A made-to-measure lawyer . . .
Finding right one never more vital Divorce Act changes herald new era
Toronto Star, By Tracy Tyler, December 21, 2002
Is a mistress entitled to spousal support? Should gays and lesbians be allowed to marry? Does a divorced dad have to pay child support if he quits his job?
Family law is full of thorny issues. Just ask Mayor Mel Lastman, who faced his own troubles this year when two brothers in their 40s sued the mayor for child support, claiming they were the product of an affair with their mother. So far, their claim has been rejected by two courts.
Now, the Supreme Court of Canada has stirred up debate even more by ruling that common-law spouses can't automatically claim half of matrimonial property.
The court's 8-1 decision on Thursday drew a clear line between married and unmarried couples, and is expected to put an end to thousands of property claims before the courts. But that doesn't mean it's time to fire your family lawyer.
Child support laws a 'tax' on fathers, lawsuit says Violates rights
National Post, Francine Dube, Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Child support guidelines bear no relationship to the cost of raising children and should be struck down, according to a lawsuit filed against the federal government yesterday by an Alberta law firm.
"Current child support laws and regulations are deliberately or negligently skewed to maximize child support payments. This is in contrast to a genuine calculation and sharing of the costs of raising children," the lawsuit says. "The guidelines have resulted in a massive transfer of wealth; a transfer unrelated to the purpose of child support. Child support payments have become a new tax -- a tax on being a father and divorced."
The suit was filed in Federal Court in Montreal yesterday by Chipeur Advocates. Earlier this month, the firm launched a constitutional challenge of Canada's divorce laws, claiming they are biased in such a way that mothers are 10 times more likely than fathers to be awarded custody.
Canada's largest national newspaper
Mommy's Little Secret
The Globe and Mail, Carolyn Abraham, December 14, 2002
As we gather to mark the festive season, here's one juicy morsel mom won't be dishing up: that guy you call your dad may not be. DNA testing has revolutionized medical science, CAROLYN ABRAHAM reports, but it also has uncovered the myth of female monogamy. Now doctors are wondering how to break the news to men
The Globe and Mail, By CAROLYN ABRAHAM, Saturday, December 14, 2002 – Print Edition, Page F1
They came to the hospital together, a husband, a wife and the little daughter they feared had been cursed by inheritance. Since birth, she had struggled to breathe, and all the signs pointed to cystic fibrosis.
If the girl truly had the incurable disease that clogs the lungs, she had to have received two copies of a CF gene, one from each parent. Tests at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto confirmed the family's worst fears -- and then some.
The girl was indeed afflicted. Her mom carried one of the culprit genes. But her dad, the doctors discovered, was quite a different story. His DNA showed no sign of a CF gene, which means he is not a carrier and he is not her dad.
Hospital staff have felt bound to keep the secret from him. But when they told the mom, it came as no surprise; it rarely does.
Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'
USA TODAY, by Martin Kasindorf, December 12, 2002
An acid sense of betrayal has been gnawing at Damon Adams since a DNA test showed that he is not the father of a 10-year-old girl born during his former marriage.
"Something changes in your heart," says Adams, 51, a dentist in Traverse City, Mich. "When she walks through the door, you're seeing the product of an affair."
But Michigan courts have spurned the DNA results Adams offered in his motions to stop paying $23,000 a year in child support. Now, Adams is lobbying the state Legislature for relief and joining other men in a national movement against what they call "paternity fraud."
A Woman's Right to be Criminal
Fathering Magazine, December 5, 2002, by Roger F. Gay
I read a USA Today article on child support by Martin Kasindorf entitled, Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'. Paternity fraud is when a woman names the wrong man as a father for the purpose of forcing him to pay child support. The words 'paternity fraud' were in quotes as if they referred to someone's questionable characterization rather than a straightforward fact. This might have moved me to let out a long sigh except that I knew it would not have been worth the trouble. I know from experience that 'paternity fraud' would not have been in quotes unless we were being prepared for some unadulterated bullshit.
I shouldn't give the impression that I'm particularly peeved at Mr. Kasindorf or USA Today. As an apparently objective journalist Mr. Kasindorf attempted to present the two sides of the story; pro and con. Tens of millions of men are likely quite relieved that attacking them relentlessly without acknowledging that another side might exist is no longer considered objective. We can't expect journalists to be experts on everything, so perhaps presenting two sides to everything is the best we can hope for. But it makes me wonder when objective journalism will tackle issues like rape, pillage, and torture. There must be somebody out there who can argue in favor of those things maybe one of those people who thinks that the Constitution is outdated and we should be Read More ..en to ideas from other cultures.
'Kids come first' in new divorce law
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) December 11, 2002
OTTAWA - The federal government is proposing changes to the divorce law aimed at reducing conflict and making life easier for children in family break ups, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said Tuesday.
"Kids come first," he said.
