Edit:  We are not seeking money.

This letter was recently shared with Manitoba's Minister of Justice and our Chief Justices.  Please sign and personally ask your family and friends who have been affected by Parental Alienation to sign as well to give this letter weight and power.

 

July 26, 2024

 

The Honorable Matt Weibe, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Manitoba

The Honorable Chief Justice Glenn D. Joyal

The Honorable Associate Chief Justice Shane L. Perelmutter

The Honorable Associate Chief Justice Gwen Hatch

Room 104 Legislative Building

450 Broadway

Winnipeg, Manitoba

R3C0V8

Dear Justices,

On January 23, 2024, the National Association of Women in Law (N.A.W.L.), along with two hundred and fifty feminist organizations across Canada presented an open letter to Attorney General Arif Virani, seeking to declare parental alienation a hoax, supposedly used only by abusive men in contentious divorce proceedings. In support of their assertions, these activists referenced a webinar presentation held on January 11, 2024 by Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem. titled, “U.N. Special Report on Parental Alienation and implications for Canada.” Alsalem, her co-panelists and the open letter signatories seek to establish laws that would deny fathers their ability to access and parent their children and facilitate/exacerbate parental alienation. Alsalem’s webinar topic was purportedly about eradicating violence against women and children, which of course is a worthy and urgent pursuit. Of concern however, as Dr. Christine Giancarlo stated in her article, The Real Crisis of Parental Alienation and the Ongoing Defensive Tactics of Disinformation by Self-Promoting Deniers (February 2024, https://www.saveservices.org Ms. Alsalem has no expertise in parental alienation. In fact, none of the four presenters in this webinar were experts in parental alienation. The lack of expertise and the “research literature” that these advocates promote is flawed. Real science establishes fact only via rigorous protocol of the scientific method.

 

The key presenter in this webinar was Dr. Suzanne Zaccour, a self-described researcher and speaker, sexual assault lawyer and director of N.A.W.L. who contributed to the false narrative that parental alienation simply does not exist, recently championed by Joan Meier et al. (see Meier, Joan S., Dickson, S., O'Sullivan, C., Rosen, L. & J. Hayes’ Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations (2019). GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2019-56; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-56. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3448062 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3448062

 

To date, 39 reputable social science research teams have requested Ms. Meier’s empirical data-set to no avail. Ms. Meier’s work is completely unverified yet Dr. Zaccour claims that parental alienation has been debunked and simply doesn’t exist.

The effect of this disinformation has resulted in thousands of erased dads, moms, and extended family members. The members of Revealing Parental Alienation in Manitoba: Standing up to Child Abuse, are concerned that family courts are establishing case law steeped in ideology and unscientific rhetoric. This has further exacerbated an already inefficient, ineffective and unnecessarily complex family law justice system, ripe with false allegations. In some of the most extreme cases the alienating (pathological) parent may convince the child the target parent has actually sexually molested them. This writer was falsely accused but, fortunately, was able to successfully refute the allegation (for a thorough analysis of false allegations, see Harman, J., Giancarlo, C., Lorandos, D., & B. Ludmer’s Gender and child custody cases across 16 years of judicial decisions regarding abuse and parental alienation (2023). Children and Youth Services Review https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107187

Further, our group is concerned that local law firms within our city are actually encouraging women to file domestic violence allegations with the Winnipeg Police Services during the end stages of a couple’s separation in order to maximize their custody and economic outcomes. Fraudulent protection orders and the misuse of the criminal justice system in order to portray a parent as unsafe are common tactics used by alienators. Under the Criminal Code of Canada Section 140 (1), making false allegations against another party is Public Mischief. Under the Criminal Code of Canada (467.13 (1), this practice by law firms is defined as Racketeering.

This plague in our province has deepened to such an extent that Constable Normand of the Winnipeg Police Services stated to one of our group members that “men are being falsely arrested due to their divorce every single day in Winnipeg”. Since our provincial N.D.P. government developed the “modernized” Family Law Act, which was implemented in (2018), our hopes of this vital legislation making family law more efficient, effective and less costly are fading again. Our group continues to witness the damage done to Manitoba’s families caused by disinformation and greed. 

With regard to Coercive Control of the child (e.g., parental alienation) our concerns are as follows:

1) Parental Alienation is child abuse. The child is psychologically coerced by the alienating parent to believe they are unwanted, unloved and unsafe in the company of the alienated / target parent.

2) Visitation court orders are neither followed, nor enforced. I haven't seen my daughter in years despite self-representing and “winning” 50/50 custody of her three years ago. Too often, alienated parents and their families never see nor speak again in their lifetime to their child(ren). The Criminal Code of Canada (Section 238(1) categorizes this breach as Abduction and individuals can face imprisonment.

3) Alienators are extremely adept at presenting themselves as a figure of sympathy in order to solicit support (among social / psychological service agencies) for their psychological abuse of their child. These tactics often include Perjury, which under the Criminal Code of Canada Section 131(1) is illegal. Here, the alienating parent lies to convince the child and the court the target parent has sexually molested that child.

