Barbara Kay: Canada's sorry record of abandoning fathers



Posted:
September 03, 2008, 10:30 AM
by
Kelly McParland

Barbara Kay, Full Comment




If you live in the Chatham, Ont., region, be warned that today you may
happen upon a purple Barney Mobile full of scary characters like
Batman, The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman.

Kidding. The Barney Mobile characters aren’t the least bit scary.
They’re just ordinary dads and moms from the Fathers 4 Justice movement
(F4J), presently touring Canada in support of MP Maurice Vellacott’s
private member’s motion (PMM 483) that seeks to enshrine the principle
of equal parenting (absent extraordinary circumstances) as the default
legal option in the event of divorce.

Spider-Man on a roof, The Incredible Hulk atop a construction crane,
Batman and Robin scaling a bridge: The F4J objective is to attract
maximum publicity with an ironic touch and minimal public
inconvenience. F4J has staged over a hundred superhero “protests,” none
of which have caused physical harm to people or property.

Walter Fox is the go-to Toronto criminal lawyer for F4J dads in
legal trouble. He is presently defending several activists on charges
laid after two non-violent August superhero actions. “Toronto’s version
of a terrorist is a middle-aged man in a Batman outfit,” Fox scoffs,
referring to Toronto’s disproportionate reaction - Emergency Task Force
swarmings, streets being cordoned off, jailings and association bans -
a stark contrast to the bemused, non-confrontational reactions to F4J
stunts by security forces in other Canadian cities such as Regina,
Vancouver and St John.
York University sociology professor Rob
Kenedy -- Canada’s only academic with expertise in the fathers’ rights
movement -- has interviewed 200 activists in the field for a book he is
writing on the subject of equal parenting. He deplores Toronto’s
spirit-breaking, “villainizing” tactics.
F4J’s instantly
recognizable comic-book icons were chosen, Kenedy adds, precisely
because they remind the world that Superman and Spider-Man are
fictional guardians of society’s most vulnerable. The symbolism is apt
because in real life loving fathers are superheroes to their children.

The Barney Mobile tour, which ends in Ottawa on Oct. 7, promotes a
simple message: Fathers have the natural and moral right to love and be
loved by their children. As credible studies show, that can only happen
by spending equal, or near-equal, time with them.

In our outmoded adversarial family-law system, women win sole
custody in over 85% of contested cases. To believe this is a fair
outcome that truly addresses “the best interests of the child” (once a
worthy ideal, but over the years hollowed out into a meaningless
mantra, cynically deployed to defend mothers’ entitlements), you would
also have to believe that mothers are more valuable to children than
fathers, or that fathers are inherently inferior at parenting, or that
women are morally superior to men.

As it happens, many ideologues do profess and promote all these
beliefs. Because these ideologues are overrepresented in the legal and
academic communities from which policy advisors are disproportionately
drawn — and because they are politically aggressive — they have
successfully chilled rational public discourse that would inevitably
lead to long overdue reform.

Polls indicate that 80% of Canadians approve of equal parenting.
Study after study points to the deleterious social effects on children
in households where the father is mostly or completely absent.

Our family court system is “a national shame,” according to
University of British Columbia sociology professor Edward Kruk,
Canada’s foremost authority on custody and its outcomes. “It is a form
of child abuse,” Kruk says, “to have a fit and loving parent forcefully
removed by a court in the absence of any child protection concerns.”

After children’s infancy, men can parent as capably and responsibly
as women. Almost three million North American men are raising children
solo, and the sun still rises in the east. In a growing number of U.S.
states, such as Maine and Iowa, equal parenting is now the rule. In
Australia, a country not unlike Canada in demography and socioeconomic
indicators, the law stipulates that joint custody will prevail if
parents can’t agree to custody arrangements.

Why, then, does socially enlightened Canada have one of the highest
father-removal rates in the world? Why were we so ahead of the curve in
feeling the pain of homosexual lovers denied a band of gold, but remain
so far behind the curve in feeling the pain of heterosexual fathers
denied their own flesh and blood?

Politicians of all parties must get on board the Barney Mobile and
lend their support to PMM 483. The time for custody justice is now.

National Post
bkay@videotron.ca

Another good article from Barbara.

Super Heroes for Parenting




Angela Pezzotti for SooNews.ca
Monday, September 1, 2008, 1:43PM
















Superman
aka Domenic Charbonneau rolled into the Soo Saturday evening in support
of the group Father 4 Justice. The group petitions for changes in the
family court system and promotes equal parenting for children of
divorce.

Charbonneau is part of a cross country to campaign to increase support
for a Private Members Motion that is to be presented by Maurice
Velliacott, MP Saskatoon-Wanuskewin on October 8th. PMM-483 proposes
changes to the Federal Divorce Act to include the principle of equal
parenting after divorce.

The ‘Barney Mobile’ left Vancouver August 18th and will travel to St.
John New Foundland and then back track to Ottawa. The van is driven by
volunteers for different legs of the tour. Charbonneau will spend the
next few days driving the van through Northern Ontario.

The drivers and other volunteers dress in super hero costumes. “To
demonstrate that all parents are heroes to our children.” says
Charbonneau.

Charbonneau knows the pain of being separated from his 6 year old
daughter and having to fight in court for permission to see her. “They
are very slow and they are very adversarial” says Charbonneau who
eventually fired his own lawyer when he became frustrated with her
intent to demean his wife rather than concrete on his abilities as a
parent and the positive influence he would be in his daughter life.
“Fathers are more than a dollar amount on a cheque. The bias of the
court system doesn’t make sense.” He says of the courts favouring the
mother with custody of children.

Charbonneau’s custody fight actually began in Gatineau in the Quebec
courts and then his wife and daughter moved to Sudbury. When he later
moved to Oshawa his battle moved to the Ontario Family Court, “They are
both awful.”

“They say it’s for the best interest of the child but isn’t having both
parents in the better.” says Charbonneau. Member of the local chapter
of the Fathers 4 Justice Steve Plastino agrees. “There should be a
presumption of joint parenting from the get go.” Plastino has also been
involved in the family court system regarding custody.

“I’m lucky now.” says Charbonneau of his situation with his ex-wife.
“We can usually work things out for my daughter together.” However he
is still bound by his visitation rights which allow him two weeks in
the summer and one weekend a month. “A parent shouldn’t have to visit
their child.” he says “They should be parenting.”

For more information about Fathers 4 Justice and their cause visit these web sites:

www.fathers-4-justice-canada.ca

www.canadianepc.com

The Fathes4Justice Barney Mobile is currently in London and we are having a rally tomorrow, complete with superheroes, across the street from London's popular Western Fair.

London's A News has informed us today that they will be covering the story on tomorrow's 6:00 news.

Woohoo.

So ??? What happened ?? is there a YouTube Video or anything ????

What about some support in Other Parts of the Province ?? Are they going to Ottawa ?

Barbara Kay is a Blessing I wish MORE Journalists would open their eyes to the FACTS which ARE Credible & Reliable.

Canucksis

Well, it is so nice that father's in Canada are really fighting for their rights to be a father to their child. Here in US, it is so hard for a father specially if the father is not wealthy enough to bring the case in court.