The parents of a malnourished nine-month-old boy admitted to the Hospital for Sick Children in September have been charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.
The parents, who belong to a religious order that favours natural remedies over conventional medicine, were arrested after a standoff at the hospital.
Police say they refused to admit their son for treatment, despite his poor health. The 22-year-old mother, her husband and another woman, 24, were charged with obstruction of justice.
The hospital confrontation followed a three-day police search for the child, whose mother removed him from the hospital shortly after admitting him for malnourishment.
When they returned days later, they were arrested after allegedly refusing, once again, to allow hospital staff to examine the baby, who weighed only 11 pounds -- the healthy weight for a child much younger than his age.
The father told CP24 the couple doesn't believe in invasive medical treatment and, and they belong to the Moorish Science Temple of America.
"We're Moorish Americans," he said. "We're divine, indigenous Moorish Americans. We're natural beings. We have the right to do what we want with our offspring."
Before the arrest, the child's father said the hospital overreacted and his child is not malnourished, but has a skin condition.
"His eyes are bright. They're saying from their World Health Organization standards he's not growing but that's about people being labeled Jamaicans or whatever," the father says. "He doesn't fall into that."
The baby and his two-year-old sibling are currently in foster care. The family members can not be named to protect the identity of the children.