The words "custody" and "access" will disappear from the legislation, as part of an effort to remove the idea of winners and losers from divorces.
Under the new system, "parents don't have rights vis-a-vis the child. They have responsibilities," Cauchon said. The new model will be "a less-adversarial system."
But he was unable to explain to reporters exactly what would change for the child of divorcing parents, other than to say "the approach."
Study: Young white men face higher suicide risk
Legal issues and relationship problems were main reasons for those taking their lives.
The Indianapolis Star, Staff Report, November 23, 2002
$70,000 paternity ruling sets precedent
The Age, Australia, By Ian Munro, November 23, 2002
A man who successfully sued his fomer wife for damages because she told him he was the father of her lover's children had set an Australian legal precedent, the man's lawyer said yesterday.
Judge John Hanlon awarded Liam Magill $70,000 for general damages and economic loss, and ordered his former wife, Meredith Magill, to pay costs.
Mr Magill's solicitor, Vivien Mavropoulos, said the decision had extended the law of deceit to the circumstances of a man being falsely led to believe he was the biological parent of a child.
Fashion guru to pay record child support
$15,091 per month: Canadian Nygard argues amount is 'inappropriate'
National Post, Cristin Schmitz Southam News, Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Sophie D'ayron, The Gazette Fashion magnate Peter Nygard, seen here with daughters Alia, left, and Bianca, has been ordered to pay a record $15,091 per month in child support to the Oakville mother of his teen son Mika.
A Canadian fashion magnate whose spectacular Bahamas residence dwarfs the famed abode of Bill Gates has been ordered to pay record child support to a former lover.
Peter Nygard, chairman of Nygard International, who built a small Winnipeg company into a $300-million women's clothing empire, was ordered by a Toronto judge to pay $15,091 per month on an interim basis to Kaarina Pakka of Oakville until their dispute goes to trial, likely in 2003.
Court says mother can move with son
The Ottawa Citizen, Cristin Schmitz, Saturday, November 23, 2002
Earl Creighton, like many separated fathers, tries to be there for Robert, his six-year-old son. He takes him to swimming lessons, reads to him, and visits the boy several times a week.
That close relationship will change as a result of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision this week that permits Mr. Creighton's ex-common-law partner, Charlotte Bjornson, who has sole custody of Robert, to move their son 3,000 kilometres from Waterloo, Ont. to Calgary.
Ms. Bjornson asked the court to let her return to Alberta where she has family support and can resume a nursing career with 12-years' seniority that she interrupted when she moved to set up house with Mr. Creighton in 1996.
In a unanimous judgment Tuesday that will help custodial parents (usually mothers) who want to move with their children over the objections of non-custodial parents (usually fathers), the appeal court overturned a trial judge who had refused to permit Ms. Bjornson to move Robert because it was in the child's best interests "that he continue to have a close and loving relationship with each of his parents."
States Consider Laws Against Paternity Fraud
Child Advocates Worry About Effects
The Washington Post, by Robert E. Pierre, Oct. 13, 2002
LANSING, Mich. -- Edward L. Mack was floored to learn just weeks after his divorce that two of the three children born during his 10-year marriage were fathered by another man. He was even more shocked that the discovery -- under Michigan law -- meant nothing. A year later, he still pays $375 a month in child support for all three children.
"I don't think it's fair for me to have to take care of somebody else's children when she went out and slept with another man," said Mack, 55, pastor of the Spiritual Israel Church & Its Army Temple No. 8 in Detroit. "I still love the children because it's not their fault. But think about how you would feel."
In Michigan, as in most other states, the children born during a marriage are the legal responsibility of the husband. And even for single men, once paternity is acknowledged or established through the courts, it is next to impossible to change. Prosecutors and many children's advocates contend that is the way it ought to be to keep from unduly traumatizing innocent children by snatching away their emotional and financial support.
But across the country, including in the Michigan legislature, a push is underway to institute "paternity fraud" laws. The new legislation would cancel mandated child support payments -- and arrearages -- for men who can prove through DNA testing that they are supporting children who are not their flesh and blood. In some cases, the laws would provide criminal penalties for women who willingly lie about the father of their children.
"It's a legal fraud," said state Rep. James L. Koetje (R), who is sponsoring the legislation that has passed overwhelmingly in Michigan's House of Representatives. "The state should not condone or perpetuate a legal fiction."
Advocates of the new laws -- mostly men such as Mack with a personal grievance -- contend change is needed to prevent the exploitation of men by women who are promiscuous, get pregnant and then choose who they want the father to be, often based on how much money the men have. Some are pushing for mandatory testing in all unmarried births, and before any child support order is established, because most are completed without the man even appearing in court.
They point to studies by groups such as the American Association of Blood Banks, which found in 1999 that nearly 30 percent of 280,000 paternity cases evaluated excluded the alleged father as the biological parent.
