Bill Favoring Equal Time for Parents in Canada, Needs Support!

DREAMSTIME

An extensive review of research and family law reforms published in 2013 concludes that an equal time presumption in law provides the best outcomes for children of divorce. The book is The Equal Parent Presumption by Prof. Edward Kruk of the University of British Columbia.

This conclusion makes sense to divorced parents. If you are a divorced parent and you don’t have pretty close to equal time, then you are treated as merely an “interested bystander,” to use the phrase of a Supreme Court judge. Without equal time, a parent’s “access” or parenting is subject to the control or arbitrary decision of the “custodial parent.”

Without equality, one parent often cannot get basic information on health, education or even location of his or her child, and decisions about that child can be made without consultation, input or informing that parent. Parents without equal time complain that courts and other government bodies such as schools will not enforce any of the provisions in a court order.