The founder of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect which made headlines in Quebec a few years ago for dodging youth protection authorities has reportedly died in Mexico.
A report in the Diario Chiapas newspaper suggests Rabbi Shlomo Erez Helbrans drowned in the Shujabal River in southern Mexico last Friday while carrying out a ritual immersion in preparation for Shabbat.
The 55-year-old's body was found about a kilometre downstream by local officials. A representative with the Israeli foreign ministry has been dispatched to Mexico to identify Helbrans' body.
The Lev Tahor ('Pure Heart') sect was founded in Israel in the 1980s, and practices an extreme form of Orthodox Judaism which notably rejects the concept of Zionism and questions the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
After fleeing to the U.S. in the 1990s, Helbrans served two years in an American prison for kidnapping after assisting a 13-year-old boy to go into hiding from his non-religious mother.
Helbrans and his group arrived in Canada in 2003 claiming refugee status, and settled in Ste. Agathe des Monts.
The group made headlines in 2013 after youth protection officials acted on complaints of child abuse, underage marriage, and education which ran counter to government norms.
Rather than face Quebec authorities, Helbrans and his 200-strong group fled to Ontario, then later to Guatemala.
They apparently entered Mexico from Guatemala just last month.