‘We’re finally going home:’ Toronto woman returning to Canada with son following long legal ordeal in India

Four-year-old Valentino is returning home to Canada on May 29 with his mother Camila Vilas Boas after being kidnapped by his father in India in July 2024.

It’s taken almost five months but a Toronto mother who travelled to northern India earlier this year in search of her abducted son is finally bringing him back to Canada.

Tonight, North York resident Camila Vilas Boas and her four-year-old son Valentino will be boarding a Toronto-bound plane in Delhi, India. They’re set to arrive at Pearson airport early Thursday morning.

Back on Jan. 31, Boas went to India’s Chandigarh region after learning that her son was in that area with his father Kapil Sunak.

Boas hadn’t seen Valentino since July 18, 2024 when he went on a court-sanctioned trip to the south Asian nation with her former spouse. The two failed to return home as expected on Aug. 8, prompting Toronto Police Service (TPS) to issue a warrant last October for Sunak’s arrest for abduction by parent/custody order. He is still wanted by police for these charges, TPS told CP24 earlier this week.

“Investigators have advised it is believed Kapil Sunak is still in India at this time. He is not currently in police custody,” they wrote in an email.

• ‘Mama is waiting for you’: Woman appeals for return of 3-year-old son after ex-husband failed to bring him back to Canada

Fearing that she may never see her child again, Boas took matters into her own hands, gathering resources, and using the power of social media to appeal for information about Valentino’s whereabouts, she said.

“To be honest, I didn’t put my life on hold, I died,” a tearful Boas said of her decision to go to India and search for her son during a recent interview with CP24.

“Not knowing if my child was alive, if he slept, if he missed mommy, where he was, what he was doing. … I was dead.”

Boas said her efforts led her to pinpoint where Valentino and her ex were in India. She then bought a plane ticket to Chandigarh and after arriving there hired lawyers, who helped her take her former spouse to court for illegal child detention, a charge she says he appealed, albeit unsuccessfully, several times.

The first time Boas saw her son since was on Feb. 6 in court in India, she said.

Toronto police confirmed to CP24 that Valentino has “been located and reunited with their mother.”

What complicates matters in this case is that India is not a signatory of an international convention that helps to resolve cross-border custody disputes, nor is parental abduction considered a crime there. This means Sunak will not be charged in India for allegedly withholding Valentino from Boas, nor will he face extradition to Canada.

Boas told CP24 that on April 22 a judge in Chandigarh’s high court ordered Sunak to return Valentino to her and issued an order of repatriation to Canada for Valentino.

The day before, however, she said the child’s father re-abducted their son, who was recovered after a large-scale police manhunt and surrendered.

Valentino was then placed with his mother under 24/7 police surveillance, however she said fears for her safety and worries that her ex would harm her and take their son were always present.

In the meantime, Sunak appealed the court’s latest decision and during that process Boas said she and her son were required to surrender their passports until the matter was resolved.

“We’re not even allowed by leave the country. We’re being detained here in India,” she said during an interview earlier this month with CP24.

“For more than four months, I have basically lived in the court trying to go through this because I am trying to show to the Indian courts that I am the mother and I am the person who has the full custody of the child in Canada, which is the jurisdiction where he was born.”

On May 22, India’s Supreme Court in Delhi rejected Sunak’s appeal clearing the way for Boas come home with her son.

“In that moment, justice spoke. And for the first time in months, I could breathe. … No mother should ever have to survive what I did just to be with her own baby,” she said in a May 27 statement.

“That appeal dismissal wasn’t just a legal victory. It was the moment our nightmare ended.”

GAC providing ‘consular assistance’ to family

Global Affairs Canada told CP24 that it is aware of the parental abduction of a Canadian child in India but noted that the country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

“Consular officials are in contact with local authorities and are providing consular assistance to the family,” spokesperson Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage said in a written statement.

“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”

Resolution of international parental abduction cases can take months, years: group

Amanda Pick, the CEO of the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC), said she’s aware of this case, although her organization isn’t supporting the affected family directly.

Pick said incidences of parental abduction are always complex and become “much more difficult” when they involved children who have been taken abroad.

“Typically, [they] aren’t resolved quickly. Months, even years, is the time frame,” she said, adding even when a country is a Hague Convention signatory, the process to bring a kidnapped child home can be quite lengthy.

“The legalities for countries involved could still lead to months of delays.”

Pick added that in many nations, including some that have signed the international treaty, parental abduction is not considered a crime.

“Even if everything is done to demonstrate that a parent has custody back home, there’s still red tape. You can do everything right and it’s still not upheld in another country,” she said.

“Giving up hope is not an option. I am in constant awe of the families I work with and serve. [They] face overwhelming circumstances.”

Pick, who has helmed MCSC for 15 years, said a large part of her work involves advocating for families to get the resources they need, adding one of the major obstacles parents face is accessing support from the Canadian government in a timely and effective way.

“We need a more streamlined process. … The families of missing children need to be supported to navigate the resources that are available to them,” she said, adding even if a case is more complicated there’s no excuse.

“The struggle shouldn’t be getting the support needed.”

Pick noted that cases of parental abduction are not just “custodial issues,” saying that they have long-term consequences for the wellbeing of the affected child, who is often removed from their home and community for months, even years.

“The focus needs to be on the child and returning [them] to that safe place. That must be the priority,” she said.

Boas, meanwhile, added that more assistance from the Canadian government would have been helpful as the situation with her son and former spouse seemed “endless.”

“I feel the government of Canada left us on our own in a different land with no support for a Canadian child,” she said, adding Chandigarh is also volatile area due to rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

“It was a very, very, very scary situation.”

Boas said she’s looking forward to the safety and normalcy of life in Canada, and for Valentino to go to school in the fall and play with his friends, all of the things any other child his age should be doing.

“Now, we’re finally going home — to rebuild, to heal, and to recover the pieces of the life that was taken from us,” she said.

“It’s time for [Valentino] to begin a normal life again.”