CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) - June 6, 2003
OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada began hearing arguments Friday
in a case that could decide whether parents have the right to spank
their children.
The Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law is asking
the court to strike down a century-old statute that allows parents
and teachers to use physical force while disciplining children.
Lawyers for the organization say the law violates the Charter of
Rights because it infringes on children's security of person.
Reasonable force
Section 43 of the Criminal Code was passed in 1892 and has been
amended several times.
It says caregivers cannot be prosecuted for assault if they use
reasonable force when disciplining children.
Lawyers for the Justice Department are arguing in favour of
retaining the law.
The department says while it does not advocate spanking, parents
need to have some freedom in deciding how to raise their children.
The same group challenged the spanking law before, but in January
2002 the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the statute.
P Nieman, S Shea; Canadian Paediatric Society, Community
Paediatrics Committee
Paediatric Child Health 2004;9(1):37-41
The word discipline means to impart knowledge and skill - to teach.
However, it is often equated with punishment and control. There is a
great deal of controversy about the appropriate ways to discipline
children, and parents are often confused about effective ways to set
limits and instill self-control in their child.
In medical and secular literature, there is great diversity of opinion
about the short-term and long-term effects of various disciplinary
methods, especially the use of disciplinary spanking. This statement
reviews the issues concerning childhood discipline and offers practical
guidelines for physicians to use in counselling parents about effective
discipline.
The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that physicians take an
anticipatory approach to discipline, including asking questions about
techniques used in the home. Physicians should actively counsel parents
about discipline and should strongly discourage the use of spanking.
Physical punishment of children, such as spanking, is increasingly
linked with long-term adverse consequences, researchers wrote.
An analysis of research conducted since the 1990 adoption of the UN's
Convention on the Rights of the Child suggests that no studies have
found positive consequences of physical punishment, according to Joan
Durrant of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and Ron Ensom of the
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.
While some studies have found little effect either way, most research
has uncovered a range of negative outcomes, including increased
aggression and later delinquency, Durrant and Ensom wrote online in
CMAJ.
The clinical implication, they suggested, is that doctors who are
familiar with the research can help parents find more constructive ways
of providing discipline.
"In doing so, physicians strengthen child well-being and parent-child
relationships at the population level," they wrote.
They noted that as recently as 1992, physical punishment of children was
widely accepted, thought of as distinct from abuse, and considered
"appropriate" as a way of eliciting desired behavior.
But research under way at that time was beginning to draw links between
physical punishment and aggression in childhood, later delinquency, and
spousal assault.
The Supreme Court of Canada - Cour suprême du Canada
Alyson Schafer is a psychotherapist and one of Canada's leading parenting
experts. She's the author of the best-selling "Breaking the Good
Mom Myth" (Wiley, 2006) and host of TV's The Parenting
Show a live call-in show in Toronto, Ontario.
The media relies on Alyson's comments and opinions. you can find her
interviewed and quoted extensively in such publications as Cosmopolitan,
Readers' Digest, Canadian Living, Today's Parents, and Canadian Families.
You can read Alyson's thoughts.
Laws on Corporal Punishment of Children from around the
World
Parents who are punitive tend to have aggressive children. But a
new survey suggests that when parenting practices change, a child's behaviour
also changes.
The results of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth
(NLSCY) suggests children show higher levels of aggression, are more anxious
and less altruistic when parents have a more punitive parenting style.
