Report on child murders reveals institutional failures across eight cases

A report released Thursday by the National Association of Women and the Law and law professors at University of Sherbrooke identifies significant warning signs in eight child deaths across five different cases — but institutional failures prevented protective action.

The analysis examined cases where family members, primarily mothers and one grandmother, repeatedly expressed concerns about child safety and reached out to police and family courts. The report states: "Our analysis reveals that significant warning signs were present before each death but did not result in adequate protective action." It also notes that "Mothers (and, in one case, a grandmother) who had previously identified safety risks were disbelieved or penalized, while the children were left in contact with fathers whose abusive conduct was already known to institutions."

One case studied involved a seven-year-old girl found unconscious in her room in Granby, Quebec in 2019; she later died in hospital. The girl had been placed in her father's custody after being raised by paternal grandparents. Her grandmother warned authorities of serious risk of sexual abuse but lost custody after being perceived as hostile for reporting dangers the girl faced in her father's care. No home visits were mandated, and no action was taken when the girl was removed from school for a month.

The girl's stepmother was later found guilty of manslaughter and false imprisonment; her father pleaded guilty to false imprisonment.

Report authors presented their work Thursday morning at Parliament Hill, joined by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner, who introduced a private member's bill to curb the use of parental alienation in custody cases. The bill would require lawyers to screen for family violence signs during divorces, give judges new tools to identify coercive control, and allow children to express custody preferences to judges in some circumstances.