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There has been considerable public discourse around courts allegedly “dismissing” mother's allegations of domestic violence and child abuse when a father alleges that he is being alienated from his children by their mother. The purpose of this project is to test whether this discourse is based on an illusory correlation. Published court decisions from 200 family court cases in Canada were sequentially selected if parental alienation was alleged to have happened to the father and abuse was alleged to have been perpetrated by the father. Independent coders recorded the investigative outcomes of the court cases regarding alienation and abuse, and whether the mother lost child custody. Results indicate that there is an illusory correlation between family court cases involving both allegations of abuse and parental alienation, and that mothers are generally not losing custody to abusive fathers in such rarely occurring cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to describe how fathers are involved as parents after parental separation. Most research on post-separation father involvement has focused on "nonresident" fathers, who have little to no child-custody time. However, fathers with shared and primary custody must also be considered to provide a more complete portrait of post-separation father involvement. A representative sample of 733 fathers in Quebec, Canada, with a child under 14 years of age and who separated between 2016 and 2018 completed an online questionnaire. Latent profile analyses of measures of fathers' involvement post-separation in positive involvement activities, indirect care and decision-making relative to the other parent were performed. Four profiles were identified: recreational (19%), balanced (52%), take-charge (21%) and load-bearing (7%). Profiles differed in fathers' overall level of involvement relative to the other parent and in their degree of involvement in each of the three dimensions measured. Compared to balanced-profile fathers, those in the recreational and load-bearing profiles had lower income and education level, lived farther away from the other parent and had a lower coparenting relationship quality. Recreational fathers were also more likely to be born in a developing country and load-bearing fathers more frequently reported that the other parent lived with a new partner. Although custody type (little-to-none, shared, or primary) was strongly associated with father involvement profiles, all types were represented in each profile. In conclusion, most fathers are far from uninvolved parents after separation. Custody time fails to fully and accurately capture their parental involvement. Highlights: After parental separation, most fathers (52%) are as involved as the other parent in positive activities, indirect care and decision-making. More than one out of four fathers (28%) are more involved with the child than the other parent after separation. Factors related to the father, the relationship between parents and the separation distinguished the father involvement profiles. Fathers with less custody time than the other parent can be as involved in positive activities with the child, indirect care and decision-making as shared and primary custody fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police respond to high volumes of domestic violence (DV) calls that can be time-consuming and often deal with repeat involved persons, regardless of whether or not charges are laid. This study extracts and examines three distinct cases of individuals/couples that involved almost 2% of 3,414 domestic violence calls to police that occurred over about a 3-year period for a small-sized urban community and its surrounding rural areas in Ontario, Canada. Most of the calls (86.2%) for these three cases did not result in any charges being laid. Each case represented a unique problem focus common in DV situations, and all three cases involved children. Key issues for one case included substance use and the cycle of violence; in another case, mental health problems and parenting challenges were prominent; and the third case pertained to child custody and access issues. Acceptance of offered support and services by the involved persons was minimal in all three cases. Implications for improved police responses involving collaboration with other service providers in smaller communities with limited resources are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the development of the concept of parenting plans and the different approaches to providing materials that can help parents and professionals to make individualized, future‐oriented plans for children post‐separation. More than a quarter century after American states began to enact laws to encourage the use of parenting plans, Canada amended its legislation to abandon the proprietary concepts of "custody" and "access," and encourage the use of parenting plans rather than "custody orders". To support the making and use of individualized, child‐focused parenting plans, the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC‐O) prepared its Parenting Plan Guide and Parenting Plan Template. These web‐based materials are available without charge to parents and their professional advisors. The Guide discusses the value of parental co‐operation and planning, while recognizing that in cases where there are serious issues of abuse, violence or parental mental health, a protective judicial role and court orders may be needed. The Guide offers advice on the making of developmentally‐appropriate parenting plans, and the Template provides possible alternatives for the wording of specific clauses. While the available parenting plan materials from different jurisdictions have broadly similar content, there is value in having family justice organizations, including chapters of the AFCC, develop their own materials, that are consistent with the laws, justice processes and resources of their jurisdiction. The Ontario experience suggests that judges, lawyers and parents may be more likely to use jurisdictionally‐specific materials rather than more generic resources. Practitioner Key Points: The use of a voluntary parenting plan is usually a preferable way for parents to make post‐sepration arrangements