Fathers Day
Canadian Bar Association, December 2003, By Sheldon Gordon
The fathers rights movement has shaken the family law Bar, from law offices to courtrooms to government. Its members are dedicated to their cause, unwavering in their beliefs, and furious with judges, lawyers and politicians. They evoke sympathy from some and scorn from others, but they cant be ignored any longer.
In June 2002, Peter Cornakovic of Burlington, Ontario, entered a family court in Milton and approached the bench, while calling for the police to be summoned. Cornakovic then grabbed Justice Terrance OConnor and placed him under a "citizens arrest," allegedly under the provisions of the federal Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, based on some of the judges decisions that awarded custody to mothers instead of fathers.
The police did come and quickly arrested Cornakovic, who was upset with his court-ordered support payments and his seven-year court battle with his ex-wife. But although his citizens arrest went nowhere, Cornakovic did become something of a folk hero in some quarters specifically, to the growing number of fathers rights groups in Canada.
Stripping court of custody role
The Daily Telegraph, Australia, by TORY MAGUIRE, Political Reporter, December 30, 2003
THE hated Family Court could be stripped of power to cut costs and keep lawyers out of messy child custody battles.
It is part of sweeping reforms proposed by a federal committee, which also wants an overhaul of child support payments. The centrepiece of the unanimous bipartisan report is "shared parenting", even though it doesn't necessarily mean equal time in each home.
Separating couples would go through two "pre-court" tiers of negotiating, including compulsory mediation before seeking a "parenting order" from a new families tribunal.
A reduced Family Court would continue in cases where there is entrenched conflict, violence, substance and child abuse, and limited appeals.
Committee proposes family law overhaul
Australian Broadcasting Company, Monday, December 29, 2003
A federal parliamentary inquiry has recommended a wide-ranging shake-up of Australia's family law, including an overhaul of child custody payments.
The House of Representatives Family and Community Affairs Committee has recommended that in family breakdown situations, a 50-50 share of a child's custody should be the "standard objective" but says that aim should not be enshrined in law.
Prime Minister John Howard set up the joint parliamentary committee in June, asking it to investigate Australia's child custody system and "in particular, whether there should be a presumption that children will spend equal time with each parent and if so, in what circumstances such a presumption could be rebutted".
"We have concluded that the goal for the majority of families should be one of equality of care and responsibility, along with substantially shared parenting time," the report says. "They should start with an expectation of equal care.
Heir pushes for DNA use in his paternity suit
A scion of the Johnson & Johnson fortune wants a new law so he can limit a daughter's inheritance.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Trenton Bureau, December 28, 2003
TRENTON - J. Seward Johnson Jr. has a problem with the New Jersey Supreme Court: It won't let him prove whether a certain woman is his biological daughter.
For most ordinary folks, that's the end of the road. The state's highest court has spoken.
But Johnson, 73, is no ordinary person. He is a world-renowned sculptor. More important, his grandfather was a cofounder of Johnson & Johnson, the company that gave us the Band-Aid.
So Johnson - made wealthy in part from the sale of many Band-Aids - decided that he would try to get around the Supreme Court by asking state lawmakers to rewrite the law to expand the use of DNA in paternity cases.
The change could deny Jenia "Cookie" Johnson, who was born 42 years ago to Seward's then-wife, a slice of a Johnson family trust fund worth an estimated $350 million.
Since 2001, when the Supreme Court slammed the door on Seward Johnson and other relatives challenging Cookie's paternity, he has pushed to get favorable legislation to undo the high-court ruling.
Despite showering lawmakers and their party backers with $250,000 in campaign contributions, Johnson has been unsuccessful.
But he has not given up.
Attention deficit disorder on the rise in girls
Maclean's Magazine, Karen Richardson, December 23, 2003
The number of girls being diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has "strikingly increased," according to U.S. research.
ADHD is a common childhood behavioural disorder that can persist into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble functioning at home and in school because they are unable to focus, are impulsive or are easily distracted.
From 1990 to 2000, the rates of ADHD diagnosis and treatment increased significantly among children ages five through 18 years, according to researchers from Washington State University in Spokane.
Christmas in a War Zone
Fox News, December 23, 2003
What does Christmas look like in a war zone? Not in Iraq, but in North America -- where a cultural war is being waged between the right and the left over issues ranging from grade-school curricula to the definition of marriage. Read More ..
Boy adopted last month beaten to death
Associated Press, Various U.S. newspapers, December 22, 2003
SCHAUMBURG, Illinois (AP) -- A 6-year-old boy adopted from Russia only last month was beaten to death, and police charged his adoptive mother with murder. Read More ..
The Sydney University study
Sydney Morning Herald, December 21, 2003
Adolescent's Views On The Fairness Of Parenting And Financial Arrangements After Separation.
Quote -
When they were asked how parents should care for children after divorce, the most common answer was "equal" or "half and half".
Half the young people surveyed also said they wanted Read More ..me with their non-residential parents. Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Editorial: Youth centre's time has run out
Toronto Star, December 19, 2003 Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Letters to the Editor
Safety comes first for youth in custody
re: Close youth centre, report urges, December 16.
Toronto Star, December 18, 2003 Read More ..
University of Leeds, U.K.
Drifting towards Shared Residence?
To be published in Family Law, Vol 33, December 2003, Professor Carol Smart, Dr Bren Neale and Dr Jennifer Flowerdew, Centre for Research on Family, Kinship & Childhood, University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K. LS1 9JT
In 2001, we published the results of two linked research projects on childrens experiences of post-divorce family life (The Changing Experience of Childhood: Families and Divorce, Polity Press). In these studies we interviewed 117 children and young people aged 5 to 20 years (with the majority between 7 and 14) about the arrangements their parents had made over residence and contact and how they felt about spending time with both parents, whether they wanted different arrangements, and what things made their lives easier and what made things worse. Within this overall sample approximately thirty percent of the children were experiencing shared residence arrangements, which meant that they were spending approximately half their time with each parent. This could mean one week with one parent and the following week with the other, or half a week with each, and even some situations were children spent alternate nights with different parents. Sometimes these shared arrangements were based on a 60-40 split of the childs time rather than an equal 50-50 split. Read More ..
Social Behavior Among Monkeys May Be More Future Than Nurture
University Of Chicago Medical Center, Science Daily, December 12, 2003
An unusual experiment with monkeys who were switched between mothers shortly after birth has demonstrated the importance of nature over nurture in behavior.
Young monkeys reared by a mother other than their own are more likely to exhibit the aggressive or friendly behavior of their birth mothers rather than the behavior of their foster mothers, a University of Chicago researcher has shown for the first time.
