A Vancouver Island woman who has been the subject of injunctions for working as a midwife without being licensed has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a newborn.

First responders went to a home in Ladysmith on Dec. 27, 2023, and tried to save the life of an an unresponsive newborn. The baby died 10 days later.

The investigation included Mounties, the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives, and the B.C. Coroners Service.

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Gloria Lemay, 77, was identified as being involved in the birth that police allege led to the child’s fatal injuries, said RCMP Staff Sgt. Trevor Busch in a news release.

Lemay describes herself on her website as a childbirth advocate with the focus on areas of home birth, breastfeeding and “holistic education” of midwives among other fields.

Lemay, a Duncan resident, was charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a baby boy in Vancouver in 1985. She was convicted in B.C. Supreme Court in the high-profile case, but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled the fetus was not legally a person.

In February 2024, Lemay’s home was searched by police and the midwives’ college as part of an investigation into allegedly attending births despite having no credentials.

The college issued a public advisory at the time saying Lemay “continues to hold herself out as a birth attendant” in B.C. and might be acting as a midwife.

Lemay was also fined $1,000 in 1995 for refusing to give evidence at an inquest into the death of a baby in 1994. The infant died of cardiac arrest as the result of an infection during delivery.

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When midwifery became regulated in 1998, Lemay was invited by the college to take exams to demonstrate her competency, but she chose not to.

In 2000, the B.C. Supreme Court granted the college an injunction that permanently prohibited Lemay from acting as a midwife, using the title “midwife” or charging any fee for midwifery services.

But the college alleged Lemay continued to practise. Private investigators hired by the college took courses from Lemay, who said she performed four births a month and charged $2,500 a birth.

Lemay was sentenced to five months in jail in 2022 for violating the court injunction. A ban on acting as a midwife was renewed in 2018

In a statement on Tuesday, the college said it is aware of the arrest but would not comment as the criminal charge being a separate process from its own legal action against Lemay.

A warrant was issued for Lemay’s arrest on Tuesday.