The parents of a two-year-old girl who died at an unlicensed daycare in Vaughan last month are launching a $3.5 million lawsuit against the owner of the daycare and the Ministry of Education.
In a statement of claim filed Wednesday, Ekaterina Evtropova and Vycheslav Ravikovich allege that their daughter Eva died as a result of “serious injuries” suffered at the daycare on July 8.
The statement of claim goes on to state that the daycare was overcrowded and that the owner/operators failed to provide adequate care and supervision as a result.
The statement of claim also says the Ministry of Education was negligent by failing to inspect and regulate the daycare, which had been the subject of several previous complaints.
The daycare has since been shut down due to unsanitary conditions.
“The reason I am here and the reason I am doing all this is because I don’t want this to happen to any other kid, any other parent or any other family,” Evtropova told reporters Thursday. “It’s just wrong. It’s wrong to put your healthy two-year-old in a daycare and then have to come to terms with the fact that you are not going to see her anymore. My daughter was everything to me.”
In Ontario, unlicensed daycare providers can legally care for no more than five children under the age of 10, however, family lawyer Patrick Brown told reporters Thursday that 27 children were enrolled at the daycare in question.
Though the cause of death has not been released, Brown said he has been in contact with the coroner and has been informed that it was “100 per cent preventable.”
“The family does want to prevent this from happening again and one mechanism to do that is punitive damages, which envelope the majority of the damages here,” Brown said of the legal claim. “The punishment is meant to deter other operators who may carry out these type of facilities from doing so in the future.”
The owner of the daycare and the Ministry of Education have not yet filed a statement of defence.
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