Family of Baby Mac sues daycare provider, province, health authority
Posted September 18, 2018 3:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The family of a toddler found dead at a home daycare in Vancouver is taking the care provider, the province and the health authority to court.
Court documents show the family of Macallan “Mac” Saini is seeking damages and a public admission of wrongdoing from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the daycare provider and the homeowners.
The 16-month-old was found unresponsive on the floor of the Olive Branch Daycare on Jan. 18, 2017. The facility was run by Yasmine Saad.
His mother, Shelley Sheppard says she arrived at the daycare to pick up her son, when she saw fire trucks outside. She followed firefighters inside and says she saw Saad had hidden a child behind the couch and strapped others to chairs.
“She followed the fire fighter up stairs and witnessed her son, Mac Saini lying on the floor. He had a “grey” pallor and it was evident to her that he was deceased,” the documents read, adding Mac has been left unattended and choked to death on an electrical cord.
The coroner is still investigating the cause of death.
Prior to the child’s death, the lawsuit says the ministry and VCH had investigated the daycare for having too many children to be operating without a license, but didn’t do anything, thereby depriving Mac of his charter rights to life and security of person.
Sheppard says since her son’s death she has struggled with depression, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia and a miscarriage and is seeking damages.
She says the ministry and VCH “were arbitrary, reckless, negligent and acted without justification in law” and wants them to make a declaration, stating her son was deprived of his rights.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and the defendants have not yet files a statement of defence.