for the care of their children, though in cases of violence, substance abuse or intransigence, the courts will continue to have a vital role in making parenting or custody orders.Family Law professionals, including lawyers, mediators and judges, need to have access to resources that can be provided to parents to explain the effects of separation on themselves and their children, and to help them make child‐focused, developmentally appropriate plans for their children.It is often helpful to parents to think in terms of a four week planning schedule for planning parenting time.Professionals should educate parents about the need to change plans as the circumstances their children and themselves change; while it is often preferable if parents can make changes without involving professional advisors, there is an important role for professionals to be involved in reviewing and revising plans.Organizations of family justice professionals should take a lead in ensuring that there are materials that reflect the laws and services available to their state or province that to assist parents and professionals in making parenting plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Judges define the risk of sexual abuse on the basis of the child's individual and family characteristics. • Children placed in substitute care and their parents present significant psychosocial difficulties. • In the Youth Court, the judicial context is tainted by social constructions of gender and inequity of parties. In Québec, Canada, the Youth Protection Act allows child protection services to intervene in situations of serious risk of sexual abuse. Although the litigation of these cases is frequent, few studies have focused on the decision-making process of judges in Youth Court. The present study aims to document the criteria used by the judges to substantiate allegation of serious risk of sexual abuse and to render a placement order. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-method design, we analyzed 104 judicial decisions of the Youth Court of Québec between January 2016 and January 2023 involving a situation of risk of sexual abuse in families with children aged 0 to 12 years. The quantitative phase of the study revealed that psychosocial difficulties of children and parents, as well as the number of reasons for intervention are associated to a placement order. Based on a thematic analysis (n = 24), the qualitative phase of the study highlighted three main types of criteria used by the judges to substantiate allegation of serious risk of sexual abuse: 1) the vulnerability of the child; 2) the characteristics of the family system; and 3) the parents' compliance with external demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Canadian family law cases involving claims of parental alienation and of family violence from 2014–2018, reporting the data on these claims, their resolution, and their impacts upon custody and access. A close reading of those cases where both alienation and intimate partner violence claims are made reveals troubling patterns in how intimate partner violence is discounted in this context. We suggest that the rise of shared parenting as a dominant norm assists in understanding why alienation has achieved such unquestioned status, and call for greater focus on safety and women's and children's voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the legitimization and institutionalization of 'parental alienation' discourse in the Province of Quebec, Canada. It draws upon an analysis of 31 documents (legislation, research reports and articles, training documents, professional documents and media articles) and interviews with 13 key informants, who were selected based on their knowledge of 'parental alienation' in research, policies or practices. The research findings reveal that the legitimization and institutionalization of 'parental alienation' discourse is a more recent process than in other provinces and countries, but that it has now permeated child custody as well as child protection proceedings. Academic researchers and media have been instrumental in this legitimization and institutionalization process, while the role played by changes to child protection policies is more ambiguous. The findings reveal researchers' and experts' tendency to distance themselves from Gardner's controversial work on 'parental alienation syndrome' and to address the critiques by proposing new approaches and new concepts. However, the terms 'parental alienation syndrome', 'parental alienation' and 'alienating behaviours' are often used interchangeably, and assessment practices tend to rely on similar indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A mother found to have alienated her child(ren) was not more likely to get a decrease in parenting time, but was more likely to lose her case and lose custody than a father who was found to have alienated his children but the effect sizes were small and not meaningfully significant. • 25 "abusive" alienated parents were mothers (71.4% of 35), and 10 were fathers (28.6% of 35), so the presumption that "abusive" alienated parents are mostly fathers is not reflected in these data. • Alienating mothers' claims of abuse against known "abusive" alienated fathers were not being discredited more often than they were for alienating fathers.ze • Alienating mothers were not more likely than chance to lose custody than alienating fathers when the third party who found PA was a custody assessor or GAL. • Alienating fathers made fewer allegations of abuse against alienated mothers (n = 112), but the percentage of substantiated allegations was similar (7.1%) to those of alienating mothers. • Gender of the alienating parent, number of unsubstantiated allegations of abuse, and an interaction of the variables were not predictors of whether an alienated parent lost custody of their children. There have been legislative efforts to control how child custody decisions are handled in family courts where allegations of abuse and of parental alienation (PA) are levied. The "findings" reported to support such legislation have been based on one unreviewed study with identified methodological issues (Harman & Lorandos, 2021). We tested six pre-registered hypotheses to determine whether there is empirical