Projects

Project Lead: Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children in the Faculty of Education at Western University

This project was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and is designed to address the unique need of survivors of family violence within the family justice system. Canada’s research centres on violence against women will initiate, host and support a Community of Practice (CoP) comprised of family violence experts, survivors, family lawyers, researchers, mental health, and social service professionals. 

Ce projet, financé par l’Agence de santé publique du Canada, est conçu pour répondre aux besoins particuliers des survivants de la violence familiale au sein du système de justice familiale. Les centres de recherche canadiens sur la violence envers les femmes lanceront, accueilleront et soutiendront une communauté de pratique (CdP) composée d’experts en violence familiale, de survivants, d’avocats de la famille, de chercheurs, de professionnels de la santé mentale et des services sociaux.

The overarching goal of the project was to enhance support to survivors of violence through the family law system by increasing opportunities for family law practitioners to have training, guidance and resources to support trauma-informed practice, and to improve coordination of services that will enhance the safety and wellbeing of all parties. 

L’objectif général du projet est d’améliorer le soutien aux survivants de la violence par le biais du système de droit de la famille en augmentant les possibilités pour les praticiens du droit de la famille d’avoir une formation, des conseils et des ressources pour soutenir une pratique tenant compte des traumatismes, et d’améliorer la coordination des services qui amélioreront la sécurité et le bien-être de toutes les parties.

Major goals for the project (November 2020 and November 2023) included the following:

1. Foster communication, collaboration and build relationship among experts from the family violence and family law sectors;
2. Develop and disseminate evidence-based guidance and resources to address issues crossing these areas of concern; 
3. Provide learning opportunities to build capacity of practitioners in the field of violence prevention and family law; 
4. Promote research and evaluation initiatives to examine effective strategies for helping victims, perpetrators and their children receive the interventions they need from family court proceedings;
5. Support sustained knowledge mobilization in the field.

Les principaux objectifs du projet (novembre 2020 et novembre 2023) sont les suivants :

1. Favoriser la communication, la collaboration et l’établissement de relations entre les experts des secteurs de la violence familiale et du droit de la famille ;
2. Élaborer et diffuser des conseils et des ressources fondés sur des données probantes pour traiter les questions qui traversent ces domaines de préoccupation ;
3. Fournir des opportunités d’apprentissage pour renforcer les capacités des praticiens dans le domaine de la prévention de la violence et du droit de la famille ;
4. Promouvoir des initiatives de recherche et d’évaluation afin d’examiner les stratégies efficaces pour aider les victimes, les auteurs de violence et leurs enfants à recevoir les interventions dont ils ont besoin dans le cadre des procédures du tribunal de la famille ;
5. Soutenir une mobilisation soutenue des connaissances dans le domaine.

Deliverables:

1. Develop guidance and information resources for dealing with COVID-19 and family violence victims involved in custody and access disputes that respect regional differences, and diverse realities.
2. Develop guidance and information resources on critical issues related to risk assessment, safety planning and risk management strategies for family violence victims in family court, critical issues related to risk assessment, safety planning and risk management strategies for family violence victims in family court.
3. Develop guidance and information resources on trauma-informed interventions for family violence victims in family court.
4. Regional and National webinars on issues around risk assessment and supervised access provided by team of legal and family violence experts together with survivor.

Produits livrables :

Webinaires régionaux et nationaux sur les questions relatives à l’évaluation des risques et à l’accès supervisé, organisés par une équipe d’experts en droit et en violence familiale, en collaboration avec un survivant.

Développer des directives et des ressources d’information pour traiter les COVID-19 et les victimes de violence familiale impliquées dans des conflits de garde et d’accès qui respectent les différences régionales et les diverses réalités.

Élaborer des directives et des ressources d’information sur les questions critiques liées à l’évaluation des risques, à la planification de la sécurité et aux stratégies de gestion des risques pour les victimes de violence familiale dans les tribunaux de la famille, questions critiques liées à l’évaluation des risques, à la planification de la sécurité et aux stratégies de gestion des risques pour les victimes de violence familiale dans les tribunaux de la famille.

