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R v Borowiec: Supreme Court of Canada Upholds the Infanticide Defence

👤 Meredith Borowiec 📍 Calgary, Alberta, Canada 🗓 2010 ⚖️ Two counts of infanticide (originally second-degree murder); one count of aggravated assault

Case summary

Between 2008 and 2010 Borowiec gave birth alone three times, concealing each pregnancy, and placed each newborn in a dumpster near her Calgary home. The 2010 baby survived after a passerby heard crying and the child's father unknowingly helped lift the infant from the bin; the 2008 and 2009 babies died. Charged with two counts of second-degree murder, she was convicted in 2013 of the lesser offence of infanticide, and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault over the surviving child. She was sentenced to four and a half years, reduced to 18 months after credit for pre-trial custody. The Alberta Crown appealed, arguing the infanticide standard was too easily met. The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the convictions in 2015 and the Supreme Court of Canada did so unanimously in 2016, clarifying that 'disturbed' means mentally agitated, distressed or unstable and need not amount to a psychiatric disorder — the leading Canadian authority on the defence.

Mental-health context

Justice Peter McIntyre accepted expert evidence that Borowiec was not suffering from a diagnosable 'mental disorder' but was experiencing a mental 'disturbance' — panic, anxiety and depersonalisation — following each concealed birth. He found that 'all three incidents happened when your mind was disturbed after giving birth,' the statutory threshold for infanticide in Canada.

Status / outcome

Convicted of infanticide (2013); 4.5 years reduced to 18 months after credit; convictions upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada (2016)

Sources

This summary is compiled from public reporting. Allegations are not findings of fact, and every accused person is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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