First child with 3 parents on birth certificate in B.C.

Della Wolf is B.C.'s 1st child with 3 parents on birth certificate

B.C.'s new Family Law Act is the first to allow birth certificates with more than 2 parents

By Catherine Rolfsen, CBC News,Feb 06, 2014.

A Vancouver baby has just become the first child in British Columbia with three parents listed on a birth certificate.

Three-month-old Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards is the daughter of lesbian parents and their male friend.

"It feels really just natural and easy, like any other family," said biological father Shawn Kangro. "It doesn't feel like anything is strange about it."

B.C.'s new Family Law Act, which came into effect last year, allows for three or even more parents.

Della's family is the first to go through the process, and they finalized the birth certificate registration last week.

B.C., which is celebrating Family Day on Monday, is the first province in Canada with legislation to allow three parents on a birth certificate, although it's been achieved elsewhere through litigation.

The new Family Law Act, which came into effect in March 2013, aims to clarify who is a parent and who isn't as more couples turn to assisted reproduction.

The act allow donors to be listed as additional parents, if the parents sign a written agreement before conception.

"The really big shift in the Family Law Act in terms of parents, is how you decide who's a parent," said findlay.

"In the old days, we looked at biology and genetic connections. And that's no longer true. We now look at the intention of the parties who are contributing to the creation of the child, and intend to raise the child. And that's a really, really big shift."

Della's parents say they've had overwhelming support from family, friends and their East Vancouver community.

"Of course there's the odd person who worries that we've stepped into something that doesn't have a precedent," said Richards.

"Now that it has come to fruition and people see that we're just this family doing our thing, it's real now, and it becomes much easier to digest for whoever had doubts."

The role men can play in preventing violence against girls and women

   Bystanders, men have role in preventing violence against women, victim’s father says - ‘It’s just wrong, and I’m never going to shut up about it’

Cockburn, N. (2014). Ottawa Citizen. 

OTTAWA — One of the things that still haunts the father of Rehtaeh Parsons is that there were people who didn’t help his daughter.

“We know what happens now, when we do nothing,” Glen Canning said Tuesday. “It can drive a victim to suicide. We have to let victims know that people care, and of course the best way to do that is to try to prevent them from being victims in the first place.”

Parsons, from Nova Scotia, was taken off life support after a suicide attempt in April 2013 that her family says was prompted by months of bullying.

The 17-year-old girl was tormented after a digital photograph purporting to show her being sexually assaulted in November 2011 was distributed around her school, they have said. Two men, now 19, face child pornography-related charges connected to the case.

Canning, a writer and photographer, has been outspoken since his daughter’s death. He was in Ottawa on Tuesday to speak at a “community discussion” held by the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women.

During an interview with the Citizen, he pointed to high-profile cases such as that of a pair of high school football players raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, “where there are people around, watching what’s happening, and none of them are saying or doing anything. They’re just letting it happen,” he said.

“I’m trying to reinforce the idea with people that that’s completely unacceptable. That’s just wrong — in my opinion you’re partaking ... in a sexual assault, if you’re just standing there, watching it happen without doing anything to stop it or to hold people accountable for it.”

Other advocates have worked to spread a similar message in Ottawa, particularly around the need for bystanders to step in if they see sexual assaults or harassment in transit stations and on buses.

Canning said men must play a role in ending violence against women, and in changing culture that encourages it or turns a blind eye.

“Violence against women is a men’s issue. We need men to start setting examples, we need men to start speaking out, we need men to start challenging the culture that goes around with rape and sexual assault of women, where people make jokes about it or make light of it,” he said.

People are part of the problem when they downplay incidents or cast doubt on victims and create an environment where victims don’t feel comfortable reporting an assault, he said.

“You’re perpetuating the issue where women just don’t bother coming forward at all because of how society looks at it. ... As innocent as that may seem to you, you are actually part of the problem. You are why women don’t come forward, and you are why sexual predators have victim after victim.

“It’s just wrong, and I’m never going to shut up about it,” Canning said.

The culture is ingrained, he said, referring to a chant at frosh week at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax that glorified the sexual assault of young girls.

