Thank you.
Good afternoon. I am currently the chair of the child and youth law section of the Canadian Bar Association. We are the newest—or maybe I'll say the youngest—section of the Canadian Bar Association. We consist of experts from across Canada: legal practitioners, advocates, and others who are experts in seeing things from a child's perspective. We have a section of professionals who are expert in children's rights as seen through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It's from that perspective that we say this bill is a great and positive step and we support it fully. There's a diversity among the profession, and that diversity includes, in our section, those who practise regularly in family law and child protection.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by Canada 25 years ago and provides a foundation for a perspective that is shifting slowly and surely in Canadian family law. That foundation focuses on the rights and interests of the child.
This submission especially welcomes an explicit reference to the UNCRC in the Divorce Act provisions. That was done in the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2002, so there's precedent for it. It works on a number of levels in terms of applying the UNCRC to family law, especially given that on this issue of the rights of the child and the UNCRC there's a limited awareness among legal professionals and the judiciary and so on.
There is also the CBA's “Child Rights Toolkit”, which our section as a committee was instrumental in forming. My colleague just referred to it. There are references to social science and other expertise that has been drawn upon to illustrate and enhance the understanding of the application of the UNCRC.
The UNCRC in its preamble recognizes that for children and youth there are special safeguards and special considerations that all children are entitled to without discrimination. These special considerations are founded in the knowledge that each child who is affected by decisions concerning them made under the law is unique, and that without exception each child is entitled to have that unique circumstance be fully assessed and considered in keeping with their rights and their best interests. It's a shift in perspective.
Our CBA sections strongly support the focus on the child's best interests in Bill C-78. We support the submission that there be no presumptions regarding what is best for children. The example is the allocation of parenting time. The CBA section stresses the importance of assessing each child in all of the provisions—that one by way of example—regarding the point of view of the child, the interests of the child and how to apply all of the provisions from that perspective.
In the section related to parenting time, decision-making and contact, any suggestion of a presumption has been eliminated, which we support. We are pleased especially in light of the reference to family violence that there will no longer be a presumption that fails to fulfill an individual assessment of the child's best interests.
Our submissions seek to avoid confusing or misleading language. For example, the proposed heading “Maximum parenting time” could suggest that a maximum amount of parenting time is always a desirable outcome. We submit that this undermines.... It's not always the case that maximum parenting time will be in the child's best interests. That current heading risks being inconsistent with a strong and clear approach that mandates the primary consideration of the child's best interests in each case. We recommend changing that heading to “Allocation of parenting time”.
There is an inextricable link between the best interests of the child and keeping their individual circumstances the central focus of every decision being made about them. We support including proposed changes to the Divorce Act that will clarify all considerations made in resolving disputes regarding the day-to-day lives of children and youth and their futures, decisions that are important to them in a different way than they are to their parents or to adults.
A child-rights approach provides a consistent manner of making decisions that affect children from all backgrounds across Canada. Bill C-78 provides an opportunity for the kind of careful consideration and safeguards that are noted in the UNCRC, both broadly and specifically, in the articles and in the comments.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our perspective, and we welcome any questions.