almost torture and violent interrogation session.”
When the mother arrived home on Jan. 19, 2010, her 13-year-old son told her that his 10-year-old brother had violated a house rule by going into the fridge for food without asking their mother’s permission when he returned from school. In his interview with police several months later, the 10-year-old said his mother ordered his brother to go upstairs and get the iron.
He said he lied to his mother when asked if he had gone into the fridge. “I thought if I told the truth I would still get in trouble,” he said.
He said his brother complied because he also didn’t want to be punished. When the 10-year-old continued to deny his actions, his mother applied the hot iron to both of his arms.
“What are you doing when this is happening to you?” asked Toronto police Det. Const. Cory Hedgeman. “Crying,” he replied. The boy sustained second-degree burns, which have now healed. He told police that he believed burning body parts is done in Nigeria as punishment for lying and stealing.
“I normally, like, take stuff a lot so she doesn’t want me to grow up doing that stuff so I don’t, like, get in trouble or get arrested or something,” he said, adding: “So it’s like, not actually her fault, it’s mine for lying.”
The trial heard that the mother, a nurse, sought no medical attention for her son after she burned his arms. The authorities were only alerted the following day by a gym teacher at the boy’s school. The mother, who had no prior criminal record and was self-represented, was convicted by a jury in early 2013. At her sentencing, she told Judge McWatt that she loved all of her children, but that this boy was a “challenge to me” and referred to him as her “cross to bear.” McWatt found that the woman had not shown remorse and “still seems to blame her son . . . for being, as she calls it, her cross to bear and the reason that she did what she did.” The judge sentenced her to 20 months in jail and three years probation and placed strict limitations on contacting her son.
A sentence of six months or more essentially guarantees that the woman, a permanent resident, will be deported to Nigeria when she completes her sentence, said her appeal lawyer, Adetayo G. Akinyemi, adding that her children will remain in Canada as they are citizens.
The father is not in the picture and they have no other family here, said Akinyemi. He said contrary to McWatt’s statement, his client has shown remorse.
“It’s a complete loss,” he told the Star. “She demonstrated remorse extensively. She’s written apology let- ters to the children, she’s gone for parenting courses, she’s secured counselling, she’s tried to make amends. But it’s a little too late.”
In an affidavit filed with the Court of Appeal, the woman painted a bleak portrait of her family history. She said she was born into a polygamous family, “where there was a lot of rivalry, disharmony and hatred. My father was a retired military officer and he was a very strict and controlling person who routinely disciplined my siblings and me physically.”
The woman wrote about leaving home at a young age to study nursing. She married a cab driver in 1996 and had three children. Her husband “became physically abusive, often complaining about my work schedule and he consistently belittled me.” She left her husband and her country, taking her kids to Canada, where she secured a permanent job in a nursing home.
“I did not wish to raise my children in an abusive home, such as the one I was raised in,” she wrote, adding that her deep religious values helped guide her.
“Historically, (her son) is quick to deny and not own up to things but I ought to have got counselling for him rather than acting irrationally the way I did. My conduct was wrong and not justifiable.”