Élaborer des directives et des ressources d’information sur les interventions axées sur les traumatismes pour les victimes de violence familiale dans les tribunaux de la famille.

• Issue No. 1.1 (May 2022): Michel v. Graydon | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 1.2 (May 2022): Colucci v. Colucci | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 1.3 (May 2022): Barendregt v. Gerbil’s | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 2 (October 2022): McLellan v Birbilis  | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 3 (November 2022): Compensating Victims of Domestic Violence: The Case of A v. A | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 4 (December 2022): Creating Safety in BC Courts: Key Challenges and Recommendations | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 5 (January 2023): Protecting a Child’s Gender Identity and Family Violence: LS v BS | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 6 (March 2023): A Bulletin from the Atlantic Chapter of the Family Violence | ENG or FR
•  Issue No. 7 (March 2023): Family Violence and Parenting Arrangements: Dayboll v Binag | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 8 (March 2023): The Overlap Between Family and Criminal Law Cases: Bidgood-Lund v Marston | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 9 (March 2023): Parenting Orders and Decision-Making in Cases of Family Violence : NM v SM | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 10 (May 2023): Reunification Therapy and Children’s Wishes in Cases of Family Violence: FS v MBT | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 11 (June  2023): Hague Convention Applications in Family Violence Cases | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 12 (May 2023): Relocation in the Context of Family Violence: A.J.K. v. J.P.B | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 13 (September 2023): Ontario Court of Appeal Rejects a New Tort of Family Violence: The Case of A v. A | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 14 (October 2023): A Bulletin from Atlantic Chapter of Family Violence | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 15 (November 2023): Updates of Quebec Case Law in Family Law | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 16 (November 2023): Parental time and Family Law Jurisprudence: A Brief Overview of Recent Jurisprudence | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 17 (November 2023): Schuetze v. Pyper & Pyper v. Schuetze (Part 1& 2) | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 18 (December 2023): Parenting time, relocation, reunification therapy, and cooperative decision-making: El Khatib v Noun | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 19 (February 2024): Getting Evidence Before Family Law Judges: Fernandes v Fernandes | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 20 (March 2024): Coercion and Control in Family Law Cases: Armstrong v Coupland | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 21 (April 2024): Determining the Best Interests of the Child in Relocation Cases: CLT v DTT | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 22 (March 2024): New Brunswick’s Child and Youth Well-Being Act | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 23 (March 2024): Protection Orders & Family Proceedings: MBKB 164 | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 24 (March 2024): The harms of gendered myths and stereotypes about intimate partner and sexual violence: R v RMD | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 25 (March 2024): Legal Aid Expansion for People Experiencing Family Violence: Single Mothers’ Alliance v. BC | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 26 (March 2024): Family Law Proceedings | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 27 (March 2024): Court Decisions in Family Law | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 28 (March 2024): The Impact of Family Violence on the Determination of a Child’s Best Interests and Spousal Support | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 29 (May 2024): Judicial Responses to Litigation Abuse: Cost Awards Kumar v Nash 2024 ONCJ 16 | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 30 (September 2024): Protection Orders & Family Proceedings: 2021 ABPC 167 | ENG
• Issue No. 31: (September 2024): Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Through Tort Law | ENG
• Issue No. 32: (September 2024): When Evidence of Family Violence May be Relevant to the Payment of Spousal Support L.D.B. v. A.N.H., 2023 BCCA 480 | ENG
• Issue No. 33: (January 2025): Coercive Control and its Impact on the Exercise of Parental Authority and the Use of a Surname in Court Decision 2024 QCCS 1392 | ENG
• Issue No. 34: (February 2025): Past Family Violence Evidence Can Give Rise to Criminal Consequences | ENG
• Issue No. 35: (March 2025): Jurisdictional Interplay, the Hague Abduction Convention, and Family Violence: 2024 MBKB 64 | ENG
• Issue No. 36: (March 2025): Jurisdictional Interplay, the Hague Abduction Convention, and Family Violence: 2024 MBKB 64 | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 37: (March 2025): Parenting Time, Decision Making Authority, and Harmful Stereotypes in Family Court Proceedings: 2024 MBKB 100 | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 38: (March 2025): Access to State-Funded Counsel in Guardianship Applications Following Allegations of Family Violence | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 39: (March 2025): Shedding Light on the Myths of Family Violence | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 40: (May 2025): Best Interests of the Child Trumps a Parent’s Unfavored Outcome on Appeal | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 41: (June 2025): Weakening of the Principle of Confidentiality in Family Mediation: 2021 CSC 54 (CanLII), [2021] 3 RCS 805 | ENG or FR

