Equal Parenting – the book

The Equal Parent Presumption

Social Justice in the Legal Determination of Parenting after Divorce

By Edward Kruk
Sociology Political & International Studies: Public Policy Law

A child-focused approach to the “best interests of the child.”


In custody battles over the children of separated parents, the prevailing standard of evaluating what is in the “best interests of the child” has been scrutinized because of the discretionary nature of what is “best” and because of the bias in favour of the child residing in one “primary residence.” In response, a consensus is beginning to emerge that it is vitally important that children maintain meaningful relationships with both parents after divorce.

In The Equal Parent Presumption, Edward Kruk proposes a child-focused approach based on a standard that considers the best interests of the child from the perspective of the child and a responsibility-to-needs orientation to social justice for children and families. Challenging previous research and received ideas, Kruk presents an evidence-based framework of equal parental responsibility as the most effective means of ensuring the protection of family relationships following divorce, and shielding children from ongoing parental conflict and family violence.

The existing system of determining parental rights and responsibilities is harming families. The Equal Parent Presumption addresses a major barrier to the principle of gender equality in parenting after divorce, and proposes a viable alternative to sole custody in the form of a legal presumption of shared and equal parenting.

Canada’s federal Bill on Equal Parenting

Canadian Equal Parenting Council applauds and supports Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott who has tabled an Equal Parenting private member’s bill, C-560 in the House of Commons on December 6th, 2013. The bill aims to reform the Divorce Act so that equal parenting time is the rebuttable presumption, or the default in most cases.
The Bill’s good points:
1. It embeds the principle of “equal parenting” in the divorce act.
2. It replaces “custody orders” with “parenting orders”, which makes parenting central to the purpose of the Divorce Act and Parliament’s intent.
3. It equates “equal parenting” with “best interests of the child”
4. It makes an effort to deal with moveaways by placing the onus on the moving parent to maintain continuity.
5. It deals with family violence by using the phrase “committed in the presence of the child” which limits this out and suggests that it might not be committed unless proven (which is what we want).
6. It includes alienation of parental affection as a harm to the child.

Some parents may feel that the Bill has left openings for recalcitrant, renegade or biased judges to exploit to award sole custody in cases where equal parenting should happen. If passed, outcomes might depend on how the phrase “substantially enhanced” is interpreted and how judges interpret the level of proof required for another option to be “established”.
In short, this Bill may be the best that we can reasonably expect at this time. We can expect that the other side (vested interests) will try to water it down, or gut it entirely. Parents should be prepared to fight that, and at the same time, we should push to strengthen the judicial discretion restraining provisions of the Bill. That means parents need to organize to gain support for the bill and to push for strengthening the bill. If we don’t push this bill, we could lose this opportunity to improve it, give encouragement to the other side, and the Bill’s failure could make it more difficult to make reforms in the future.

While not perfect, it makes sense to push this bill through, use it to push for similar (preferably stronger, more judicial discretion limiting) provincial and territorial bills.

My bottom line is that this bill will move things in the direction we want. The Australian experience shows that it is better to move in steps than not to move at all, while blocking the other side from moving things back.

Thus, this PMB is worth supporting, as is Maurice Vellacott, who has loyally and faithfully kept our issue alive in Parliament and brought this bill to the floor of the House.
Here is a link for those parents who wish to work on advocating politically for equal parenting reform legislation:

advocate signup

Universal Children’s Day

The Canadian Equal Parenting Council wishes all parents best wishes on Universal Children’s day. If you are not able to see your children because of government actions (or by actions of State proxies such as judges, social agencies or other state funded vested interests) we understand your pain and the disadvantage that your children are suffering.

Here is a link about the event:

http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/

By resolution 836(IX) of 14 December 1954, the UN General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children’s Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. It recommended that the day was to be observed also as a day of activity devoted to promoting the ideals and objectives of the UN Charter on the Rights of Children and the welfare of the children of the world. The date 20 November, marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.

