The Canadian Equal Parenting Council gets large numbers of complaints from parents about practices in the Family Law legal system. Many of these complaints amount to abuse of judicial discretion. There is also a major problem of tactics by lawyers which drain family assets, i.e. family law as practiced is simply unaffordable for the vast majority of Canadian parents. Here is an admittedly incomplete list of the complaints about practices in family law:
* rampant perjury and false accusations, usually aided and encouraged by lawyers.
* ignoring or circumventing rules of procedure and notice.
* financial orders beyond the ability to pay, particularly fathers
* arbitrary removal of custody from a parent with no evidence of unfitness.
*unreasonable delays in action
*open bias, often against fathers, but also court biases on the basis of stereotypes of race, religion, socio-economic status and sexual orientation.
*arbitrary attribution of income with no evidence
*lack of enforcement of court ordered access, and court interest only in enforcement of select parts of court orders, such as financial support
* removing custody or access from the “friendly parent” when the “hostile” parent is successful in alienating the children from the other parent.
* court custody and child support orders which do not align with the requirements of Income tax and Support collection agencies and thus cost parents time and money to revise.
*refusal of judges to read evidence and legal documentation submitted by lawyers and paid for by clients.
* Courts using “conflict” or “safety” as reasons/excuses for ordering sole custody, with no evidence to support this.
* judges with records or reputations of never finding in favour of paternal custody or joint custody.
*rewriting of transcripts to protect or justify judicial actions or to hide statements
Overall, in the family law process, there is a lack of respect for parents, particularly fathers. Legal and other professionals are largely protected from the consequences of their decisions, biases and misjudgements. What follows are some of the comments that parents have reported that judges have made in court.
“Even a bad mother is better than a good father” (cited on CBC cross country checkup radio program.)
“Forget about your children, you can have others.” judge in Ontario court.
“I am going to jail you for contempt if you don’t stop coming back to court complaining about paying support.” Ontario judge to father with custody of his children.
“I am awarding custody to the mother. She told lies, but they were small lies.” Nova Scotia Judge.
Reforms needed to the practice of family law:
Consequences for false affidavits, perjury and false accusations.
Due process requirements with a grievance redress committee freely available to all parents forced to go into family law procedures. (New Hampshire has such a committee.)
Legal aid to every parent facing the loss of his or her children.
Open standards of practice for custody evaluators and open statistics on their recommendations.
Replacement of biased or ideological training for judges with an open curriculum.
(an incomplete list)
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