Protect Sole-Guardian Mothers & Children in Alberta: End Litigation Abuse
The Issue
To the Premier of Alberta, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Alberta, the Minister of Children and Family Services, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta:
I am not just asking for legislative reform; I am demanding it. Alberta’s family justice system is failing sole-guardian mothers and their young children, and we are living proof of this dangerous reality.
As a full-time acute-care hospital nurse and the sole guardian and full-time caregiver of my young daughter, I have been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal and financial costs - ultimately having to learn the law and self-represent - simply to protect my child and myself from an individual using the family court system as a weapon of coercive control.
Biological Contribution Is Not Co-Parenting
Our family law framework fails to distinguish between an established co-parenting relationship and a mere biological contributor who is a psychological stranger to the child. In my case, there was never a marriage, never cohabitation, never a co-parenting dynamic, and not even a romantic relationship during pregnancy - only a documented history of abuse prior to, during, and escalating after pregnancy. The other party resides outside our community and has contributed nothing to my child’s stability, daily care, or financial support.
Despite federal Divorce Act reforms removing the outdated "maximum contact" presumption, courtroom culture under Alberta’s Family Law Act remains stuck in the past. Decision-makers still rely on personal assumptions and unwritten "maximum contact" biases, gambling with a young child’s physical and emotional security to satisfy the adult entitlements of a psychological stranger.
When Criminal Thresholds Fail Survivors, Family Court Doubles the Harm
Across Canada, sky-high prosecutorial charge-assessment thresholds mean serious intimate partner and family violence files frequently end without a trial verdict or in stays of proceedings before evidence is ever tested in court. A lack of a criminal trial verdict is not a finding of safety. Under Alberta’s Family Law Act, family violence must be assessed on a civil balance of probabilities (51%), not a criminal standard. Yet in practice, whenever criminal proceedings do not move forward, family courts routinely treat documented abuse and safety risks as erased, leaving mothers and young children defenceless.
State-Sanctioned Coercive Control and Litigation Abuse
In July 2026, Canada’s Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16) officially criminalized coercive control in the Criminal Code. Yet Alberta’s provincial family laws have not caught up. Even under Alberta’s new 2026 Family Focused Protocol and Mandatory Intake Triage (MIT) system, resolution-focused court pathways are easily exploited by abusive respondents. When an individual withholds child support while filing relentless applications to harass, financially drain, and control a sole-guardian mother, the family court becomes an instrument of post-pregnancy abuse. family law has become a lucrative industry where protective mothers are bankrupted into self-representation while trying to work full-time and raise their children in peace.
The "Civil Matter" & Protection Order Loopholes
- Protection Order Gaps: Survivors who never cohabited or were never married routinely fall through technical loopholes in Alberta’s Protection Against Family Violence Act (PAFVA) regarding cohabitation, relationship definitions, geographic proximity, and non-physical coercive control - resulting in denied Emergency Protection Orders (EPOs) when safety nets are needed most.
- The Policing Blind Spot: Once any family court file or order exists, police routinely dismiss stalking, intimidation, and harassment as "a civil matter," giving abusive parties immunity to continue harassing mothers under the guise of family litigation.
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE PROVINCIAL AND FEDERAL REFORM:
- Protect Sole Guardians from the "Stranger Entitlement" Trap: Amend Alberta’s Family Law Act to explicitly remove unwritten "maximum contact" assumptions and create a statutory presumption protecting sole guardianship and child stability where there was no prior cohabitation, no established co-parenting history, and documented pre- or perinatal abuse.
- Mandate Independent Civil Risk Assessments: Amend the Family Law Act to clarify that a criminal stay of proceedings, peace bond, or absence of a criminal conviction cannot be used to dismiss documented history of intimate partner or family violence, requiring mandatory independent risk assessment on a balance of probabilities.
- Stop Litigation and Financial Abuse in Family Court: Align Alberta’s Family Law Act with federal Criminal Code coercive control laws by explicitly defining litigation abuse and wilful child-support withholding as forms of family violence. Require respondents in wilful support arrears or with documented patterns of abusive filings to obtain prior leave of a Case Management Justice and post security for costs before bringing non-urgent parenting applications.
Close the Protection Against Family Violence Act (PAFVA) Loopholes: Expand PAFVA to cover all non-cohabiting intimate, dating, and conception contexts regardless of geographic distance, and explicitly include coercive control, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and litigation harassment as grounds for protection orders.
- End the "Civil Matter" Policing Loophole & Mandate Judicial Training: Establish binding provincial policing directives requiring law enforcement to investigate criminal harassment and coercive control even when family court proceedings exist, alongside mandatory, accredited judicial education on coercive control and post-separation/post-conception abuse (mirroring federal Keira’s Law standards for provincially appointed and family roster Justices).
Children are human beings with a fundamental right to safety and stability - not property to be divided to appease biology. Sign and share to demand that Alberta and Canada protect sole-guardian mothers and their children now.
