Mother loses appeal in custody case, Ontario court sends her three children to Nigeria
The Globe and Mail ( Canada's largest national newspaper), Sean Fine, Justice Writer, September 20, 2022
Olubukola Ajayi, a mother from Nigeria, in the east end of Ottawa, on Sept. 15, 2022
Ashley Fraser, The Globe and Mail
An Ontario appeal court has sent three children back to Nigeria and the custody of their father, rejecting their mother's arguments that she could not get a fair shake in that country because of patriarchal attitudes and anti-gay prejudice.
The case of Olubukola Ajayi and Eyitope Ajayi is one of a growing number of disputes in Canada that set concerns about international child abduction against arguments about unfairness and discrimination in foreign jurisdictions.
Ms. Ajayi argued in court that she was justified in bringing their three young children to Canada without the father's consent last November, because of discrimination, abuse (which Mr. Ajayi denies committing), patriarchal attitudes and the influence of her ex-husband's family in Nigeria.
She asked the Ontario Superior Court to assume jurisdiction for the couple's parenting issues and grant her sole decision-making authority over the children.
On the same day, Mr. Ajayi asked a Nigerian court to dissolve the marriage.
In Nigeria, homosexual acts may be punished with jail sentences. Mr. Ajayi made reference in a court document filed in Nigeria to Ms. Ajayi being linked to the LGBTQ community. That forced Ontario judges, in an initial ruling and an appeal, to grapple with how Nigeria's legal system operates, and determine whether its courts would put the children first.
“I ran here just for a fair shot at protecting my rights as their mom,†Ms. Ajayi, who trained as a lawyer in Nigeria, said in an interview. Both she and her ex-husband are dual citizens of Canada and Nigeria, as are the children; Ms. Ajayi travelled to Canada to give birth to the children here.
Quebec adopts sweeping family law reform with changes for non-binary people, kids' rights
The Canadian Press, June 8, 2022
Quebec City - People who do not consider themselves men or women will now be able to legally check the 'X' box on official documents provided by the Quebec government, without having to go through surgery.
People who identify as non-binary when giving birth to a child will also be able to identify themselves as the child's "parent," rather than the father or mother of their baby, if they wish.
That's all under the new rules brought in by Bill 2, passed Tuesday in the National Assembly.
The controversial bill, spearheaded by Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, was tabled in October 2021 as a major reform of Quebec's family law, which had not been updated for some 40 years, even though social mores have changed hugely since then.
The new law, which is sweeping and complex, deals with a host of often-delicate social subjects, and was originally intended to be even more comprehensive.
After protests from fellow legislators that there would not be enough time to complete the process before the National Assembly adjourns on June 10, the minister decided last week to withdraw two important parts of the bill: the rules of filiation and the regulation of surrogate pregnancies.
If he had not done so, there was a strong risk that the bill, a tome of more than 100 pages containing some 360 articles, would die on the order paper.
Jolin-Barrette also had no choice but to act now on the issue of gender identity and recognition of non-binary people. He had to comply with a court ruling, the Moore decision, which only gave him until Dec. 31, 2021, to do so.
Landmark ruling, judge awards Brampton woman $150,000 for ex's 16-year pattern of "family violence"
Experts say the decision is precedent-setting and offers a new pathway for survivors of family violence to seek fair compensation in the civil courts.
The Toronto Star, By Alyshah Hasham,Courts Reporter, Thu., March 10, 2022
A Brampton judge has ordered a man to pay his ex-wife $150,000 in damages for a 16-year pattern of abuse, including beatings, withholding money and verbal cruelty, a decision experts say opens a new legal path to recognize the "uniquely harmful" impact of family violence.
"These patterns can be cyclical and subtle, and often go beyond assault and battery to include complicated and prolonged psychological and financial abuse," Superior Court Justice Renu Mandhane concluded in her recent decision. In general, existing law focuses on specific incidents, while the "family violence" approach focuses on long-term, harmful patterns of conduct that are designed to control or terrorize, she wrote.
In practice, one beating at the beginning of a marriage can create an imminent threat of daily violence, she wrote, which is what happened in the case before her, where she found that the man first severely beat his wife upon returning to India after their honeymoon in 2000.
After the couple moved to Canada in 2002, the man "preyed" on his wife's vulnerability as a racialized newcomer; assaulted and demeaned her, leaving her with lasting mental health disabilities; controlled their bank accounts; and left her and their children with no access to money when he left them in 2016, Mandhane wrote.
Over 16 years he "created a situation where it was practically impossible for the Mother to leave the relationship or pursue accountability," she wrote.
Experts say the decision is precedent-setting and offers a new pathway for survivors of family violence to seek fair compensation in the civil courts.
Alyson Schafer on Spanking and Corporal Punishment of Children
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.