4) Lastly, our group is concerned about the comments and decisions rendered by Manitoba Family Law Justices against a member of our group who sought help to stop the parental alienation of his children by his ex-partner. This targeted parent presented to the courts compelling evidence that he had been alienated but also framed. This parent endured false allegations of abuse, was arrested twice in his own home in front of the children, lost his home, family savings, and now has to pay a Social Services worker $75 per hour for his “allowed” monthly visit with his children. Despite this, the sole focus of the Justices was on the “ever-increasing hostility” of the father, who also now has to take anger management classes. This father has effectively lost his children yet is allowed only six hours “visitation” with them per month, for which he must pay $450 to an authorized guardian.

                                        A Plan to Reform Family Law and

                                      End Parental Alienation in Manitoba

Phase 1: Equal Shared Parenting and Joint Physical Custody (JPC)  by default.

Currently, the basis for Canada’s family law system is an adversarial for-profit model. It is highly inappropriate to apply a litigation-based model on the family dynamic of divorce. The high conflict industry is infamous for accumulating billable hours via unnecessary custody battles and false allegations, pouring staggering sums into the coffers of lawyers, social workers, psychologists, and such. These industries financially feed on our crumbling families. We need to implement an equal shared parenting presumption by default, similar to that of several US states (e.g., Kentucky, Arizona) and some European countries (e.g., Sweden).

                                                                                                                     

The Equal Shared Parenting default is proving to be in the best interest of all children, not just the children of high conflict divorce. Sweden's parents are successfully co-parenting and are providing an exemplary template to the rest of the world for how to minimize the trauma children suffer in divorce proceedings (see Bergström, M., Modin, B., Fransson, E., Rajmi, L., Berlin, M., Gustafsson, P.A. & A. Hjern’s Living in Two Homes-a Swedish National survey of well-being in 12 and 15 year olds with joint physical custody (2023) Sep 22;13:868. BMC Public Health.). This study contained one hundred seventy thousand sets of parents including, Canadian data and has provided invaluable insight into the dynamics of divorce and its effect on our families. On every metric: school performance, social skills, and sports achievement, children do better when they have the love, support and presence of both parents and their extended families.

As parents, we intuitively know that the best interests of a child are served when they are surrounded and supported by the loving care of both parents and their extended families. Despite solid research and common sense, there continue to be two special interest groups actively promoting disinformation regarding the existence of parental alienation and the need for equal share in the physical custody of their children (50/50 Joint Physical Custody). These special interest groups are as follows:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

First, the Canadian Bar Association has directly lobbied our Federal Government and has twice blocked the shared equal parenting presumption by default, despite the fact that 77% of Canadians across genders and geographical regions are in favor of such co-parenting legislation. (National survey conducted by Nanos for Action des nouvelles conjointes et des nouveau conjoints due Quebec (ANCQ), the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE)  Canadian Equal Parenting Counsel (CEPC), Equal Parenting for Children (EPFC), Lawyers for Shared Parenting (L4SP), Leading women for shared parenting LW4AP) and Real Women of Canada (R.E.A.L.) March 2022.  

Second is the anti-domestic violence lobby which is being “co-opted,’ as a proxy, by the Canadian Bar Association via The National Association of Women in Law (N.A.W.L.), headed by Ms. Suzanne Zaccour, to manufacture conflict and boost profits of family law firms in Canada.

             Phase 2: Effective Interventions for severe alienation cases.

In cases of severe alienation, such as alienation caused by an abusive personality disorder (Cluster B, Narcissism) and/or complete severance of the relationship between the child and the targeted parent, an Equal Shared Parenting default could not protect the child from parental alienation. Here, even with 50/50 joint physical custody, alienators coerce their own child into believing one parent simply doesn’t love them anymore or has physically or sexually molested them. Allegations of abuse of either a physical or sexual nature must be investigated and if proven false, fines and imprisonment for perjury must be enforced. It is imperative that our Family Law system address false allegations in a consistent and enforceable manner. Severe alienation is an abuse as serious as is any other form of abuse.

I understand why The Canadian Bar Association avoids a 50/50 Joint Physical Custody presumption as that would reduce its financial bottom line. But protection orders, when misused, result in mental anguish, long-term financial ruin and dissolution of the child-healthy parent relationship. 

I, the signatory of this document and members of,’ Revealing Parental Alienation in Manitoba, standing up to child abuse”, respectfully request a conversation with you in order that we may begin to resolve the crisis of parental alienation which hurts parents but, most importantly, has led to a tidal wave of depression and anxiety in children alienated from one parent. This letter will be accompanied by a social media petition.

Thank you very much for your commitment to healthy families. We look forward to the opportunity to speak with you.

Yours sincerely,

Dan Pastuch, B A.  B.Ed. B. Sc.  

Equality, Equity and Inclusion Standing Committee, Provincial Government of Manitoba.