support for the "research findings" used to support these laws. Five-hundred PA cases were sequentially selected from 4,889 Canadian trial court decisions. Independent coders who were blind to the hypotheses coded all cases for details about custody and allegations of abuse. We failed to find support for the "findings" that have been used to support legislative changes. For example, this study focused only upon cases where PA was determined to actually have occurred in at least one of the children in the family. It differs from Harman & Lorandos (2021) in that this study found that alienating mothers' claims of abuse against known "abusive" alienated fathers were not being discredited more often than they were for alienating fathers. The negative impact of failing to base legislation on a comprehensive consideration of the full scope of scientific evidence available (e.g., Kayden's Law in the reauthorized Violence Against Women's Act, 2022) is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical challenge for human rights and human security alike turns on diminution of subject audibility and voice and the reduction of rights-bearing subjects to mere referent objects of security. Owing in part to inadequate theorization of child/youth subjecthood, this problem is especially acute where the rights and security of young people are at issue. Though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child makes specific provision for recovery of the voices of children and youth, this may be frustrated at implementation in local settings. Moving beyond the Global South, where this problem has been more readily acknowledged, this article inquires into practices that undermine child/youth rights by reinforcing the subject/object positions of protector/protected in ways that disallow young people's articulations of their best interests and security needs. Spurious presumptions about young people's (in)capacity for independent subjecthood as well as emergent rhetorical technologies of silencing and voice-denial are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Approximately half of women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) lose custody of their children at some point in their child's development, but their rates of and risk factors for newborn discharge to child protective services from the birth hospitalization are relatively unknown. METHODS: We conducted a population-based study of newborns of 3845 women with IDDs and 379 834 women without IDDs in Ontario, Canada (2002-2012). We used modified Poisson regression to estimate adjusted relative risks (aRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for discharge to child protective services directly from the birth hospitalization (1) comparing newborns of women with and without IDDs and (2) among newborns of women with IDDs according to sociodemographic, health, service, and perinatal characteristics. RESULTS: Approximately 5.7% of newborns of women with IDDs, compared with 0.2% of newborns of women without IDDs, were discharged to child protective services (aRR 8.10; 95% CI 6.51-10.09). Among newborns of women with IDDs, risk factors were maternal psychotic disorder (aRR 2.58; 95% CI 1.90-3.50), social assistance receipt (aRR 2.55; 95% CI 1.87-3.47), failure to receive an ultrasound by 20 weeks' gestation (aRR 1.76; 95% CI 1.32-2.34), and receipt of <4 prenatal visits by 36 weeks' gestation (aRR 1.71; 95% CI 1.05-2.78). CONCLUSIONS: Although women with IDDs are at risk for custody loss immediately postdelivery, certain subgroups are at higher risk than others. Women with vulnerabilities related to comorbid psychotic disorders, poverty, and inadequate prenatal care may benefit from tailored, behavior-based parenting interventions before and during pregnancy to prevent maternal-newborn separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a complex interplay between federal and provincial parenting statutes in Canada. Although most statutes continue to use the traditional concepts of 'custody' and 'access,' in practice most lawyers and judges use more child-focused terminology for parenting plans. There is a lack of reliable data on postseparation parenting in Canada, though a number of studies and data sources clearly indicate that there is growing use of various forms of shared parenting. Child support law in Canada defines 'shared custody,' as occurring if each parent has the child at least 40% of the time, and this arrangement currently is used in about a fifth of parenting orders. Reform of the parenting-related provisions of Canada's Divorce Act remains contentious. We argue for statutory change to abandon the archaic terminology of 'custody' and 'access' and for adoption of more child-focused terminology. We do not support proposals made by fathers' rights advocates in Canada for a presumption of equal parenting time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first quantitative study to examine Canada's only Integrated Domestic Violence Court. The methodology used a quasi-experimental design with parallel groups with baseline equivalence. Results demonstrate that when support services are provided to victims of domestic violence during family separation, children benefit from greater involvement with both parents. There was more compliance with child support in the integrated court than the comparison group and compliance in custody and access were two variables that predicted the type of final custody orders. There were fewer judges involved in the IDVC court than comparison group; however, there were no differences in the number of court appearances between groups. The IDVC demonstrates a promising intervention to address domestic violence that involves both criminal and family law courts. Future research is needed to explore the views of children, victims and offenders about their experiences with the IDVC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a pilot project in the Montreal area, ten high-conflict families received free parenting coordination services. This explorative study aimed to document, through psychometric measures and semistructured interviews, how the parenting coordination process impacted children involved. Although not statistically significant, results suggest a diminution in the intensity of