“It can be a little bit frustrating, but the more the message is out there, the less people have an excuse,” Canning said.

The event was being held in Jean Pigott Place at City Hall from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

ncockburn@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/NecoCockburn

With files from The Canadian Press

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Webinar: Equality Values in Family Law

Webinar: Equality Values in Family Law

Think the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is irrelevant in family law? Think again! Join experienced family law lawyers Megan Ellis and Zara Suleman, retired BC Supreme Court Justice Donna Martinson, and West Coast LEAF Legal Director Laura Track for an informative and engaging workshop on the ways in which Charter equality values can inform your family law work. You’ll gain practical tips and insights for using Charter equality values in cases involving financial issues, parenting arrangements, family violence, and assessments of credibility. This course qualifies for 2 CPD credits.

Presented jointly by West Coast LEAF and the Trial Lawyers Association of BC.

February 27, 2014, 12:00-2:00pm

$25

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/equality-values-in-family-law-tickets-10555440607

New Article that Critiques the new BC Family Law Act & PDOV/MCFD released a new three- year, $5.5 million action plan

Rachel Treloar, Susan B. Boyd. Family Law Reform in (Neoliberal) Context: British Columbia's New Family Law Act International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 2014; doi: 10.1093/lawfam/ebt017

Retrieved from: http://lawfam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/ebt017?ijkey=PLUhZbbmHlOyqZ8&keytype=ref

***************************************************

Provincial Office of Domestic Violence has released a new three- year, $5.5 million action plan. The Action plan can be found on their website at http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/podv/pdf/dv_pp_booklet.pdf

N E W S R E L E A S E - Ministry of Children & Family Development

For Immediate Release

2014CFD0003

- 000134

Feb. 5, 2014

Ministry of Children and Family Development Government 

launches three-year domestic violence plan

VICTORIA – Government’s extensive consultation with anti-violence groups has culminated in

the release of the Provincial Domestic Violence Plan. The new three-year, $5.5-million Provincial 

Domestic Violence Plan – co-ordinated through the Provincial Office of Domestic Violence (PODV) 

– delivers on government’s commitment to make B.C. a safer place for women, children and anyone 

who has been affected by domestic violence.

The plan is the result of public and anti-violence stakeholder consultations and includes the creation of 

additional specialized domestic violence units, programs for Aboriginal families, direct services for perpetrators,

and improved access to services and social housing for survivors in rural and remote communities

.

The plan also includes an Aboriginal response and specific approaches to address the unique needs of immigrant 

and refugee women and women with disabilities. Government will invest in direct services to address focus areas 

that were identified during the consultation process as key priorities.

Highlights of the plan:

 $1 million to help with the start-up and implementation of 

additional specialized domestic violence units, which will 

provide direct services to high- risk families.

 $2 million to develop and deliver programs specifically for 

Aboriginal women, men and children affected by domestic 

violence– including victims and perpetrators.

 $1 million to provide support and intervention for perpetrators

to hold them accountable and support changes in behaviour and 

attitude.

 $1.5 million in direct supports to women and children for 

housing and transportation in rural and remote communities.

Precedent for Serving Court Documents via Facebook

Service of Documents by Facebook?

Gregory, J. (2014). 

An article in this week’s Law Times notes another court decision, this time in Ontario, approving substitute service by Facebook. In other words, counsel showed the court that there was no other reasonable way of getting the documents to the party to be served, and that sending to FB was likely to reach the party.

The author says that this should be the norm.

The requirement for hand-delivered document service, while historically sensible, is somewhat archaic in this electronic age. Successful service should be all about making sure that the person is aware of the document. For those of us who are more present online than offline, receiving vital information electronically is commonplace.

Does this make sense to you? How does one make sure that a person served via Facebook (or another social medium, such as Twitter, etc) is aware of the document? Suppose the person denies having received it, later. Is independent evidence of delivery available?
 
For that matter, many people on Facebook do not have pictures on their pages. How does one know one has the right John Smith, especially if such service becomes ‘the norm rather than an exception’?