"There is an epidemic sweeping this nation," Carnell A. Smith, founder and executive director of U.S. Citizens Against Paternity Fraud, testified before a Michigan Senate hearing recently. Smith said he, too, is a paternity fraud victim and now travels the country seeking legislative reform.
"It causes havoc, emotional harm and social harm," he said. "Many states have chosen to look the other way and pretend the problem does not exist."
At least 30 states have laws presuming a child born to a married couple is the man's. He can challenge that presumption in court, but most states have a statute of limitations, some as long as 10 years. Maryland and Ohio for years have allowed men unlimited time to challenge paternity using DNA testing. Georgia and California passed similar legislation this year, and several other states are considering the move.
Preserving Paternity Fraud
The Orange County Register, U.S.A. by Dianna Thompson and Glenn Sacks, October 3, 2002
California Governor Gray Davis had the chance to free thousands of falsely condemned men last week. He chose federal funds instead.
Davis vetoed the California Paternity Justice Act (AB 2240), which would have helped thousands of California men who were wrongly assigned paternity in default judgments, and who have been compelled by the state to pay years of child support for children whom DNA tests have shown are not theirs. In Los Angeles County in 2000, for example, 79 percent of paternity judgments were decreed by default. Most of these men had no idea they were "fathers" until their wages were garnished.
House bill would penalize mothers who misidentify fathers
Orange County Register, by Breanna Shepherd, October 3, 2002
Duped Dads - Men Fight Centuries-Old Paternity Laws
ABC News, by Geraldine Sealey, October 2, 2002
"Is it yours? If not, you still have to pay!" That statement, plastered on a New Jersey billboard above a picture of a visibly pregnant woman, is enough to make many male motorists slow down in rush hour traffic.
Patrick McCarthy, president of New Jersey Citizens Against Paternity Fraud, the group sponsoring nine of these billboards across the state, says he's just trying to prevent the victimization of other men.
Three years ago, McCarthy found out he was not the biological father of his then-15-year-old daughter. Though divorced from her mother for well over a decade and not intimately involved in her life, McCarthy paid child support for the girl.
When McCarthy, remarried with two other children, petitioned the courts for relief from his financial obligations, he discovered he had little recourse. The DNA test McCarthy paid for could not be presented in court. As far as the state of New Jersey was concerned, McCarthy still bore financial obligations to a child who was not his.
McCarthy testified this week before a New Jersey legislative committee in support of a "paternity fraud" bill, which would allow a man to challenge paternity at any time.
"Some people say 'If you had doubts you should have asked for a DNA test.' I had no reason to ever think my wife slept with someone outside of our marriage. She committed adultery," he said.
Davis vetoes tests to ID dads PATERNITY: Men forced to support children not their own say bill would have offered relief. They vow to fight on.
Daily Breeze, by Jasmine Lee, Sept 28, 2002
State reform plan fights rising paternity fraud
Detroit News, by Thompson & Sacks, Sept 25, 2002
Read More ..
California Teacher Sentenced to Prison For Sex With Student
The Associated Press, September 19, 2002
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) A judge Thursday sternly lectured a former California teacher who kidnapped a 15-year-old student and had sex with him in a Las Vegas hotel, but gave her a sentence that allows her to be released from Nevada custody next month.
"Being a teacher is a sacred trust. How dare you? How dare you?" Judge Joseph T. Bonaventure yelled, pointing his finger at Tanya Hadden, 33.
He sentenced Hadden to five to 12 1/2 years in prison for second-degree kidnapping, sexual conduct between teacher and student and statutory sexual seduction. But he suspended all but six months of the sentence, meaning that with time served she faces only 40 more days in Nevada.
The growing consensus against circumcision
NATIONAL POST, Jackie Smith, August 30, 2002
Just 30 years ago, male circumcision was all the rage; as many as 90% of boys in the United States, 70% of those in Australia, 48% in Canada and 24% in the United Kingdom were circumcised (often without any anesthesia).
I remember the war that waged in my own mind when my son was born in the 1980s.
I had no religious reasons for choosing circumcision; I wasn't trying to guard against "unhealthy masturbation," as early proponents of circumcision were. I didn't care if he looked like dad, as some parents do. I wanted to know only one thing: What would be best for him -- medically.
`Totally unexpected' death of baby probed
Five-week-old infant died after he was circumcised at Penticton
hospital
The Province (British Columbia, Canada), Jason Proctor, Thursday, August 29, 2002.
The whole truth about paternity testing
The National Post, David Menzies,Saturday, August 24, 2002
While Jerry Springer, Maury Povitch and other trashy television shows would be lost without the "outing" of fatherhood identities of various trailer-park guests, not all paternity testing is the same.
