A Terrace mother who was asking the court to allow her to leave her eight-year-old home alone, for just a few hours a day, has lost her latest appeal.
The young boy, who is now 9, was at home by himself for two hours every day between the time school ended and the time his mom got off work.
In early January, 2014, it came to the attention of child and family services that the child was home alone between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
The mother and father were separated and the mother had placed her four-year-old in daycare while she was at work.
The mother, who cannot be named as her child cannot be named, says a woman who works for the Ministry of Children and Families (MCFD) lives across the street from her.
One day this woman stopped her son and asked if his mother was home.
She then received a call from the ministry’s office asking if she was home and when she said ‘no’ and added that her son was supposed to be in the care of a neighbour and she would check on the circumstances.
- Cyberattack targeting B.C. government networks led by a ‘state or state-sponsored actor’
- Suspect photos released in Victoria change room voyeurism case
- Vancouver Canucks praise loud crowd in opener, hope to hear roaring repeat for Game 2
- Better disabled accessibility needed for B.C. taxi, ride-hailing industry, committee says
She was told the office was going to call her the next day, but no one did.
“Of course parents who receive these calls don’t take them lightly and it caused some stress and some upset, some concern,” she says. “I began questioning and reviewing everything I’d already read, federally, provincially, social science articles.”
Four weeks later she received a call and was told no one under the age of 12 should be left alone.
She met with a social worker and says she was told she needed to sign a safety plan for her son, stating that she would not leave him home alone. The mother wanted to consult a lawyer and says the social worker told her it was a waste of time to go to court because they always side with the social worker.
“She was not interested in hearing anything I had done to prepare my son to stay at home occasionally for a few hours after school,” says the mother.
“She basically came in with the predetermined decision that nobody under the age of 10 could stay home alone.”
The case ended up in court.
Last month the judge ruled against her, saying eight was too young to be left home alone for any period of time.
She appealed that decision and lost again.
The mother previously expressed concern that this case would set a precedent, but her lawyer says it will not, as the judge made it very clear the ruling only applies to this case and is not meant to be a blanket rule for the entire province.
The MCFD says there is no specific federal or provincial legislation on the age a child is allowed to be home alone. However, it uses 12 years of age as a general guideline. Each investigation is case specific and the capacity and maturity of the child is taken under consideration.
“Surprisingly, there is no legislation in B.C. that sets out the minimum age requirement to leave a child at home alone,”said Gurinder Bains, a lawyer who deals often with family law.
In Manitoba and New Brunswick, that age is set at 12, but in Ontario, kids younger than 16 are not allowed to be left alone without some kind of reasonable supervision.
Stephanie Cadieux, the Minister for Children and Family Development, said in a statement to Global News in September that “there is no specific age in legislation –federally or provincially – nor is there specific ministerial policy that dictates when a child can be unsupervised.”
“Concerns have been expressed through the media that a recent court ruling will set an age at which a child cannot legally be left on his or her own. This is not the ministry’s belief, and it is important to point out that the ruling in question comes from an appeal of an interim decision. The final determination of whether a child is in need of protection would need to be decided by a judge in provincial court.”
Andrea Vance from West Coast Families said “it’s one of those things we talked about when we were growing up that there was always an unspoken, or I guess an unwritten rule, that 10 years old was OK to stay on your own and 12 years old to babysit, but what we’re realizing is there was nothing written or legal that gave those ages. It was just a standard we lived by.”
“But there is no hard-fast rule, it’s up to every parent to judge their own situation individually.”
Comments