Vlar, 19.
014 10.15RM
L
ondon SCJ Family Court
No.2274
P. 2/25
With the
he
l
p
of
Hashem
r
a
nu
a
r
y
27, 2014
To the
honorable
boar
d
of directors of
t
he
C
I1
a
tlismLKent
Children's
Aid Society,
We, the
u
z1ciersi
gne
d,
a
re ser
v
ing as cornin
u
ir.ity
organizers
in
t
he
L
e
v
Tahor
community.
W
e feel it is in o
u
r
d
u
ty to express t
h
e seii.l3
m
ents
o
f t
h
e fa
mi
Ires
in
o
u
r
community
with reg
ar
ds to
the
agertcy's o
n
goi
n
g
involvement
wit
h
th
em
since their
a
r
rival to-Cliatharx►}Keni.
iri.
No
v
em
b
e
r
2 71
We w
ill try
to, exp
r
ess their sentixnents r
e
X
a
txng to
the
f
ollo
w
in
g
point :
.Tlie positfon
o
f
the
e
I
a
tiirg t
h
e IYiteiv
eii.tibn
of
t
h
e DYP
QitYehe lael,
w
eeii
ÂGigtiist
7, 201'4 amd Novexoba 17, 2013
•
.
p
irstly, it
is important
tcï nOte, that thenYl
l
of Quebec
h
ad
never
kind f
roin. a;child of th
e
received
c
om
plai
n
t of
c
hild abuse of
a
ny conunttnity,
n
o
r
have
they
.
ever r.eceiv
e
d suc
h
omplaint
fro
m
anyone
who claimed to
observe
such in a
family
of the c
o
mm
utiity
.or in the
community in general.
$
T
h
e
only b
asis
for
t
h
e ittter
v
entioil of the
.
DYl' in the cozz'rM^^
riity
-
W
as d
u
e to
the
fact th
a
t the c1lildren of
the
comrnunity were
reported to not having an edugatron
equivalent
to the
Quebe
c
-
-
tJ uc^.tioiï roYam
^
i
--
•
Que
b
e
c
law
dictates that c
h
ildrén
f
ailing to st
ud
y t
h
e
curriculum
provided by the Ministry or e
q
uivalent thereof, are
considered
endangered a
nd negle
c
ted. This
statute
provicles.enoUgh d ourids
Page
of 26
Mar 19. 2014 10:15AM
London
SCJ Family Court V0.2274
P. 3/25
for the Quebec Youth Protec
t
ion Agency to gain
full
mandate o
v
e
r
the children azad their future.ü
•
The issue .of the eduçatzo
n
system of the
community
was
addressed by the Ministry
of Ed
u
cation of Q
u
ebec
s
i
n
ce December
2011, and w'a.s bei
ng
negotia
t
ed
with
the
community
e
v
er since.
•
Much before
,
the DYP files were opened, the
community
contemplated
.sett
l
ing the
education dilemma
by simply lea
v
ing
the province, as
the
Mennonite comm.ùnity has done earlier in
2Q07.
lil
The
community has actively
purs
u
ed this option. since April 2013, by hiring a real estate agent to loo
k
for
a
suita.ble
alt
e
rnative fo
r
the coinnrunzty
in
Ontario,
and follo
w
ing by
visiting several p
r
op
e
rties in Ontario
for
corisiderat.iezi. The real
estate. agent also
placed
several classi
fi
eds i
n
pop
u
lar
Ontario
newsp.apers'r'
•
The
educati.ort' iss
u
e
ha
s
ronrpted • the. DYP to
raid
the coiirmunity. The in
it
ial
'
r
aid tdok place on•.August 7, 2013,
o
ne day
after the childrén
o
f the'coxnrii:iir2ity we
r
e
reported
to the DYP f
o
r
norit
-
coznpl
y
iz?g
w
ith
the
loça
l
and pr.o
v
i
n
çial education guidelinés
and
reg
u
l
a
tions
•Because .the cornmu
n
it
y
a'liread
y
expe
c
ted
the intervention
of the
DYP-
regarding the
schooling is
s
ue; and
b
ec
a
use th
e
coz`nm.u
n
ity
cbn+cerned
that
the
ânterverttion.. of
the
f]
W
w
ill put
an
end to their ongoing, nego.tiations with the Ed
u
cation
Ministry
and the local
s
choo]. board •
a
nd. ultixxuately
their
religious
beliefs, . the corzumunity hesitated whether to
cooperate with.
