CANADA
Haaretz
Police in the Canadian province of Quebec believe that members of the radical, ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor sect were involved in human trafficking and forgery, according to court documents released on Wednesday. The case has been widely reported in the Canadian media.
The sect of some 250 people, also known as the “Jewish Taliban” because female members wear a black gown resembling a burqa, lived in the Quebec town of Ste-Agathe-des-Monts for about a decade before authorities were alerted in 2012 by reports of widespread abuse and neglect of children.
The community fled en masse to a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, before going on to the Central American country of Guatemala. According to recent reports, they have since fallen out with their neighbors in a small Guatemalan village and are moving on.
Search warrants released by a Quebec judge on Wednesday allege members of the community falsified government documents, and engaged in human trafficking.
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