moved for leave to introduce Bill C-235, an act to amend the Divorce Act (marriage counselling required before divorce granted).
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to reintroduce this bill to require mandatory counselling prior to the sanction of divorce. The divorce rate in Canada exceeds 40% and there are over one million common-law families in Canada. Their breakdown rate is over 50% higher.
The bill is compatible with the recommendations of the Joint Commons-Senate Committee on Custody and Access which deals with issues such as shared parenting, mandatory mediation and that children are the real victims of divorce.
The bill basically hopes that we will have parenting plans in place for children of broken families and also that we address the important problem of post-divorce acrimony.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)