Quebec mom who abandoned toddler along Ontario highway not criminally responsible

By Canadian Press on September 15, 2025.

The Montreal mother who abandoned her three-year-old girl in a rural Ontario field in June has been declared not criminally responsible for the crime.

Quebec court Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud ruled on Monday that the 34-year-old woman could not be held criminally responsible by way of mental disorder. She had been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and unlawful abandonment of a child.

For the rest of the day the court was scheduled to hear testimony on whether the woman — whose name cannot be published to protect the identity of her daughter — should be released from detention while she receives medical treatment.

Marie-Michèle Boulanger, a psychiatrist who evaluated the mother, concluded in a 48-page report that the woman ought to remain in custody at a Montreal psychiatric institute but be permitted some unaccompanied outings.

St-Arnaud issued his ruling after the Crown and defence both said they had agreed on a set of facts in the case, and on Boulanger’s conclusion that the woman’s mental state should prevent her from being convicted.

According to the facts of the case read out in court on Monday, the woman’s mental health had deteriorated over a period of several months and she believed her daughter was possessed.

On the morning of June 15, she sent co-workers several text messages and emails that the Crown said exhibited her fragile mental state, without specifying the contents. She also posted a troubling video to TikTok, holding the girl and saying, “you try that again and this is going to get ugly.” She quickly left her west-end Montreal home without her phone so as not to be tracked.

Later in the day, the mother entered a fireworks store west of Montreal and reported her daughter missing, saying she had no memory of the previous hours or of the toddler’s whereabouts.

After three days of intensive searches, a witness told Quebec provincial police that the mother and daughter were seen at a farm in St-Albert, Ont. The young girl was found alive and conscious on June 18 by Ontario Provincial Police using a thermal drone off Highway 417 near Casselman, Ont., about 120 kilometres west of Montreal.

“It was a hostile environment for a child,” Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel told the judge.

The young girl, who is now in her father’s custody, suffers from nightmares. The dad has been forced to stay home from work so he can be with her all the time.

“Right now, he can’t leave her alone, so he can’t work,” Prévost-Gravel said. “He must always be in her presence, and there’s the fear of being abandoned, of course.” She will also require ongoing psychiatric care, Prévost-Gravel said.

The youngster was hospitalized for four days, severely dehydrated and had multiple insect bites and lesions from poison ivy. The girl had difficulty relaxing her fingers because she had kept her fists clenched for so long. As well, her diaper had not been changed in days and as a result she was swollen and infected.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press