Child welfare officials have taken temporary custody of an 11-year-old Ontario boy to ensure he undergoes chemotherapy after his father decided to take him off treatment for his aggressive form of leukemia.

A father who cannot be identified says his son is being treated 'like a prisoner' at the hospital where he is being treated for leukemia. (CBC)His father, who along with the boy can't be identified due to youth protection laws, told CBC News on Friday that the boy didn't want to continue with the treatments.

"I think about the first time around, what it did to him and how it almost killed him, and when he told me he doesn't want it anymore," he said. "He doesn't want to die this way. He would rather die at home in a peaceful, comfortable way."

The dad, who lives in Hamilton, was briefly shackled by security when he arrived at McMaster Children's Hospital on Thursday with his son for what he believed was a routine appointment.

Local Children's Aid Society officials then took custody of the boy due to the father's refusal to admit the son for another round of chemotherapy.

The executive director of Hamilton's Children's Aid Society, Dominic Verticchio, said a court ruled the boy must be treated.

"It's been very emotionally draining for everyone," he said. "The fact of the matter is there is provincial legislation in place that states that children must receive the care and treatment they require."

Family given limited visiting rights

Verticchio said doctors gave the boy a very good chance of going into remission.

"He had a 50 per cent chance of survival if the treatment was carried out. If the treatment was not carried out, then in fact his chance of survival would be not good. In fact they estimated it would be fatal in six months."

But the father said doctors told him the boy had a 20 per cent chance of making it through his chemotherapy treatments, then a 50 per cent chance after that, once he undergoes full body radiation and a bone marrow transplant.

The Hamilton man says his son is being treated "like a prisoner" at the hospital room where he is undergoing treatment for the next several days, with hospital security and child welfare officials keeping a close eye on him.

"He's very angry and very upset," the father said.

At first the family was unable to see the boy, but Friday afternoon, they were granted limited visiting rights and planned to see him later in the evening.

"I figured I would never see my son again ever until I was going to bury him, and now I get to see him and at least hug him and hold him and tell him I love him," the father said.

Children's aid said they would return custody to the father if he agreed to continue treatments. The father said he expects the case will end up back before a judge.

He called the entire situation disgusting and said the boy has already had a tough life — losing his mother to cancer at the age of four as well as suffering from psychotic episodes and fetal alcohol syndrome.