The discovery of inheritability of social behavior traits among non-human primates has important implications for people as it reinforces other research that suggests that such characteristics as sociability and impulsive aggressiveness among humans may have a genetic basis, said Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in Human Development at the University. The work with monkeys may help other researchers understand the biological origins of characteristics that promote socialization among humans, he said.
Read More ..
New Canadian Study of Fathers
Study aims to salvage image of fatherhood. First of its kind in Canada: 'Fathers are often treated as buffoons in our public images'
National Post, December 4, 2003
University researchers hope to debunk the pop-culture image of fathers as incompetent bumblers with the first major national study of male parenting.
The $1.6-million study will look at everything from why so few fathers take paternity leave to the differences between straight and gay fathers in a five-year project involving eight universities, 25 community organizations and the federal government's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
"Our goal is to bring fatherhood out of the shadows," said Kerry Daly, a professor at University of Guelph's department of family research and co-chairman of the newly created Father Involvement Research Alliance.
"Fathers are often treated as buffoons in our public images. TV and advertising play on this idea that fathers are deficient and inadequate at what they do.
"That is not reflective of the sincere effort many men are making trying to be Read More ..volved with their children."
Divorces and Social Engineers Fathers face off against the marriage movement
REASONONLINE, by Cathy Young, December 2003
It is now a truth more or less universally acknowledged that children are better off when they have fathers and when their fathers are actively involved in their lives. But where do we go from there? Should the government be promoting fatherhood, marriage, and two-parent families? Or should it simply get out of the way and stop hindering fathers who want to do right by their children? The debate has pitted fathers' rights activists against advocates for marriage and "responsible fatherhood."
The government' s fatherhood programs, an offspring of the Clinton era, are thriving under Bush. One Bush-era innovation is marriage promotion: The government has spent millions on programs to encourage poor people on welfare to get married and to help them develop better "marriage skills," an effort that has drawn criticism both from feminists who worry about women being pressured to stay in abusive marriages and from libertarians less than thrilled by social engineering. Read More ..cently, some fathers' rights activists have declared the administration' s efforts part of an insidious machine that undermines rather than bolsters family and fatherhood.
The first salvo was fired by Stephen Baskerville, a political science professor at Howard University, in a May column for National Review Online that decried "government as family therapy." The government, Baskerville wrote, actively undermines marriage by allowing no-fault divorce and pursuing "one of the most dishonest and destructive policies ever foisted on the public: child-support enforcement."
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Deadbeat Web site planned
Toronto Star, by RICHARD BRENNAN, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, December 5, 2003
Mug shots of deadbeat parents will be posted on a government Web site to locate those who have ignored court-ordered child support, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday. Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Court backlog is biting
Cases could be tossed, auditor says Province acting on concerns: Bryant
Toronto Star, RICHARD BRENNAN AND ROBERT BENZIE
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, Dec. 3, 2003.
Thousands of criminal cases could be tossed out because of serious court backlogs, the provincial auditor's office warns in its annual report.
Jim McCarter, assistant provincial auditor, said yesterday the situation is far worse than in 1990 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Askov decision that people waiting for eight months or more for trial are being denied their civil rights to a fair hearing. About 50,000 criminal charges were dismissed as a result of an appeal of the Askov extortion case, which took more than three years to get to trial.
Deadbeat parents owe $1.3B: Auditor
System in grave danger of collapse, auditor says
Canadian Press, December 2, 2003
Tens of thousands of parents and children are owed $1.3 billion in court-ordered support payments and the government agency that collects and forwards the money is in "grave danger" of collapse, Ontario's provincial auditor reported today.
In a scathing assessment of the Family Responsibility Office, the report says the system created to protect women and children from negligent men has only grown worse since he highlighted its shortcomings in 1999.
With families often desperately awaiting their money, the audit found it took an average of seven months from the time the office received a complaint that a payment had not been made until it even began trying to collect. In some cases, two years went by between attempts to get the outstanding money.
"You basically have women and children who are depending on these support payments (and) depending on the government to help them out to make sure they get their money," said Jim McCarter, assistant provincial auditor.
"Unless this thing is fixed, the government is not helping them out, they're not getting their money and it's creating extreme hardship for these people."
Part of the problem, the report notes, is that the number of front-line workers has fallen by 20 per cent since 1994, while their caseload shot up by almost 50 per cent.
Poverty Falls for Mothers With Custody
Associated Press, By GENARO C. ARMAS, Dec. 2, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of mothers with custody of their children and living in poverty fell by almost a third between 1993 and 2001, the Census Bureau said in a report Tuesday.
Roughly 25 percent of all mothers with custody - about 2.8 million women - lived in poverty in 2001, down from nearly 37 percent, or 4.2 million women, eight years earlier.
Experts cite changes implemented in the welfare overhaul of 1996 as the main reason for the decrease, as states cracked down on deadbeat fathers while nudging single mothers off public assistance rolls and into jobs.
More than 45 percent of women due child support in 2001 received the full amount they were owed, about the same proportion as two years earlier.
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Gender gap emerges in school readiness
Toronto Star- Editorials and Opinion, Nov. 26, 2003. Read More ..
No cash for junking junk food
Canadian Press, Nov. 25, 2003.
Education Minister Gerrard Kennedy plans to go ahead as soon as possible with the Liberals' plan to get rid of junk food and sugary drinks in elementary schools - but schools shouldn't expect to be compensated.
"We don't expect them to be offering junk food to kids in elementary school," Kennedy said today before a caucus meeting.
INDEPTH: GENDER GAP
Boy's Own Story
CBC November 25, 2003
A boy's day is like a comic strip, full of conquest and bravado. Every boy is a superhero. But ask most boys and they'll say they'd rather live the adventure than read about it.
Little change in child poverty rates
Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), November 24th, 2003 Read More ..
The many ways to abuse a child
National Post, Diane Francis, November 22, 2003 Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Youth jail `alarming' to lawyers
Toronto Star, HAROLD LEVY, Staff Reporter, Nov. 18, 2003 page B5 Read More ..
Dad's case now a feminist cause celebre
He won a court fight to have his name on his sons' birth certificates but some say the ruling was flawed
Vancouver Sun, by Ian Mulgrew, November 14, 2003 Read More ..
Former Army Paratrooper Faces Paternity Fraud
ATLANTA, November 12, 2003, U.S. Newswire Read More ..
TWO PARENTS, TWO CRIBS
Babies May Benefit From Overnight Visits With Noncustodial Parents
American Bar Association, Journal Reporter, November 7, 2003 Read More ..
MPs consider rules for reproductive technologies
TORONTO - The House of Commons debated a bill Friday that could make it Read More ..mplicated for infertile couples to have a baby.
Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) October 28, 2003 Read More ..
PARENTS SPOILED GIRLS, STARVED BOYS: COPS
New York Post, By ANGELINA CAPPIELLO and KATE SHEEHY, October 27, 2003 Read More ..