the DYP on
the
initi
a
l r
a
id, and proposed in
s
te
a
d
for
c
e th
e
ommunity
to
act
ag
a
inst
tti ie
a
ve
Q
ue-bec -iri -c
a
se -t
ha
-t- -Qzzebec -cio-es
not
_intend
to
respect
their freedo
m
of
religion.
* The DŸP directors, however,
m
3,slead th
e
tainilies
a
nd the
cfirectors of the,
and
blat
a
ntly
denied the
fact that the
raid
a
n
d the
req
u
est of 'open
in
g
investigation
f
il
es a.re solely related to t
h
e
education iss
u
e for the very same
purpose
of
hich the
Page 2 of 26
Uar 19. 2014 10;150 London SCJ Famly Court \0.2274
P
4/25
b1
conurtunity was afraid of, namely to force the
community
to act
against
their
religious
beliefs,
under threat of being caught u
p
v n
ore w
ith the DYP.
Instead,
the DYP directors c.use the
cnmmunity to
b
elie
v
e th
a
t they
w
ill consider the education
issue
as a mino
r one and
that th
e
DYP
directors w
ill
in
fact contribute.to
the negotiations
o
f the
community with the
school
board in
exchange
for their coopé
r
ati.or►
with
theDYP.wi
b
During the raid, The DYP - w
o
rkers
collected information
and
copies of
documents
of
all children, even
those un
d
er schOol-age:
A
s well they
intervene
in fatnilies
with no an
y
hz
l
cï
r
e
n
. at
compulsory
school
age.
The
childre
n
were takÉn f
o
r rnedi
c
al.aird
dental
examxn.atxo
n
.s, a
n
d their bodies
were carefully examined. B
y
that, the DYP directo
r
s azad their worke
r
s passed the
limits
of
intervention
allowed by the
Zaw under their origirial mandate‘far
i:ritexventi
o
n. .;
•
The expanding
.
of
.
intexvèntiOin for rssues not zelated to sck►ogling.is •
a
serious
violatiôn of section.8 in the
OA
N
A
D
rAN
CHAIZT
ER
CF
IttGHTs
A
N
D .
F
IZ
EEDOM
that= states:
Ever jone has the right to
be
e
cure
d
against atnrs
a
so
n
ablé
sear'ch
or seizure.
•
By singlr"ngout
a ail
group.with a
specific
pat
h
Of
a reiigi
ori a
n
d
target
them by
un
re
izs.onable
:
search or sezzure
th
e
y
further
,
viol
a
ted 'seCtion • 15(1> • the
OAN
ADTAN' CHA
R
TE
R
oP RIGHT3 AN
D
FREEDOM
that..states:
{
E
oo
y
in.diti.dual is eqxcal
.
before and txndér
thelaw and has, the.right
to
the equal protection and equal benefitt
of the law without clisorimxnation and, in particurar, without
discrimination
ho
se
a
on .race
j
nation
at or ethnic origln, .coIour•,
relOon, sex,. ag,e or Mental or pysxcal dsabxIxtj..
Obvrousl
y
the
faxr►ilies and
c
hildre
n
,ot
L
ev Tahor were clearly
d
is
c
ri
m
iilat
ed
because
of their religi
on.
* The permissi
o
n .
of
t
h
e families fo
r
ente
r
ing the homes and
conducting
the unreasonabXe searches
can
.not be on the
defense
side for
the
DY
p
,
since
t
h
ey
steadfastly
refused to mention the true
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