本周将孩子放在高温的车内的Rockland妈妈，已遭渥太华警方起诉

[Mike教练]

Mother charged for leaving baby in car

OTTAWA — Police have laid charges against a young Rockland mother who left her infant in her car on a hot day earlier this week.

The mother, who was not named by police, faces charges of abandoning a child and failure to provide necessities of life to a child. She was released on a promise to appear in court in L’Orignal on Sept. 30.

A passerby found the three-month-old girl — sweaty and crying — around noon on Monday in the parking lot of the Jean Coutu pharmacy in Rockland. The temperature soared above 30 degrees that afternoon. Annie Landreville, a Jean Coutu employee, opened the unlocked car doors and removed the baby. The mother arrived soon after and demanded her child back.

Earlier this week, Prescott-Russell Services to Children and Adults conducted an investigation and decided the child is not in danger if she stayed with her mother.

“While the investigation shows it was a bad judgment call from the mother, we just realized there is no fear at all for the baby’s safety, so we are going to close the investigation,” said Isabelle Marcil, communications co-ordinator for the child-welfare agency.

However, the Ontario Provincial Police conducted its own investigation and Thursday morning formally charged the 25-year-old mother with abandoning a child and failing to provide the necessities of life, both Criminal Code offences.

“She was brought down to the Rockland detachment and fingerprinted and released on a promise to appear in court on Sept. 30,” said OPP media relations officer Const. Guy Prevost.

“Even if a child protection agency decides not to proceed, we still have our own investigation,” said Prevost. “The investigators feel they have enough to proceed with those charges.”

Prevost said that both charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, or 18 months if it is a summary conviction. There are no minimums.

“We won’t be releasing the name of the mother because Children’s Aid is involved,” Prevost added.

Landreville was leaving her work at the Jean Coutu pharmacy on Laurier Street in Rockland around noon on Monday when she saw the crying infant in the back seat of a car that had all the windows rolled up. The humidex was more than 40 C at the time, and the distressed child was red-faced and drenched in sweat.

Landreville says she removed the child through an unlocked door and was going to take it into the air-conditioned pharmacy to for some relief from the heat. She was then confronted by the mother, who demanded that Landreville hand over the child. Landreville gave the child to the mother and called police while the mother left the scene.

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