Thank you, Madam Chair.
I wish to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today.
My name is Suzanne Zaccour. I have a Ph.D. in law and am the director of legal affairs at the National Association of Women and the Law.
The National Association of Women and the Law, or NAWL, is a feminist law reform organization that, in 2024, is celebrating 50 years of legal leadership to advance women's rights.
Coercive control is a serious and often life-threatening form of violence against women, characterized by severe entrapment and liberty deprivation. The response to this violence can take the form of a new crime as a way to recognize the persistent gaps in how the criminal justice system addresses intimate partner violence. At the same time, the ability of the criminal justice system to deliver justice to survivors of intimate partner violence has been called into question. Importantly, many survivors, including some of the most marginalized, choose not to engage with the police or the criminal justice system. These survivors should also be protected by our society and our institutions.
I'd like to focus on how, when there are children involved, coercive and controlling partners can enlist the family justice system to further their entrapment of women.
Two days ago, as I was preparing for this testimony, I received an email from a victim who herself—not her abuser—is facing fines and eight days of incarceration. If she doesn't return her kid to her violent ex, she'll be found in contempt.
The women who contact us all tell us the same story, save for a few details: They left their spouse, got bogged down in the family justice system and had their child entrusted to the abusive father, first through shared custody and then exclusively.
How do courts come to entrust children to violent fathers? They base their judgment on a pseudo‑scientific theory that has taken hold in our courts, that is, the theory of parental alienation.
Parental alienation is a theory that suggests that when a child doesn't want to see their father, it's the mother's fault. In practice, this concept is being used in family courts across the country to punish mothers for disclosing family violence. Rather than being listened to and validated in their experience of abuse or neglect, children are told their feelings are not appropriate. Children are being forced to spend time or even live with their father, even when they greatly fear him.
The concept of parental alienation and its dramatic interventions, such as children being prevented from having any contact with their primary caregiver, is not supported by credible science. It relies on myths and stereotypes about family violence and is causing extreme harm to mothers and children. This is why the National Association of Women and the Law and 250 other feminist organizations across all provinces and two territories in Canada are calling for the federal government to ban parental alienation accusations from being used in family court. This demand echoes a recent report by the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, which called on all countries to legislate to prohibit the use of parental alienation concepts in family law. Spain has explicitly prohibited through legislation the use of this pseudo-concept. Canada needs to be next.
There can be no justice or safety for victims of coercive control if they are deterred from leaving or denouncing a violent partner due to the fear of losing their children because of family courts relying on harmful myths and stereotypes. To protect victims and free mothers and children from enduring coercion and control, we ask this committee to echo our call to the Minister of Justice by including in its report the recommendation to ban parental alienation accusations from being used in family court.
Thank you for your attention.
I'll be happy to answer your questions and talk more about the situation in other countries.