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• Issue No. 1: Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 2:  Executive Summary of Why Can’t Everyone Just Get Along?: How BC’s family law system puts survivors in danger | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 3: Coercive Control and Family Law | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 4: A Review of the Recent Recommendations in Québec Supporting the health of survivors of family violence in family law proceedings | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 5: The 2021 Divorce Act: Using Statutory Interpretation Principles to Support Substantive Equality for Women and Children | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 6: COVID-19, the Shadow Pandemic, and Access to Justice for Survivors of Domestic Violence Webinar | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 7: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Family Violence in Family Law | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 8: Engaging Fathers Who Commit Family Violence: Issues and Challenges for Family Courts | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 9: Implementing Children’s Participation Rights in All Family Court Proceedings | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 10: Contributing to the Health and Safety of Family Violence Survivors: Reducing the Risks of Secondary Victimization | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 11: Supporting Survivors through Court Reform: Assessing the Role of Integrated and Specialized Courts for Family Law in British Columbia | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 12: Survivors’ Views of Family Courts: Findings from the Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Initiative with Vulnerable Populations (CDHPIVP) | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 13: Family Law Mediation in Family Violence Cases: Basics & Best Practices | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 14: Tech-Facilitated Violence: An Introduction | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 15: When the Family Court Becomes the Continuation of Family Violence After Separation: Understanding Litigation Abuse | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 16: The Co-Occurrence of Parental Alienation Claims and Intimate Partner Violence in Family Court: Theory and Practice | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 17: Addressing Poverty & Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 18: Ethical Obligations of Family Law Practitioners  | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 19: Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice for International Students at Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 20: Responding to Family Violence in Family Court: Challenges & Recommendations | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 21: Fathering and Fathers’ Rights Groups: The Canadian landscape | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 22: How communities of practice support and promote change | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 23: Family violence: clinical collaboration and community of practice | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 24: Treating Children as Full Rights Bearers: Independent Legal Representation for Children in Family Violence and/or Resist-Refuse Contact Cases | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 25: Failure to Protect: Social & Institutional Factors That Prevent Access to Justice in Family Violence/Family Law Cases | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 26: Traumatic Brain Injury and Intimate Partner Violence: Challenges for Survivors Involved in the Family Court System | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 27: Sober second thoughts about the benefits and limitations of reunification therapy | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 29: Mental Health/Substance Use Coercion and Intimate Partner Violence Survivors in Family  | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 30: Contextualizing the UN Special Report on custody, violence against women and children, and parental alienation: What does it mean for Canada? | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 31: Parenting time-sharing practices of parenting plan evaluators in the context of family violence: what does the research reveal? | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 32: Enhancing System Responses to Survivors and Perpetrators of Strangulation in Intimate Partner Violence | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 33: Family Law, Family Violence and Restorative Justice | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 34: Awareness to Action: Implementing Limits to Reunification | ENG
• Issue No: 35: Understanding Barriers to Accessing Legal Support for Family Violence faced by Immigrant Refugee and Non-Status Women in Canada | ENG
• Issue No: 36: Intervening with Perpetrators Who Choose to Use Coercive Control Towards Their Families | ENG
• Issue No. 37: The Impact of Using the Family Law DOORS Screening Tool in Family Mediation in Quebec | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 38: Taking Seriousness Seriously: Revisiting Gender Symmetry and Mutual Violence in Intimate Partner Violence through Role Types in IPV Events Reported to the Police | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 39: Navigating Protection Orders: Analyzing the Application Process and Precedent Cases in Manitoba | ENGor FR
• Issue No. 40: Inclusive Family Justice in Rural, Remote and Northern British Columbia | ENG or FR
• Issue No. 41: Understanding Reproductive Coercion and Abuse in the Context of Family Violence and Family Law | ENG

