Madam Speaker, I also am pleased to enter into this debate on Motion No. 186. As other members have done, I want to thank the member for Prince George--Peace River for his private member's business. It is a very useful and necessary debate.
As has been pointed out, it is an area of broad public interest. In fact as the hon. member from Prince George said, many of us, as members of parliament, receive representation from constituents in our offices on this very issue. These often are some of the most difficult issues with which we have to deal and are often heart-rending stories from people wrestling with the agony associated with a difficult marriage and divorce and the subsequent custody and access issues.
It is a reflection of the broad interest in the subject that the House of Commons, in the last parliament through a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons, undertook what had to be the most comprehensive policy review on this subject in Canadian legal history. I know you, Madam Speaker, were part of this committee.
I do not know a great deal about the nature or structure of the special joint committee, but it seemed to me that an overwhelming number of MPs and senators took an active role in this particular study. Although the standing committee was only seven senators and 16 MPs, as many as 40 or 50 other members of parliament sat on the committee at various times as it toured the country. A huge contribution of time, energy and resources went into this, as was only fitting given the broad level of interest and the very necessary debate that must take place.
As I did not have a chance to take part in that standing joint committee, I am glad to have the chance to share some of my views now. I appreciate the motion that the hon. member chose. As an indication of his level of interest in the subject, he chose to submit all 48 recommendations of the special joint committee on custody and access as private members' motions. That is one way we can keep the debate alive in the House of Commons.
There has been very little action on the 48 recommendations. In spite of the huge national interest in the subject, the federal government has been very slow to react to any of the many worthwhile recommendations that were made.
I note the hon. member chose the following motion for debate today. It states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should draft legislation that recognizes that it is in the best interests of children that: (a) they have the opportunity to be heard when parenting decisions affecting them are being made; (b) those whose parents divorce have the opportunity to express their views to a skilled professional, whose duty it would be to make those views known to any judge, assessor or mediator making or facilitating a shared parenting determination; and (c) a court should have the authority to appoint an interested third party, such as a member of the child's extended family, to support and represent a child experiencing difficulty during parental separation or divorce.
This is an eminently reasonable recommendation. It is worthy and has merit in every aspect of it. I am disappointed that some members could find fault with this very principled position. The operative words, as has been cited by other members, are “in the best interests of the child”. Surely that must be the primary guiding directive of any family law policy development review of any kind. It is in keeping with the United Nations convention on the well-being of the child.
Interestingly enough, the report title is not divorce. It is not about child support or alimony. It is called “For the Sake of the Children”. We are on the right track. No matter where the debate began when the committee started meeting, it evolved and matured in a way with which most Canadians should feel very comfortable and gratified.
The hon. member for Prince George--Peace River pointed out that he appreciated the input from people like the member from Sarnia. I am aware of his activism on this issue as well. People like Senator Landon Pearson, who co-chaired the committee, should be recognized in any debate on this subject.
I tried to understand the speaker from the government side on this subject, I still do not fully understand the objection to such a straightforward development, to what would be a shift in policy regarding family law. We are not talking about any fundamental change here. We are talking about better representation. That is one of the basic tenets of fairness. All sides in a misunderstanding or a disagreement should be given the tools necessary to make their points of view known in debate.
In other words, in this case it would be the children, those least able to make their views known, who should be given support or given an advocate, someone to advocate on their behalf to make their views and wishes known. This would be in keeping with the basic elements of fairness. That is why we give legal aid to someone who is charged with an offence and cannot afford a lawyer. It is based on the same principle that a person has a right to a real defence in a tribunal, a meeting or a hearing.
The motion deals with the rights of children in the event of a divorce and it is worth noting some of the changing attitudes toward divorce in general as background information as we go into this debate. Again I will read from the report, which I found very instructive and useful. Under the category of attitudes toward divorce it states:
Most Canadians consider divorce to be a right. Adults are free to marry whom they wish, and if one of the partners finds the relationship unsatisfactory, unhealthy, or unsafe, he or she is free to end the relationship through divorce.
People's attitudes toward divorce changed with the Divorce Act in 1985. It gave Canada no fault divorce. Under that act people do not have to prove or justify why they choose to end a relationship. They can simply announce their unhappiness with the relationship.
It is easy to enter into a divorce but let us take a look at other people who are affected by that choice. An assumption is made in the 1985 divorce law that children are better off living in a divorced situation than they are living in an unhappy marriage situation. This is a presumption. I am not sure if there is any empirical evidence or market research to back it up. It was a belief held by Canadians as they moved into the 1985 view of divorce. They feel that we are better off making it easier for parents to split up because there could be damage to children's development or well-being from living in an unhappy household.
That has only recently been challenged. That has been the prevailing thought in Canada for the last 15 years. There is a growing movement now in which people are not so sure about that any more. I am not talking about abusive relationships or violent situations where there is risk to a child's health, well-being or mental stability et cetera. I note that this book points out that in some states in the United States there are mandatory steps that couples must take prior to applying for a divorce. A comprehensive effort is made to do everything that can be done to keep families together.
I am not saying that it is a panacea. I am not even recommending it for this country as we move forward on this thorny issue. I am saying that what we once accepted as conventional wisdom is not carved in stone. There is nothing static about our points of view. Our thinking on family law should be dynamic and should evolve as the debate matures.
I am glad that this issue is being debated in the House of Commons today. It is appropriate and timely. We owe it to many thousands of people who are embroiled in often heart-rending situations of custody and access disagreements to have this debate in the House of Commons and bring this issue forward so they can take some comfort and solace in the fact that somebody cares. It is obvious that the member for Prince George--Peace River cares very deeply.