Tel-Chai Nation

The court is supposed to rule on custody issues February 3. CTV Montreal reports:

CHATHAM, Ont. -- A judge must take into consideration a proposed secular charter in Quebec when ruling whether to enforce a court order that would see children from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect who left the province returned there to foster care, the group's lawyer said Friday.

Members of the Lev Tahor community were under investigation by social services in Quebec late last year for issues including hygiene, children's health and allegations that the children weren't learning according to the provincial curriculum.

Court has heard that most of the community of about 200 people left their homes in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in the middle of the night while that investigation was ongoing and settled in Chatham, Ont.

Child welfare authorities in Chatham are now asking the court to enforce an order subsequently made in Quebec that would see 14 children placed in foster care. The order is being appealed in Quebec.

Shameful. The cult's lawyer is also quite a disgrace:

"When we're talking about religious rights what you're being asked to do is to send these children back to a province which I submit has chosen to place religious rights beneath other rights," Knowles said. "So I do think it's relevant to your determination of what is in these children's best interests."

Human rights aren't more vital than religious rights? Here's a crooked lawyer who gives barristers a bad name.

The community denies any mistreatment of the children and says they were already planning to move out of Quebec.

But Hodgson-Harris, said the evidence clearly shows the group fled to escape the Quebec court's jurisdiction.

"The state of the families' homes obviously implied that the departure of the families was precipitous," she said. Some jewelry and credit cards were found left behind, and one coffee maker was left on, she said.

The hearing was previously adjourned on Dec. 23 so that one of the children -- a teenage mother -- could be represented by a separate lawyer. Chatham-Kent Children's Services' lawyer said they are not asking the court to order the return of the teenage mother.

The Windsor Star has more:

“We’re not talking about Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s children here,” said Chris Knowles, lawyers for the Lev Tahor parents. “These are children being raised with very specific religious beliefs.”

How is that any more important than their health? This man is such a dummy.

Hodgson-Harris said the community knew child protection proceedings were underway when the families fled Ste.-Agathe in the middle of the night.

“People shouldn’t just be allowed to flee a jurisdiction to avoid the repercussions of a particular court,” she said. [...]

Children’s aid workers in Chatham are not seeking the teenaged mother’s return to Quebec, court heard Friday. But they are seeking the return of her nursing baby.

Lawyer Gerri Wong, appointed by the province to represent the teenaged mother, said her client will not leave her child. The girl presents a “rather unique situation” for the court, Wong said.

The St. Thomas Times-Journal says:

They left without advising child-welfare officials — first arriving in Windsor, then all gradually settling in Chatham by Nov. 27, the same day Quebec child services were granted an order to seize the children.

One of the remaining Lev Tahor members in Quebec told the agency’s director after the group left, “You make us a surprise. We make you a surprise.”

“It’s clearly why they made the move,” so the Quebec court couldn’t get at the kids, local child-welfare agency lawyer Loree Hodgson-Harris said in her argument to let the local agency enforce the Quebec order.

I agree. They're abusing provincial jurisdiction to ensure their continued child abuse and other awful brainwashing tactics. They cannot be allowed to continue this charade.

Labels: Canada, haredi corruption, islam, misogyny, Moonbattery