Wayne Murray, a manager at Maxxam Analytics in Guelph, Ont., says the majority of laboratories conducting paternity testing in Canada are unaccredited. "The only way to ensure quality is through accreditation," he says, adding the official sanctioning of Maxxam's laboratories by the Standards Council of Canada costs "thousands of dollars each year."
The high cost of obtaining accreditation is likely why some labs are not embracing the process -- especially since they are not
The sperm that got away
Sunday Life Magazine (Australia), By Amy Cooper, 18 August 2002
Men say they need protection from a new predator the women who target them exclusively for their sperm. Amy Cooper reports
Around the world, the battle of the sexes is taking a new turn. American millionaire Steve Bing acknowledges he's the father of English model and actress Elizabeth Hurley's son only after DNA tests. In Sweden, a court orders Igor Lehnberg to pay child support to the lesbian couple who used his donated sperm to have three children. Tennis star Boris Becker accuses a Russian model of stealing his sperm during an encounter in a broom cupboard.
Mick Jagger is ordered to pay child support after tests prove he is the dad of model Luciana Morad's son. And in the US, there's the world's first "paternity fraud" lawsuit: Peter Wallis accuses his long-term partner, Kellie Smith, of "intentionally acquiring and misusing" his sperm after she became pregnant when she was supposed to be on the pill.
The ingredient these stories share is becoming as influential as drugs, dollars or oil. It stirs up conflict, divides loyalties and drives men and women to desperate acts. For a slightly absurd-looking microscopic organism with a wriggly tail, sperm has a lot to answer for.
Moms Can Be Deadbeats Too
Single dads are sick and tired of being labelled "deadbeats"
when it comes to paying child support. And data suggest
they have good reason to be upset.
Fox News, U.S. By Liza Porteus, Friday, August 9, 2002
bill would reform state's paternity law
Daily Breeze, by Jasmine Lee, July 28,2002
The Daddy Trap Missouri's child-support cops won't take
DNA for an answer.
The Pitch, by Deb Hipp, July 11, 2002
Ideology Still Trumps Science for Feminists
PRI/Contrarian, by Sally C. Pipes, July 8, 2002
Opposing view: Clearing up the paternity
process
Sacramento Bee, by Roderick D.Wright, July 12, 2002
The Daddy Trap Missouri's child-support cops won't take
DNA for an answer.
The Pitch, by Deb Hipp, July 11, 2002
Ideology Still Trumps Science for Feminists
PRI/Contrarian, by Sally C. Pipes, July 8, 2002
Angry father tried to arrest judge
Spousal support dispute leads to assault charge
The Toronto Star, by Cal Millar, staff reporter, Jun. 26, 2002
A disgruntled father in a spousal support case is facing an assault charge after attempting to arrest his judge for "crimes against humanity."
Peter Cornakovic, 42, of Burlington, was released on $50,000 bail yesterday after a hearing in Milton court.
Cornakovic, an accountant, and past president of father's rights group Fathers Are Capable Too (FACT), who has faced a seven-year legal battle since separating from his wife in 1995, was arrested June 13 after trying to arrest Mr. Justice Terrance O'Connor.
Cornakovic's position is that his support payments should be stopped because he has custody of his children and his ex-wife is living in a 3,000-square-foot home with her boyfriend.
'Dads' cleared by DNA fight 'paternity fraud'
Washington Times, by Cheryl Wetzstein, June 22, 2002
Editorial: What is fatherhood? It's more than biology -- much more.
Sacramento Bee, June 21, 2002
The Honourable Senator Landon Pearson received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa Gazette - June 7, 2002
When she was sworn in as a senator in 1994, Landon Pearson had two goals: to advance children's interests through legislation and to open up the political process so that children could participate in the decisions that affect them.
Group asks court to strike down spanking law
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.
Q: Should courts allow DNA testing to determine paternity
in child-support cases?
Insight Magazine, May 27. 2002
Girl, 14, pleads guilty to infanticide
Newborn boy dies after being abandoned on trail near home
Saskatoon StarPhoenix, SK, Heather Polischuk and Jason Warick, Senior Reporter, May 25, 2002
PRINCE ALBERT -- A 14-year-old girl pleaded guilty Friday to infanticide for abandoning her newborn baby along a seldom-used trail behind her home.
The teenager, who cannot be named under the Young Offenders Act, was also charged with first-degree murder, but that was dropped in exchange for her guilty plea to the lesser charge.
The girl walked into a bush on Oct. 2, 2001, near the home on the Whitefish reserve that she shared with several relatives and gave birth to the baby. She had hidden the pregnancy from her family, court heard.
The girl wrapped the baby boy in a blanket, placed him along the infrequently used trail and walked away.
The baby's body was discovered along the path two days later.
"Justice minister launches anti-bullying campaign, recalls playground ordeals"
Canadian Press, May 23, 2002
"Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole"
Canadian Press. Wednesday, May 22, 2002
KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.
Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.
But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.
Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.
"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday.
"The dark side of motherhood"
Are mothers who kill their children unnatural? Not necessarily, anthropologists and psychologists say
The Ottawa Citizen, Reuters, Sunday, May 12, 2002, by Kelly Patterson
It's the ones who look like the soccer mom next door who galvanize us when they kill their children -- Andrea Yates, Susan Smith and Melissa Drexler, better known as the "Prom Mom."
Their trials become international sensations, triggering a tidal wave of righteous condemnation from editorialists and igniting debate on everything from mental illness to the death penalty. But the real issue is motherhood: These women are the dark side of the modern mom, with her superhuman ethos of self-sacrifice and dedication, a cultural ideal that has been with us since Victorian times.
But does that ideal have any basis in reality? Do mothers have an innate urge to bond with their children, to nurture and protect them?
Maternal devotion is the ultimate "motherhood issue," and while left-wingers and right-wingers may haggle over whether men and women are equally able to devote themselves to their offspring, few question the assumption that all parents, and certainly women, have an innate ability to bond with their children.
But a growing number of scientists and psychologists say that, while it may be "natural" for mothers to love and care for their children, it is just as "natural," under some circumstances, for them not to.
Invisible Suicides
The Ottawa Citizen, by Jeffrey Asher, May 16, 2002
StatsCan recently reported on a 10% increase in suicides. But StatsCan persists in ignoring the group of Canadians at greatest risk for suicide, as do the media and professional reports. Suicide is a microcosm for those most under stress and most at risk of unresolved crisis in society. Suicides may logically be categorized as 100% citizens of Canada, and then as 79% male. The most critical measure of depression - suicide - is counted overwhelmingly in male corpses. For over 23 years widespread media and professional attention concentrated on 12,500 AIDS deaths, compared to little concern with 92,000 suicides.
Every three hours in Canada, another male kills himself. In the 1990s, at least 800 females ended their lives along with 3200 males. From 1960 to 1980 male suicides in the 20 - 24 age group increased by over 200%. After age 70, women's suicide rates decline gradually, but men's rates, already five times higher, rise another 50%. This startling male suicide data should have raised alarms decades ago among researchers and journalists across Canada. The absence of widespread prevention campaigns to save lives from more than 4000 suicides every year seems incomprehensible.
Academics see sex crimes in schoolyard 'Kids need to think'
NATIONAL POST, May 9, 2002, by Tom Blackwell
Anyone who spends much time in an elementary schoolyard has likely seen it -- children making lewd jokes at others' expense, pinching fellow students' buttocks and rating their classmates' body parts.
A new Canadian study confirms that such behaviour is, in fact, widespread among both boys and girls as early as in Grade 6. But the authors say the conduct should be viewed as sexual harassment, with the potential to do real damage to young people.
Previous studies had suggested the roots of the problem lay in the high school years.
But psychologists at York and Queen's Universities found that sexual harassment begins much earlier, perhaps related to children entering puberty.
Child poverty activists tell PM to put words into action
Canadian Broadcasting Company, Mon, May 6, 2002
YES: If DNA is used to free death-row inmates, we should accept it in paternity cases.
Insight magazine, Washington, D.C., U.S. By Dianna Thompson, May 6, 2002
NO: Biology shouldn't always be considered as destiny in child-support cases.
Insight magazine, Washington, D.C., U.S. By Jenny Skoble, May 6, 2002
Innocent lives falling through the cracks
Government must step up and help, aid workers warn
Canadian Press, By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI, Wednesday, May 1, 2002
TORONTO -- The horrific abuse suffered by children like little Randal Dooley will continue without immediate intervention from Ontario's new family services minister, aid workers warned Wednesday.
The battered seven-year-old died at the hands of his parents more than three years ago even when there were clear signs to educators, social workers and police that he was being abused.
And despite a study released more than a year ago that
exposed debilitating workload problems at agencies designed
to protect the welfare of children, things aren't getting
any better, child protection workers say.
Troubled parents and their children are routinely falling
through the cracks as workers fail to meet provincial guidelines,
said Rob Neil, a child protection worker in the Toronto
area.
Read More ..
Research proves that fatherhood really matters
Tallahassee Democrat, KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE, By Roland C.
Warren, April 20, 2002
Truth is no defense in state paternity suits
San Francisco Examiner, by Dianna Thompson, April 15, 2002
Paternity Fraud Action Alert Should Non-fathers Pay Child Support? / Help free forced fathers
Circumcision found to reduce cervical cancer in partners
The Jerusalem Post, By Judy Siegel, April, 14 2002
National Library of Canada - Bulletin
September / October 2002, Vol. 34, no. 5
Address by the Honourable Landon Pearson, Senator
Launch of the
International Forum on
Canadian Children's Literature: "The Fun of
Reading"
Sign of the times: Firm offers paternity testing on billboard
National Post, Susan Heinrich, March 30, 2002
"Quebec woman who killed child out of jealousy gets near-maximum 14 years"
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
QUEBEC (CP) -- A young woman who killed her baby stepdaughter by leaving the toddler to die of hypothermia under a cold shower will have to stay in jail until 2015 before she can seek parole.