***************************************
Background & Legal case

Personal Injury Law: Service via Facebook should become the norm

Merkur, D. (2014). Law Times.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice that substituted service of a statement of claim on a defendant via Facebook was appropriate (see the unreported decision of Juzytsch v. Terlecki from the court in Barrie, Ont.). Other provincial courts have similarly allowed service via Facebook or similar Internet message board services, including in Alberta and British Columbia.

To succeed in any such motion, counsel must establish that the person’s whereabouts for personal service are unknown despite diligent investigation; the Facebook profile belongs to the person in question; and the person is an active user of Facebook such that the claim will likely come to the person’s attention.

While the case law has focused on service through Facebook, the courts could also consider substituted service through other popular social networking web sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Father ordered to pay $35,000 in ‘special costs’ due to poor conduct

Ian Mulgrew: Man’s abusive behaviour during divorce proceedings earns him steep fine

After repeated warnings to reel in the insults, father ordered to pay $35,000 in ‘special costs’

 

By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun January 19, 2014.

A father who represented himself in a custody dispute has been hammered with a $35,000 “special costs” fine for abusive behaviour during the legal battle.

In a scathing judgment against the virulence and rancour at the heart of a growing number of high-conflict family law cases, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk lambasted the man known only by his initials — A.S.P.

She minced no words in her strident defence of civility as a necessary element of the Canadian judicial system.

The justice cited emails from the man such as — “What does a man have to do to get divorced from a wench?”

“The conduct of the father has consistently been rude, inflammatory, derisive, threatening, and disrespectful and insulting of the mother, her counsel and the court process,” said Watchuk in the stinging rebuke.

“It has not been situational or short-lived. It has been consistent over more than two years. It has included behaviour in the courtroom, and email communications to scheduling as well as communication with counsel for the mother continuing after the written submissions on costs were filed …. there is no justification for this behaviour in a court proceeding.”

This case involves a couple who married in 2007 and separated a short time later in 2009 before the birth of twins.

They have been arguing over the children since, though a divorce was granted Jan. 25, 2012.

The kids live with their mother, known in court documents as N.N.J., and her parents in Surrey; the father has a home in Surrey but is a U.K. citizen and travels frequently for business.

The legal fight lasted longer than the marriage.

The acrimonious proceedings consumed 26 days of court time: a 19-day trial, four applications heard in chambers, and two attempts by the father to reopen the trial, one requiring a five-day hearing and the second, two days.

The justice said A.S.P. has continued to threaten to report the proceedings to the media with a view to “intimidating the (mother) as well as her counsel …. has threatened to bring legal proceedings against counsel for the (mother in the United Kingdom … and) threatened to report the (mother) to foreign authorities while she is travelling with the children.”

After the recent decision, he sent me a note offering the “real story” on Watchuk. “Be patient, then,” he replied. “It was either you or The Guardian (I know the editor).”
I am still waiting.

Enormous court resources are consumed by these scorched-earth disputes and they are almost always conducted by self-represented litigants who lack self-control or objectivity.

Although Watchuk was willing to let both sides in this apocalypse cover their own legal costs, the father’s continuing belligerence overwhelmed her. She issued a “special costs” award — a punishment only imposed by a court for reprehensible conduct.

“The father does not demonstrate respect or the ability to communicate respectfully,” said Watchuk, itemizing the many requests to the man to cease his objectionable conduct and behave himself.

“The father’s communication through the mother’s counsel has been and continues to be vitriolic to the degree that it has become impossible.”

During one access meeting, the father swore at a cousin of the mother’s while holding his baby son. In an exchange with his wife’s lawyer, he made disparaging remarks about the man’s daughter and their Jewish traditions.

“The father rightly demands respect for his (Sikh) culture,” Watchuk said.

“It should go without saying that the culture and religion of all participants in the justice system are deserving of respect. The sanctity of the family of counsel is fundamental.”
In her mind, he was acting like “a malicious bully.”

The father maintained that his outrageous behaviour was the result of “unique, extended and extraordinary stress and strain, arising from a circumstance that had no end in sight,” that he had been left “in limbo for years.”

