Everything in Jacob Le’s room is as he left it before he went on a trip with his father to Vietnam, nearly a year and a half ago.
His bright yellow truck is parked in the corner of the bedroom, a pile of stuffed animals, including his favourite teddy bear, sits on the edge of his bed and his paintings are displayed proudly all around the downtown Toronto apartment.
Jacob’s mother, Heather McArthur, is waiting for the day her son returns home after 546 days away.
“It’s the littlest moments when I walk around now and I see a mother with her child looking at a flower, and just remembering those moments with my son and what he brought to my life and how much of him is missing, and how much of this doesn’t make sense to me,” said McArthur.
Jacob’s father, Loc Phu “Jay” Le, took him to Vietnam in February of 2024 to supposedly celebrate Lunar New Year as part of a vacation cleared by the courts, McArthur explained, but he never returned to Canada.
Toronto police released an image of Jacob’s father on May 7 and requested the public’s help in locating him as he was “wanted in a parental abduction investigation.”
Le, 41, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for abduction in contravention of a custody order.
McArthur has travelled back and forth from Toronto to Ho Chi Minh City multiple times in search of her son.
Adding a layer of complexity to the case is the fact that Vietnam is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which “can help parents with the return of children who have been removed to, or retained in certain countries in violation of custody rights,” according to a Government of Canada website.
“Whether we have a convention, whether we’ve signed a treaty or not, is that relevant? Is that what we care about? We should care about one thing only. We should be doing everything. Every politician, every lawyer, everyone should be behind her, instead she feels like she’s fighting upstream just to get attention,” said McArthur’s lawyer, Robert Rotenberg.
He is calling on the federal government to step up and support McArthur and help bring her son, who is a Canadian citizen, home.
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“There’s no central place for them to go. There’s no place in the government that says, ‘We’re gonna advocate for you, for every means.’ And frankly, if you ask me, what do I think the government should be doing? I’ve got a one-word answer for you. One word. The government should be doing everything,” said Rotenberg.
Global News contacted Global Affairs Canada to ask what is being done to help McArthur.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: “Global Affairs Canada is aware of the parental abduction of a Canadian child in Vietnam. Consular officials are in contact with local authorities and are providing assistance to the family. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”
The spokesperson added: “Child abductions are some of the most difficult consular situations that the Government of Canada responds to and are a profoundly difficult and damaging experiences for both the children and their families. The Government of Canada works with partners in Canada and officials in other countries to inquire into the safety and well-being of abducted children and facilitate their return to Canada.”
In the last few months, there have been some developments, said McArthur, although none have led to her son’s return.
Jacob was the subject of an Interpol yellow notice, which is a global police alert for a missing person. Yellow notices are often issued to help locate minors or those who are unable to identify themselves.
On a recent trip to Vietnam however, McArthur said she learned that the notice was “no longer active.”
“I was notified that the consulate had met with the child and the father about 20 hours prior to that. And so that was the reason that it was cleared,” she said, adding “my hopes were really high that I would see Jacob. I was sitting at the police station with my lawyer, waiting to see my son.”
McArthur ended up returning to Toronto to work on her son’s case from home.
“You go into a state of shock. There’s only so many ups and downs that the body can take in these scenarios … There’s been so many times or a few times where I’ve been so close to where I have located Jacob and then not been able to get action or had hopes of seeing him and not being able to achieve that and that’s just really hard,” she said.
On top of the emotional toll, McArthur is dealing with the financial impact of the battle to bring home her son.
She set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with legal fees and travel costs.
McArthur has also been in contact with parents of other abducted children.
“There’s systemic barriers that people face in accessing support and services and so I assist other people that are having difficulties accessing service and support, both for their children left behind and those children abroad,” she said.
McArthur is planning to return to Vietnam once again to try and locate Jacob and bring him home.
She said she understands Toronto police are limited in their efforts but hopes the federal government will do more to support her and her son.
“The police have specific jurisdiction, and so when a child is abroad, those investigations can oftentimes be really limited with the procedures that they’re able to do,” she said, adding, “If you were to ask me, why has the government not done more? Why has the Government not done everything to bring Jacob home? My answer is just that I don’t know what to tell you because I don’t know why that would be.”
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Ontario mother’s battle to bring son home from Vietnam reaches 546 days
