On Saturdays, the boy had to admit his sins and help decide his own punishments. The punishments were to control the boy's errant and un-Christianlike behaviour. The parents are Christians, but Cohen calls their interpretations of the Bible "somewhat suspect."
Cohen said the abuse can be traced from 1997, when the Quebec child-protection agency followed up allegations that the mother hit the boy and held his hand against a hot stove in an attempt to correct the boy's behaviour.
In Montreal in March 1999, the stepfather pleaded guilty to having intercourse with a 14-year-old stepdaughter from a previous relationship while he continued to have sex with that girl's mother.
Deuteronomy 21: 18-21If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.