One of the rights of the child enshrined in the above convention, signed and ratified by Canada, was the right to parenting by both parents. The convention assigns responsibility for ensuring that this happens, to states such as Canada.

Unfortunately, the Canadian federal government and provincial governments have deliberately and systematically avoided their responsibilities.  Overwhelmingly, governments exclude one parent, most often the father, from benefitting from State-funded family and parenting programs. Whether this is the Child Tax Benefit, domestic violence shelters, family courts or parental health programs, Canada runs a system of gender apartheid which belies the political rhetoric which our politicians so expertly use to hide the ugly reality of our exploitation and disadvantaging of children for money and careers.

A simple search on maternal health funding versus parental health or paternal health shows a millions to nothing ratio of State bias. The reality is that a mother in Iran or Afghanistan has a better chance of getting State help than a father in Canada.

The major cause of child disadvantage in Canada is deparenting. Most of that is caused by the sole custody bias of courts and government funding for vested interests promoting sole custody.

Of course, the United Nations has its own problems. UN agencies equate women with children (they are not children) and fund only programs for women. Not all women are parents and not all parents are women. The challenge should not be to divide parents by gender, which the UN does, but to work for collaboration between mothers and fathers, between men and women.

Here is how the UN gender apartheid approach fails in practice, and how and an “equal parenting” approach might work in international development. In Haiti, the UN (and most development NGOs) brought in aid and “prioritized” women and children. This meant providing food and shelter to women and to do that these agencies separated men and women, with the children with the women. Not surprisingly, the Haitian men and fathers were not willing to quietly starve to death, so the UN and the militaries of various nations, including Canada set up “security” –armed forces- to keep the men out. The ideological thinking of UN bureaucrats and NGOs was that there was violence and that women were vulnerable (ignoring that men were also targets of violence) so that justified military action to keep starving men from the food. Now, over 2 years after the earthquake, there is still a high level of violence, women are still dependent on NGOs, and the social situation is dangerous for all, and the situation for children is hardly better for the billions of dollars poured into Haiti. Another reality is that NGOs find it easier to raise money for women-only programs, although these do not solve problems, but build dependency.

But there is an alternative. In the Philippines, NGOs and governments could pay fathers and men in food and shelter in return for clearing roads, rebuilding homes and ensuring security. This payment should be enough to the men to ensure that their wives and children were fed, sheltered and secure. There is dignity in labour and pride in rebuilding after a natural disaster. This plan gives families a path to independence and rebuilding family assets, just as men did in the early days of Canadian pioneering, when they were given land to homestead, built farms and brought wives and then children to settle Canada. NGOs should be required to plan and work toward collaboration of mothers and fathers. The two parent family, often with extended family too, is the only sustainable form for raising children. While single parents should not be excluded or disadvantaged, working through the strengths of the two parent family reduces the size of the problem. Focusing only on women creates and perpetuates dependency. Dependency is not development.

Will the UN, Canada or NGOs change their thinking from fundraising, control, dependency, their careers and vested interests? Not likely. Not easily. And not without much pressure from parents and taxpayers who foot the bill for the current dysfunctional system.

So remember this day, Universal Children’s Day as one of government hypocrisy, failure and slavish obedience to vested interests.   Please write to your Canadian federal and provincial governments and ask that they act in the interest of children and ensure that kids have parenting by both parents. Ask that they implement the above international development equal parenting plan. Ask that they change laws and practice so that the exploitation of children’s needs by greedy self-serving careerists is replaced by practical solutions which work for children and parents.