Dianna Thompson & Murray Davis: Child support system doesn't give parents a chance
Rather than shame for pressed parents, how about help?
Lansing State Journal, Lansing Michigan, U.S.A., Dianna Thompson & Murray Davis, October 26, 2003 Read More ..
University of Leeds - Press Release
Shared residency not a 'magic solution'
October 17, 2003
Children who split their time equally between their parents houses after divorce or separation may find this arrangement increasingly difficult as they get older, according to new research from the University of Leeds. Read More ..
CBC INDEPTH: MISSING CHILDREN
Amber Alert FAQs
Gary Graves and Justin Thompson, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News Online, Updated October 21, 2003
What is Amber?
Amber is an alert system established in the United States and since adopted in Canada to publicize child abductions. It uses electronic highway signs and designated local broadcasters to announce the child's name and description, and the description of any vehicle suspected to be involved in the abduction. It's named after a Texas girl, Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered near Dallas. The umbrella agency that oversees Amber has created the acronym for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response." The Hagerman murder remains unsolved. Read More ..
Home-Alone Tot In Good Shape
Toddler Survives 3 Weeks Alone
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., U.S. October 1, 2003 Read More ..
Reasons Why Young Men Commit Suicide
By John von Radowitz, Science Correspondent, PA News , September 28, 2003 Read More ..
High court considers child custody rules
Post Crescent, The Associated Press, September 17, 2003 Read More ..
Child Murders
CBC INDEPTH: MISSING CHILDREN, CBC News Online, July 23, 2004
When a child is murdered in Canada, it's usually at the hands of a relative, not a stranger.
Family members were to blame in almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the 1,990 solved cases of children and youth homicides in Canada between 1974 and 1999, according to Statistics Canada. Twenty-seven per cent of the murders were committed by acquaintances, and only 10 per cent by strangers. Read More ..
Safe haven
To try to prevent tragedy, most US states have now legalized child abandonment, but critics ask if the new laws are saving babies.
The Christian Science Monitor - csmonitor.com, July 24, 2003, By Mary Wiltenburg, Staff writer
Wherever their thin cries go up, they make ghoulish headlines. Already this summer, newborns have been abandoned at a Washington, D.C., construction site and on a Pennsylvania roadside. Some have been found dead, others nearly so. Every state has its horror stories.
As of this month, most states have new laws designed to prevent such tragedies. Texas's "Baby Moses" law touched off the trend in 1999, after 13 abandonments in the Houston area in 10 months caused a public outcry. Since then, 45 states have adopted "safe haven" laws, allowing mothers to legally abandon newborns at hospitals and other designated places. They join a number of European countries - France, Germany, Italy, and Luxembourg, among them - that for some years have had similar laws.
Now, as states - Wyoming, most recently - continue to legalize child abandonment, they are coming under fire from adoption advocates and other critics. Though proponents mean well, critics say, the laws undermine established child welfare policy - and after four years, there is no clear evidence that they are helping.
"When I hear advocates say, 'If it saves just one baby's life, isn't it worth it?' I want to say: 'Yes! Of course it's worth it,' " says adoption expert Adam Pertman. "These cases pull so hard at our emotional heartstrings. But are these laws really saving babies? There's no research that says they are. And are they doing anything for their mothers? Yeah: They're sending them away."
What do the laws do?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, three states - Alaska, Nebraska, and Vermont - have not yet considered legalizing infant abandonment. Massachusetts is currently debating the issue, and Hawaii's governor this month became the first in the nation to veto safe- haven legislation.
Mystery of mummified baby solved
Businesswoman's daughter: Toronto detective determines girl died in 1985
National Post, by Siri Agrell, Friday, June 27, 2003
The diaper helped police determine when the baby died.: (Photo ran in all editions except Toronto.)
TORONTO - A mummified baby girl found in a storage locker in an upscale Toronto condominium was hidden by her mother in 1985, police concluded yesterday.
The child was found 10 days after Joanne Patterson died of cancer on June 6, 2001.
For two years, deputy chief coroner Jim Cairns and Detective Mike Stoker have worked to unravel the mystery surrounding the baby's identity and the events leading up to her discovery, wrapped in blankets and a green garbage bag and hidden among boxes of Christmas tree decorations and old suitcases.
"It all started with just being curious," Det. Stoker said, adding the baby had been stored in several places as Ms. Patterson moved over the years.
The tiny body, weighing only about half a kilogram, was found in a fifth-floor storage locker of the waterfront building where Ms. Patterson lived before her death.
The child was mummified -- the process whereby dehydration under hot, dry conditions causes vital organs to shrink, leaving only the skull and skeleton unaltered.
Ontario child advocate sees threat to office
The Globe and Mail, (Canada's largest national newspaper ), By MARGARET PHILP, Thursday, Jun. 26, 2003
Sugar has been poured into her gas tank and dead squirrels left on her porch. Her windows have been smashed and hubcaps stripped. A stalker who knew her bra size and favourite food harassed her for months.
Hers has been a career more fitting the politics of a corrupt dictatorship than a tame Ontario government where her job for the past 13 years has been to speak on behalf of the invisible children stuck in government-licensed group homes and correctional facilities.
But the toughest battle of Ontario chief child advocate Judy Finlay's career may still lie ahead.
The Ontario government wants to limit the powers of its child advocate in an apparent move to muzzle an office that routinely criticizes its treatment of the 23,000 troubled children in its care.
Fighting for the independence of her office, Ms. Finlay broke a self-imposed silence to reveal restrictions she says threaten her role as watchdog.
In abuse, men are victims, too
The Boston Globe, by Cathy Young, June 16, 2003 on page A15 of - Editorial / Opinion
THE FAMILY Violence Prevention Fund is marking Father's Day with a campaign to honor men who have pledged themselves to an effort to stop violence against women and children. It sounds like a positive and inspirational effort. Yet on second thought, one can see why some fathers' activists are rankled. Imagine a Mother's Day campaign that focused on stopping women's abuse of children.
On the campaign's website, the organizers congratulate themselves on seeing men as not just ''the problem'' in domestic violence but a part of the solution. So far, so good. But the underlying approach is still one that assumes the perpetrators are men and the victims are women, ignoring the complex picture of family violence that emerges from nearly three decades of research. Read More ..
Psychiatric Association Debates Reclassifying Pedophilia
By Lawrence Morahan, CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer, June 11, 2003
1st Add: Includes additional language from report
(CNSNews.com) - In a step critics charge could result in decriminalizing sexual contact between adults and children, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently sponsored a symposium in which participants discussed the removal of pedophilia from an upcoming edition of the psychiatric manual of mental disorders.
Psychiatrists attending an annual APA convention May 19 in San Francisco proposed removing several long-recognized categories of mental illness - including pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism and sadomasochism - from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Read More ..
