10-year-old boy scalded with boiling water, Quebec woman charged

A woman from Montreal’s South Shore has been charged with aggravated assault after allegedly scalding a 10-year-old boy with boiling water.

On Friday morning, police in Longueuil, Que., arrested Stéphanie Borel, 46, who is alleged to have seriously injured the boy on Oct. 2.

Borel was first arrested immediately after the incident, which occurred outside a residence in Longueuil, but she was released with a promise to appear in court. The boy was transported to hospital to be treated for burns to his upper body.

In a statement, the police department said that after further investigation, Crown prosecutors requested that Borel be re-arrested on Friday.

The move follows public outcry over Borel’s initial release. On Thursday, the Red Coalition, a Montreal-based lobby group fighting racism, wrote a letter to Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier and police Chief Marc Leduc calling for Borel to be taken into custody.

The suspect’s release after allegedly attacking a Black child signals that “crimes against Black and racialized individuals are not treated with the same level of seriousness,” executive director Joel DeBellefeuille wrote.

“We ask you to consider, for a moment, if the roles had been reversed — if a Black man had thrown boiling water on a 10-year-old white girl,” he wrote. “It is hard to imagine that he would have been allowed to go free while awaiting trial. Instead, he would likely have been detained immediately, facing serious legal consequences from the outset.”

In a statement posted to social media Thursday, Fournier said it’s very rare for the legal criteria to be met to justify a suspect’s detention even before an investigation has begun. “I could never, as an elected official, ask to review a police or judicial decision, much less demand somebody’s detention,” she wrote. “That would be illegal.”

Longueuil police say they have taken steps to reassure the community and the boy’s school, and that Quebec’s help centre for victims of crime has been in touch with the family.
Borel appeared in court in Longueuil on Friday afternoon. Her next appearance is scheduled for Oct. 16.

By Maura Forrest