Three Judicial Biases About Moms, Dads and Children
By Dr. Warren Farrell
When I do expert witness work, I confront from most judges three biases that I myself was also surprised
to see proven invalid when I did the research for Father and Child Reunion. The first bias is the stability
bias; the second is the mother bias; and the third is the
'If-the-couple-is-in-conflict-joint-custody-will-not-work' bias. All of these biases apply to post-divorce
parenting More ..

Judicial passivism turning fathers into
deadbeats
Judges refuse to enforce Divorce Act section
that embraces equal access to child
The Edmonton Journal,
Grant A. Brown, Freelance, Saturday, June 17, 2006When mothers lose in court, they are not
made to pay court costs -- again on the
premise that this would only take money away
from the children. But payment of penalties
and costs is merely a transfer between
parents, and only prejudice supports the
proposition that fathers would be less
generous toward their children than mothers,
given the time and financial ability to do
so.
Contrast the endless lame excuses
judges use not to impose remedies for access
denial with their attitude toward making and
enforcing child-support orders.
More ..

The divorce law needs to put kid's rights first
The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest national newspaper, By HOWARD IRVING, Wednesday, October 12, 2005
page A23
Amid all the talk of rights for children, one more right needs to be asserted: Each child should have the
right to benefit from long awaited and much needed changes to the Federal Divorce Act.
In May, 1997, when the Divorce Act came into effect, the then minister of justice proposed that a joint
committee of the House and Senate make recommendations regarding child custody and access. After 55
hearings, and more than a year of study, the committee made 48 recommendations to Parliament, all with an
underlying theme: The adversary system as it pertained to the majority of custody and access disputes put
families (especially children) at risk. Despite this disturbing conclusion, Bill C-22, created to amend the
Divorce Act, still sits on a shelf. Justice Minister Irwin Cotler recently said that the government aims to
reintroduce child-custody and access reforms this autumn. It's about time. Correcting the current act is
long overdue. More ..
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1997 - The Federal Child Support Guidelines |
Highlights
- Child financial support payments are made tax free
- Children of Canada get $300 million less per year and federal government gains $300 million more
resulting from skimming while changing status of payments to non-taxable by financial support recipients.
- Liberal government only wanted to change child financial support. They ignored non-custodial parent
and child relationship rights issues until Bill was held up in the Senate of Canada. Alan Rock,
Canada's Justice Minister, agrees to Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access to examine these issues
in return for passage of child support guidelines by the Senate.
- The parent with the lesser time with the children pays the other parent (usually the mother) no matter
what the recipient's income. Parents living in poverty with incomes of starting at under $7,000 per
year that can't even afford to pay for an extra room to have their children stay overnight are required to
pay child financial support even if their ex-spouse makes a six figure income. The previous
requirements to include both parental incomes and expenses at both residences in nearly all cases was
taken out of the law.
- New guidelines ignore expenses for children while in residence with a parent (nearly always the
father) having less than 40% of the overall residency time.
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1998 -The Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access |
Alan Rock, Canada's Justice Minister, agreed to a Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access as a
concession to members of the Senate of Canada who held up his bill for new child financial support
guidelines.
The Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access, co-chaired by Senator Landon Pearson (Liberal -
Ontario) and Roger Gallaway, Member of Parliament (Liberal - Sarnia-Lambton), was composed of members from
both The Senate of Canada and The Houses of Commons representing all political parties.
The mandate of the Committee was to assess the need for a more child-centred approach to family law
policies and practices that would emphasize joint parental responsibilities and child-focused parenting
arrangements based on childrens needs and best interests.
In meetings held across the country in most of the major cities, the Committee heard from an equal
number of men and women representing a great variety of views. Non-custodial parents, Grandparents, womens
groups, and the legal and therapeutic communities all offered recommendations to the Committee.
The Committee then held meetings across Canada during 1998 and reported to Parliament and the Senate in
December 1998.
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The report of the The Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access - December 1998
The Special Joint Committee's report, "For the Sake of the Children", was presented to the Parliament
of Canada in December 1998.
English HTML
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Rapport du Comit mixte spcial sur la garde et le droit de visite des enfants - Dcembre 1998
"Pour l'amour des enfants"
française html
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The Government of Canada's response to the report of the Special
Joint Committee
HTML View / download in Pdf
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Department of Justice - Canada
Federal / Provincial / Territorial Family Law Consultations 2001 |
in 1992, 3 years after the Special Joint Committee on Custody and Access held public hearings across the
country, and heard from over 500 witnesses, then Justice Minister, Anne McLellan, decided to hold
private consultations with certain invited groups.
Many members of the Parliament of Canada called the "consultations" an affront to the democratic process
and a move by the gender feminist minister, Anne McLellan, to sidestep the recommendations of the Special
Joint Committee on Custody and Access (1998)
National Post - Women's groups balk at sitting with fathers' rights advocates at consultations held by
Canada's Department of Justice
[full
story[
The president of the Canadian Children's Rights Council attended the Toronto, Ontario, Canada, private
consultation meetings, which were not open to the public or the press.
The meetings were disrupted by a bomb threat specifically mentioning the consultation meetings. Much time
was spent in the hotel lobby. After an investigation and search by the police, the meetings continued
in rooms located in a different part of the hotel, far away from the original meeting rooms.
The opinions of many who attended expressed after the meetings were that the purpose of the meetings was
to pick choices for family law reform from a slate of choices offered by the Minister of Justice. The
selection was very narrow in perspective and left out nearly all the recommendations of the Special Joint
Committee on Custody and Access.
The Federal / Provincial / Territorial Consultations Report
Executive Summary
HTML
View / download in Pdf
Full Report ( 4 MB download )
View / download in Pdf
National Post Lead Editorial
Right decision, wrong
reason
Print edition A17 (online by subscription only), December 23, 2004
Irwin Cotler, the Justice Minister, announced on Tuesday that the federal government will hold off on
reforming child custody laws. We can't say that's too much of a disappointment. If enacted, the expected
changes would mostly have served to tilt the anti-father bias of Canada's family courts even further in
favour of women.
First proposed by Mr. Colters predecessor, Martin Cauchon, the now-dormant bill would have scrapped
existing provisions compelling the courts to grant "maximum contact" to both parents and severed the last
remaining connections between payment of child support and access by fathers to their kids. Worse, it would
have given judges the power to withhold all access to fathers with past histories of violent behaviour while
permitting wives to raise allegations of abuse at divorce proceedings even if they had made no previous
complaints of violence -- a recipe for false accusations in bids to win total custody.
More ..

