A B.C. Supreme Court judge has upheld an interim supervision order that it is not OK to leave an eight-year-old child alone at home, even for two hours.

The case involved a mother who left her son home alone after school each weekday until 5 p.m.

A provincial court judge in Terrace had ruled previously in an interim presentation hearing that the mother must ensure her son is supervised at all times in his home, but the mother appealed that decision.

This week, Justice Robert Punnett upheld the interim supervision order in that ruling, taking the side of the social workers who brought the matter before the courts.

In January 2014, child and family services learned the mother — separated from her husband — was regularly leaving her eight-year-old son at home alone after school. A social worker visited the home and told the mother a child under the age of 10 could not be left alone. She asked the mother — identified only as B.R. in court documents — to agree to a “safety plan.”

When the mother refused, the social worker asked to speak to the boy, but the mother again refused.

No concerns were raised about the woman’s other child, then four years old, who was in care while the mother was at work.

The social worker filed a report to the provincial court in an interim presentation hearing, and the director of child and family services brought an application for a supervision order stipulating the boy’s care be supervised for six months.

The social worker testified that, in her opinion “children who are eight years of age do not have the cognitive ability to be left unsupervised,” citing various risks, including accidental poisoning or fires, which could arise “regardless of (the boy)’s level of maturity.”

On the strength of that evidence, the judge accepted that there are grounds for concern if a child under the age of 10 is left alone.

The mother appealed the decision, contending there was no basis for the judge to conclude the eight-year-old was in need of protection.

In her appeal, the mother said the social worker usurped the function of the legislature, given that no minimum age for leaving a child alone for a short period is prescribed by statute.

She also maintained that the social worker’s evidence was tendered as expert opinion and was improperly admitted, and that children mature at different times.

However, Punnett ruled that “great deference” must be given to social workers in such cases and that her testimony was valid.

“The social workers have a statutory duty to be truthful, to be honest, to be complete and to do their very best.”

Read the ruling here: http://courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/SC/15/16/2015BCSC1658.htm

bmorton@vancouversun.com

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story indicated that the judge accepted that children under the age of 10 could not be safely left alone; in fact the judge accepted there are grounds for concern in that circumstance.

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