Daycare operators get jail time and fine after toddler’s death

TORONTO – The penalty handed down to three people who ran a daycare north of Toronto where a toddler died nearly three years ago is too little, too late, the lawyer representing the child’s parents said.

Ruslan Panfilova, his wife Olena Panfilova and her daughter Karyna Rabadanova were sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail, to be served intermittently on weekends, and given two years to each pay a $15,000 fine with a victim surcharge.

The trio was found guilty in February of operating an illegal daycare and were convicted under Ontario’s Day Nurseries Act.

“This type of penalty doesn’t even come close to punishing these people for what they did,” said Patrick Brown, who represents Eva Ravikovich’s parents.

The province had the information it needed to lay charges at least a year before Eva died in July 2013, Brown said in a phone interview after the sentencing.

“They should have been prosecuted long before,” he said.

The lawyer for the Panfilovas and their daughter said his clients have no record of similar or criminal offences and “there is no precedent for this type of sentencing or charge.”

“Both Ruslan and Olena expressed their sorrow and were very apologetic,” he said in a phone interview.

Asked how his clients were feeling about their sentence, J. Richard Forget said: “They were expecting a lot worse.”

He noted the intermittent jail time will allow the trio to continue working and keep up with medical appointments.

Provincial rules say unlicenced daycares can only care for a maximum of five children under the age of 10, but there were 27 children at the daycare in Vaughan, Ont., on the day Eva died.

Education Ministry officials later admitted they had failed to follow up on two of three complaints lodged against the daycare.

The trio’s sentences were issued a day after Olena Panfilova, 49, was criminally charged with manslaughter in connection with Eva’s death.

She and Rabadanova, 26, were also charged with obstruction of justice last year. Police allege the pair, both from Vaughan, interfered with the investigation and destroyed evidence.

The pair are also being sued by Eva’s family, along with several others including the Ministry of Education.

The statement of claim for the $3.5-million lawsuit does not reveal what the family believes happened inside the daycare that led to their daughter’s death, but alludes to an “incident.”

Eva’s death prompted an investigation by Ontario’s ombudsman, which found unlicensed daycares in the province operate under lax and barely enforced rules in a system with legal loopholes

A public health report showed health inspectors found contaminated, expired and rotting food at the daycare the day Eva died there and ordered the facility shut down on the grounds of health hazards.