Report Presented at American Psychiatric Association Symposium
Gender Identity Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Critical Inquiry
By Darryl B. Hill, et al, CNSNews.com Information Services, June 11, 2003
Hammering it home: Daughters need dads
USA TODAY, By Marilyn Elias, June 10, 2003
It's widely recognized that boys benefit from having dads around as role models and teachers about manhood.
By Rob Sweeney, American Spectrum
But does having a father at home make much difference for girls?
It's widely recognized that boys benefit from having dads around as role models and teachers about manhood.
But does having a father at home make much difference for girls?
As Father's Day approaches, a new movie and a large new study explore this question. They provide sobering answers that might be hard for some to hear.
Blue Car, the Miramax film, runs just 86 minutes but has some parents on the edge of their seats the entire time. Agnes Bruckner, 16, portrays Meg Denning, the older daughter in a divorced family. She's a gifted poet whose yearning for her absent dad surfaces in spare, exquisite verse that catches the eye of Mr. Auster, her high school English teacher.
New Youth Crime Act
Maclean's, ( national Canadian magazine ), by SUSAN MCCLELLAND, June 9, 2003
AT FIRST GLANCE, Greg looks much like the other inmates at the Toronto Youth Assessment Centre. Shoulder-length black hair pulled back in a ponytail, he's dressed in standard-issue burgundy T-shirt, sweatpants and running shoes with Velcro fasteners. But Greg is the boss of his cellblock, or what inmates call "the range" - and a symbol of what's wrong with prisons for kids. His territory isn't much to brag about: the cramped cells and cluttered common areas at TYAC smell of rotting food, sweat and smuggled-in cigarettes. Still, Greg (a pseudonym - like all the young offenders in this story, he can't be identified) enjoys the privileges of power. The previous night, he says, he was charged for beating up another inmate but was released from solitary confinement early because another kid on the range agreed to take the blame. And at dinner, a tall skinny kid gets him an extra slice of pizza and exchanges his milk for juice. "I hate milk," Greg explains to a visitor. Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
"Supreme Court rules in favour of dads"
The Toronto Star, from Canadian Press, June 6, 2003
OTTAWA Mothers who arbitrarily refuse to acknowledge the fathers of their children shouldn't be allowed sole power to name their children, Canada's highest court says.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 today to strike down British Columbia's Vital Statistics Act because it violates guaranteed equality rights.
Under the act, mothers who "unacknowledge" the father can register and name their children without the dad's input.
That's unconstitutional, the high court said. But it suspended the effect of its ruling for 12 months, allowing the province time to change its law.
At the heart of the case is an unmarried B.C. father's fight to have his triplet sons bear his last name.
While it's a victory for men, the judgment won't immediately help Darrell Trociuk.
It orders the B.C. legislature - and, in effect, others with similar laws - to draft rules that better reflect the interests of both mothers and fathers. But it stops short of granting Trociuk the outcome he most wanted: to give his seven-year-old sons at least a hyphenated last name.
Court: Dads have right to name kids too
Canadian Press, by SUE BAILEY, June 6, 2003
OTTAWA (CP) - Mothers shouldn't have sole power to name a child when they arbitrarily refuse to acknowledge the father, Canada's highest court says.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 Friday to strike down British Columbia's Vital Statistics Act because it violates guaranteed equality rights. Under the act, mothers who "unacknowledge" the father can register and name their children without the dad's input.
That's unconstitutional, the high court said. But it suspended the effect of its ruling for 12 months, allowing the province time to change its law.
At the heart of the case is an unmarried B.C. father's fight to have his triplet sons bear his last name.
While it's a victory for men, the judgment won't immediately help Darrell Trociuk.
It orders the B.C. legislature - and, in effect, others with similar laws - to draft rules that better reflect the interests of both mothers and fathers. But it stops short of granting Trociuk the outcome he most wanted: to give his seven-year-old sons at least a hyphenated last name.
First ruling for male equality
re: Birth Certificate - father's info
The Globe and Mail, By KIRK MAKIN June 6, 2003
A British Columbia man whose name was left off birth certificates for his triplet sons suffered sex discrimination, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday in its first decision in favour of male equality rights.
The court struck down a law that caused Darrell Trociuk to be excluded from birth registration documents and in so doing shifted away from using equality guarantees only to help historically disadvantaged groups such as women, minorities and the disabled.
Since 1985, when the Charter of Rights equality guarantee came into force, the court has used as a yardstick whether an individual alleging discrimination is part of a historically disadvantaged group.
"This argument is ill-founded as a matter of logic and law," Madam Justice Marie Deschamps said in the ruling released yesterday. She said the yardstick remains important, but it cannot be used to reject a claim of discrimination out-of-hand from someone who is not part of a historically disadvantaged group.
"At the end of the day, it is a victory for men," Mr. Trociuk's lawyer, Daim Shane, said yesterday. "But in the long run, I think it will help parents and children overall. I hope it will all lead toward more use of joint custody."
Local groups on federal "hate list"
Kamloops This Week, Kamloops B.C., June 6, 2003 Read More ..
Truth should prevail in paternity
State may finally stop forcing men to pay support for kids they didn't father
Orange County Register, California, U.S.A., By DIANNA THOMPSON and CARNELL SMITH, Thursday, June 5, 2003 Read More ..
Feminists, masculinists, blacklists
National Post, Neil Seeman, June 4, 2003
Researchers for Status of Women Canada have drawn up an enemies' list, and I'm on it. The list of prominent purveyors of "masculinist discourse" is posted on the ministry's Web site.
It includes children's rights groups viewed as not feminist approved. Read More ..
"This Is a World Made for Women"
The Pell Institute's Thomas Mortenson says today's education system isn't preparing boys for the New Economy -- and that hurts women, too
BusinessWeek magazine, USA, May 26, 2003
Thomas Mortenson is a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. For a decade, his campaign has been a lonely and frustrating one: convincing educators, politicians, and parents that boys are in trouble. BusinessWeek Working Life Editor Michelle Conlin talked to Mortenson about how the crisis could affect women.. Read More ..
"Murder in the nursery"
Australian mom killed her 4 babies
TORONTO SUN, By Michele Mandel, May 23, 2003
It seemed a tragic coincidence - at first. Read More ..
Who's the Daddy?
Up to three million Britons may be wrong about who their real father is, experts claim. But using DNA paternity tests to discover the truth can cause its own problems.
BBC, U.K., May 16, 2003
Dad's got blue eyes, Baby brown...
When Tessa found out she was pregnant after fertility treatment, she felt a mix of delight and doubt.
This wasn't simply pre-baby nerves - she suspected that her husband might not be the father. For Tessa had started sleeping with a colleague when the stress of the ongoing treatment became too much.
