Mr. Speaker, this past Tuesday, I presented four Canadians with Queen's Diamond Jubilee medals: journalist Barbara Kay, Professor Edward Kruk, Glenn Cheriton and George Piskor. A fifth recipient, Kristin Titus, could not be in Ottawa for the event.
All these people are much deserving recipients for their work to advance the best interests of children through family law and Divorce Act reforms built on the premise of equal, shared parenting. Equal parenting was the focus of a private member's bill I introduced in the last Parliament based on the joint House/Senate report, “For the Sake of the Children”. That bill will be reintroduced in this Parliament. Conservative Party policy supports such changes.
Professor Kruk's academic research confirms other studies that show that, aside from cases of abuse or neglect, in the event of marriage breakdown, access to both mom and dad through equal, shared parenting is in the best interests of children. The time is long overdue for Canadian law and public policy to fall in line with this evidence, for the sake of the children.