Woman who drowned infant son to serve time at home

Glenda Luymes, The Province

SURREY -- The baby's birth was a miracle to his parents.

His death, four months later, can only be called a tragedy.

Jasvinder Kang, 44, received a two-year community sentence in Surrey Provincial Court yesterday after pleading guilty to infanticide.

Six years after her baby's death, it remains unclear what caused the Surrey mother to throw her infant son into a swimming pool and leave him there to drown.

According to defence lawyer Russ Chamberlain, baby Jasvir's birth in January 2002 was both a "blessing and a miracle to [his] family" after seven years of trying to conceive.

At the time, Daljit and Jasvinder Kang lived in a Surrey basement suite with an in-ground swimming pool in the backyard. By all accounts, they had a good marriage and a happy life.

But a month after the birth, Jasvinder woke up to find Jasvir had stopped breathing and was turning blue. Although he was resuscitated, he suffered brain damage.

Despite the poor prognosis, Jasvinder told a doctor she thought her baby was fine at an appointment a few weeks later. The doctor told her the baby's development was not normal.

Chamberlain told the court the mother does not know how "joy turned into such disaster," nor does she recall the feelings she had before throwing her baby into the backyard pool three months later, on May 25.

Police said Jasvinder went to her landlord's door and told him a panhandler with a knife had snatched the baby from her when she refused to give him money. She had cuts on her arms when she first spoke to police.

The landlord pulled Jasvir from the shallow end of the pool. Paramedics found the baby lying on the pool deck, his skin blue and his sleeper and diaper soaking wet.

Jasvir, the miracle baby, was again resuscitated. But his lungs were weakened and he suffered further brain damage. On June 7, he died in hospital.

It took five years before Surrey RCMP's unsolved homicide team arrested Jasvinder in March 2007 and charged her with second-degree murder.

But because Jasvinder confessed to killing her baby, who was under one year of age, the case fit in the parameters of infanticide, which carries a maximum five-year sentence.

Psychiatric reports cited in court yesterday said she was "not fully recovered from the effects of giving birth to her child" and showed signs of a disturbed mind both during her pregnancy and after the baby's birth.

Both Crown and defence counsel agreed on the facts of the case and recommended a two-year sentence.

Calling the baby's death "tragic," Judge Kenneth Ball sentenced Jasvinder to a conditional sentence of two years less a day to be served at home, with three years' probation to follow.

"I do not see Ms. Kang as a potential violator of community safety," he said, before stipulating that if she becomes pregnant again she must report it to her supervisor or probation officer and receive psychiatric assistance.

Sheila Duffy with the Pacific Post Partum Support Society said she was sad to learn about the case, but reluctant to associate infanticide with post-partum depression.

"We look at it as a spectrum," she said. "Research says about 80 per cent of moms experience some kind of post-partum blues."

Duffy said sleep deprivation, unrealistic expectations and a lack of support can make pregnancy and the arrival of a new baby difficult.

Duffy said new moms shouldn't be afraid to ask for support to help alleviate stresses they're feeling. Sometimes medication is required.