UPDATE:

Baby "A" has been ripped from her family & taken to Canada by her perpetrating father, in violation of California Family Code § 3044. She has not been seen or heard from since August 5th, 2025.

Since then, Maria has been AGAIN attacked litigiously with a Canadian ex-parte protection order issued without notice or due process, stripping her of her rights to freedom of speech, custody & contact with her biological child, without ANY safety concerns or evidence of her being harmful. Maria has been deprived of protections guaranteed by the ADA, Victim's Rights, the U.S. Constitution & the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms. We continue to fight for freedom, safety, and peace for her & her children.

ORIGINAL:

This is for Maria. Here is her story, in her own words:

I'm a US citizen and have two children; the youngest is a dual citizen. In 2019, I was lured into Canada with my 5-year-old daughter while I was 7 months pregnant with my second child. Two weeks before the birth, my "ex" unexpectedly wouldn't allow me to continue my prenatal care or delivery plan in the US, where I was fully covered for a zero-cost birth with full medical care.

He hired a midwife, and I had to give birth in Canada on the 43rd floor of his high-rise apartment, alone with him and this stranger, without access to medicine, a hospital, or postpartum medical care after the birth. He'd also taken my car away and my keys. His family helped keep me trapped and isolated.

The birth was followed by severe violence in all forms.

He opened a business in his name, with a bank account in his name, for a business I was supposed to "run," and I did, working around the clock, expecting to eventually get access to the money I was earning. I was wrong. I was forced into severe debt after years of me having been independent and successful as a single mother and business owner before I met him.

We were not allowed to leave, and we lost legal status in Canada. I cooked, cleaned, homeschooled, cared for both children alone, worked for his business, and met all of his needs to "earn" the food and housing he was providing for me and my daughters.

I told him this was slavery. When I tried to get away, he threatened to have me arrested and deported, and said he'd make sure I never see my kids again. And much worse that I can't share here. (UPDATE: The family court judge entrusted to hear the Hague petition stated openly that Maria "chose" to be controlled.)

Immigration Canada expedited permanent residence for myself and my older daughter in 2021 due to "violence" after we'd been trapped there for nearly two years without access to money, proper medical care, or school for my daughter.

In early 2022, shortly after he was arrested and released on bail, this man, who was also our immigration sponsor, defaulted on the sponsorship agreement and forced me and the children out of our house in BC and into a shelter, while he moved by himself into the 3-bedroom house he'd purchased. My older daughter, severely traumatized and depressed at age 7, fled Canada in May 2022.

The courts allowed me and the baby to return to the USA in June 2022, a decision that was upheld by two different judges in August and December 2022.

BUT the perpetrator kept re-filing his repeatedly dismissed applications to force us back to Canada, without success, keeping me by his side in the courtroom from 2022 to 2024, maxing out my credit cards and sabotaging any chance of financial independence. His criminal charges ended up in a plea deal in Canada without going to trial, and his protection order violation charges were dropped in the US after he delayed his trial for a year.

It cost me tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to "buy" my freedom from Canada (#notcool), and that did nothing to protect my children from a dangerous man who continued to permeate our lives and harm my baby at every opportunity. The courts in both countries suspended his contact with the baby in Summer 2023.

NOW, in 2025, he's filed a Hague Application alleging that I'm dangerous and harmful to my children, that I kidnapped a Canadian Citizen child from her home in Canada, and that I'm about to abscond from the US with my children. His application is based on misrepresentations of the facts and history of our case and has no basis in reality. (UPDATE: He admitted during cross-examination that the basis for the Hague application was primarily false, and he'd made no effort to correct it prior to the abduction being carried out.)

Though false, the courts are required to entertain his delusions and concede to his demands if I don't successfully meet the burden of proving him wrong. Because my ability to win is based on my ability to pay for decent representation and reporting, there is a risk we will be forced back to a country where he will continue his reign of terror, attempting to erase and exploit us in every way possible.

My children's lives and safety are at risk if I don't fight this, but to fight it has already drained the legal retainer I'd borrowed money to pay, and we haven't even had trial yet. I don't have the funds to continue paying my legal fees.

Before this happened, his vexatious court applications had already forced me close to $100k into debt, and if he wins, this litigation will continue with no end in sight. There is nothing in the case law that allows my legal fees to be reimbursed by the "Petitioner" for his frivolous Hague application. Instead, I'm required as a single mother to have unlimited access to money in order to obtain any kind of safety or protection through the courts.

Please help. Thank you.

Video evidence on IG at mariathevillain