Justice committee  It's how to identify it, how it affects children, the long-term implications, how you assess risk and danger before you make decisions.

Justice committee  In some ways, I would like to ask judges myself. What seems to be happening—and this particularly comes out of a review of cases in connection with parent alienation, but it also comes out of my review of cases in domestic violence cases—is that the maximum contact provision in

Justice committee  That list comes out of analysis of domestic violence cases in which judges have imposed assumptions about domestic violence that are not consistent with the research and the evidence. The reason that list is included is to attempt to ensure that those presumptions are corrected

Justice committee  In my view, we need specialized education across the board. One of the problems that judges face is that many of the experts who are testifying before courts don't understand domestic violence. There is a particular problem in terms of an assumption that family violence is just

Justice committee  I just want to say to Kathy and the committee that I love that suggestion. I think that's an excellent suggestion.

Justice committee  There's some really interesting research, particularly out of Australia, looking at children's experiences with experts and the courts. The children said, for example, “Please listen to our experiences as we experience them. Present our views. Don't make assumptions that you impo

Justice committee  In the past, I have been involved in designing professional standards for mediators around this issue. I've also written articles on how to make mediation safe, particularly in connection with judicial dispute resolution. I'll go back to the first step that has to occur there, a

Justice committee  Yes. I would be very happy to do that.

Justice committee  I agree with Kathy's comments. I think ensuring that we have good mechanisms to ensure that children actually receive the support they need is very important. I think there's a great deal of very good literature on how to interview children and how to obtain accurate information

Justice committee  Okay. I was going to talk about the need to rebalance professional duties and alert you to a problem with the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act. What I would like to emphasize, most importantly, is the critical importance of specifying in this bill profes

Justice committee  Yes, I can. Thank you very much.

Justice committee  Okay. Thank you very much. I'd like to thank the committee for taking the time to really examine Bill C-78, and I also thank you for the opportunity to comment. I'm a legal academic. I work at the intersection of law and social sciences. Much of my career has been devoted to at