Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak to Bill C-232, a bill put forward by my hon. colleague from Mission-Coquitlam.
Bill C-232 would amend the Divorce Act in such a way to give grandparents the right of access to their grandchildren. In this the International Year of the Family is it not the perfect opportunity to legally recognize the important place that grandparents occupy in the family unit? I am pleased to see support in this House as we take the initiative in this important area of family development.
Today's family structure is threatened by a host of uncertainties, tensions and stresses which can be attributed to unfortunate financial circumstances, job loss, career or vocational instability or family breakdown. There are occasions when the provision of adequate care for children within these situations becomes secondary to the unexpected disturbances or turbulence within the family setting. The very urgent and oftentimes invisible needs of the children in such an environment can be overlooked.
I am sure all of us here have met adults who, despite being adequately nourished and cared for physically as children, demonstrate the impoverishment of their emotional upbringing. While it is unlikely that any single event can be said to be responsible for all adult distress, we can nonetheless argue there is abundant evidence to suggest that the adult personality is constructed to a considerable extent from childhood experiences and that those who care for young children determine and define the nature of these experiences.
As we consider this bill, let us not forget to address how best to meet the needs of children in dysfunctional settings, acknowledging that those who care about the children are also likely to be better able to care for them.
Under the provisions of this bill and in the case of divorce the trial judge would be permitted to address the needs of the whole family at a time when it is least able to deal with problems. It is difficult for children after a marriage breakup to adjust to this change and if in addition they lose their grandparents, it can be devastating. It is devastating for the children because they lose what may seem to be the only stable element in their young lives and devastating for the grandparents because the children they love can be taken away from them with little legal recourse.
Since most grandparents are on fixed incomes and cannot afford to initiate a court action to help their grandchildren maintain some security and stability in their lives, I believe the government should intervene to alleviate the fear of losing their grandchildren. Many grandparents experience a sense of tremendous loss during divorce proceedings and this sense of loss in many cases becomes a reality. Bill C-232 sets out to change this.
The bill before us would amend the Divorce Act in such a way as to provide a person wishing to make an application under the Divorce Act to be granted access to or custody of any of his or her grandchildren and shall not be required to obtain leave of the court to make such an application. The bill would also provide that a person who was granted access to any of his or her grandchildren shall have the right to make inquiries and to be given information as to the health, education and welfare of the child.
To make sure these amendments to the Divorce Act are actually serving their intended purpose they would be subject to a review by a parliamentary committee every four years after their enactment.
Most grandparents are concerned about the well-being of their grandchildren. This whole subject was debated in the Alberta legislature. I would like to read from its Hansard . In her speech Mrs. Hughes quoted a study by Jim Gladstone from the University of Guelph. Gladstone conducted a study in 1986 that reinforced the importance of grandparents, that relationship of grandparents to grandchildren.
That report concluded that when marriages break down, grandmothers have more contact with their grandchildren than before the breakdown. Gladstone believes this means grandparents have an innate tendency to respond to the needs and emotional upheaval of their grandchildren. Previous research on children of divorce has suggested that young children have very little opportuntiy to talk about the breakup.
Gladstone believes that through the child's unique relationship with the grandparents they can obtain the kind of counselling, comfort and reassurance that they need providing they have continuous access.
In the Winter 1991 issue of Your Better Health Magazine , a writer Jane Widerman writes of the personal devastation experienced by estranged grandparents: ``Until recently when it came to the fallout from divorce, the primary focus has been on the nuclear family''.
Professor Edward Kruk of the University of Calgary does social work there. He first began to formally study the effect of divorce on the extended family. He says: "Mental health practitioners have tended to ignore the extended family and the importance of the grandparent-grandchild attachment, which doesn't decrease after divorce".
Social work experts are beginning to recognize that the phenomenon of estranged grandparents is larger than was first suspected and Kruk agrees. In his recent study of non-custodial fathers he found that more than 50 per cent lose contact with their children. By extension, the fathers' parents probably also suffer the loss of access which, says Kruk, likely translates into major mental and physical health problems for grandparents.
It is called involuntary child absence syndrome when referring to non-custodial fathers. The symptoms encompass a range of health problems including disrupted sleep, anxiety attacks, grief, mourning and depression. It is bad enough that anyone should suffer. But what parents may not realize is that if the grandparent-grandchild relationship is sabotaged the children are casualties too.
Kruk says that older relatives represent stability, giving children a sense of personal history, a sense of personal belonging. This becomes even more important when one link in the familial chain is removed. During the trauma of divorce grandparents can be a huge source of comfort to the children, a sort of neutral territory in the divorce battleground.
Children cut off from their grandparents experience the double whammy of separation from the non-custodial parent as well as one set of grandparents. Therefore, there is a necessity for creative legislation to protect access for grandparents. Bill C-232 would legally recognize these unique relationships.
We need to also look at the precedents in legislation. For example all 50 states in the United States have similar types of legislation. In Canada, Quebec in article 659 has dealt with this item as my hon. colleague previously mentioned as has Ontario in article 59(4).
It therefore seems to be at the very least reasonable and psychologically sound to argue that children should be nurtured and cared for by people who have actively chosen to be with them and to have a commitment in their development and well-being. I urge all hon. members of the House to give thoughtful deliberation to this bill and based on its merits and for grandparents and grandchildren everywhere give it their vigorous support.