The operator of an unlicensed Vancouver daycare where a 16-month-old boy died in 2017 has been charged with fraud and failing to provide what the law refers to as “the necessaries of life.”
Macallan Saini, or “Baby Mac,” as he was known, died at an unlicensed and unregistered daycare in East Vancouver in January 2017. Vancouver police announced the charges Thursday (Aug. 20).
Susy Yasmine Saad, 41, is charged with one count of fraud over $5,000 and two counts of failure to provide necessaries of life. Police said the boy was found dead in a playpen.
Saad has been released with conditions and is scheduled to appear in court in September.
She is the operator of Olive Branch Daycare where Mac Saini died on Jan. 18, 2017. In a civil suit filed by his mother Shelley Sheppard, in 2018, she alleged she arrived to find him lying on the floor with a “grey pallor” barely a week after she first sent him to the daycare.
The suit alleges that Mac had “been left unattended and had choked on an electrical cord, causing his death.” The civil suit also names Vancouver Coastal Health and the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
In her response to the civil suit, Saad denied the allegations.
“The death was a tragedy but not the result of any negligence,” her response reads.
Vancouver Coastal Health also denied any wrongdoing.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
READ MORE: Parents of B.C. toddler who died in unlicensed daycare sue operator, health authority
READ MORE: B.C. daycare operator denies negligence in death of ‘Baby Mac’
READ MORE: Health authority denies wrongdoing in Baby Mac’s death at daycare
More to come.
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