Daycare operator sentenced to 20 months in jail over 2017 death of toddler Baby Mac

A Vancouver daycare operator has been sentenced to 20 months in jail and 12 months probation for failing to provide the necessaries of life for nine children including Baby Mac, the toddler who died in 2017 while under Susy Yasmine Saad'scare.

Macallan Wayne Saini, known as Baby Mac, was 16 months old when he died atSaad's unlicensed and unregistered Olive Branch daycare.

There is a publication ban on the names of the other children involved in the case.

A lawsuitfiled in 2018 by Baby Mac's mother against Saad and Vancouver Coastal Health says the toddler was believed to have died when he was left unattended and choked on an electrical cord on Jan. 18, 2017.

B.C. Supreme Court heard on Wednesdaythat a set of string lights was dangling over one of three playpensSaad had set up in a third-floor napping room.

Justice Catherine Wedge said, according to interviews with police,Saadhad left Baby Mac unattended in theplaypen closest to the string lightsfor over an hour after putting him down to sleep.

Saad was charged in 2020 after a lengthy police investigationand pleaded guilty last April.

Wedge saidSaad deliberately deceived the parents who entrusted their children to her care and executed an elaborate scheme to get around B.C. child-care legislation to make more money at her daycare.

Saad was handcuffedby a sheriffbefore beingled out of the courtroom after sentencing.

Under B.C.'s Community Care and Assisted Living Act, unlicensed child-care operators are only allowed to care for two children at a time and can be fined up to $10,000 a day for violations.

Olive Branch daycare closed following the death of Baby Mac.

Baby Mac's parents, Shelley Sheppard and Chris Saini, attended Wednesday's sentencing hearing, and Sheppard struggled to hold back her emotions as Wedge described what had happened to her son.

Sheppard and Sainipreviously told CBC News howMacallan would filla room with joy and curiosity. They shared a written statement Monday afternoon,describing the process as excruciatingly longand thankingfirst responders, Vancouver police, Crown attorneys, victims services and everyonewho worked on the case.

"No punishment will ever bring our sweet boy back to us," it said. "We feel this sentence falls years short ... Knowing that the law has to operate within its abilities, we are disgusted by the options of justice available."

The parents said they regret that Mac will never score a goal in soccer, have a sleepover with friends, learn to clean a fish or experience the thrill of a first kiss.

"This makes us sad beyond words," they said."We love, cherish and miss our sweet and loving boy Mac every day."

Longtime childcare advocate Sharon Gregsonsaid Monday there is no sentence that would do Mac, or his family, justice.

"There couldn't be a punishment that is adequate enough for what's happened to Baby Mac," she told On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko.

"It's a signal to our politicians and to all of us that we have to do better for children, we have to have a better childcare system."

Gregson, who has campaigned for $10-a-day daycare,acknowledged that hundreds more childcare spaces have opened up over the past five years, but said there's still a long way to go to ensure families have access to safe, affordable care when they require it.