Happy Mother’s Day

A happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and grandmothers in Canada. We know that the vast majority of you support equal parenting and the need of children for both parents. We know that when the family court system “awards” sole custody, or courts do nothing against parental alienation, there is almost always a grandmother or stepmother who suffers as well. We know that there are large numbers of non-custodial mothers who suffer unnecessarily from the legal system. Continuer la lecture de « Happy Mother’s Day »

Canada’s anti-father policies and the suicide of the founder of a men’s shelter

A friend of mine committed suicide just last Friday. I believe his story shows a serious failing of federal government social and health policy.
I first met Earl Silverman in 1995 in Edmonton at a men’s issues conference. He lived in Calgary and had been a victim of physical abuse by his wife. Earl had looked for help with this problem but existing domestic violence (DV) services told him that he was the abuser, that it was his fault and disbelieved his story, because he was a man. These organizations, funded by governments, refused to help him. Instead, they supported his abuser. Continuer la lecture de « Canada’s anti-father policies and the suicide of the founder of a men’s shelter »

Parental Alienation and Equal Parenting April 25th


April 25th is Parental Alienation Awareness Day. What is PA –Parental Alienation and what is the connection with equal parenting? Let’s look at a PA case (names have been changed to protect confidentiality.)
When his wife left Ron, he expected to share custody of his two sons, and after all, he had been a “hands-on dad”, taking the boys to sports activities, school events and camping. That’s how it worked for six months until his wife’s lawyer proposed a property settlement in which his ex-wife got the house and their assets, while he was expected to shoulder their debts. When his lawyer proposed an equal division, access to his sons became difficult, and strange, untrue or wildly exaggerated accusations appeared in the affidavits from his wife’s lawyer. Continuer la lecture de « Parental Alienation and Equal Parenting April 25th »

Parent Rights are Human Rights

On Facebook, I saw a poster from the Love And Iron Project, that said “Parental rights are HUMAN rights.” It’s wonderful to see this. The Canadian Equal Parenting Council support this concept and the sentiment.

CEPC has been promoting the idea of a balance of rights and responsibilities for parents since 2004. Our position is in direct contradiction to former federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon who stated in 2003 that “in regards to their children, parents have no rights, only responsibilities.” In spite of CEPC appeals to subsequent ministers of justice, what appears to be a policy of extermination of historically recognized rights by the federal government has not been withdrawn or changed. No other group in recent history has had their rights so publicly denied, abrogated and removed as parents.

It is CEPC position that such denial of rights violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada’s commitments in various UN Conventions and the Bill of Rights.

If you have only responsibilities, but no rights, then you are a slave. To compare, written into the divorce act is the provision that judges and lawyers cannot be held responsible for their decisions in the family court system, i.e. they have rights to make decisions regarding the children of parents, but no responsibility for the outcomes. If you have rights but no responsibilities, then you are a tyrant.

The family law system is, as Eric Tarkington points out, a feudal system, with judges acting like feudal lords, able to take your children away at any time, for virtually any reason.
If parental rights are human rights, then the family courts are depriving parents of rights without due process of law. Equal parenting reforms are like a “Magna Carta” to restrain the feudalists from violating basic human rights of parents.

Taking a person’s child is such a terrible punishment that due process must include all of the protections we grant to alleged criminals, that is, the presumption of innocence (which would be equaled by a presumption of parental fitness), the right to confront accusers, the right to counsel (and if a parent cannot afford counsel, government must provide competent counsel), and fair and consistent rules of evidence and procedure.

That is why the CEPC is seeking reform of law and procedure so that no parent loses a child without due process, and a presumption that both parents remain as equals in the child’s life unless proven unfit to a clear and consistent standard.

The power differential is so large and unfair between parents and the profiteering legal profession, their co-conspirators, state actors & their agents – judges that only a strong and high standard for parental rights can stand against the abuse of power by the family law industry.

The human rights argument for parental equality is only one among many, perhaps not the most important one, but it is one that tells us much about the draconian power that family courts and state bureaucracies want to maintain over our families.

We call upon all parents and their supporters to spread the message that “parent rights are human rights”. Write to your political representatives and tell them. Write to the media and tell them. Call in to radio shows.

