Canada’s Lev Tahor Settle in Guatemala
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Members of the haredi Orthodox sect Lev Tahor are slowly leaving Canada for Guatemala, effectively ending the group’s tumultuous situation in Quebec and Ontario.
All phone numbers for Lev Tahor leaders have been disconnected, according to BlackburnNews.com. The landlord at the location in southwestern Ontario to where sect members fled last fall from Quebec also told the news agency that several families left in the middle of the night, giving no clue as to their destination.
All indications point to Lev Tahor members settling in Guatemala, where several families fled earlier this year ahead of an Ontario court order to return some children to foster care in adjacent Quebec.
“Guatemala is a country that has received them,” Lev Tahor’s lawyer, Guidy Mamann, told BlackburnNews.com. “They seem to be okay there. It doesn’t have the comforts of Canada, but then again Canada is not offering any permanent solution for these people anyway.”
Mamann told the National Post newspaper that “several” Lev Tahor families have left Ontario for Guatemala. He said Guatemala was a last-minute choice, but a similar ultra-Orthodox sect called Toiras Jesed has also been putting down roots in the village of San Juan la Laguna, located in a lakeside region about 50 miles west of the capital, Guatemala City.
“The villagers in San Juan la Laguna did not know what to make of it when the devout newcomers appeared, the men in long black coats, the women and girls in dark chadors despite the tropical heat,” the Post reported.
Some 250 community members settled in Chatham, Ont., about two hours from Toronto, last November after fleeing Quebec, where child protection officials had alleged children were subject to physical abuse, underage marriage and neglect.
The investigation continued in Ontario where a judge ordered 13 children be returned to Quebec and placed in foster care. Before an appeal could be heard, those members fled Canada, with some making it to Guatemala, where they remain.
A judge in Guatemala ruled that Lev Tahor had committed no crimes in the country and could stay. Sect members had arrived on 90-day tourist visas, which are renewable.
A spokeswoman for Chatham-Kent Children’s Services said there is little her agency can do once families leave the province. “We are aware of the families in Guatemala and have had discussions with Canadian Foreign Affairs as [we have] no jurisdiction outside of Ontario.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