In his mind, a confluence of factors impaired every facet of his life — from his fundamental liberties, access to his children, ability to earn an income, and left him at one point without a home or furniture.

The justice had little sympathy.

“In the trial I first mentioned the necessity for respect and civility to the father,” Watchuk said.

“I then reminded him of it. I stopped the trial on at least two occasions when those instructions were wholly disregarded. I explained further that civility and respect for the mother and her counsel not only assisted the court proceedings but were fundamental to the ability of the process to achieve a result which was in the best interests of the children.”

He authored much of his own trouble, she added, and his intransigence pushed her to impose special costs.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

BC's New Family Law Act: Common-law partners have more rights

Common-law partners in B.C. now have more rights than they used to

By Louise Dickson, Victoria Times Colonist, March 30, 2013.

She lived with him for eight years, raised his children, cooked and cleaned.

“She did what good wives do,” said Victoria family law expert Trudi Brown. “But at the end of the day, she wasn’t a wife. She didn’t have a job anymore and everything was in his name. She didn’t know she wasn’t protected.”

When the couple split up, the woman, who was in her mid-40s, ended up with almost nothing. Her knowledge of her rights was typical of 90 per cent of the common-law couples Brown used to see in her family law practice.

“They were horrified to find out that they didn’t actually get the same [treatment] as married people,” Brown said. “I’ve been trying for years to get people to make agreements before they start living together. But lust and love get in the way. Nobody thinks this will happen to them.”

B.C.’s Family Law Act, which came into effect March 18, changed all that.

The new legislation gives couples who have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for two years or more the same rights and obligations as married couples. It’s designed to address unfairness in dividing property when common-law relationships end, said Brown, editor of The British Columbia Family Law Practice.

Justice Minister and Attorney General Shirley Bond said the act replaces legislation from the 1970's and addresses the needs of modern B.C. families as well as shifts in societal norms.

“It’s about providing fair rules for couples who split up and ensuring that those rules are crystal-clear at the onset of the relationship,” Bond wrote in a letter to the Times Colonist.

Under the new act, common-law couples keep the property they bring into the relationship. Gifts, inheritances, settlements and awards of damages are excluded and not divided upon separation. Only property and debt that a couple accrues during the relationship is divided.

“If you bring in $100,000, and he brings in $500,000, and at the end you have $1 million, he gets his $500,000 and you get your $100,000 and you split the increase,” Brown said. “Most people thinks that’s fair.”

The new act means common-law partners have some rights that they didn’t have before, she said. “They haven’t lost anything and they haven’t become married — because that’s a different thing. That’s a choice. It does say if the couple breaks up and can’t resolve what they need to do when they break up, then some things come into play that will help.”

Media coverage of the act has focused on young couples, content to live together, who resent being placed in the same legal situation as married couples.

But common-law couples can opt out of the property division rules if they make their own agreement. “What they have to do is write it out and both partners have to sign it in front of an independent person,” Brown said.

For the agreement to be valid, both partners have to provide full disclosure of their assets and liabilities.

Brown says the questions to ask are: What do both of you expect? Who’s paying for what? Is there an intention to have children? If so, who is taking time off for them? If you separate after you have children, what’s going to happen to the person who lost out because of their job?

Because couples may not have an answer for all these questions, there should be a provision to look at the agreement every few years or if they have children, Brown said. “Things change pretty dramatically, so you want to be able to say to the court — if it ever asks — ‘We looked at it and we were happy with it and we don’t want to change it.’ ”

Generally, people will see a lawyer for prenuptial agreements for two reasons: They’ve been divorced before, or their parents make them because they will receive a big inheritance. And it’s always a good idea to consult a lawyer. It’s not expensive and could prevent big legal bills, Brown said.

She predicts the courts will still have some big issues to deal with. For example, if someone brought a $500,000 house into the relationship years ago, and the house isn’t worth that today, how will the court deal with that?

“There are going to be some interesting issues we are going to have to worry about.”

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Original source article: Common-law partners in B.C. now have more rights than they used to