Keen to build a family with her husband, she let him believe the baby was his. But her lover threatened to reveal all if she ended the affair, and Tessa soon fell pregnant again. This time, her lover started to make nuisance calls to her home.
Tessa had no choice but to tell her husband. "I said to him, 'I've had an affair and you may not be the father of my children.' So with that, he went up the stairs, got dressed and left. And that was it," Tessa says in Women Who Live a Lie, a programme for the BBC's Five Live Report. Read More ..
Children living in poverty unchanged in 10 years despite pledges to end it
Canadian Press, LORRAYNE ANTHONY, Tuesday, May 13, 2003
OTTAWA (CP) - Child poverty in Canada has been stuck at virtually the same level for the past decade despite a motion, passed unanimously in the House of Commons, to eliminate it by 2000.
The latest snapshot of income released Tuesday by Statistics Canada as part of the 2001 census showed there were just over 1.2 million children living in low-income households in 2000. The proportion - 18.4 per cent - is slightly higher than a decade earlier, when 18.2 per cent of children were living in low-income families. It's down only slightly from 19.4 per cent in 1980.
"There really hasn't been a change - if anything it's edged up slightly," Mikal Skuterud, an income analyst with Statistics Canada said Tuesday. "In fact there are Read More ..ildren in low income." Read More ..
Sheriff: Texas woman says God told her to kill sons
No decision on seeking death penalty, attorney says
CNN, May 13, 2003
TYLER, Texas (CNN) -- Whether authorities will seek the death penalty against a Texas woman accused of beating to death two of her three young sons has not been decided, according to the district attorney who will try the case.
Smith County D.A. Jack Skeen said he wants to wait until all the evidence is gathered before making that decision in the capital murder case of Deanna LaJune Laney, 38.
In Texas, a capital murder charge carries a punishment of either life in prison or death. Read More ..
Woman held in beating deaths of sons
The Globe and mail, Associated Press, Tuesday, May. 13, 2003, Page A15 Read More ..
Texas woman accused of killing her kids
Associated Press, various newspapers and media in U.S.A. and Canada By LISA FALKENBERG, May 12, 2003
TYLER, Texas (AP) - A woman charged with bludgeoning two of her sons to death with rocks and critically injuring a third child may not understand the capital murder and aggravated assault charges against her, her lawyer said in court Monday.
Two days after Deanna LaJune Laney, 38, called 911 to report killing two of her sons, the petite woman appeared in court, wide-eyed and nodding responsively when District Court Judge Cynthia Kent asked her if she understood her rights. Laney's newly appointed lawyer, F.R. (Buck) Files, questioned Laney's understanding of the situation.
"I'm not sure if she can truthfully say she understands what is going on," Files told the judge.
Laney is accused of killing Joshua Laney, 8, and Luke Laney, 6, and injuring their 14-month-old brother, Aaron. The toddler remained in critical condition Monday at a Dallas hospital. Read More ..
Texas mother beats children to death
Associated Press, U.S.A., Monday, May. 12, 2003 Read More ..
Sweden Backs Off U.S.-Style Child Support Reforms
Government Investigation Reveals Fundamental Flaws
Fathering Magazine, by Roger F. Gay, May 6, 2003, Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Youth crime law to get overhaul
Ottawa to consult with provinces on possible amendments
Won't appeal Quebec ruling declaring parts unconstitutional
Toronto Star, May. 2, 2003, page A6 Read More ..
Paternity Fraud Legislation Sweeps the Nation
Group Plans Town Hall Meeting in NJ Showing Plight of Victimized Families
Men's News Daily - Newswire, New Jersey, United States, April 30, 2003
A fact that many find astonishing is that many men nationwide are forced by court order to pay child support for other men's children, or face jail time. These deceived men are referred to as "duped dads" by some. In 2000, The American Association of Blood Banks found that in almost 30 percent of the paternity tests conducted the man being tested was not the biological father.
These men are victims of paternity fraud. Paternity fraud victims can be married or divorced men as well as unmarried men. Most states, including New Jersey, rely on a 500-year-old English common-law doctrine that says that any child born of a marriage is legally presumed the child of the husband. Read More ..
"Kids get rights to lawyers"
Alberta offers support in custody battles
NATIONAL POST - Reprinted From Calgary Herald, Wednesday, April 30, 2003 Read More ..
An Equal Opportunity Athlete
School Without Walls Has Only Girls' Lacrosse, So What's a Boy to Do?
The Washington Post, April 29, 2003 Read More ..
Mysterious Decline-Where Are the Men on Campus?
National Post, by Philip W. Cook and Glenn Sacks, April 29, 2003
The Trend is Clear
Everybody wants to know where all the men have gone. The Washington Post calls their disappearance the "question that has grown too conspicuous to ignore," and USA Today notes "universities fret about how to attract males as women increasingly dominate campuses."
Females now outnumber males by a four to three ratio in American colleges, a difference of almost two million students. Men earn only 43% of all college degrees. Among blacks, two women earn bachelor's degrees for every man. Among Hispanics, only 40 percent of college graduates are male. Female high school graduates are 16% more likely to go to college than their male counterparts.
"This is new. We have thrown the gender switch," says Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. "What does it mean in the long run that we have females who are significantly Read More ..terate, significantly Read More ..ucated than their male counterparts? It is likely to create a lot of social problems. This does not bode well for anyone." Read More ..
Money for abused
Mount Cashel victims offered deal
Canadian Press, Toronto Sun, Thursday, April 24, 2003
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. -- Victims of abuse at the hands of Christian brothers at the Mount Cashel orphanage will receive between $20,000 and $600,000 in compensation.
But first they will have to agree to abandon all legal action against the province, police or the Roman Catholic Church -- a stipulation that angers some victims.
"The government has responsibility, liability for what went wrong," said J.J. Byrne, a former Mount Cashel resident and spokesman for victims, in an interview yesterday. Read More ..
Media Release - The Government of Canada
Government of Canada Announces Funding for the University College of Cape Breton Children's Rights
SYDNEY, April 25, 2003 -- Mark Eyking, Member of Parliament (Sydney-Victoria), on behalf of Minister Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps, today announced funding of $29,487 for the University College of Cape Breton Children's Rights Centre to help finance the reprint and translation of its Grades 6 and 8 curricula on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Read More ..
Missing boy found in B.C.
Ex-Ottawa woman charged in son's abduction
Ottawa Sun, By LAURA CZEKAJ, April 3, 2003
A 12-YEAR-OLD Ottawa boy who was allegedly abducted by his mother eight years ago has been found living in a rural British Columbia community.
Oceanside RCMP raided a cottage in Coombs, near Parksville, B.C., Tuesday around 9 p.m. and arrested a 49-year-old former Ottawa woman on an outstanding Canada-wide warrant for parental abduction.