Ginette Constant had previously been convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Francesca Amedee Daigle, 2, the daughter of her now estranged common-law husband.
She was jealous of the attention lavished on Francesca, feeling the girl's closeness with her father harmed the couple's relationship.
Superior Court Justice Gaston Desjardins turned down Constant's request on Monday for parole eligibility after the minimum 10 years, calling her crime "odious."
The 14-year sentence handed down by Desjardins includes one year for time already served. The Crown had sought a 15-year sentence before parole eligibility.
"This doesn't mean you will receive freedom then," Desjardins said in his sentencing verdict. "It means you will have the right to ask for it.
"It's a true shame that you committed this senseless act."
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
Ginette Constant had previously been convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Francesca Amedee Daigle, 2, the daughter of her now estranged common-law husband.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
She was jealous of the attention lavished on Francesca, feeling the girl's closeness with her father harmed the couple's relationship.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
Superior Court Justice Gaston Desjardins turned down Constant's request on Monday for parole eligibility after the minimum 10 years, calling her crime "odious."
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
The 14-year sentence handed down by Desjardins includes one year for time already served. The Crown had sought a 15-year sentence before parole eligibility.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
"This doesn't mean you will receive freedom then," Desjardins said in his sentencing verdict. "It means you will have the right to ask for it.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
"It's a true shame that you committed this senseless act."
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
Defence lawyers said they would appeal the sentence, which came two weeks after a jury convicted Constant.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
In 1999, Constant forced the baby to remain under cold running water, then shut off the washroom lights and closed the door.
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
The girl was left alone for 45 minutes, despite screaming and crying for help.
"Parent-child murders increasingly rare
'Not an epidemic': High-profiles cases are not evidence
of a growing trend, statistics show"
The National Post, By Brad Evenson, March 16, 2002
At first glance, it appears North America is suffering an epidemic of child murder.
This week, as Texas mother Andrea Pia Yates was convicted of drowning her five children, RCMP officers began their grim search for the remains of six Vancouver Island children who died in a suspicious house fire. Their father was charged yesterday with six counts of first-degree murder. Two days later, the search for Toronto two-year-old Alexis Currie ended when her father led police searchers to her body. The same day, a Smiths Falls, Ont., father was charged with killing his daughter.
Yet appearances can be deceptive. The truth is such tragedies are increasingly rare.
In 2000, according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 27 children died at the hands of their parents. The number was the same in 1975 when Canada's population was only 23 million -- 30% smaller than it is today.
DNA Shakes Up Child Support Law California Paternity Justice Act: If the Genes Don't Fit, You Must Acquit
by Glenn Sacks, www.glennsacks.com, March 15, 2002
Children of the gender wars
by Lisa De Pasquale, The Washington Times, March 15, 2002
The March 3 Parade magazine announced that, starting next year, the Ms.Foundation will expand its popular feminist holiday Take Our Daughters to Work Day to include boys. It will now be called Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Marie Wilson of the Ms. Foundation said, "Now we need to look at how girls and boys can progress together." This was, perhaps, in response to California male rights activist Joe Manthey's civil rights lawsuit against the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Manthey contends that government support of this holiday discriminates against boys. Mr. Manthey is correct in that assumption. However, the Ms. Foundation's plans are now doubly detrimental. It offers boys no benefits and subjects them to the same feminist propaganda girls have had to endure.
Beginning in 1995, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute began to expose this stealth feminist holiday that breeds victimology in girls and left boys behind year after year. At national press conferences, in speeches and op-ed pieces, the Luce Policy Institute exposed how the Ms. Foundation and Take Our Daughters to Work Day participants divide the sexes at a young age to foster the feminists' ideological agenda. It is now clear that the Ms. Foundation is including boys simply to expand their "gender sensitivity" program designed to retrain boys into girls and labels boys as oppressors of women. Read More ..
Family Court Bias and Injustice the Root Cause of Many Murder-Suicides
Men's News Daily, U.S.A., by Eeva Sodhi ( Eeva Sodhi is a freelance writer from Ontario, Canada), March 7, 2002
Last few decades have seen an alarming rise in the number of young men who see suicide as the only option out of despair. In Canada, the yearly toll is close to three thousand men, most of them in the prime of their lives.
Statistics Canada tells us that in year 2000 fourteen men and one woman also committed an act of family homicide before ending their own lives: 10 men killed their spouses, three men killed their spouses and children, one killed his child. There was one high profile case where a mother killed her child during an act of murder-suicide.
