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Minister Peter McKay, House Leader Peter Van Loan, Prime Minister Harper: Vote in Support of Bill C-560

Minister Peter McKay, House Leader Peter Van Loan, Prime Minister Harper: Vote in Support of Bill C-560

This petition is closed
50 Supporters

Benjamin T.
started this petition to
Minister Peter McKay, House Leader Peter Van Loan, Prime Minister Harper
Bill C-560 which was presented to the House of Commons in January, 2014, proved itself through 2 readings with another debate scheduled for May 27, 2014 and is expected to be voted on soon after.

This bill aims to reform the federal divorce act to implement recommendations of the Special Senate-Commons Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access (1998) which expressed the will of Parliament. We have done public opinion surveys which show that 80-85% of the Canadian public, both men and women equally, support our analysis of the problems with the current system and the need for changes like what we are proposing in the Bill.

Justice Thomas Cromwell, under the direction of Supreme Court Chief Justice has recently released a report which in rather strident terms, condemns the current family law system, calls for top to bottom changes and labels attempts at change over the last 30 years as dismal failures. The recent comments of Ontario Chief Justice Warren Winkler support our description of the problem.

The Bill mentioned aims to reform the Divorce Act to include a presumption of “Equal Parenting”, that is, so that both parents keep rights and responsibilities for their children unless and until a court has determined, with clear evidence, that a parent is unfit. This has been done successfully in many jurisdictions, usually by making joint custody a rebuttable presumption.

Social science research shows that having both parents in the lives of children reduces a wide array of children’s educational, health and social disadvantages by about half. We suggest that these reforms could reduce Canada’s poverty and social costs by more than that percentage, as well as alleviating large amounts of human suffering. Keeping both parents in the lives of their children (equal parenting) is the right thing to do, morally and economically.

The current family law system creates large amounts of family poverty, homelessness, jailing of parents simply for being poor and bitterness against the legal system. Frankly, many parents believe from their experience that family law, the legal profession and judges are self-serving, biased and corrupt.

Contact me at bturyk@gmail.com for a copy of Bill C-560 and the official Canadian government paper petition supporting this Bill and the Equal Shared Parenting Presumption.


Posted (Updated )