|
The BC Human Rights Commission recently investigated the case of a non-custodial father who has been refused access to the school records of his two children. The father was granted guardianship rights to his children when he divorced so naturally he thought he was entitled to full access to his children's school records. However, officials at the Ministry of Education, the Sooke School District and John Stubbs Memorial School have all denied the father access to the information he seeks citing his ex-wife's request that he not be given the information.
A letter to the father from the Ministry of Education exposed fundamental inconsistencies in the definition of "parent" and "parental rights" between the BC School Act and the Federal Divorce Act. The Provincial Bureaucrats claim that the their hands are bound by the B.C. School Act, which defines parents as only those parents with whom the children reside, thereby ignoring the parental rights of non-custodial parents. The father brought this matter to the attention of the BC Human Rights Commission and to his surprise the investigator told him that the withholding a child's school records from a non-custodial parent does not violate anybody's rights.
The Victoria Men's Centre Society wishes to raise public awareness surrounding this debate. At stake are the fundamental rights of a parent and a child to a relationship whereby the parent can participate in the child's education without obstruction by the state or other individuals.
The Joint Senate / House of Commons Committee of Custody and Access, of recommended overhauling the Divorce Act to address this and other related issues in their 1998 Report entitled " For The Sake of the Children". The Federal Justice Minister Anne McClellan effectively shelved the report from the nation's highest level of authority by requesting three more years to study the matter.
Fortunately, the Courts across the land have been issuing rulings to protect the Charter Rights of children and non-custodial parents. In writing for three other justices of the Ontario Supreme Court in 1995, Justice La Forest ruled that, "the right to nurture a child, to care for its development, and to make decisions for it in fundamental matters such as medical care, are part of the liberty interest of a parent, an individual interest of fundamental importance in our society". Justice Lamer of The New Brunswick Supreme Court ruled last November that, "as an individual's status as a parent is often fundamental to personal identity, the stigma and distress resulting from a loss of parental status is a particularly serious consequence of the state's conduct. A combination of stigmatization, loss of privacy, and disruption of family life are sufficient to constitute a restriction of security of the person."
Of interest in this case is the fact that the Alberta Human Rights Commission recently investigated a similar case where a father was denied access to his child's health records. The Alberta investigator considered the case law cited in this report and concluded that the Charter Rights of the parent and the child are being violated. The B.C. Human Rights investigator who was advised about the case law and the Alberta decision, declined to consider either it in reaching her conclusion.
To appreciate how it is that two investigators could arrive at opposing conclusions on an issue so fundamentally important in our society, one must consider the relative progressiveness of the two provincial governments involved. Alberta is the only Canadian province to introduce access enforcement legislation to combat the more obvious violations of the rights of children and the non-custodial parents and grandparents.
By comparison, the NDP Government in British Columbia clings to an ideology that is violating the rights of children and putting their welfare at risk.
The Victoria Men's Centre supports making changes to the B.C. School Act to bring it in line with the rulings of Supreme Courts across the country that protect the rights of children to have normal relations with their non-custodial parents. We believe these changes should apply equally to the rights of grandparents who wish to be involved in the lives of their grandchildren. We are seeking the support of all parents and grandparents whose relationship with their offspring has been adversely affected by the actions of a custodial parent intent on obstructing that relationship.
We believe it is time to hold bureaucrats and politicians accountable for the harm they are bringing to our children. The Victoria Men's Center is not funded to advocate for Legislative changes to meet our children's needs. Ours is a grassroots effort that depends on those affected writing, the likes of Ms. Madsen of the B.C. Human Rights Commission to express their displeasure with the conclusions of her investigation and / or The Hon. Gordon Wilson, Minister of Education and / or interim Leader of the provincial N.D.P., The Hon. Dan Miller to complain about the B.C. Government's reluctance to correct this gross injustice. Alternatively, you can submit your comments to us via the www.fathers.bc.ca website and we will forward them to the government officials on your behalf. Please make the effort to be heard for the sake of the children.....
|