The woman who pleaded guilty in the death of two year old Gage Guimond will serve no jail time.
A Winnipeg judge today handed 55 year old Shirley Guimond, Gage’s great aunt, an 18 month conditional sentence for failing to provide the necessities of life. She had originally been charged with manslaughter but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge.
Gage Guimond died in July, 2007 after a fall down the stairs of the Magnus Avenue foster home where he and his sister had been placed only a few weeks before by Sagkeeng Child and Family Services. The case sparked a new round of criticism and demands for an inquiry into the province’s child welfare system. Shirley Guimond had never met the children and warned CFS workers she was unprepared to take care of them.
Shirley Guimond also pleaded guilty in 2009 to assault causing bodily harm for slapping and punching Gage and his sister; but she avoided prison time after a judge gave her a double-time credit for the 68 days she had already served in jail awaiting trial. Guimond never admitted to killing the toddler; she says she placed Gage in a high chair near the stairs and left him unattended when he fell and suffered fatal injuries.
The sentence, which amounts to a form of house arrest, sparked an angry reaction from family members and their supporters outside the Winnipeg Law Courts Tuesday morning.
“They’re making it seem like it’s ok to kill innocent children,” sobbed Natasha Guimond, gage’s birth mother who lost custody of her children when she was unable to take care of them when she was 19.
“Is this justice?” asked family spokesman Jules Greyeyes. “We’re obviously going to pressuring the province to appeal that ludicrous sentence and have a new crown in place, a special prosecutor.”
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