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Media Releases > December
10, 2001
For Immediate Release: December 10, 2001
Contact: Penny Bain at 604-669-7055 or 1 877-755-7055
or
pbain@bcifv.org or
www.bcifv.org
Media Release:
Problems
with Proposed Amendments to Divorce Act, Part V:
Apprehending
Children can do More Harm than Good
To every complex problem,
the saying goes, there's a simple solution - and it's inevitably
wrong. One "simple solution" to child protection
in custody and access disputes involving spousal violence
may appear to be having child protection workers take them
away from both parents.
But this "solution"
usually leads to more problems, says Nancy Drewitt, coordinator
of Vancouver Custody and Access Support and Advocacy Association
and a 14-year veteran of transition-house work, because it
threatens to take already traumatized children from mothers
who can't end their own abuse, and abandons women who do try
to protect their children. Here's how it goes, all too often:
Child protection workers
become aware of spousal abuse and threaten to apprehend the
children if women don't leave. If the mother does not - perhaps
because she has no means of support, or knows leaving will
escalate the abuse - the social worker may follow through.
The mother will then be given a long list of tasks to fulfill
to get her children back and not even the most basic support
to do so, such as bus fare to a parenting class.
The longer it takes for the
mother to accomplish these tasks, the more abandoned the children
will feel. Their behaviour may deterioriate, they may be abused
in foster care, and/or they may be constantly moved from one
home to another. As they grow into adolescence and adulthood,
their anger may translate into depression, substance abuse,
or criminal behaviour.
Yet when women do try to
protect their children by leaving their abusers, says Drewitt,
"social workers say it's now a civil matter and wash
their hands of it." With no money and no further social-work
support, women turn to legal aid. If they qualify, they may
be assigned an unsympathetic or inexperienced lawyer, or forced
into mediation. If they don't qualify, they may hire a cheap
lawyer or represent themselves.
Without good counsel, women
often have no say in court decisions such as forced visitation
with the abuser, even though this is not in their children's
best interest. This often results in children witnessing more
violence during exchanges for visits; becoming indirect targets
of abuse when the abuser says bad things to them about their
mother; or becoming direct targets of physical abuse, even
if this had not occurred before the separation.
If the woman reports this
to the child protection worker, she will likely be reminded
that it's now a civil matter that she must take care of in
court. However, if she reports the abuse in court, she may
be accused of vindictiveness and lose custody as a result
of a provision of the Divorce Act that requires her to co-operate
with her ex-spouse..
"The welfare of children
and their mothers isn't separate," says Drewitt. "The
conditions of the parent have an impact on the children."
Removing kids from situations of spousal assault doesn't necessarily
protect them, and the separation from their primary caregiver
does scar them. And directing mothers to leave violent spouses
without supporting them to deal with the inevitable aftermath
achieves precious little in terms of child protection.
The stated purpose of amending
the Divorce Act - to ensure that children's interests
come first - is laudable. However, the proposed amendments
may not do this, and in some cases will do the opposite.
This is the fifth in a series
of nine press releases. Next: When Winning is Losing: Even
supervised visitation between an abuser and his children often
fails to protect women and children from further harm. For
more information, call Penny Bain at 604-669-7055 or 1 877
755-7055, email pbain@bcifv.org,
or visit www.bcifv.org.
Click here to go to the next media release
in this series on Family Violence and Custody & Access - December
17, 2001
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