Speak up now! Stop Bill C-223. | Contact Lisa Hepfner now! | Info and template in post.

This is time critical. Bill C-223 is before committee now, and the committee meets again on Monday. If passed as written, it would stop family court judges from hearing evidence of parental alienation, a form of child psychological abuse. On October 22, the claim that alienation is "junk science" was challenged in the hearings themselves by an MP who have experienced Parental Alienation herself.

Please take five minutes this weekend to email Ms. Hepfner using the template below, before Monday.
This is your chance to make an impact.

Template Letter to hold Lisa Hepfner accountable for her sponsorship of Bill C223.
Personalize this and contact her.  

lisa.hepfner@parl.gc.ca
Constituency Office (Hamilton): 1A-1394 Upper Gage Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario L8W 1E7 
Constituency Phone: 905-574-3331 
Parliamentary Phone (Ottawa): 613-992-7802

Template Letter to MP Lisa Hepfner

Re: Your Sponsorship of Bill C-223 and the Dismissal of Parental Alienation

Dear Ms. Hepfner,

I am writing to you as a constituent [or: as a Canadian citizen, your province] to express my deep concern regarding your sponsorship of Bill C-223, the Keeping Children Safe Act, and your public statements dismissing parental alienation as "junk science" .

As you are aware, Bill C-223 was introduced with the stated goal of protecting children from family violence. However, the bill was drafted in close collaboration with the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) , an organization that has campaigned to ban parental alienation arguments from family court entirely. During the committee hearings on October 22, 2026, the bill's foundational premises were publicly undermined. An MP who is a child of divorced parents spoke about her own experience with an alienating mother. The claim that alienation is "junk science" did not survive that moment.

I want to draw your attention to the evidence you and the bill's supporters have ignored. There is a substantial body of peer-reviewed research establishing parental alienation as a form of child psychological abuse. Respected family law scholars Nicholas Bala and Rachel Birnbaum have warned that Bill C-223 would "harm the interests of children and parents" by preventing judges from considering all the evidence. Their research found that in more than a third of cases where courts find alienation, it is the mother who has been alienated from her children.

Furthermore, the UN report that proponents of Bill C-223 cited was never adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. It carries no formal UN authority. The study by Joan Meier, which formed the empirical backbone of the bill's claims, fails basic standards of scientific rigor.

I am asking you to consider the following:

Acknowledge the evidence. Parental alienation is real. It causes severe, long-term harm to children. Dismissing it as "junk science" is not consistent with the peer-reviewed research.
Explain your collaboration with NAWL. The public record shows you worked closely with NAWL in drafting this legislation . Given that NAWL's stated goal is to ban alienation evidence from court, how do you reconcile this with your duty to represent all families in your riding, including those affected by alienation?

Support a constructive path forward. As Nicholas Bala has suggested, the committee should refer the 2021 Divorce Act amendments to the Department of Justice for study and consultation. This is a more evidence-based approach than the restrictive ban proposed in Bill C-223.

I am not writing to attack you personally. I am writing because I believe that legislation should be based on evidence, not on ideology. The evidence on parental alienation is clear, and it was presented to the committee. I urge you to reconsider your position and to support a more balanced, evidence-based approach to protecting children in family court.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
[Your Signature]
[Your Printed Name]