the conflict between parents over the course of parenting coordination, as perceived by the children. Qualitative data indicates variation in children’s opinions regarding their experience. Approximately half of the sample shared examples of improvements in their lives, mostly to do with diminution of parental conflict and better communication between parents. However, some shared frustrations with the intervention and their belief that parenting coordination was not helpful. Not feeling heard by the parenting coordinator (PC) as well as a perceived lack of neutrality were linked with negative discourse on parenting coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the preliminary results of a research project on customary custody and "adoption" in the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam in northeastern Québec. From a legal pluralist perspective, the authors used a biographical method to understand the workings of the ne kupaniem/ne kupanishkuem Innu legal institution, which can be compared in certain respects to adoption in Western legal systems. The authors present certain characteristics of this institution in order to expose the limits of bills that seek to recognize "indigenous customary adoption" in Québec law. Innu "adoption" stems from an agreement between the concerned persons, which can crystallize gradually, which never breaks the original filial link, and which does not immediately create a new filial link. In theory, this type of adoption is not permanent. As such, a Québec law that only recognizes indigenous adoptions that create a new filial link runs the risk of either being ineffective, or of distorting the Innu legal order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on quantitative and qualitative data collected in 30 domestic violence shelters in the Province of Québec (Canada), the research findings reveal a noticeable increase in the perceived number of women being accused or threatened to be accused of parental alienation; the accusations or threats of accusations reported in the last year by respondents represented 45% of all the accusations reported in the last 5 years (Last year: 4.27, SD = 3.80. Last 5 years: 9.47, SD = 10.04). A large majority of respondents (86.7%) stated that this phenomenon had had an impact on their practices in shelters, and more than half (53.3%) expressed that this issue had been either a priority for their shelters or one of their main concerns. Based on the research findings, the authors argue that domestic violence perpetrators use “parental alienation” as a tactic to discredit reports of abuse by women and children. By embracing this discourse, child protection services and the family court system reproduce the perpetrators' accounts and discredit reports of abuse by women and children, and therefore undermine their core mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using victimization data, this study provides national estimates of childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and other risky parental behaviors. According to respondent reports, 13% of these families are characterized by emotional abuse and 5% by physical violence. This equates to over 765,000 Canadian children potentially exposed to domestic abuse that includes emotional abuse and over 294,000 children exposed to physical violence. Our research further identifies that children residing in family households experiencing IPV are exposed to a multitude of other high-risk parental behaviors. When compared to children in nonvictim households, children in households experiencing IPV are more likely to have a parent using medications for sleep, to calm down, for depression, or having a parent that engages in binge drinking. These findings point to the importance of interventions addressing a multitude of risk factors present in families affected by IPV to minimize the adverse impacts on children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's Divorce Act relies heavily on the concepts of custody and access to govern post-separation parenting, concepts that have proprietary connotations with parental winners and losers. The 1985 A ct fails to adequately reflect current social values, family arrangements or social science research, and it does not mention either the views of the child or domestic violence. The author responds to the Act's shortcomings by proposing comprehensive reform to its post-separation parenting provisions. Building on provincial and international reforms, the author recommends a principled articulation of the best interests of the child that would provide judges, family lawyers, mediators and parents with the guidance needed to develop appropriate parenting plans. This principled articulation would support co-parenting, without establishing a presumption of equal parenting time. The author's approach goes beyond prior parliamentary attempts to enact appropriate legislation by balancing the importance of maintaining parent-child relationships with domestic violence concerns. Further, the author advocates for the inclusion of relocation provisions, which require notice of planned relocation and structured decision making about whether relocation is in the best interests of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To examine factors associated with ongoing service and out of home placement for adolescents investigated by child welfare services in Canada. Methods Secondary analysis was conducted using data from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, 2008 (CIS-2008), specifically examining a weighted sample of 58,641 adolescents (age 12–15). Descriptive comparisons between adolescents, school-age children and pre-school age children were conducted. After identifying significant bivariate relationships between ongoing service and out of home placement and youth, household, case, and service characteristics, logistic regressions were used to determine the degree to which these characteristics predicted the investigation being transferred to ongoing child welfare services or out of home placement. Results Internalizing functioning concerns of adolescents in the sample were the most important contributors to decisions to provide ongoing service. Aboriginal status of the child and parent functioning concerns were also