Lev Tahor children return to Quebec amid reports of sect leadership arrests in Mexico
MONTREAL — Quebec youth protection officials say an unspecified number of children who were with the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor have recently returned to the province.
Myriam Sabourin, a spokeswoman for the regional health authority in the Laurentians region, north of Montreal, confirmed Thursday the children are under the authority’s care. Citing privacy concerns, Sabourin declined to say how many children have returned and what services are being provided.
Lev Tahor created headlines five years ago, when Quebec youth protection services investigated allegations of child neglect in the community of about 200 people — half of them children — in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que.
A 2013 probe concluded that the community’s housing was inadequate, the children’s health needs were being neglected and they were not receiving a proper education, as most of them could speak only Yiddish. There were also allegations of underage marriages.