Report on child murders points to institutional failures, missed warnings

OTTAWA — A new report on child murders says institutional failures — and warnings from mothers that officials dismissed — played a role in the deaths of eight children in Canada.

“Our analysis reveals that significant warning signs were present before each death but did not result in adequate protective action,” says the report, drafted by the National Association of Women and the Law and law professors at the University of Sherbrooke.

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“Mothers (and, in one case, a grandmother) who had previously identified safety risks were disbelieved or penalized, while the children were left in contact with fathers whose abusive conduct was already known to institutions,” the report says.

The report, published Thursday, analyzes the deaths of eight children in five different cases. It says in all of the cases, family members expressed concerns about the safety of the children and “repeatedly reached out” to police and family courts.

In one 2019 case, a seven-year-old girl was found unconscious in her room in Granby, Que., and later died in hospital. She had been placed in her father’s custody after being raised by her paternal grandparents.

Her grandmother had warned authorities there was a serious risk of sexual abuse, the report says.

But she “lost custody after being perceived as hostile for reporting the dangers the girl was exposed to while in her son’s care,” the report says.

The report cites several institutional failures in the case. It says the director of youth protection did not push for home visits and no action was taken after the girl was removed from school for a month.

The report says the child’s stepmother was found guilty of manslaughter and false imprisonment and the father pleaded guilty to false imprisonment.

The report authors are scheduled to present their work at a press conference on Parliament Hill Thursday morning.

They will be joined by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner, who has introduced a private member’s bill that looks to curb parental alienation claims.

Her proposed legislation says a court, with some exceptions, “shall not take into consideration any allegation that a spouse has, or is likely to, through deliberate manipulation, persuade or encourage a child to become estranged from or resist contact with the other spouse.”

The report says the concept of parental alienation is frequently invoked in Canada’s courts. It says it’s used by parties in child custody cases to explain why a child resists seeing a parent, and to cast doubt on allegations of domestic violence.

“By interpreting a child’s resistance or a protective parent’s warning signs as manipulation rather than as an indicator of danger, institutions may contribute to maintaining or imposing contact with an abusive parent, thereby increasing the child’s vulnerability,” the report says.

Hepfner’s bill would also make other changes to the Divorce Act. It would impose new requirements on lawyers to screen for signs of family violence during divorce cases.

It also would give judges new tools to identify the existence and impact of coercive control on children and to ensure that, in some circumstances, children can express their preferences to a judge in a custody dispute.

— With files from Alessia Passafiume

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press