important contributors to the decision to provide ongoing service to adolescents and their families. Youths' externalizing behaviors were the most important contributors to placing adolescents in out-of-home care. Conclusions The results provide important information for child welfare agencies hoping to better understand decision-making processes and service provision to adolescents. Implications Future research should seek to better understand why youth behaviors drive ongoing service and placement decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To report findings from a study examining the impact of the threat of child removal on Aboriginal women's experiences accessing of healthcare services. Background A wealth of data highlights the higher proportion of Aboriginal children in government care in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal children. Aboriginal women experience poorer health outcomes than non-Aboriginal women and face significant barriers to healthcare access. However, little is known about how these phenomena may intersect. Design The study was conducted in two phases: (1) a secondary analysis of interviews with Aboriginal women and healthcare providers ( n = 7) that were collected for a larger study; and (2) primary interviews with Aboriginal women ( n = 9) and healthcare providers ( n = 8), conducted between July-October 2011. Methods Postcolonial feminist perspectives and the principles of exploratory, qualitative research guided this ethnographic study. Data were analysed using principles of thematic analysis and interpretive description. Findings Aboriginal women whose children are involved with the child protection system often experience complex sociopolitical and economic challenges, which intersect with the threat of apprehension. Such threat did not impact women's decisions to seek healthcare services for their children, but experiences of racism, prejudice and discrimination in mainstream healthcare agencies and the fear of child apprehension influenced their decisions to access health care for themselves in ways that deterred access. Conclusion Racism, judgment and discrimination towards Aboriginal mothers in healthcare agencies must be addressed. Educating healthcare providers about culturally safe approaches to care is critical to mitigating the ongoing impact of colonialism and its effects on health of Aboriginal people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and Canada have been experiencing major changes in family formation and dissolution over the past decades. Within this context, the French- Canadian Province of Quebec has consistently been at the forefront-in 2011, for example, 37.8 per cent of Quebec couples were cohabitants and 63 per cent of births were from nonmarried parents. Is this difference strictly due to Quebec's distinct social and cultural characteristics or can the Quebec experience be seen as a predictor of things to come for the rest of Canada and the United States? This article discusses the causes of these new behaviors in Quebec, presents changes in the Canadian legal system to facilitate less adversarial procedures, and reports the results of a Quebec longitudinal study exploring the relationship between child adjustment and custody arrangements. The quality of the psychological and relational environment in which the child lives is shown to be more important than the type of family structure and custody arrangement. Keypoints for the Family Court Community Family structure changes in Quebec and Canada, Divorce less adversarial dispute resolution options, Contribution of child custody arrangement to postseparation child well-being, Moderating factors of child well-being in separated divorced families, Emotional well-being, parenting practices, and household income of mothers with joint versus sole custody [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Concerted efforts have been devoted to improving placement stability for children in care. These efforts have been driven by evidence of negative outcomes for foster children who experience frequent placement changes. Of particular concern are significantly higher rates of placement disruptions among children in care who experience Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This mixed methods study examines the impact of enhanced child welfare practice interventions on placement stability for 182 children in care who experience FASD. A quasi-experimental matched comparison group design was employed, where rates of placement change were compared between children in the Project Regions who received enhanced practice standards to those in the Comparison Regions who did not. The sample included 182 participants including 98 children and youth in care from the Project Region and 84 cases from the Comparison Region. The Project Regions reported considerably lower placement changes (M =.33) than the Comparison Region (M =.98). Logistic regression analysis revealed that worker contact was found to be predictive of placement stability. Specifically, as worker contact increased, the likelihood of placement change decreased [B =−.28, W (5.35, p=.02)]. In keeping with the adage that it takes a village to raise a child, one could add for children affected by FASD, that it takes a dedicated team to promote placement stability and better life trajectories. