By Glenn Cheriton
In support of parental alienation awareness day, please join me in writing to your local Ontario MPP. If you do not know who your local MPP is, you can view the Ontario list here.
Dear [MPP]:
April 25th is Parental Alienation Awareness Day. As a parent and an Ontario voter, I ask call you to raise this issue in the Ontario legislature and recognize Parental Alienation as a form of child abuse.
Parental Alienation (PA) happens when one parent coerces or controls a child to reject the other parent without justification. It is distinguished in practice from estrangement, by evidence and professional investigation. Peer-reviewed and published academic research concludes that alienation of children from a parent is emotional abuse. The long-term effects on children are well documented as they lose the capacity to give and accept love from a parent. Many child victims of PA suffer from low self esteem, lack of trust, depression and forms of addiction. (Edward Kruk Ph.D., 2013)
PA is not new. One of the largest studies (Clawar and Rivlin, 1991) over a 12-year period, found some element of parental alienation tactics used in 86% of the 1000 conflicted cases they studied. Recent studies draw similar conclusions. Such conflicts inflict enormous costs on Ontario Courts, taxpayers, parents and children.
It is of undeniable importance for a child to have positive relationships with both parents. It is each child’s right, written into the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Ontario and Canada in December 1991.
Lawyers for Shared Parenting reports that Ontario Courts are increasingly taking serious measures to limit the effects of parental alienation. We applaud Judges who recognize and block parental alienation so children can have a relationship with both fit, loving parents.
But the best action is prevention. Research shows equal shared parenting (ESP) prevents and limits parental alienation in other jurisdictions however, ESP is not the starting point (or rebuttable presumption) in Ontario family courts. Recently implemented changes to the Divorce Act recognize coercive controlling as domestic abuse and Ontario is expected to put this into Ontario law. Parents believe Parental Alienation rises to the standard of coercive controlling child abuse.
As Judge Gomery said, ruling in a parental alienation case, “For a child to hate a parent is not natural; it must be taught.”
Here are three steps we want the Ontario legislature to do:
- Make equal shared parenting a rebuttable presumption in family law to maintain meaningful parenting time for both parents with the child
- Encourage courts (and police) to enforce orders immediately upon learning of a violation
- Institute procedural reforms so that high conflict cases are managed by one judge, held responsible for ensuring the child’s right to both parents is respected.
I ask you to work with parents to recognize this problem, reform the legislation and fix these issues for children and families.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Français du Canada 
English (Canada)
Thank you for this work that really goes a long way for us dads.
In my case, I’m a common dad, who suffered (and it’s suffering) the gender-biased Canadian family law System for separated dads. I live in Calgary, Alberta.
But allow me to share very briefly my story with you : I suffered 2 years ago the devastation of a conflicting separation, which led me to a 2 years fight in the Courts and with thousands of dollars spent. The trauma and financial effects to try to obtain a 50% custody have been terrible. and this is happening all around Canada to millions of Dads in approximately 85% of separation cases, for not other apparent reason that keep up the litigation for the family law industry (40% of couples end up separated)
This low percentage of primary custody granted for dads, truly signifies a life lasting damage to millions of Canadian children that are deprived to see their daddies, like so many studies and modern literature has been demonstrating in different countries.
As a result of my terrible experience and seeing all so many dads passing trough the same in different provinces in Canada, I have made a e-petition to the Government of Canada for default shared custody (50/50), which is now open to public e-signatures.
So, after this short introduction, I believe this is the time for a change, and I’d like to kindly ask your support to sign on this E-petition for default equal parenting, and eventually pass on the link to all other people, friends, family members, advocacy groups, and blogs of the sort, etc who you think may be interested to support too.
I am leaving the link for the e-petition here, so you can read the body of the request being made :
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3298
Thank you indeed
Family courts only favor the moms.
CAS favor moms. They don’t care about your child.
Its useless to fight.
Get down on your knees and just wait for your decapitation.
I’m a loving mom that has not been able to spend one full day with my older son in over 10 years. Now since covid my younger son has not had parenting time with me in 7months…and counting. My ex is an influential lawyer. No words for the tactics I have lived through. No recourse for me, as my children are now young adults. Mothers are greatly suffering too. The Canadian, Ontario court system is very broken. Sadly many beautiful fathers have suffered the brunt of this painful loss of contact with their children. But today, there are many moms living this tragic loss and the social, psychological and emotional and lifelong implications are devastating for all involved. The children who have lost contact with a loving father OR mother miss out on the sweetest part of life’s experience.
CS🙏