Thank you for inviting me to speak to you this evening.
I want to thank you, as well, for making me feel so comfortable by bringing January weather from my city of Winnipeg, here to Ottawa this evening.
I should acknowledge, as well, the Algonquin nation whose traditional territory we, as I understand it, are gathered upon.
Bill C-78 is clearly an advance in family law in Canada, and the government should be commended for bringing it forward. This should be a non-partisan issue. I worked closely with the then NDP government of Manitoba that brought in a bill that had very much the same underlying philosophies. I worked closely with the former minister from the Conservatives at the federal government. The same principles were agreed upon—best interests, relocation amendments and these types of things—and, of course, we see what's in Bill C-78.
When we look around the world and see the things going on elsewhere, we should thank all of you for the level of discourse and the civility we have in bringing forth these common ideas.
I want to spend the little time that I have talking about some amendments that, I would submit to you, would further the purposes of the bill. They would avoid unexpected consequences from, what I would suggest, are problems with the bill. I'd encourage you, most of all, as you consider the bill, to follow the social science in the area. Family law, as all law, has to change as society evolves, of course. You can't get too far ahead, but you can't lag behind, and I would submit to you that following the social science is key.
Let's look at what we can do with that in the limited time I have. I begin with the definition section. I'd suggest to you that when you look at decision-making responsibility, in terms of the words “significant” extracurricular activities, “significant” is included under decision-making responsibility.
Families fight about extracurricular decision-making. Who has the right when one parent puts the child in activities without consulting the other parent, especially on their time? You already have “significant” decisions in the preamble. I'd encourage you to take out “significant” extracurricular activities. We don't want to have battles on what is a significant versus an insignificant extracurricular activity. Just take it out. It's not necessary.
Family dispute resolution process is another area that's important. We haven't included mediation and arbitration. These are very common in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. It's coming to Manitoba. I'm working on that very hard, and so are some of my colleagues, to make it a reality in Manitoba. It's popular elsewhere. I realize it's an open set in there. It's not a closed set, but add that in. It's there.
Family violence needs some attention too, but some of my co-presenters are going to speak to that, so I'm not going to spend time on that. There are some issues there as well. It's also in my submissions.
I'm going to invite you to turn to duties. It's a great idea to add the duties of parties, of lawyers, which are expanded, and also of courts. I'd invite you to look at proposed section 7.6, in particular, where there's a certification required, and that certification is only when you commence proceedings. I want to see parties say they're committed to those principles every step of the way. Every motion, every application, every variation, they should be reminded of that.
When you turn to the duties of the court, they're supposed to know about information for other orders and proceedings elsewhere. Unless the government's going to fund a registry or some sort of database, there's no way to know that. Manitoba courts aren't going to know what's happening in Prince Edward Island if there's a child and family proceeding out there or a criminal proceeding out there. They don't even know what's happening between superior courts and provincial courts.
The fix is one of two things I would suggest. One is to also make that a duty on parents to disclose. They should have to disclose, and the courts will impose a consequence if they don't, if there was a child protection proceeding some place, a criminal proceeding or what have you. That's very important. Keep it in for the courts, but add it in there, and if you have a couple of extra bucks as you go through budgets, maybe you could create a database because that would be even more helpful.
I'm not going to talk about best interests factors. I suspect other people will. I will, though, tell you—and it's important to focus on best interests—not to have presumptions. I can talk at length about it. If you ask me questions, I'll talk about that, but it's very important. What the government did here is correct. It's supported, as I said, by the NDP in Manitoba in what it did when it was in government. It's supported by the previous minister of justice who was a Conservative, and of course, here. It is the correct approach.
Let me look, in the limited time that I have left, at relocation, because that's really so important. I'm just going to say that in a few areas there are some new, vague terms that aren't defined.
What do children need? I want to invite you to consider the legislation through the eyes of a child. What does a child need? We all agree—the men's groups, the women's groups, the lobbyists—everybody agrees that best interests is what you have to focus on. The problem is that people have different ideas of what that means or of how you get there, but the reality is that we all focus on that.
View it at every step of the legislation and think, does this work for a child? That's what I would suggest you ought to do. Where you have vagaries, that's a problem. Children need stability, consistency, predictability and close attachments to be fostered with as many people who love them as possible. That's what they need. To the extent that the bill doesn't do it, it's a problem.
I don't know how much time I have left. I'm speaking as fast as I can.