A father in St. Jean sur Richelieu is devastated and sick with worry that he will not see his two-year-old daughter for a year before regaining full custody of his child after she was kidnapped by her mother on Monday.
The Quebec provincial police says the toddler and her mother failed to return to the girl’s home in St. Jean sur Richelieu and have been found in the Czech Republic.
Maria Zabranska left her father's home Monday, March 9 with her mother Marcela Zabranska, who was visiting from the Czech Republic.
Marcela was supposed to bring the girl home Monday night but never did.
The father, Alexandre Galipeau, has a court order giving him full custody of Maria. Despite that court order, the mother was able to leave Canada and was not stopped at the border.
Lawyer Sylvie Schirm, an expert in family law, says it was very easy for the mother to illegally leave the country with the child. Schirm says all the mother needed was her daughter’s passport.
“That’s all a border guard would check for. They’re not going to verify who has custody,” said Schirm. “They will see if there’s identification and end of story. They might or might not ask if she has permission from the other parent.”
Schirm said the father can use the Hague Convention against child abduction to begin legal proceedings.
She said the Czech Republic signed the convention in 1998, so Galipeau can get help for the return of his child by calling the central authority in Quebec City, who will establish that the girl’s place of residence is in Canada.
“It can be slow,” said Schirm. “Every country functions in a different way, but the central authority in Quebec will know how efficient the Czech Republic is.”
Pina Arcamone from the Missing Children’s Network says it’s important to keep in mind that a family abduction is a crime and not a custody issue.
Arcamone explained that there are long-term psychological effects on the abducted child and on the searching parent.
Every year, an average 300 Canadian children are victims of family abduction, said Arcamone.
