I am a family law reform advocate. That came to be in 2005 after meeting a “non-custodial” father and his two young children struggling in a custody battle. Becoming a second wife and stepmother, I witnessed first-hand the destruction of an entire family simply because mom and dad got a divorce. I was dumbfounded. I couldn't get my head around what was happening to this family and how our family law system seemed to facilitate the worst kind of parenting behaviour, with its bias and winner-take-all approach.
I previously had no idea that the custodial parent, typically the mother, could run rampant within our family law system and child protection agencies. I saw breaches of court orders, false statements of arrears to the family responsibility office, false allegations of physical child abuse, and verbal and emotional child abuse. I also saw that the non-custodial parent, usually the father, is automatically guilty until he has proven his innocence, and by then, the damage is done.
This all took place because the children wanted more time with their father and he was seeking equal parenting time. Mom wanted no part of that, and the family court process allowed her to just about destroy him and her children.
I can confirm to you first-hand that the family justice system is indeed broken. That's why I became an advocate, and that's why I am here speaking to you.
Regrettably, Bill C-78 is not intended as a much-needed and overdue overhaul. Instead, it's targeted as more of a legal housekeeping exercise. Still, through the action of this committee I believe that Bill C-78 represents the best opportunity in more than 20 years to make select changes in the Divorce Act, demonstrably supported by Canadians and backed by authoritative social science research.
My remarks address a presumption of equal shared parenting as being in the best interests of the child. Equal shared parenting should be the starting point for judicial consideration. If both parents are deemed fit while the marriage or relationship is intact, then both parents should be deemed fit when the marriage or relationship ends.
Social science informs us that children do much better with both parents. Conversely, children raised without both parents generally underachieve, are prone to more medical and social problems, and have significantly higher rates of incarceration, all at taxpayers' expense. Continuity of parental and family relationships to the maximum workable extent is what is in the best interests of the child. Hence, fit parents should not have to spend their life savings in family court simply to maintain a pre-existing relationship with their children, as is all too often the case.
Equal shared parenting is fully endorsed by social science research as the preferred child arrangement post-dissolution, barring issues of abuse, neglect or violence. In fact, 110 eminent researchers publicly endorsed this scientific conclusion in 2014.
Moreover, in a 2018 special edition of the prestigious Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, a panel of social science experts, went further by stating that the scientific body of research was sufficiently powerful to now justify a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting. I submit that this evidence-based consensus should be reflected in Bill C-78.
Not only is equal shared parenting supported by science, but it is overwhelmingly supported in many countries and jurisdictions, according to polls, as is the case in Canada. In polls commissioned in 2007, 2009 and 2017, Canadians supported a presumption of equal parenting by a ratio of more than 6:1. Notably, the strong support was generally the same, regardless of gender, age, geographical region or political affiliation. This is a non-partisan issue for Canadians.
In 1998, all parties endorsed the shared parenting recommendations of the “For the Sake of the Children” report by the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access. Likewise, the Liberal government of the day commissioned a poll in 2002, which found that Canadians supported shared parenting even then.
The Conservative Party and the Green Party currently have shared parenting as part of their policies. Now is the time for the others to reaffirm their commitment to shared parenting as a non-partisan issue.
Moving towards my conclusion, I’d like to share with the committee the public perception of shared parenting after its adoption in other jurisdictions. A recent example is Kentucky, which became the first U.S. state to adopt an explicit rebuttable presumption of shared parenting in April, 2018. Subsequent poll results of July 2018 indicate favourable support of shared parenting by a ratio of 6:1, about the same as in Canada. The poll also provides valuable insight on children’s rights versus parental rights.
As you know, detractors of shared parenting paint it as a parental rights issue on the erroneous assumption that parental rights and children’s rights are somehow mutually exclusive rather than overlapping. Here’s what the poll reported. Two questions were asked on children’s rights, and two on parental rights.
For the children’s rights, it is in the best interests of the child to have as much time as possible with their parents following divorce—a ratio of 12:1 agree. Children have the right to spend equal time or near equal time with both parents following divorce or separation—a ratio of 16:1 agree.
For parental rights, both parents, whether living together or living apart, should have equal access to their children and should share responsibility for raising their children—a ratio of 12:1 agree. Separating parents should have equal rights versus either father or mother having more—a ratio of 11:1 agree.
The results strongly indicate that children’s rights and parental rights are not mutually exclusive but complementary—oftentimes flip sides of the same coin—while recognizing the primacy of the child.
In that respect, the Minister of Justice was badly advised by her staff for her testimony before this committee on November 5 when she framed shared parenting as a parental issue rather than a children’s rights issue. Social science research and the public at large are telling you they are indivisible. To treat them as disjoint is not only scientifically incorrect. It is openly disingenuous.
Children’s best interests are served by having both parents actively involved, while parental rights are satisfied by allowing fit parents to raise their children. Canada has no better example of the benefits of shared parenting than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was raised by Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau.
I conclude by urging the committee to amend Bill C-78 to incorporate presumptive shared parenting to reflect social science consensus and the long-standing wish of Canadians of all persuasions.