A bizarre case of alleged child abuse on Prince Edward Island by a 78-year-old former Roman Catholic nun is now in the hands of a judge.
Mr. Justice David Jenkins is scheduled to bring down his verdict on five charges of assault against commune leader Lucille Poulin Oct. 25. The case, which involves allegations by five children that they were brutally beaten by Ms. Poulin from the fall of 1999 to the summer of 2001, has sparked widespread debate about the disciplining of children and religious freedom.
In his summation to the court Tuesday defence lawyer Zia Chisti insisted Ms. Poulin only used reasonable force that is allowed under the Criminal Code to discipline the children. He said Ms. Poulin only used the thick wooden rod to discipline the children as part of her religious beliefs that God wanted her to teach the children lessons about offences such as stealing, lying or mockery.
"It was not a rod of anger, it was a rod of love used for correction," Mr. Chisti argued.
He acknowledged that the children said Ms. Poulin and three men on the commune of 18 people near Hunter River, PEI, beat them mercilessly. However, no marks were found on the children after they were removed from the commune.
The nine adults and nine children moved to PEI from Alberta in 1995 and purchased a small farm and restaurant. The commune began to unravel in 1999 after a young boy died of a blood disorder after being removed from the commune by provincial social workers.
In July, 2001, three children fled the commune, sparking an investigation by police and social workers and the Director of Child Welfare removed all the remaining children. Only five adults still live on the farm.
Mr. Chisti said Ms. Poulin only hit the child to correct their misdeeds so they would grow up to be obedient to their parents and to God and be good Christian citizens. He insisted the Constitution of Canada and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee Ms. Poulin's right to her religious beliefs on disciplining children.
But Crown prosecutor Darrell Coombs said the legislation does not give anyone the right to beat a child. He said Ms. Poulin went far beyond the reasonable force that a parent or someone acting as a parent is allowed to sue for disciplining children under the Criminal Code.
Mr. Coombs said the children were beaten repeatedly for minor offences such as drawing pictures that offended Ms. Poulin.
"This was an abusive and excessive regime of punishment," Mr. Coombs said. Even if Ms. Poulin did believe she was guiding the children to make them good Christian citizens that did not allow her to punish them with a thick wooden rod, he said.
"You can't use force and pain to achieve the objective," he said