Collaborative Family Law
The Scotsman, by Campbell Deane, a solicitor with Bannatyne Kirkwood France & Co, October 26, 2004
THE family court in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada, was never the most bustling. But how many courts in the
world have ever been closed because of a lack of business?
This unique achievement has been attributed to the success of a new method of dealing with family cases,
which began in North America and is now being offered in Scotland.
More ..
Tara Brown talks to the kids of Australia about divorce
60 Minutes - Australia - Transcript - Listen up
May 15, 2005, Reporter: Tara Brown,Producer: Sandra Cleary
LISTEN UP
INTRO:
TARA BROWN: There's no escaping it divorce changes your kids forever. Even the most amicable split will
have a life-long effect. How do we know? Well, the longest continuous study of the impact on kids when mum
and dad separate is revealing some tough truths. It followed the same children for 35 years, followed them
from the break-up to adulthood. They're scared of relationships and less likely to marry and those who do
are more likely to divorce, just like their parents. So tonight listen up, for Australia's children have
something to say in their own haunting words, how divorce changes everything.
[full
story]
Islamic tribunals to rule in civil cases in Canada
The Washington Post, April 29, 2004
TORONTO--Canadian Muslims, taking advantage of a provision of the law in Ontario, can now decide some
civil disputes under sharia, or Islamic law, including family disagreements and inheritance, business and
divorce issues, using tribunals that include imams, Muslim elders and lawyers. While it is less than full
implementation of sharia, local leaders consider it a significant step.
Muslim promoters of sharia arbitration said no cases had been decided but the process is set. Islamic
leaders created an Islamic Court of Civil Justice last fall, and that organization, in turn, has chosen
arbitrators, who have undergone training in sharia and Canadian civil law.
More ..

Deadbeat Web site planned
Toronto Star, by RICHARD BRENNAN, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, December 5, 2003
Mug shots of deadbeat parents will be posted on a government Web site to locate those who have ignored
court-ordered child support, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday.
More ..

Canada's National newspaper for professional women
The FRO under scrutiny
The Women's Post, "Canada's national newspaper for professional
women", by Leslie Whatmough, July 7th, 2005
On June 9, 2005 the McGuinty government announced the passage of Bill 155, legislation that promised to
increase enforcement, improve fairness and enhance efficiency at the Family Responsibility Office (FRO).
However, the legislation did not address the problem of accountability and, as things now stand, the FRO is
a threat to every Canadian affected by a governmentregulated support and custody arrangement system. Think
of George Orwells 1984 and youll have a good picture of how issues are handled at the FRO.
They have legal power to extort money from Canadians, but are not responsible or accountable for their
actions. Last year an FRO staff member decided not to wait for a court date to review the financial status
of an out-of-work truck driver and took it upon themselves to suspend his license because he was,
understandably, behind on his payments, having lost his job earlier in the year. Although he was looking for
work, the FRO cut off the only way he knew of to earn a living. His suicide note explained how hed lost all
hope. Is this what we want FRO to be doing? It is one thing to chase after dead-beat dads (this philosophy
is an integrated part of the FRO mandate), but what of the majority of people who pay regularly and lose
their job or run into tough times? Should they too be stripped of their civil rights?
More ..

