CALGARY — Calgary police are searching for the mother of a newborn baby boy found in a dumpster in the northwest part of the city.
Det. Dean Nichol says the baby, who was taken to hospital, is no more than a few days old.
“Some passersby heard a child crying, they went to investigate and upon finding this child they notified the police and emergency services personnel,” Nichol said.
The baby’s life is not in danger, he added.
The baby was found Tuesday afternoon amongst apartment complexes across from James Fowler high school.
Duty Insp. Vic Trickett says it appears the baby was not born in a hospital.
About an hour after the infant was discovered, a woman in the same area was taken to hospital by EMS.
Investigators are not sure if the incident is related to the discovery of the child.
Police are interviewing a number of potential witnesses.
A program called Angel’s Cradle allows a parent to place an unwanted infant in a crib at St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver.
Thirty seconds later, an alarm sounds, giving the parent enough time to leave, but letting hospital staff quickly tend to the infant.
The hospital has taken in one abandoned baby since it began in May.
Officials running the Angel’s Cradle program say it’s meant as a last resort, and they’re hoping troubled parents will turn to other social services for help first.
Last week, Saskatchewan’s highest court reserved its decision in the appeal of a woman who gave birth in a Walmart bathroom and left the newborn in a toilet.
April Halkett was found not guilty of abandoning the baby in a trial in June 2009, but the Crown disagreed with the ruling and took the case to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
Dean Sinclair, the director of appeals for the province, says the trial judge applied the wrong legal test to the charge of child abandonment.
Sinclair says Halkett should not have been found not guilty simply because she didn’t intend to commit a crime.
During her trial, Halkett said she didn’t know she was pregnant in May 2007 and she left the Walmart store in Prince Albert, Sask., because she thought the child was dead.
The trial judge said her actions were negligent, but not criminal in nature.
(The Canadian Press, CHQR)