Daycare operator pleads guilty in hot-car death of 2-year-old Eva Ravikovich
TORONTO — A two-year-old girl whose death brought heightened scrutiny to Ontario’s child care system was left inside a boiling SUV outside her daycare north of Toronto for about seven hours before her lifeless body was discovered, a court heard Tuesday.
Olena Panfilova, who owned the daycare in Vaughan, Ont., pleaded guilty this week to criminal negligence causing death nearly four years after the incident that claimed Eva Ravikovich’s life.
The plea comes one year after Panfilova was found guilty under Ontario’s Day Nurseries Act of operating an illegal daycare.
Her husband and adult daughter were also found guilty of the illegal daycare charge last year, and the trio was sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be served intermittently on weekends, and given two years to each pay a $15,000 fine with a victim surcharge.