Based on the above, we can hardly conclude that we are facing an all-out epidemic of murderous men on the prowl, intent on killing their spouses and offspring. Rather, we are facing an epidemic of desperate men who see their own death as the only option.
Yet, we refuse to examine the causes for these multiple tragedies. Rather, commentators cite this as another example of male violence. Only in the exceptional case where a mother kills her child and then takes her own life do we strive to understand the underlying reasons. Read More ..
Circumcision, the unkindest cut
Toronto Sun and various other newspapers of the Sun Media chain across Canada, by Dr. Gifford-Jones, March 4, 2002
When I researched this column on circumcision, my initial reaction was "wow." I thought the topic would be as easy to write about as rolling off a log, but it took hours. I hadn't realized the male foreskin had triggered so many medical articles and so much controversy. Now I'm convinced that most families make a decision on circumcision without knowing much about this procedure. The question is, has male circumcision increased the sale of Viagra?
Circumcision unnecessary, say Sask. doctors
Canadian Press, CTV and various newspapers across Canada, February 21, 2002
REGINA - Routine circumcisions on baby boys is an unnecessary medical procedure, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan said Wednesday.
"For almost 2 1/2 decades now the Canadian Pediatric Society has pointed out there really is no research evidence to suggest benefit from the procedure that outweighs the risks of performing the procedure," said college registrar Dr. Dennis Kendel. Read More ..
"Exploiting deprived children for entertainment is sickening"
The Ottawa Citizen, by Dave Brown, February 22, 2002
In a rare look at afternoon television this week, I found deprived children being used for their entertainment value.
The experience left me with a sick feeling.
While channel surfing looking for Olympic coverage, I happened upon the Maury Povich Show, and stayed there for the better part of an hour. For the benefit of those who aren't exposed to afternoon television, here's an example of what you're missing.
Mr. Povich has found DNA testing is an entertainment tool. Mothers of fatherless children are invited to go public to get the cost of a DNA test covered. They name the man they believe impregnated them, and the ball is in play. The man is tracked down for a DNA sample and is interviewed. They show denial and great fear of paternity and the financial responsibility that goes with it. Refusing the sample may be a good idea, but that wouldn't get them on television. These guys have not been taught to get their thought processes above their zippers. Read More ..
The Los Angeles Daily Journal
Shouldn't Men Have a Choice, Too?
The Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, U.S., by Glenn Sacks, February 18, 2002
Parents lobby for public school with feminist slant
Go grrrl curriculum': Emphasis would be on studies,
not boys, at all-girls' school
NATIONAL POST, By Heather Sokoloff, February 12, 2002
Raise age of consent to protect youth, activists urge
Capitol One, By Liam Gerofsky, Jan. 18, 2002
OTTAWA Diane Sowden's daughter ran away from home and was lured into prostitution at the age of 13, after getting involved with a 27-year-old man.
"I went to the police to get her back and they said they couldn't do anything because there was no proof that they were sexually active."
"At 14, she became pregnant. So I went back to the police and said, 'She's pregnant.' And they said, 'Well, it's too late to do anything now, because the legal age of sexual consent is 14.'"
That was almost nine years ago and Sowden says she could not believe 14 was the legal age of consent in Canada.
The Criminal Code states that a person between 14 and 17 can consent to sexual activity as long as: no relationship of trust, authority or dependency exists; there is no payment or offer of payment for sex; and there is no anal sex. Read More ..
Scotland's National Newspaper
96% of women are liars, honest
5,000 women polled
Half the women said that if they became pregnant by another man but wanted to stay with their partner, they would lie about the baby's real father.
Forty-two per cent would lie about contraception in order to get pregnant, no matter the wishes of their partner.
Infidelity--It may be in our genes. Our Cheating Hearts
Devotion and betrayal, marriage and divorce: how evolution shaped human love.
South Korean Husband Wins Paternity Fraud Lawsuit
Associated Press, USA
June 1, 2004
South Korean husband successfully sues wife for Paternity Fraud and gets marriage annulled. Wins $42,380 in compensation
DNA test confirms fraud, annulment granted: judge
The Visayan Daily Star, Bacolod City, Philippines, BY CARLA GOMEZ, February 28, 2009
Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Ray Alan Drilon has annulled the marriage of a Negrense couple after a DNA test showed that the child borne by the wife was not the biological offspring of the husband who works abroad.
The family court judge ruled that the marriage of the couple, whose names are being withheld by the DAILY STAR on the request of the court, was null and void.
Due to fraud committed by the wife in getting her overseas worker husband to marry her, properties acquired during their marriage are awarded in favor of the husband, the judge said in his decision, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday.
The judge also declared that since the overseas worker is not the biological, much less the legitimate father of the child of the woman, the Civil Registrar is ordered to change the surname of the child to the mother's maiden name and remove the name of the plaintiff as father of the child.
