Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Mississauga. I think he will find that within the body of my remarks I did refer to all of these. In particular, I agree with the point on the omission of some specific reference to grandparents, because of that special relationship.
Similarly, this presumptive maternal custody that is still very prevalent in courts does pose a particular problem for paternal participants in the process. I feel that in many cases fathers do emerge from the courts extremely frustrated. The word “balance” is going to be thrown around a great deal in the discussion and yet the balance in my view is still not correct. It still does not favour an approach that is completely level as far as a parent's participation and a father's participation in the nurturing and raising of a child is concerned.
I am hoping, and I know that my colleague will be participating in these hearings as well, that we will somehow try to re-calibrate the approach that the courts are taking. I will admit that I myself come from a home where my parents separated when I was quite young. It goes through a child in such a painful way to see that happen. When the father is excluded from access and significant participation in a child's life the damage is fourfold, depending on how other family members react.
The ability to give the courts the opportunity to give the father that type of participation, that type of access and in some instances the custody of a child is an extremely important and powerful decision. I would suggest that we have to somehow adjust the legislation so that it does not continue to reflect a bias toward one parent over the other.
The enforcement also becomes very difficult. My friend is correct. There is nothing that I have seen in my time practising law that was more disturbing than having to send police or child support workers to a home to remove a child from one parent or the other because that child was being used as a tool to injure the other parent. That trauma lasts a lifetime as well. With regard to the enforcement mechanisms, I think we are going to have to rely on great expertise, like that of the hon. member himself, to determine the way in which we go about enforcing the law without doing further harm to the child and the relationship with the child's parents and family members.
I thank the hon. member for his questions. I know that he has been an active and passionate advocate for parents in situations such as this.