Blog it. Tweet it. Put in on your facebook page.

“Parent rights are human rights.”

 

CEPC AGM 2013

CEPC AGM Agenda Thursday, Feb 20, 2013
1. Call to order
2. Approval of agenda
3. Selection of acting secretary
4. Approval of minutes of last AGM
5. President’s report (approval y/n)
6. Financial Report (approval y/n)
7. Nomination/Election of Board Members for coming year
8. Nomination/Election of President for coming year
9. Motion: that CEPC adapt bylaws and charter for CRA non-profit reincorporation, incorporating changes approved at AGMs, including change from co-Presidents to one President.
10. Other business
11. Adjournment
Attendance: while voting is restricted to paid up CEPC member organization delegates, supporters may attend by telephone conference. On votes, delegates are requested to identify the paid up member organization.


CEPC AGM Agenda Minutes Thursday, Nov 10, 2011

Present: Glenn Cheriton (Canadian Council for Co-parenting) Mark Bogan (Dads North), Jason Bouchard (Grand Society), Brian Lee Johnson (Shared Parenting Association of Saskatchewan), Paulette MacDonald (F4J and Parental Alienation Awareness), Mike Murphy (Parental Alienation Awareness and F4J)

1. Call to order
Glenn called AGM to order at 8:20pm. EST

2. Approval of agenda
Moved – Glenn
Seconded – Mike
Motion carried

3. Selection of acting secretary
Mark – selected as acting secretary

4. President’s report
Moved – Brian
Seconded – Mike
Motion carried

5. Financial Report (presented by Glenn)
Moved – Jason
Seconded – Brian
Motion carried

6. Nomination/Election of Board Members for coming year
Paulette, Mike, Brian, Jason, Glenn nominated and elected – board members
Moved – Mike
Seconded – Jason
Motion carried

7. Nomination/Election of President for coming year
Glenn – nominated and re-elected as President
Moved – Mike
Seconded – Brian
Motion carried

8. Motion: to change the bylaw requirement so that the AGM shall occur within 90 days of the fiscal year end of Dec. 31.
Moved – Brian
Seconded – Paulette
Motion carried

9. Motion: to change the French name of CEPC to “Conseil d’Egalité Parentale du Canada”
Moved – Paulette
Seconded – Jason
Motion carried

10. Other business
Follow-up on Remembrance Day wreath (Glenn)
Meeting with MP Dr. Leitch (Paulette)
Non-media responses

11. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 9:20pm EST
Moved – Mike
Motion carried


Financial Statements 2012

Canadian Equal Parenting Council adds RSS feed

The Canadian Equal Parenting Council is working with a developer to add RSS feeds to our website, so that supporters and advocates for parents can get news, action items and issues updates a variety of ways.

We at CEPC are working on a blackberry 10 app to show these posts, and a smartphone website version of parts of our site to help interested citizens support our movement for equal parenting.

RSS feeds will be part of our political strategy to increase the pressure for reform of divorce and family law.

Glenn in Ottawa

Join us for a “Lunch & Learn”

$25 – Lunch, a book and a movie “Support System Down” included

With special presentation of a “Kids Need Both Parents” award.

At Frankie Tomatto’s Restaurant
7225 Woodbine Ave
Markham (Toronto)
November 20th 2012 -11:30 am to 2:30pm
Buy your ticket now:


How many tickets?




Book website: http://golddiggernation.com/

Movie website: http://supportthemovie.com/


$30.00 for the Dinner & Learn – 6:00pm to 9:30pm
Dinner, a book and a movie “Support System Down” included

With speakers and a special presentation

At Frankie Tomatto’s Restaurant
7225 Woodbine Ave
Markham (Toronto)

November 20th 2012 -6:00pm to 9:30pm
Buy your ticket now:


Ticket quantity:




Book website: http://golddiggernation.com/

Movie website: http://supportthemovie.com/

fr_CAFrançais du Canada