Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans
MONTREAL - Ontario Children’s Aid authorities have launched a
legal battle to seize custody of 14 child members of the ultra-orthodox Jewish
sect Lev Tahor and send them into foster care in Quebec.
The move comes two weeks after a Quebec judge ruled the
children, ranging in age from two months to 16 years, are at “serious risk of
harm” if they continue living in the community.
Ahead of that hearing, about
200 members of the sect fled to Chatham-Kent, Ont., claiming Ontario provided
them the liberty to educate their children according to a strict interpretation
of Judaism espoused by Lev Tahor’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.
A feeling of calm had washed over the community in recent
days and senior members of the group had claimed good relations with local
child-welfare authorities, saying they had made their own inquiries since Lev
Tahor arrived last month and found no problems.
But at 7 p.m. Tuesday they learned that Ontario would not be
the refuge it had imagined.
Along with 500 pages of court documents, two families in the
group received a summons to appear in court Wednesday morning. Among the
documents, was the revelation that Chatham-Kent Children’s Services had sought
a warrant on Dec. 4 from a Justice of the Peace that would let them carry out a
Quebec court order to place the children in foster care under the guidance of
Quebec child-welfare authorities, where they would undergo psychological and
physical testing.
The application for the warrant was rejected on Dec. 7. The
brief court hearing Wednesday morning was an appeal of that decision. The case
will be heard again on Dec. 23.
The stealth with which local child-welfare officials
apparently hoped to move is telling, as is the lack of comment on the case
Wednesday.
About 200 members of the group boarded three buses in the
middle of the night Nov. 18 out of fear Quebec authorities would place the
children in foster care. The families are now prevented by a court order from
leaving the country and there is great anticipation and concern about what
could happen next, particularly among those with ties or a past to Lev Tahor.
There is also obvious concern among Lev Tahor members who,
in an about-face from previous encounters, refused to discuss their legal
situation.
“There is zero information I can give you,” said Mayer
Rosner, who is Lev Tahor’s top administrator. “It’s a court order that I have
to respect strictly.”
The Quebec investigation into Lev Tahor allegedly turned up
evidence of neglect, psychological abuse, poor nutrition and health problems.
Denis Baraby, the director of youth protection at the Centre Jeunesse
Laurentides has said they found unkempt houses where children slept on beds
with urine-soaked sheets, surrounded by garbage, as well as cases of children
being forcibly removed from their homes and made to live with other families.
There was also poor dental hygiene, substandard health care and a home-schooling regime that didn’t meet provincial standards, Baraby has said.
There was also poor dental hygiene, substandard health care and a home-schooling regime that didn’t meet provincial standards, Baraby has said.
Critics of the group say Helbrans is operating a religious
cult that encourages child marriages, isolates members from their families and
uses anti-psychotic medication and bogus psychiatric diagnoses to keep
followers compliant.
But Lev Tahor’s legal defenders say the group’s reputation
has been sullied by incorrect information.
“Everything that people are saying about them is not
necessarily true,” said Armenia Teixeira, a family lawyer in Montreal. “I’ve
been with them for a year-and-a-half now and they’re not bad people . . . .
They are entitled to their beliefs and they are not putting their children in
harm.”
Teixeira said she will file an appeal of a Quebec court
ruling from Nov. 22 in which Justice Pierre Hamel claimed jurisdiction over the
14 children who were later ordered into foster care despite the fact they had
moved to Ontario on Nov. 18.
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