pbrown@mollp.com
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No sentence will ever erase the horror felt by the family of Eva Ravikovich after losing their two-year-old girl in a hot car outside her daycare, says Toronto critical injury lawyer Patrick Brown, who is representing the family in a civil lawsuit.
Olena Panfilova, the daycare operator who left Eva in an SUV for eight hours before finding her lifeless body there in 2013, has been sentenced to 22 months in jail for criminal negligence causing death, the Toronto Star reports.
Brown says the child’s family is “shocked” by the sentencing.
“No penalty will ever bring back their little girl nor will it erase the horror that Eva suffered and the pain and loss they feel each and every day,” says Brown, a partner with McLeish Orlando LLP. “However they are shocked at the sentence.
“They understand the judge must follow principles of sentencing and consider the law and submissions. But it is difficult to understand the sentence when this woman left Eva in a car for eight hours to die.”
Found dead after nap
Brown also points to the fact that Panfilova had 35 children in her care that day when she had already been told overcrowding was illegal, and that she told emergency responders the child had been found dead after a nap.
He says the parents have been “tortured” for years by not knowing the truth about how their daughter died.
“They are pleased that this chapter is now closed. But as to a sense of justice, it is simply not there for them,” Brown says.
The family is grateful to the York Regional Police for their effort in bringing the criminal case forward, he says, and to the Crown its prosecution and obtaining a guilty plea.
The government had “full knowledge” of the overcrowded illegal daycare, Brown says, which was operating without a licence. According to an agreed statement of facts, ministry officials attended the home and followed up with a warning letter about overcrowding in 2012.
Although there have been some positive steps since Eva’s death through the Child Care and Early Years Act, including further emphasis on inspections and enforcement, Brown says the government agency must be held responsible.
