More than two years after Macallan “Baby Mac” Saini died at an unlicensed East Vancouver daycare, the province says it isn’t responsible for the 16-month-old’s death.
Shelley Sheppard, Baby Mac’s mother, filed a civil claim alleging negligence in September 2018.
Earlier this month, a lawyer for the province has responded to the lawsuit, denying any responsibility.
“Health authorities are separate legal entities from the province…The province is not involved in the operational oversight of child care centres," the response to the civil claim reads.
Read more: VCH denies responsibility for daycare death
Vancouver Coastal Health, the regional health authority responsible for inspections and investigating complaints, also denied responsibility in its December 2018 response to Sheppard’s claim.
A previous CTV News investigation found the operator of the Olive Branch Family Daycare, Yasmine Saad, had been investigated by health authorities at least four times at four different addresses.
Three of those investigations found she had broken the law by having too many children in her care.
“At no time prior to [the date of Baby Mac’s death] did the province have knowledge…that defendant Saad was operating an unlicensed child care centre,” the province's lawyer wrote in her response to the civil suit.
She went on to say that neither BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Development nor Ministry of Health had been aware of Saad’s “alleged history of repeated breaches” prior to Mac’s death.
VCH previously denied allegations its employees were negligent or in breach of duty. It said the previous complaints, reported between 2010 and 2015, were dealt with by responding officials at the time.
The operator of the daycare where Baby Mac died, Yasmine Saad, has not responded to both the civil claim and to CTV’s requests for comment.
None of the allegations have been proven in court and no criminal charges have been laid.