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Working with parents and children caught in child custody disputes after or during separation and divorce can be challenging for professionals when they lack a clear understanding of the unique circumstances of these disputes. To address this gap, this study reports on national data about child custody disputes within the context of child protection investigations by using secondary analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2003). A descriptive profile of custody cases compared to non-custody cases is important to begin informing the field about the unique characteristics of families involved in both family law and child protection proceedings. The sample includes child maltreatment investigations as children came into contact with child protection services over a three-month sampling period. Based on the 11,562 child maltreatment investigations, 12% involved a child custody dispute. Child custody dispute files were more likely to be opened more than three times and they had higher rates of malicious referrals, compared to non-custody child protection files. Twenty percent of investigations involving a child custody dispute were for children's exposure to domestic violence, followed by physical abuse, emotional harm and neglect. Children involved in custody disputes were reported to have higher proportion of emotional harm and more functioning issues compared to children not caught in their parents' custody disputes. Parental alcohol abuse was also significantly higher in child custody cases. Implications for child protection systems are explored. Suggestions are made to improve child protection procedures for the earlier detection of child custody cases and for the enhancement of specialized knowledge for workers to effectively intervene and protect children from the negative consequences of adult conflict after separation and divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the findings of a project investigating women’s experiences with the Canadian child protection (CPS) and family law (FLS) systems. We examine both service systems together here because although both privilege children’s best interests as their primary consideration and define the concept similarly, the two systems diverge in their expectations of women relative to child custody. While FLS requires women to accept custody arrangements that provide close and continued contact between themselves and their former abusive partners, CPS expects women to leave these same abusive partners or risk removal of their children. The results of thirty-five qualitative interviews with women demonstrate their struggles, firstly, in having their experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) recognized by professionals in the FLS, and, secondly, in becoming caught between the opposing expectations of CPS and FLS while not receiving help from either. Recommendations for change to improve these services are included in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the significance of judicial interviews of children by judges in their chambers who are the subject of conflict in custody and access disputes under the Canadian law. It informs about the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that support for judicial meetings and recognizes the child's right to a voice in custody and access litigation with to the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Uldrian v. Uldrian.

Copyright of Canadian Criminal Law Review is the property of Carswell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the developments in family law in Canada concerning the common law provinces. It highlights several issues related to divorce, child custody and access, and spousal and child support. It explores the judicial and legislative developments in family law which occurred in the country.

Copyright of Osgoode Hall Law Journal is the property of Osgoode Hall Law School and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ethno-racial minority families who come in contact with child protection services face unique challenges that include different ideas about appropriate child rearing practices, possibly different definitions of child maltreatment, the possibility of racial biases and service provision that does not address their particular needs. Ethno-racial minority immigrants encounter additional barriers to services associated with the challenges of settlement in a new cultural environment. Although considerable research has explored these issues, knowledge of the experiences of ethno-racial families who have been in contact with child protection is limited. The current paper provides insights from a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one ethno-racial group (South Asians) in Canada. Findings suggest a variety of reasons that families come into contact with the child protection system, and the characteristics of the sample highlight their difficult financial and employment circumstances. Themes include participants' desire to be better informed about the reasons for child protection involvement and about what they can expect from the worker and the agency. They also identified a wish for services that not only recognize their cultural diversity but also respond to the needs of the whole family. In-home services were especially appreciated. The findings reveal the resilience and personal agency among participants that can be enhanced through strength-based approaches to practice. Helping others, establishing community networks and developing needed services were avenues of resilience identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of relocation law in Canada and assesses the merits of law reform proposals on relocation in one Canadian province, British Columbia. These law reforms would introduce burdens of proof for relocation applications, marking a departure from the Canadian trend. Based on the key Supreme Court of Canada decision on relocation, Gordon v Goertz (1996), this trend has been to reject presumptions of any kind in custody decision-making. Relocation decisions have thus been left to the discretion of individual judges, using the indeterminate best interests of the child test. Burdens of proof have, howeve, been at play at earlier points in Canadian law. In addition, studies indicate that the rejection of presumptions in favour of a general best interests test has had mixed results at best. The article uses these studies to raise questions about calls in recent scholarly literature for a `neutral child-centric' approach and considers the impact of a normative climate favouring shared parenting and maximum contact on interpretations of children's best interests in the relocation context. The author recommends that greater attention be paid to the realities of a child's life, including the care relationships surrounding the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the genetic and social dimensions of fatherhood in Family Law in Canada in 2011. It tackles the liability for child support and examines the legislation related to the rights of custody and access. The significance of feminist relational theory in the family law perspective is also examined.

