What Constitutes Child Neglect? the Tragic Story of the Boutique Children's Hotel, 1971‪.‬

About 6:30 a.m. on Monday 22 November 1971, Margaret Leeferink pulled her station wagon up in front of the residence of Miss P. in Calgary. She knocked on the door and collected the first of 13 young children she would pick up that morning, Angela P., a toddler who had recently celebrated her second birthday. Over the next two hours, Mrs. Leeferink would call at other homes throughout Calgary, from Varsity Acres in the northwest to Fairview in the southeast. She then drove the station wagon to her acreage just beyond the western limits of the city in south Calgary where she had fashioned a makeshift day care in a large, detached triple garage. The children she unloaded from the car at around 9:00 a.m. consisted of seven infants less than one year of age, four children between one and two years, and two children over two years. (1) Margaret Leeferink did not employ anyone on a regular basis at her day care. That morning a 16-year-old girl and another youth were at the home and available to lend a hand when needed. But Margaret Leeferink was the only dedicated caregiver. Her plan was to care for the children until shortly before four o'clock and then bundle them into her station wagon for the return trip to Calgary. She would be finished dropping the children at their homes before 7 p.m. (2)