Auditor General of Ontario
Disasterous Report on the Family Reponsibility Office FRO 2010
80% of Telephone calls don't get answered
Payers and recipients do not have direct access to their assigned enforcement services officer
"There is only limited access to enforcement staff because many calls to the Office do not get through or are terminated before they can be answered."
"The Office is reviewing and working on only about 20% to 25% of its total cases in any given year."
"At the end of our audit in April 2010, there were approximately 91,000 bring-forward notes outstanding, each of which is supposed to trigger specific action on a case within one month. The status of almost one-third of the outstanding bring-forward notes was "open," indicating either that the notes had been read but not acted upon, or that they had not been read at all, meaning that the underlying nature and urgency of the issues that led to these notes in the first place was not known. In addition, many of the notes were between one and two years old."
"For ongoing cases, the Office took almost four months from the time the case went into arrears before taking its first enforcement action. For newly registered cases that went straight into arrears, the delay was seven months from the time the court order was issued."
Read the shocking report by The Auditor General of Ontario Report on the Family Responsibility Office
Ontario's child financial support collection agency has big problems
Ontario's Family Responsibility Office has many problems
Quote from Ontario Government Ombudsman -"an equal opportunity error-prone program,."'
Support recipients not getting their money.
Men who've been meeting their court-ordered obligations have trouble getting the FRO to stop taking payments when it's supposed to. Read More ..
"Canada's National newspaper for professional women"
Does the FRO have a feminist perspective?
When families fall apart, they can make for the bitterest of enemies. The intensity of their hostility, the personal rhetoric, the posturing and positioning, and the utter faithlessness of remembrance in the relationship's good deeds and consequences is a breathtaking phenomenon. It's as if the positive qualities and countless achievements are struck from history as a revisionist might strike the Holocaust. Into all of this the family court system wades, often inelegantly. Divorce lawyers drive up the emotional and financial toll of separation and transformation. Family and friends frequently collude to make things worse.
And when government decides to rear its head, well, it's a mess for all the world to see. Witness the recent attention on Ontario's euphemistically branded Family Responsibility Office. A job in advertising doubtlessly greeted the person who came up with its title, because it suggests some sort of feel-good missionary work to hold together the sanctity of the institution. Read More ..
"Canada's national newspaper for professional women"
The Family Responsibility Office Under Scrutiny
On June 9, 2005 the McGuinty government announced the passage of Bill 155, legislation that promised to increase enforcement, improve fairness and enhance efficiency at the Family Responsibility Office (FRO).
However, the legislation did not address the problem of accountability and, as things now stand, the FRO is a threat to every Canadian affected by a government regulated support and custody arrangement system. Think of George Orwell's 1984 and you'll have a good picture of how issues are handled at the FRO.
They have legal power to extort money from Canadians, but are not responsible or accountable for their actions.
Last year an FRO staff member decided not to wait for a court date to review the financial status of an out-of-work truck driver and took it upon themselves to suspend his license because he was, understandably, behind on his payments, having lost his job earlier in the year. Although he was looking for work, the FRO cut off the only way he knew of to earn a living. His suicide note explained how he'd lost all hope. Is this what we want FRO to be doing? Read More ..
Wicked mum murdered son, 8, with electrical cables after he caught her in sex romps with his granddad
The Mirror, UK, October 19 2016
Vicious Veronica Panarello throttled her son Loris to death and abandoned his body in a remote gully after he found out about the fling.
The "manipulative" mum, wept as she was jailed for 30 years at a court in Italy on Monday
A wicked mum who brutally murdered her eight-year-old son after he allegedly discovered she was having an affair with his grandfather has been jailed.
Vicious Veronica Panarello throttled her son Loris Stival with electrical cables and abandoned his body in a remote gully after he found out about the fling.
The "manipulative" mum wept as she was jailed for 30 years at a court in Italy on Monday.
Panarello, 28, had tried to pretend her son had been abducted to cover up the horrendous killing in November 2014.
Panarello throttled her eight-year-old son Loris to death with electrical cables. Read More ..
New Brunswick woman ruled responsible in burning of baby's body
ST. STEPHEN, N.B. - A New Brunswick judge says a woman who burned and dismembered her newborn son is criminally responsible for her actions.
Becky Sue Morrow earlier pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to a dead body and disposing of a newborn with the intent of concealing a delivery.
Judge David Walker ruled Friday that the 27-year-old woman may have been suffering from a mental disorder when she delivered the baby but that that was not the case when the baby's body was burned and its remains hidden.
It is not known if the baby was alive at the time of birth.
At a hearing last month, the court heard contrasting reports from the two psychiatrists. One said Ms. Morrow was in a "disassociated" mental state when the crime occurred. The other said she clearly planned her actions and understood the consequences.
Canada's
national "Child Day"
November 20th
Canada's "Child Day" is held on November 20th each year as designated by the Parliament of Canada in 1993.
It commemorates the United Nations adoption of two landmark documents concerned with the human rights of all children and youths. Read More ..