Parental rights originate in patria potestas, the proprietary power of the Roman father, and its incidents of custody, control and corporal punishment. Parental rights as proprietary rights, as rights over another, cannot co-exist with children's rights. What, then, are parental rights in the age of children's rights? This Essay surveys the influence of Roman doctrine on modern law in and through the Supreme Court of Canada. The court acknowledges children's rights, views proprietary rights over children as a thing of the past and recognizes custody as the child's right, not the parent's. Yet the court vitiated the fiduciary standard for parents, limited state parens patriae jurisdiction and upheld two of the three incidents of patria potestas. By making childhood an excuse for avoiding principled rights analysis, conflating adult interests with children's rights and confusing assault with touch, the court upheld the proprietary rights of corporal punishment and control. If parental rights are understood as rights correlative to parental fiduciary duty, and if rights are seen as markers of relationship rather than its antithesis, then the law is rid of archaic notions of parental rights. The way is open to substantive judicial and social engagement with the rights of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many psychologists in the United States and Canada provide child custody and access (C&A) assessments as part of their clinical services. There are guidelines based on ethical standards that inform this specialization, which include the recommendation that providers be familiar with the empirical bases of their work. This article provides an overview of guidelines, the assessment process, and the empirical basis for C&A assessment. Although there is limited evidence of traditional standards of direct empirical utility of such assessments, there are relevant research areas that include the impacts of separation and divorce on children, family relationships, and coparenting processes. Each is critical to understanding children's welfare, a parent's capacity to act in the best interests of a child, and the coparenting environment that may follow separation and divorce. Given the importance of minimizing postdivorce conflict within a coparenting environment, the indirect scientific evidence that supports C&A assessment can also be used to pursue more amicable solutions through mediation and parent education. Although research is growing supporting these alternative practices as well as C&A assessment itself, much more is needed. Psychologists who offer these services will find this article to be a useful overview of current practice and science, and for those contemplating involvement in these services, the article highlights issues to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses case law from the UK, New Zealand, and Canada relating to claims for recognition of refugee status presented by divorced Muslim women, revolving around the issue of child custody after divorce under conservative Islamic law, which deprives women of any meaningful relationship with their children. The negative attitude of the UK authorities is compared to the open and positive approach of decision makers in New Zealand and Canada. The use and interpretation of aspects of the refugee definition, such as persecution, particular social group and the standard of state protection, are analyzed in more detail. The article argues that, in order to adequately evaluate this type of claim, decision makers should take into account all aspects of a woman's experiences including the consequences of the decision on their children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study that deals with parental mobility decisions in Canada. The study outlines the case law regarding parental relocation. It examines several British Columbia cases and discusses the arguments surrounding presumptions. Based on the findings, the author concludes and offers a recommendation.

Highly conflicted divorcing families often seek the services of the courts to assist them in making child custody plans. In these cases, judges encourage or order divorcing parents to cooperate with child custody evaluators to settle their disputes. The task of these experts is not an easy one, and it is complicated by procedural issues to which the courts adhere. This study mapped the flow of procedural text through the court system. Twenty-two Court of Queens Bench judges and eight child custody evaluators employed in Alberta, Canada, participated in focus group discussions pertaining to the matter at hand. The study was deemed unique because Queen's Bench judges in Canada had never previously engaged in scholarly research. Procedural text used in the courts was assessed as a detriment to child custody planning. Consequently, the term courtextual slippage was coined, recognizing its restraint to child custody planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High conflict separations are detrimental to children of these relationships. Conflict can be prevented and lessened by levelling the playing field with a presumption of joint custody. Judges and lawyers need to contain and control high conflict litigants using any number of approaches and tools, particularly those that are interdisciplinary [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the laws surrounding child custody in cases of domestic conflict in Canada as of 2005. Although the principle of the best interest of the child (BIC) had been developed in the country over the last 150 years, it was fully implemented in the 1970s. The BIC principle has many features which make it ideal for dealing with child custody cases, first of which is the protection of the child from harmful elements. It also contains no pre-set bias in favor of one parent over the other.

The article focuses on laws and legislation regarding child access, child custody and guardianship in Canada. A court decision over child custody involves a complex balance of interests between the child and the parents. While the legislation provides that the courts should take in consideration the interests of the child when making access, custody and guardianship orders, it also reflects a proposition that parents have rights and responsibilities to their children. It could be said that child custody and access orders attempt to strike a balance between the parents' and the child's interests. To serve as an illustration, governing legislation in this area of law in Canada places equal rights and responsibilities on both parents for the caring and sustaining of the well-being of their children. The legislation that governs the determination of child access, custody and guardianship in Canada reflects an uneasy balance between the child's and the parents' interests. The law attempts to balance conflicting private and public interests that impact the day-to-day lives of children. The courts in Canada are vested with inherent jurisdiction over child access, custody and guardianship.