The boy, who cannot be identified, was taken into the custody of the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development. His father, a Parry Sound resident, was en route last night to reunite with his son, said Rhonda Morgan, executive director of the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC), which has spearheaded the investigation since 1996. Read More ..
Ruling alters alimony for divorced dads in Pa. paternity cases
Associated Press, By: PATRICK WALTERS, April 1, 2003, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
more than five years after William Doran and his wife were divorced in 1995, he says, he began suspecting their son wasn't really his.
Because the 10-year-old didn't look or act like him, Doran asked his ex-wife, Pamela Smigiel, if they could conduct a paternity test. Those tests showed he was not the father and that the child belonged to a man Smigiel had an affair with, according to Luzerne County court records.
Now, the Superior Court has ruled Doran doesn't have to keep paying $400 a month in child support, a decision that alters the legal landscape in Pennsylvania paternity cases. Read More ..
Child poverty sad survivor of the boom
Rate in Ontario was higher in 2000 than in 1989
Report blames loss of social supports to poor families
The Toronto Star, PATRICIA ORWEN, SOCIAL POLICY REPORTER, March 26, 2003
There are more poor children in Ontario now than there were during the last economic boom in 1989, and they are deeper in poverty, says a new report by an organization that monitors child welfare.
In the boom year of 2000, the province was home to 390,000 children defined as poor, a 41 per cent increase over the decade, according to yesterday's report by Ontario Campaign 2000, part of a national coalition seeking to hold Parliament to its 1989 pledge to end child poverty by 2000.
"The saddest part of all this is that the economy improved over that time and a lot of people became more prosperous, but the most vulnerable were left behind," said Pedro Barata, author of Child Poverty Persists, Time to Invest in Children and Families. Read More ..
Landry vows strong action on child poverty
Quebec 'situation is better' than Ontario, campaigning premier says.
Canadian Press, Michelle Macafee , March 24th, 2003
MONTREAL ??? Quebec has done a better job of taking care of its poor than more prosperous provinces such as Ontario, Premier Bernard Landry said today. And if re-elected April 14, a Parti Quebecois government would fight poverty even more aggressively in keeping with a new law aimed at eliminating poverty in Quebec within 10 years. "It's a societal choice," Landry told a news conference. "The Ontario government chose one path, we chose another and today the results are there. In Ontario, compared to Quebec, and in Toronto compared to Montreal, our situation is better." Read More ..
Mom faces abduction charges as missing girl found
By Sarah Green, Ottawa Sun, Monday, March 17, 2003
TORONTO - Alexandra MacDonald is home safe and her mother faces abduction charges after the 12-year-old girl went missing for 60 hours from her grandparents' Port Colborne home.
Four adults, including Alexandra's mother, were arrested early yesterday after police found the girl in a bedroom of a Toronto couple's apartment. Read More ..
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Edmonton passes anti-bullying bylaw
Measure will be useful tool, police explain
Toronto Star, by ISABEL TEOTONIO, March 11, 2003
EDMONTON (CP) - Edmonton became the first Canadian city today to make bullying illegal and fine tormentors a minimum of $250.
Supporters say they hope the new bylaw will make young people think twice before threatening and intimidating anyone.
"It won't deter everybody, but hopefully it will have an effect on some students," said Coun. Jane Batty, chair of the community services board that put forth the issue. Read More ..
What God Has Joined Together
Divorced Against His Will
by Stephen Baskerville, March 10, 2003
The worldwide crisis of the family is now inspiring urgent attempts to strengthen marriage and promote responsible fatherhood. The divorce rate is upwards of 50 percent, and some 40 percent of children now live in homes without their fathers. Read More ..
PORN VICTIM
Kids of abusive 'monster' got life sentence
Toronto Sun, By HIMANI EDIRIWEERA, March 9, 2003
He's a man in pain, chased by the ghosts of his past. His greatest fear as a child wasn't the monsters in his closet; his greatest fear was the monster he called "mom." Read More ..
Abusive Mother ordered to pay children $975,000
Older siblings are terrorized, younger ones are treasured
National Post, Francine Dube, Friday, March 7, 2003 Read More ..
Female Teacher Charged With Sex Assault on Seventh-Grade Boy
Associated Press, various newspapers in U.S.A. and Canada, Tuesday, February 25, 2003
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — A 35-year-old seventh-grade teacher was charged with having sex with one of her students at least 20 times at the teacher's home.
Jodi Thorp, 35, surrendered to authorities Monday on charges of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors claim she had sex with the boy at her Mendham home between June 2001 and September 2002. The boy is now 15. Read More ..
UNDERCOVER SEX ED: BOY’S TALE OF GROUP SLEEPOVERS
New York Post, By Marsha Kranes, February 26, 2003
The married New Jersey teacher accused of having a 15-month affair with one of her students shared her bed with the teen during group sleepovers at her home, according to a court document.
The 15-year-old boy told authorities he had sex at least 20 times with teacher Jodi Thorp, 35, who is now seven-months pregnant.
The hot and heavy relationship began in June 2001, after the boy, known to his friends as “Tweety,” joined a nonprofit program Thorp ran for gifted and talented students in inner-city Paterson, where she’s been a public-school teacher for four years. It ended last September.
Alan Bonder, the teen’s lawyer, said the boy’s mother is “very concerned” that her son might be responsible for Thorp’s pregnancy.
Custody granted to child abusers
Toronto agency made realization only after child died: 'We didn't check the file' on the grandparents' assault convictions, CAS director admits
National Post, Christie Blatchford, February 22, 2003
TORONTO - Two convicted child abusers won custody of their four young grandchildren even as information about the pair's criminal records was buried in the files of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto.
The National Post has confirmed that only after one of those grandchildren, five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin, died an emaciated shell of a little boy last Nov. 30 and a Toronto Police homicide investigation began, did the child-welfare agency belatedly discover the critical documents in their own system.
Don't say 'vagina' to Moncton
The Globe and Mail, By REBECCA CALDWELL, Tuesday, February 11, 2003,Print Edition, Page R2
The weather is chilly in Moncton as the city recovers from last week's ice storm that left many homes and businesses without power. And local producers of The Vagina Monologues are perhaps finding it colder still, as the New Brunswick city's attitude toward the show's title proves to be downright frigid.
"People get all giggly and squeamish when they hear the word," says Debby Warren, one of the organizer's for the Feb. 26 benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues at Moncton's Capitol Theatre. "But worse, we've had companies very reluctant to support us, people who wouldn't return our phone calls. One person I spoke to wouldn't send out our e-mail poster to their 700 employees because he didn't think his boss would think it is a good idea."
Ironically, The Vagina Monologues is principally about people's discomfort with the word and what it symbolizes. According to the show's Web site, the word vagina is said 136 times during the production.
