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For Immediate Release: October 1, 2001
Contact: Penny Bain
604-669-7055 or 1 877 755-7055 or
pbain@bcifv.org or www.bcifv.org

Media Release:

Research institute launches media campaign on

family violence in custody and access

Over the coming months, the Canadian government is making decisions that will affect the safety of up to 25 percent of children involved in marital breakdown - the estimated percentage of separations and divorces that involve family violence.

In 1995, the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access began a three-year cross-country consultation, culminating in their December, 1998 report For the Sake of the Children. The report included 48 recommendations, many of them based on the concept of "shared parenting," a presumption that has been written into legislation in numerous jurisdictions in recent years - with not particularly beneficial effects.

In Australia, for example, researchers have found that most divorcing couples share parenting as a matter of course, just as they did before the new legislation was introduced in 1995. Where family violence is involved, however, legislated "shared parenting" not only fails to make post-divorce parenting more equitable, it also exposes women and children to risk by forcing them into contact with the very people they're fleeing.

In the spring of 2001, Justice Minister Anne McLellan released a response to the Committee's report and initiated a new set of consultations with stakeholder groups. The Minister's final report is expected in the spring of 2002, along with recommendations for changes to child-support laws.

"This is an extremely complicated issue that affects a broad cross-section of Canadians," says Penny Bain, Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence, "and it's important that Canadians have opportunities to fully understand this multi-layered issue.

"The BCIFV has always taken a balanced view of research on family violence and has no issue with the vast majority of fathers," she says. "We agree that the Divorce Act, along with provincial legislation that applies to the breakdown of common-law relationships, requires reform to ensure that all parties are treated fairly and the best interests of the children are protected.

"But the changes proposed by the Joint Committee, and the presumption of shared parenting in particular, do not address the danger to which women and children are exposed when forced into contact with their abusers," she says, highlighting the following facts:

  • Violence is a factor in one-quarter of divorces and separations.
  • Witnessing family violence is a form of psychological abuse, the effects of which are more devastating and enduring for children than those of direct abuse.
  • Forty to sixty percent of children who witness spousal assault are also being directly abused.
  • Abuse against women and children tends to escalate in frequency and severity following separation.

What's needed in Canada is legislation similar to that in New Zealand, says Bain. Here, both current and proposed legislation allows lawyers and judges to ignore abuse when determining custody and access. In contrast, New Zealand's Guardianship Act specifically lists information that lawyers must disclose and circumstances that judges must consider when relationships in which violence has been a factor break down.

The BCIFV will issue the following nine press releases over the fall of 2001, each outlining an aspect of this tangled issue and providing sources for further information:

  • The impact of family violence on children. Up to 60 percent of children in shelters for battered women suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which can be exacerbated by forced contact with the abuser.
  • When women try to leave. Existing legislation puts many women in no-win situations, which are exacerbated by judges who don't recognize the signs of family violence or understand its impacts.
  • Caught in the crossfire. Civil and criminal law conflict. A woman who has been ordered in criminal court not to allow her husband access to the children can be ordered in civil court to permit access - and can be arrested for defying the criminal order, or have her kids apprehended for defying the other.
  • What becomes of the children? It can't be assumed that removing children from the situation and leaving the parents to sort it out themselves will keep the children safe because our flawed child-protection system can simple exacerbate the trauma already experienced by the children.
  • When winning is losing. Even when women win custody and provisions for supervised access, safety is not a given due to often-inadequate provisions for proper supervision.
  • Lessons from Down Under. Australia and New Zealand provide a study in contrasts of what protects women and children from continued violence after separation - and what doesn't work.
  • Risk assessment and safety planning. IFV has developed a risk-assessment tool that's used internationally - and should be used more in Canada - and other experts are developing guidelines for safety planning.
  • What should happen in Canada? IFV's Executive Director Penny Bain presents her wish list for the new legislation, including training for judges and lawyers, supervised access programs - and much more.

For more information, call Penny Bain at 669-7055 or 1 877 755-7055, email her at 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 - October 22, 2001