Ontario Provincial Police have charged a 25-year-old Rockland-area woman after a passerby found a three-month-old baby girl left unattended in a vehicle at the Rockland Jean Coutu pharmacy Monday.
Police said the woman, who is the child’s mother, faces charges of abandoning a child and failure to provide necessities of life to a child under the Criminal Code of Canada, said OPP Constable Guy Prevost.
Both charges carry an indictable term not exceeding five years in jail and a summary conviction of 18 months in jail.
Following an interview with the witness, police have determined the child was left in the car for less than 10 minutes, said Prevost.
The child is in the custody of her mother, who has been released on a promise to appear in court on Sept. 30.
The woman’s name is not being released because the Children’s Aid Society is now involved, said Prevost.
Cases like this are uncommon, said Prevost. “We always seem to get a few calls for animals – kids, not very often.”
