Members of Jewish sect Lev Tahor detained in Trinidad

CHATHAM-KENT, ONT.—An Ontario court has ordered the apprehension of as many as 13 children from the controversial ultra-orthodox Lev Tahor sect after some members of the sect appear to have travelled to Trinidad and Tobago.

Police officers and Chatham-Kent Children’s Services workers visited Lev Tahor homes Wednesday night, having the landlord help them gain access to residences where nobody was home.

Officers told sect members who answered the door that they were there because of a “court order” and that they were looking for children.

Teams visited more than a dozen homes Wednesday night but did not appear to apprehend any children. In most cases the visits lasted no longer than 10 minutes.

Officers and children’s aid workers refused to discuss the purpose of the visit or answer any questions about the emergency order.

The order was revealed after Chatham-Kent Children’s Services brought forward an emergency motion on the day that a court had been scheduled to hear an appeal related to an earlier order for the removal of 13 children over allegations of physical abuse and a substandard education regime within the sect.

The Star requested the judge allow the media time to prepare an argument against the exclusion. But she refused, and a lawyer acting on behalf of the Star with other media including CBC, LaPresse and The Globe and Mail was unable to gain access.

It’s unclear what the emergency motion involved as Superior Court of Justice Judge Lynda Templeton barred the media and the public from the hearing. However, the trial co-ordinator later told reporters that the judge had ordered the apprehension of the children.

Templeton’s full order, which may contain more information, will be made public Thursday morning.

Earlier Wednesday, several members of Lev Tahor were detained by border authorities in Trinidad and Tobago, the Star has learned.

A man in Trinidad who identified himself to the Star as a senior official in the immigration division said three adult members of the sect arrived with six children around 5 a.m. on Wednesday. The official did not want his name used.

At least one adult detained in Trinidad is involved in the Chatham court case. Those families involved in the appeal were under strict conditions not to leave the region of Chatham-Kent

The official said the sect members had flown in from Toronto and were en route to Mexico.

“Usually if you are coming into the country you must have a ticket saying you are going on to another part. Because they did not have that, immigration refused them entry,” said the Trinidad official.

He said the group refused to go back to Toronto and was subsequently detained. He said the group hired a lawyer to try to get passage to Guatemala.

“I think they ended up in Trinidad by mistake because they missed their flight to Mexico,” said the official.

He said their detention was not related to the ongoing court case but to their lack of connecting tickets.

The Star was unable to independently verify the official’s claims.

The official also supplied a deportation order for one of the men indicating he was being sent back to Toronto.

Sect spokesman Uriel Goldman, reached by phone, would not discuss the departure of sect members.

“I do not want to respond to that,” he said when asked about nine Lev Tahor members in Trinidad. He said the same thing when asked the whereabouts of the 13 children subject to the appeal.

He reiterated the sect’s position that the group is being unfairly targeted by the government and children’s services.

“We are a target until, God forbid, the end,” said Goldman. “We feel very attacked by the whole thing.”

He said he was in Chatham but that he had not seen any of the children subject to the court order Wednesday.

Julie Lee, the lawyer representing the sect families, refused to comment outside court, saying the case was a child protection matter. In the course of the emergency motion hearing, she was removed as counsel for the families, according to a handwritten endorsement by Justice Templeton released last Friday.

No members of the sect were in court Wednesday. The appeal, which was postponed due to the emergency motion, is now scheduled to be heard April 4.

Members of the sect have been under investigation by Quebec police and child protection authorities for years. Child protection authorities have documented what they say is evidence of physical abuse, poor mental and physical health and a substandard education regime. The sect has categorically denied all allegations of abuse.

The sect fled their homes in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., for Chatham in advance of an order calling for the removal of 14 children. The children were slated to be placed in foster care for 30 days.

An Ontario judge upheld the Quebec decision, ordering the removal of 13 children because one of them was 17 and thus not a child under Ontario law.

The decision was appealed by the group and a stay was placed on it until the resolution of that appeal. The emergency order is distinct from the appeal.

The sect’s time in Chatham has been fraught with brushes with the law and child protection authorities. In January, Quebec police in co-operation with local authorities raided two Lev Tahor homes in Chatham searching for evidence in relation to a criminal investigation. Homes in Quebec were also searched.

Documents related to the search warrant application contain allegations of sexual abuse, confinement, and beatings with crowbars, whips, belts and a coat hanger. The allegations have not been proven in court. The group denies the allegations, which it says are part of a smear campaign.

The heavily censored documents black out the specific charges being investigated as well as items retrieved in the search. The Star and other media outlets are currently appealing the decision to keep the information secret.