The complainant said he was working as an electronics engineer in the United Arab Emirates and on his return to the Philippines in 2001, his girlfriend of 10 years with whom he had sex, showed him a pregnancy test result showing that she was pregnant.
On receiving the news he was overjoyed and offered to marry her. Shortly after he went to Saudi Arabia to work, and his wife gave birth to a baby girl in the same year.
The birth of the child only five months after their marriage puzzled him but his wife told him that the baby was born prematurely, so he believed her, the husband said. Read More ..
Adulterous woman ordered to pay husband £177,000 in 'moral damages'
The Daily Mail, UK
18th February 2009
An adulterous Spanish woman who conceived three children with her lover has been ordered to pay £177,000 in 'moral damages' to her husband.
The cuckolded man had believed that the three children were his until a DNA test eventually proved they were fathered by another man.
The husband, who along with the other man cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the children's identities, suspected his second wife may have been unfaithful in 2001.
Infidelity 'is natural'
BBC, U.K., September 25, 1998
Females 'stray to gather the best possible genes for their offspring'
Infidelity may be natural according to studies that show nine out of 10 mammals and birds that mate for life are unfaithful.
Experts found animals that fool around are only following the urges of biology.
New studies using genetic testing techniques show that even the most apparently devoted of partners often go in search of the sexual company of strangers.
Females stray to gather the best possible genes for their offspring, while males are driven to father as many and as often as possible.
"True monogamy actually is rare," said Stephen T Emlen, an expert on evolutionary behaviour at Cornell University.
About The truth
"All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed, Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur
Schopenhauer
(1788-1860)
The Issue of the Childs Right to Self Determination
The issue of child self-determinism has always been a central one in the struggle for children's rights. For virtually every other civil rights movement, it has been the discriminated themselves who have provided the drive towards liberation, and the ability to self-determine was assumed to be present. The Children's rights movement is fundamentally different, however, in that children, almost by definition, require somebody else to see to their needs until they are ready to assume control of their own lives. Read More ..
Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole
Canadian Press
Wednesday, May. 22, 2002
KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.
Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.
But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.
Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.
"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday.
Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
January 5, 1999
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.
Other countries don't allow assaults on children
Like Britain, countries such as Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Austria had a defence to assaults on children similar to our s. 43. These defences were removed between 1957 and 1977. The criminal law of these countries therefore gives children the same protection from assault as it gives adults. Beginning with Sweden in 1979, these countries also amended their civil child welfare laws to expressly prohibit corporal punishment so that the public fully understood it was illegal.
Dr. Benjamin Spock author of "Baby and Child Care", which has sold over 40 million copies is against circumcision
Dr. Spock now believes that circumcision of males is traumatic and painful
Redbook, April 1989
When a baby boy is circumcised, the sleeve of skin that normally covers the head of the penis (the foreskin) is pulled forward and cut off.
Circumcision is usually performed without anesthesia a few days after birth - on the now debunked myth that babies will not remember the pain later, although they certainly cry out with pain at the time.
Why you shouldn't see VAGINA MONOLOGUES
Lesbian Pedophilia and the rape of girls
Don't attend performances.
Family Conflict and Suicide Rates Among Men
by Dr. Hazel McBride Ph.D. June 9-10, 1995
Violence and Abuse within the Family: The Neglected Issues
A public hearing sponsored by The Honourable Senator Anne C. Cools on June 9-10, 1995 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Transcript of Dr. Hazel McBride's presentation on the relationship between family conflict and suicide rates among men.
Pediatricians turn away from circumcision
The United States is the only country that routinely circumcises baby boys for non-religious reasons
CNN, U.S.A.
March 1, 1999
ATLANTA (CNN) -- American pediatricians are turning away from the practice of routine circumcision, concluding that doctors have no good medical reason to perform the procedure.
The United States is the only country in the world that routinely removes the foreskins of infant boys. Critics of circumcision got additional ammunition Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a leading medical organization.
The academy concluded the benefits "are not compelling enough" for circumcision to be routinely administered.
A newborn winces in pain after a circumcision
Monday's statement, published in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics, was the academy's first in 10 years on the practice. But in recent years, medical societies in Canada, Britain and Australia have come out in opposition to routine circumcision.
Critics have long contended that removing the foreskin from the penis is traumatic, medically unnecessary and may reduce sexual pleasure later in life. As one critic, Dr. George Denniston, put it: "Who are we to question mother nature?"
Canadian researchers, whose study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, studied the heart rates and crying patterns of babies during different stages of circumcision.
In fact, in the study they found the babies suffered so much trauma that they stopped the study part way through.
The results were so compelling that they took the unusual step of stopping the study before it was scheduled to end rather than subjecting any Read More ..bies to circumcision.
One baby stopped breathing for 25 seconds from the trauma of having part of his foreskin severed. Read More ..