Divorce's effect on kids 'neglected'
Social worker wonders why issue not tackled
Calgary Herald, Mario Toneguzzi - February 10, 2003
Father fights for sons health records - Non-custodial parents barred from CHR data
Calgary Herald, MARIO TONEGUZZI, February 15, 2003
Calgary Health Region policy of denying biological parents information about their children unless they also have custody is sparking a heated
court battle.
A local man, who was denied access to his boys, medical records, is fighting the CHRs written policy, claiming it discriminates against him on the basis of marital status and it prevents him from gaining important medical information about his son.
Where the boys are
The Globe and Mail, by INGRID PERITZ, February 1, 2003, Print Edition, Page F8
Academically, boys across the country are lagging behind the girls, but a Montreal public school has seen dramatic improvement by separating the sexes in classes. It allows teachers to tailor curriculum and style to suit each sex. The result? The number going on to college has nearly doubled. INGRID PERITZ reports
MONTREAL -- The teenage girls at James Lyng High School like to flirt with boys. They like to tease them, joke with them, even date them sometimes. But attend class with them? As the giggling girls in one math class this week might say, "Gross."
Luckily, they don't have to. Coed James Lyng splits boys and girls up at the classroom door. The division of the sexes is credited with helping turn a faltering inner-city high school into an education success story. Read More ..
"Light sentence for baby death appalling"
Edmonton Sun, By MINDELLE JACOBS, January 29, 2003
While the law has evolved over the centuries to reflect changing norms, we're still as uncomfortable as ever with the notion of female criminality.
How else to explain the sentence - if you can call it that - Sabrina Gail Milne received Monday for letting her 18-month-old daughter starve to death?
Milne fed baby Alissa for the last time one Friday last January in Grande Prairie, shut the bedroom door and then pretended she didn't exist.
Ignoring her baby's cries, she did household chores and chatted with family and friends on the phone. Two days later, she looked in on Alissa who was long dead.
"She knew what she was doing," said provincial court Judge Gary Mitchell. "She put her own comfort and convenience and health ahead of her child's."
Too bad the denunciation wasn't accompanied by an appropriate penalty. Milne, now 23, pleaded guilty in July to failing to provide the necessities of life. The maximum punishment is two years in jail.
Canada's largest daily newspaper
Woman charged in abandoned baby case
Mira making 'remarkable' recovery
The Toronto Star, PETER EDWARDS AND TANYA TALAGA, STAFF REPORTERS January 28, 2003
A 41-year-old homeless woman is to appear in College Park court this morning, charged with abandoning a newborn girl on a freezing cold night last week at Nathan Phillips Square.
She faces charges of failure to provide the necessaries of life and child abandonment after a baby, who was just minutes old, was found naked under a blanket on a cement stairwell outside city hall Friday.
Parents abuse children by smoking, group says
The Globe and Mail, By Andre Picard, PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER, Tuesday, January 21, 2003, Page A8
Exposing children to second-hand smoke is tantamount to child abuse, the Canadian Lung Association says.
In a controversial statement released yesterday to mark Non-Smoking Week, the venerable charitable organization called on parents to stop smoking in the home because they are endangering the health of their children.
"Children who are exposed to second-hand smoke are victims in their own homes -- the very environment that is supposed to be safe and protective," said Noel Kerin, an occupational and environmental medicine specialist and medical spokesman for the lung association.
"Second-hand smoke is damaging to a child's health and is tantamount to child abuse. The evidence is too compelling to present it in half measures or to worry about political correctness. We have a significant social and health problem that needs public attention and the associated pressure of public intolerance to correct it."
The scales of injustice
The verdict on zero tolerance is in and it isn't good. Designed to protect women from abusive partners, the rigid, 'one-size-fits-all' strategy too often ensnares couples who feel remorse after an argument gets a little out of hand. 'Calling 911 is like pressing the nuclear button. You cannot call the missiles back,' one lawyer told Kirk Makin, who looks at the devastating impact of a policy that wasn't meant to ruin lives and destroy marriages.
The Globe and Mail, By KIRK MAKIN, January 11, 2003,
After bickering all day Saturday, the tension in the house as night fell was unbearable. As Gerald and Elena prepared to put four-year-old Emma to bed, Elena finally snapped.
"She started throwing stuff and attacked me in front of my daughter," recalled Gerald, a 41-year-old computer analyst. "It was a total loss of control. My daughter was crying and I was scared. I panicked and called 911."
Then he barricaded himself in one of the bedrooms of his snug Toronto townhome and began singing lullabies to calm his daughter. The child's crying seemed to enrage Elena more. She grabbed the phone and told an 911 operator that her husband intended to kill her.
"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 ..
Mother confesses to sex with sons
Had intercourse with 2 teenagers
Pleads guilty to incest charges
A Kitchener woman has pleaded guilty to having sexual intercourse with her two teenage sons on separate occasions.
Fathers May Get Money Back in Paternity Fraud Cases
18 March, 2005
FindLaw, Australia
Proposed new laws will make it easier for fathers to recover child maintenance payments if DNA testing reveals that they are not the child's father.
The Family Law Amendment Bill 2005 allows people who wrongly believed they were the parent of a child to recover any child maintenance paid or property transferred under an order of a court under the Family Law Act 1975 .
"The bill is intended to make it easier for people who find themselves in this position to take recovery action without the need to initiate separate proceedings for an order from a court of civil jurisdiction, such as a State, Local or Magistrates court," Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said.
Smoke-free apartments in Winnipeg
Canadian Press
September 20, 2006
WINNIPEG -- Smokers in search of an apartment in Winnipeg will soon have fewer buildings to choose from now that one of the city's largest landlords has opted to go smoke-free.
Globe General Agencies, which manages about 5,000 units across the city and thousands Read More ..ross parts of Canada, will ban smoking for all new tenants moving into its 75 buildings as of Oct. 1.
Existing tenants who smoke will be allowed to continue, but the company sees the policy as a first step toward making all its buildings entirely smoke-free, said president Richard Morantz.
"Really this is just all part of providing a safe and healthy environment for our tenants," Morantz said Tuesday. Read More ..
Female Bullying - Aggression Study
"Relational aggression is behavior specifically intended to hurt another child's friendships or feelings of inclusion in a peer group." -
Nina S. Mounts, Ph.D.,
The Ohio State University
Human Development and Family Life Bulletin
A Review of Research and Practice
Volume 3, Issue 2, Summer 1997
Read More ..
Our Most Popular Web Page
Sex Offenders
Female Sexual Predators
Hundreds of them.... female teachers who sexually assaulted 12 year old boys. Read about a lesbian tennis coach who sexually assaulted her 13 year old female student.