This article looks at the outcomes of recent custody law reform inquiries in Canada and Australia, and examines the ways in which the reform processes in each country dealt with the claims of the various stakeholders and the emerging empirical research on post-separation parenting. Although the outcomes of the two processes were significantly different - one espousing a belief that `no one size fits all families', the other promoting different approaches for differently situated families with a preference for shared parenting - it is argued that both reflect the moderating influence of the empirical evidence on the claims made by disaffected consumers of the family law system, a characteristic that distinguishes them from Australia's 1995 custody reform process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the leading custody cases in Canada dealing with children's cultural and racial identity. The author argues in favor of fluid and open understandings of culture in custody assessments rather than static notions of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is controversy in Canada about the use of assessments by mental health professionals to assist in the resolution of postseparation disputes between parents about their children. Although the principles developed by the Supreme Court of Canada to govern the admission of expert evidence in criminal law cases provides guidance for judges In family law cases, in deciding whether to order an assessment or admit expert evidence, family law judges must also take account of the child-related context. Mental health professionals can provide valuable information that would otherwise be unavailable when making prospective decisions about children. Court-appointed assessors also have a significant institutional role in the family law cases that has no equivalent in the criminal law context. Assessors are important not only for the relatively rare cases that go to trial, but they also play a central role in helping to resolve the much larger number of cases that are settled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, custody and access decisions continue to be made on the basis of the highly discretionary "best interests of the child" test, with only one province having legislation that requires judges to take account of spousal abuse in making decisions about children. This article reports on a study of Canadian family law cases from 1997-2000 that had spousal abuse issues (N = 45). Judges tended not to grant custody to a man who has abused his partner if the woman's claims of abuse were accepted as valid, but routinely granted abusive men access to their children on an unsupervised basis. This is problematic as many of the factors which create a risk in awarding custody to a batterer may endanger the mother or child if there is unsupervised access. Canada is in the midst of a contentious process of reforming child custody and access laws. Legislation should make specific reference to spousal abuse as a factor in making child related decisions, including consideration of the effect of any custody or access order on the safety of children and victims of spousal abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Parliamentary Inquiry into parenting orders and child support. The Government has established an Inquiry into child custody arrangements in the event of family separation. The Inquiry will also consider the child support formulae and grandparents' rights of contact. Bill C-22 to amend the Divorce Act was introduced into the Canadian House of Commons on the 10 December 2002, and had its second reading on the 25 February 2003. The Bill also eliminates the current ban on consideration of past conduct, which has been an impediment to considering the impact of domestic violence on children in custody cases in Canada. A Report, entitled Essentially Yours: The Protection of Human Genetic Information in Australia, was launched by the Federal Attorney-General and the Minister for Health and Ageing on the 29 May 2003. One of the key recommendations contained in the report which will be of particular interest to family lawyers are those aimed at tightening up access to and use of genetic testing for the purposes of establishing parentage. The Government established the Family Law Pathways Advisory Group in May 2000 to advise it on how to achieve a family law system that provides an effective support system for families, coordinates client-focused information and services and provides pathways that are effective and appropriate.

This article examines resistance to law reform initiatives in the field of child support and child custody and access law by those who say that special rights are being given to women and that the 'family' and fathers are under threat. Specifically we consider whether legislative reforms in these areas have been inappropriately influenced by feminists, as many fathers' rights groups would argue, and we try to determine who set the agenda for the legislative changes that occurred in Canada during the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Relying on debates in the House of Commons and parliamentary committees, our findings are that the interests of women did not receive preferential treatment. The debates on support enforcement focused more on the need to protect the state from financial responsibility for the 'victims' of divorce than on the economic needs of women and children. During the 1980s especially, men's defaults in support payments were increasingly linked to the alienation of fathers from their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Points out that the interpretation of rights of custody under the Hague Convention adopted by most jurisdictions is consistent with both liberal and restrictive rules regarding relocation by the custodial parent. Conventions objectives; Canadian courts' ruling that access parents have rights of custody within the Convention's meaning.

The author critically analyzes the Supreme Court of Canada decision on child custody and relocation of custodial parents in Gordon v. Goertz (1996). She argues that the reasoning of the majority reflects a trend to artificially reconstruct a "post-divorce family unit" that has a potentially problematic impact on women's decision-making. Limits on women's self-determination may in turn produce detrimental effects for the children in their care. The author places the case in the context of recent Canadian legal trends on relocation and reviews the arguments made by both parties and intervenors (including the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) in the case. She compares the judgements of Madame Justice McLachlin and Madame Justice L'Huereux-Dubé and concludes with some difficult questions for Canadian feminists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]