A Lev Tahor woman is arrested and placed into custody during a raid in Chatham on April 2, 2014. Photo Joel Helbrants
By Greg Holden
Guidy Mamann, a Toronto lawyer representing the Lev Tahor, told the CKReview this afternoon that a total of six adult members of the Lev Tahor were arrested in the raid today in Chatham. An unspecified number of children were temporarily placed with Chatham-Kent Children’s Services (CKCS), however, according to Mamann the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) requested the children be returned to suitable members of the community. CKCS complied and at around 5 p.m. all the children were back living with the Lev Tahor.
Mamann said none of the arrests were criminal or connected to any child abuse claims. Those subject to arrest had over-stayed their visa and face a pending immigration hearing to resolve their status in Canada.
The arrest warrants were for seven Lev Tahor adults. Five of those adults were found within the community today. A sweep of the community by CBSA was conducted to ensure everyone had proper immigration status. One person not listed on the warrant was arrested by CBSA for over-staying a visa and two are still at large. The Lev Tahor members under arrest may be released by the CBSA within 48 hours on their own recognizance, if not then they will appear before an immigration judge to decide if they can be trusted upon their release.
Children of two families were subject to being placed under the guardianship of the CKCS. Temporarily some of the children were removed and taken to the CKCS building. “After the kids were grabbed we brought to the attention of CBSA that the children have a grandparent in the village,” said Mamann. “The CBSA director let the CKCS know and asked for the children to be placed within the community. CKCS confirmed they interviewed the grandmother for one family and she was deemed suitable to take the children. For the second family the wife was placed under arrest and the husband was not in the village. CKCS were asked to take care of the children. CBSA, understanding the preciousness of the children, asked CAS to find someone else. Again CAS did find someone suitable and those children were returned. No children were left with CKCS.” Mamann said he wished to commend the CBSA for working towards having the children returned and his heart would have been broken if the children were taken by CKCS.
“These people came to Canada to have a peaceful life. Their mistake was settling in Quebec where their rights to home schooling is far more restricted than in Ontario”, Mamann said. “In Quebec they have a mandatory curriculum that forces teaching french and evolution, or sexual topics that do not agree with Lev Tahor’s beliefs.” Such regulations do not exist in Ontario, leading Mamann to suggest the Lev Tahor would have been better off moving to Ontario first. “I have never heard in my life of a Jewish community who abuses their children,” Mamann added. “If the parents are deported then the children would go with their parents, at their parents discretion, even if they were born in Canada.”