Canada's National newspaper for professional women
Does the FRO have a feminist perspective?
The Women's Post, "Canada's national newspaper for professional
women", July 7th, 2005, by Joseph Young
When families fall apart, they can make for the bitterest of enemies. The intensity of their hostility,
the personal rhetoric, the posturing and positioning, and the utter faithlessness of remembrance in the
relationship's good deeds and consequences is a breathtaking phenomenon. It's as if the positive qualities
and countless achievements are struck from history as a revisionist might strike the Holocaust. Into all of
this the family court system wades, often inelegantly. Divorce lawyers drive up the emotional and financial
toll of separation and transformation. Family and friends frequently collude to make things worse.
And when government decides to rear its head, well, it's a mess for all the world to see. Witness the
recent attention on Ontarios euphemistically branded Family Responsibility Office. A job in advertising
doubtlessly greeted the person who came up with its title, because it suggests some sort of feel-good
missionary work to hold together the sanctity of the institution.
More ..
Canadian Bar Association
Fathers Day
December 2003, By Sheldon Gordon
The fathers rights movement has shaken the family law Bar, from law offices to courtrooms to
government. Its members are dedicated to their cause, unwavering in their beliefs, and furious with judges,
lawyers and politicians. They evoke sympathy from some and scorn from others, but they cant be ignored any
longer.
In June 2002, Peter Cornakovic of Burlington, Ontario, entered a family court in Milton and approached
the bench, while calling for the police to be summoned. Cornakovic then grabbed Justice Terrance OConnor
and placed him under a "citizens arrest," allegedly under the provisions of the federal Crimes Against
Humanity and War Crimes Act, based on some of the judges decisions that awarded custody to mothers instead
of fathers.
The police did come and quickly arrested Cornakovic, who was upset with his court-ordered support
payments and his seven-year court battle with his ex-wife. But although his citizens arrest went nowhere,
Cornakovic did become something of a folk hero in some quarters specifically, to the growing number of
fathers rights groups in Canada. More ..

Court says mother can move with son
The Ottawa Citizen, Cristin Schmitz, Saturday, November 23, 2002
Earl Creighton, like many separated fathers, tries to be there for Robert, his six-year-old son. He takes
him to swimming lessons, reads to him, and visits the boy several times a week.
That close relationship will change as a result of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision this week that
permits Mr. Creighton's ex-common-law partner, Charlotte Bjornson, who has sole custody of Robert, to move
their son 3,000 kilometres from Waterloo, Ont. to Calgary.
Ms. Bjornson asked the court to let her return to Alberta where she has family support and can resume a
nursing career with 12-years' seniority that she interrupted when she moved to set up house with Mr.
Creighton in 1996.
In a unanimous judgment Tuesday that will help custodial parents (usually mothers) who want to move with
their children over the objections of non-custodial parents (usually fathers), the appeal court overturned a
trial judge who had refused to permit Ms. Bjornson to move Robert because it was in the child's best
interests "that he continue to have a close and loving relationship with each of his parents."
More ..
Stripping court of custody role
The Daily Telegraph, Australia, by TORY MAGUIRE, Political Reporter, December 30, 2003
THE hated Family Court could be stripped of power to cut costs and keep lawyers out of messy
child custody battles.
It is part of sweeping reforms proposed by a federal committee, which also wants an overhaul of child
support payments. The centrepiece of the unanimous bipartisan report is "shared parenting", even though it
doesn't necessarily mean equal time in each home.
Separating couples would go through two "pre-court" tiers of negotiating, including compulsory mediation
before seeking a "parenting order" from a new families tribunal.
A reduced Family Court would continue in cases where there is entrenched conflict, violence, substance and
child abuse, and limited appeals.
More ..

Cotler hopes to reintroduce child-custody legislation
The National Post, Cristin Schmitz, CanWest News Service, Tuesday, April 12, 2005
OTTAWA - Justice Minister Irwin Cotler says his government hopes to reintroduce child custody and access
reforms this fall. Mr. Cotler told the Senate human rights committee yesterday he still intends to revive a
contentious Chretien-era bill, with some changes. The defunct bill, which was supported by the Canadian Bar
Association but condemned by fathers' rights groups, died when Paul Martin became prime minister.
More ..
CCRC editor's comment, January 10, 2006:
Irwin Cotler and the Liberal party of Canada did nothing since he made these comments to the press in April 2005 to help Canadian children
caught in family law situations. No legislation was introduced.
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