Sincerely,
A Frontline Nurse, Sole Mother, and Survivor
1,634
The Issue
To the Premier of Alberta, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Alberta, the Minister of Children and Family Services, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta:
I am not just asking for legislative reform; I am demanding it. Alberta’s family justice system is failing sole-guardian mothers and their young children, and we are living proof of this dangerous reality.
As a full-time acute-care hospital nurse and the sole guardian and full-time caregiver of my young daughter, I have been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal and financial costs - ultimately having to learn the law and self-represent - simply to protect my child and myself from an individual using the family court system as a weapon of coercive control.
Biological Contribution Is Not Co-Parenting
Our family law framework fails to distinguish between an established co-parenting relationship and a mere biological contributor who is a psychological stranger to the child. In my case, there was never a marriage, never cohabitation, never a co-parenting dynamic, and not even a romantic relationship during pregnancy - only a documented history of abuse prior to, during, and escalating after pregnancy. The other party resides outside our community and has contributed nothing to my child’s stability, daily care, or financial support.
Despite federal Divorce Act reforms removing the outdated "maximum contact" presumption, courtroom culture under Alberta’s Family Law Act remains stuck in the past. Decision-makers still rely on personal assumptions and unwritten "maximum contact" biases, gambling with a young child’s physical and emotional security to satisfy the adult entitlements of a psychological stranger.
When Criminal Thresholds Fail Survivors, Family Court Doubles the Harm
Across Canada, sky-high prosecutorial charge-assessment thresholds mean serious intimate partner and family violence files frequently end without a trial verdict or in stays of proceedings before evidence is ever tested in court. A lack of a criminal trial verdict is not a finding of safety. Under Alberta’s Family Law Act, family violence must be assessed on a civil balance of probabilities (51%), not a criminal standard. Yet in practice, whenever criminal proceedings do not move forward, family courts routinely treat documented abuse and safety risks as erased, leaving mothers and young children defenceless.
State-Sanctioned Coercive Control and Litigation Abuse
In July 2026, Canada’s Protecting Victims Act (Bill C-16) officially criminalized coercive control in the Criminal Code. Yet Alberta’s provincial family laws have not caught up. Even under Alberta’s new 2026 Family Focused Protocol and Mandatory Intake Triage (MIT) system, resolution-focused court pathways are easily exploited by abusive respondents. When an individual withholds child support while filing relentless applications to harass, financially drain, and control a sole-guardian mother, the family court becomes an instrument of post-pregnancy abuse. family law has become a lucrative industry where protective mothers are bankrupted into self-representation while trying to work full-time and raise their children in peace.
The "Civil Matter" & Protection Order Loopholes
- Protection Order Gaps: Survivors who never cohabited or were never married routinely fall through technical loopholes in Alberta’s Protection Against Family Violence Act (PAFVA) regarding cohabitation, relationship definitions, geographic proximity, and non-physical coercive control - resulting in denied Emergency Protection Orders (EPOs) when safety nets are needed most.
- The Policing Blind Spot: Once any family court file or order exists, police routinely dismiss stalking, intimidation, and harassment as "a civil matter," giving abusive parties immunity to continue harassing mothers under the guise of family litigation.
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE PROVINCIAL AND FEDERAL REFORM:
- Protect Sole Guardians from the "Stranger Entitlement" Trap: Amend Alberta’s Family Law Act to explicitly remove unwritten "maximum contact" assumptions and create a statutory presumption protecting sole guardianship and child stability where there was no prior cohabitation, no established co-parenting history, and documented pre- or perinatal abuse.
- Mandate Independent Civil Risk Assessments: Amend the Family Law Act to clarify that a criminal stay of proceedings, peace bond, or absence of a criminal conviction cannot be used to dismiss documented history of intimate partner or family violence, requiring mandatory independent risk assessment on a balance of probabilities.
- Stop Litigation and Financial Abuse in Family Court: Align Alberta’s Family Law Act with federal Criminal Code coercive control laws by explicitly defining litigation abuse and wilful child-support withholding as forms of family violence. Require respondents in wilful support arrears or with documented patterns of abusive filings to obtain prior leave of a Case Management Justice and post security for costs before bringing non-urgent parenting applications.
Close the Protection Against Family Violence Act (PAFVA) Loopholes: Expand PAFVA to cover all non-cohabiting intimate, dating, and conception contexts regardless of geographic distance, and explicitly include coercive control, psychological abuse, financial abuse, and litigation harassment as grounds for protection orders.
- End the "Civil Matter" Policing Loophole & Mandate Judicial Training: Establish binding provincial policing directives requiring law enforcement to investigate criminal harassment and coercive control even when family court proceedings exist, alongside mandatory, accredited judicial education on coercive control and post-separation/post-conception abuse (mirroring federal Keira’s Law standards for provincially appointed and family roster Justices).
Children are human beings with a fundamental right to safety and stability - not property to be divided to appease biology. Sign and share to demand that Alberta and Canada protect sole-guardian mothers and their children now.
Sincerely,
A Frontline Nurse, Sole Mother, and Survivor
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Petition created on September 6, 2024