Judge's illness delays sentencing for parents guilty of Calgary toddler's death

The Calgary Courts Centre is pictured on May 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Warning: this story contains details of child abuse

A sentencing hearing for a Calgary couple who killed their badly burned and emaciated toddler has been delayed because the judge fell ill.

Sonya Pasqua and Michael Sinclair pleaded guilty to manslaughter in December after Gabriel Sinclair-Pasqua died in 2021 after suffering major burns to a third of his body.

Justice Glen Poelman told the court as the hearing was to start that he had been sick all weekend and wasn’t well enough to proceed.

A new hearing date will be set on Friday.

An agreed statement of facts says the 18-month-old’s parents didn’t seek medical treatment and tried to treat the burns with honey before he died from an infection and head trauma.

A pediatric surgeon has said the burns would have required emergency medical care and immediate hospitalization.

Court heard the couple told officials different versions of how the boy was injured, including that he hit his head on a toilet and that he pulled a pot of boiling water off a stove.