Attempts by the haredi Lev Tahor cult to flee Canada for Guatemala have been temporarily halted because the Canadian Province of Quebec’s child welfare agency still has outstanding warrants for all 129 Lev Tahor children.
Above: A file photo of two unidentified Lev Tahor girls
Haredi Lev Tahor Cult Stopped From Fleeing To Rural Guatemala By Quebec Warrants
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Attempts by the haredi Lev Tahor cult to flee Canada for Guatemala have been temporarily halted, the Stratford Beacon-Herald reported, because the Canadian Province of Quebec’s child welfare agency still has outstanding warrants for all 129 Lev Tahor children.
The cult’s lawyer, Guidy Mamann, claimed they did not know the warrants existed until two weeks ago when, Mamann claimed, some Lev Tahor families made passport applications for their Canadian-born children.
Mamann also reportedly claimed that no Ontario court had been told of the existence of the Quebec warrants.
However, the first report of the warrants for removal of all 127 Lev Tahor children was in March, and existence of the warrants was confirmed by Blackburn News on April 11.
The actual removal order and the warrants that would accompany it was reportedly issued in November 2013.
Just before that removal order was issued, more than 200 Lev Tahor members fled rural Quebec as Quebec’s child welfare agency and the province’s youth court were about to remove 14 of the cult’s children.
The cult fled to Canada’s Bible Belt in rural Ontario, where unsophisticated law enforcement and a weak judiciary that favors fundamentalist religious practice allowed Lev Tahor safe haven.
But after months of alleged deception by Lev Tahor, a judge issued an order forbidding some members of the cult to leave the province in preparation for what most assumed would be a removal order for at least 13 of those 14 Lev Tahor children.
Those children, their parents, and a few other Lev Tahor then tried to illegally flee Canada. Two were caught in Calgary. Nine were stopped in Trinidad and Tobago and were deported back to Canada. Another eight to ten cult members successfully fled to rural Guatemala where they have allegedly been joined by perhaps 30 others. All are allegedly living in one two or three room dirt floor shack.
Last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton ruled that it wasn’t in the best interests of the children for them to be sent back to Quebec and put into foster care – although she did express grave reservations about how the children were being treated by their own families. So instead of upholding the Quebec court’s order, she chose to order the 13 Lev Tahor children be placed in temporary foster care in Ontario.
Mamann believes all those children will be reunited with their families by the end of the month.
Despite a clear report of 30 to 40 Lev Tahor members living in rural Guatemala and evidence that others are attempting to leave Canada and join them there, Mamann says the cult her represents is not planning on fleeing Canada.
Mamann reportedly said true two Lev Tahor leaders, Mayer Rosner and Uriel Goldman, are in Guatemala now, but he claimed the purpose of their visit primarily for trip there by the two men was for the birth of a grandson.
But he also reportedly admitted the two plan see if Guatemala is a suitable place for the anti-Zionist cult to live.
Most Lev Tahor parents are American or Israeli and are in Canada on temporary visas that will soon expire. But they can’t leave the country with their children because of the Quebec warrants.
There isn’t “a shred of proof that [the children] have been neglected. It’s a question of politics,” Mamann said, adding that if there was any real concern for the children’s welfare, Quebec authorities would defer to Ontario child welfare.
Ontario has refused to honor the Quebec warrants or to rely on any evidence against the cult amassed by Quebec child protective services – even though Ontario has no evidence to show the Quebec court was biased or that the evidence amassed there is invalid.
The Lev Tahor cult allegedly practices forced child marriage and severe emotional and physical abuse. It also allegedly fails to give any of its children secular education in violation of the law.
Lev Tahor is being supported by some haredi leaders who now fear that if Quebec is successful and removes the cult’s children, all hasidic schools (and some non-hasidic haredi schools) which illegally refuse to teach secular subjects will be closed by the government and that children from families who refuse to have their children educated in math, science, history and other required secular subjects will be removed from their homes and placed in foster care.