Read how a 40 year old female sexual predator blamed a 7 year old boy whom she claimed was "coming on to me" and whom she "hoped to marry someday." Read More ..
Female Teacher jailed for sex with boy
The Guardian, UK
August 16, 2005
A married primary schoolteacher was jailed for 15 months yesterday after admitting having sex with an underage teenage boy.
Hannah Grice, 32, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of indecent assault on the boy, who was aged 14 and 15 at the time of the offences.
Sentencing her at Stafford crown court, Judge John Shand told Grice, from Cannock, Staffordshire, she had abused her position of trust.
"Cases such as this are, of course, made worse by the fact that you were a member of the teaching profession," he told her. "You should have been very sensitive indeed to child welfare issues." Grice was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years. 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.
Canadian Children's Rights Book
(Published May 2005)
Empowering Children:
Children's Rights Education as a Pathway to Citizenship
University of Toronto Press
Authored by Canadians, Dr. Brian Howe and Dr. Katherine Covell, Directors of the CBU Children's Rights Centre, Cape Breton University (CBU)
"Evelyn"
A Great Movie
Starring Pierce Brosnan
The true story of a father who fought the Irish government and won in the Supreme Court of Ireland
Desmond Doyle and his family
This movie is based on true events. Evelyn tells the inspiring story of real-life hero Desmond Doyle and his young children, Evelyn, Maurice and Dermot.
Struggling to raise his kids alone in Ireland in 1953 when his wife abandoned the family, Doyle is devastated when the power of the Church and the Irish courts take his children away and put them in orphanages.
Vowing to reunite his family, he enlists the help of his friends and together they attempt to do what has never been done before - challenge a law before the Irish Supreme Court. Doyle's fight to keep his family intact becomes an uplifting testament to a father's love and the power of the human spirit.
Divorced Parents Move, and Custody Gets Trickier
The New York Times, New York city, U.S.A. August 8, 2004
Not too long ago, Jacqueline Scott Sheid was a pretty typical Upper East Side mother. Divorced and with a young daughter, she had quickly remarried, borne a son, and interrupted her career to stay home with the children while her husband, Xavier Sheid, worked on Wall Street.
Early last year, Mr. Sheid lost his job and saw his only career opportunity in California. But Ms. Sheid's ex-husband, who shares joint legal custody of their daughter, refused to allow the girl to move away. So Ms. Sheid has spent much of the last year using JetBlue to shuttle between her son and husband on the West Coast and her daughter (and ex) on the East.
The New York court system, which she hoped would help her family to resolve the problem, has cost her tens of thousands of dollars in fees for court-appointed experts, she said, and has helped to prolong the process by objecting to her choice of lawyers.
CYF project halves child suicide rate
The New Zealand Herald, BY LEAH HAINES, October 10, 2004
A three-year project by welfare and health agencies has halved the rate of suicide among some of the country's most at-risk children.
Researchers say the project has the potential to put a massive dent in New Zealand's youth suicide rate - currently the highest in the developed world.
The results of the Towards Well Being suicide monitoring project were due to be presented to an international conference on youth suicide this weekend and are expected to gain global attention. Read More ..
"In a world darkened by ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect."
Bill Clinton
(William J. Clinton)
42nd President of The United States of America
One in 25 fathers 'not the daddy'
Up to one in 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man's child, UK health researchers estimate.
Increasing use of genetic testing for medical and legal reasons means Read More ..uples are discovering the biological proof of who fathered the child.
The Liverpool John Moores University team reached its estimate based on research findings published between 1950 and 2004.
The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Biological father
Professor Mark Bellis and his team said that the implications of so-called
paternal discrepancy were huge and largely ignored, even though the
incidence was increasing.
In the US, the number of paternity tests increased from 142,000 in 1991 to 310,490 in 2001.
BBC, UK TV
Programme - 1997
The sexual abuse by women of children and teenager
A surprising 86% of survivors of sexual abuse were not believed when they said the abuser was a woman.
Many myths were exposed, such as the one that women only sexually abused when coerced by men - they in fact played the lead part. Also the myth that women are incapable of cruelty - what was shown was beyond belief.
Women commit 25% of all child sexual abuse
250,000 children in UK have been sexually abused by women
Women in our society have been portrayed as victims, but somewhere within their victimisation they have learned that to abuse children gave them a sense of power, control, agency, and therefore they use the abuse of children to gain those things.
Jacqui Saradjiam: (clinical psychologist)
I think people find it so difficult to see that women sexually abuse children
because the whole view of women is of nurturers, carers, protectors - people
who do anything to look after children - and they see the women as victims
rather than enemies or perpetrators of any abuse.
Michelle Elliott: (Director - children's charity Kidscape)
I think the issue strikes at the core of what we perceive ourselves as women
to be. I think that it's easier to think that it's men - men the enemy,
somehow - but it can't be women - it's one thing women can't do. Women can
be equal, we can be free, we can be in charge of companies, but we can't
sexually abuse children - That's a load of rubbish.
Why you shouldn't see VAGINA MONOLOGUES
Lesbian Pedophilia and the rape of girls
Don't attend performances.
Divorced Dads:
Shattering the Myths
Dr. Sandford L. Braver and Diane O'Connell
This is the result of the largest federally funded 8 year study of the issues confronting parents and their children in the United States.
Shattering the Myths. The surprising truth about fathers, children and divorce.
3 year old male student charged with sexual harassment in school
Teacher "We are not going to put up with it."
Boy only 3 years old!! Read More ..
INDEPTH: DAY CARE
Day Care in Canada
CBC Television News Online, February 9, 2005
It was first proposed in 1970 a program that would provide affordable day care across the country. It was promised when Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives swept to power in 1984. And again four years later.
By the time Jean Chretien's Liberals did some political sweeping of their own in 1993, promises of a national day-care strategy had fallen victim to the realities of a government wallowing in debt. With budgetary knives sharpened and drawn, day care would have to wait.
But the economic climate began to shift and in 1997, Quebec introduced its own day-care system, offering spaces at $5 a day. Demand quickly surpassed supply.
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.
Canadian incarceration rate rises for first time in more than a decade
Canadian Press
November 21, 2007
OTTAWA - The number of Canadians behind bars rose in 2005-06 for the first time in a decade, as Read More ..ults were jailed while awaiting trial or sentencing.
However, the average number of young people aged 12 to 17 in custody on any given day continued a decline that began with adoption of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2003.
Why does this newspaper headline read " SEX ED " when a male child of 13 years old get sexually asssaulted by a 35 year old female teacher.
This article contains all sorts of sexist words that wouldn't have been used had the teacher been a male of 35 years of age and the victim been a 13 year old female student. We have highlighted the sexists words.
The teacher started sexually assaulting the child when he was 13 and arrested at when the boy was 15 years old.