ONTARIO: Ottawa threatened with lawsuit over Divorce Act
Tuesday, July 20, 1999The Globe and Mail
OTTAWA -- The National Shared Parenting Association is starting a fact-finding mission and threatening a lawsuit in an effort to speed up reform of the Divorce Act.
The association is considering a class action lawsuit against the provincial and federal governments for damages suffered by children of divorce under the current act. It wants Ottawa to implement a parliamentary committee recommendation that would impose equal, shared parenting of children after divorce.
The association says the emphasis in the act on custody and access is too adversarial and therefore harmful to children. "For the sake of those children, try to keep things as close to the original intact family as you can," said president Heidi Nabert at a news conference yesterday. "Part of that is by at least taking the fight over the prize out of this by making presumptive shared parenting the starting point."
Justice Minister Anne McLellan said in May it would take about three years of consultation with the provinces and the public before any changes to the act are made.
CP