Quebec mom found not criminally responsible for abandoning child to stay detained

SALABERRY-DE-VALLEYFIELD — A 34-year-old woman found not criminally responsible after abandoning her toddler in a rural field will remain detained at a Montreal psychiatric hospital.

Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud delivered the ruling at the Valleyfield, Que., courthouse on Tuesday, saying that despite the progress she’s made in her recovery she still poses a risk to the public.

“I understand that you are eager to be released, but I think we need to take it step by step, gradually,” he told the woman, whose name is under publication ban to protect the identity of her daughter.

“I’m confident that eventually you’ll be able to resume your personal and professional life, to a normal or somewhat-normal extent — I believe it sincerely — but we must not rush things.”

On Monday, St-Arnaud determined the mother was not criminally responsible for her actions because of a mental disorder. She was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and unlawful abandonment of a child.

A psychiatric report concluded she had been suffering from schizoaffective disorder and was having an episode when she abandoned her three-year-old daughter on June 15. The woman reported her daughter missing at a store west of Montreal the same day, saying she had no memory of the previous hours, or of the toddler’s whereabouts. The girl was found alive three days later in an Ontario field off Highway 417, about 120 kilometres west of Montreal, after she was spotted by a police drone.

“Let’s not forget that this came very, very close to causing the death of a three-year-old child,” St-Arnaud said during the hearing.

His ruling followed the recommendation of Marie-Michèle Boulanger, the psychiatrist who evaluated the mother and concluded in a 48-page report she ought to remain in custody. The judge also agreed with Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel that the woman should eventually be able to leave the hospital for visits, as long as her medical team agrees. The team, he said, can also decide if the visits should be supervised or not.

The prosecutor warned the judge that despite her becoming more stable since her detention, the woman could very well have a resurgence of her symptoms should she be released.

“The problem with mental illness, your honour, is that it can play tricks on us, and you can think you’re getting better,” the prosecutor said. “We don’t have any concrete proof that in society, with all these stressors, and with everything that will follow, that this will continue.”

She also questioned if the woman would remain committed to taking her medication.

Justin Chenel, the woman’s lawyer, said in response, “I understand my colleague’s concern that, once she’s in society, we don’t know if the woman might stop taking her medication, but that is a hypothetical concern.”

He wanted her to be released under various conditions, citing her exemplary commitment to her recovery. “There has been an exceptional evolution in the defendant,” he said, something the psychiatric report had also noted.

A mental health tribunal will decide in the coming months whether she can be released from the psychiatric hospital. In the meantime, the woman is not allowed to communicate with her daughter, unless the province’s youth protection agency authorizes it. As well, she is not allowed to contact the child’s father unless he reaches out first.

The judge also barred her from using the internet without supervision from her medical team.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2025.

Miriam Lafontaine, The Canadian Press