Hosted by: RESOLVE Manitoba

Reproductive coercion and abuse (RCA) is a prevalent form of intimate partner violence. However, this violence remains largely unacknowledged within the family law system in Canada, and jurisdictions across the globe. This webinar examines the findings from a groundbreaking report produced by South-East Monash Legal Service Inc. (SMLS) exploring the issue of RCA in the Australian legal system – including the issue of RCA, legal practitioner competency in responding to RCA, and effective interventions for the legal system to support RCA disclosure.

• Download Susan Saldanha’s PPT
• Download RESOLVE’s PPT
• Watch the Recording

Hosted by: Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre

Atlantic Canada has seen a recent spike in occurrences of intimate partner homicide involving individuals of older age. Frontline service providers are also recognizing an increase in older adults accessing resources and services for intimate partner violence, some for the very first time. While intimate partner violence does not discriminate, older adults may experience distinctive risk factors and forms of abuse. This webinar will address some of the unique challenges faced by this demographic, and information for service providers such as:

• Rural complexities
• Unique health effects, financial challenges, and forms of isolation
• Intersections of elder abuse and intimate partner violence
• Screening and assessments for legal counsel
• Resources and initiatives

Watch the Recording

Hosted by: The FREDA Centre

In the BC Supreme Court decision of AB v Henry, 2025 BCSC 137, Madam Justice Gropper confirmed what five sexual assault victims have said for over four decades: that Ivan Henry was the man who sexually assaulted them at knifepoint in Vancouver in the early 1980s. Justice Gropper found that “each plaintiff has met her burden: to establish that Mr. Henry is the man who attacked her, on the balance of probabilities.” She awarded damages to each of them. This was a remarkable finding in an extraordinary case. Ivan Henry was convicted of numerous charges of rape, attempted rape and indecent assault against eight women in 1983 and spent almost 27 years in prison before the BC Court of Appeal determined in 2010 that he had been wrongly convicted, acquitting him on all counts. In a subsequent civil action brought by Henry against various levels of government, he received Charter damages of more than $8 million for the prosecution’s failure to disclose information to him.

When the Henry case was re-opened in the 2000s, the victims were left voiceless. During the special prosecutor’s review, Henry’s appeal, and Henry’s civil suit against government, the sexual assault victims were left with little support and without an opportunity to be heard. They were bystanders as a powerful public narrative grew that Henry was an innocent victim of government misconduct, along the lines of David Milgaard. The five plaintiffs commenced their civil action against Henry to challenge the public narrative of Henry as an innocent man and to draw attention to the legal system’s failure to give victims the support they needed in these extraordinary circumstances.

In this conversation, the lawyers who represented the women plaintiffs in their civil case against Henry will reflect with Professor Emma Cunliffe on what we can learn about the Canadian legal system, the progress of women’s rights to the equal protection and benefit of the law, and truth telling, from the extraordinary course of the Henry case.

Watch the Recording

Hosted by: The FREDA Centre

This webinar explores Improving Access to Justice Through Safeguards in Parenting Assessments, a report on parenting assessments in BC published by Rise Women’s Legal Center. Parenting assessments in BC are often ordered when there are court proceedings about parenting issues, to provide evidence to the court about the views and needs of the children, and the ability and willingness of each parent to meet these needs. The report’s co-authors, Gina Addario-Berry and Magal Huberman, discuss their findings and their recommendations under the main themes of evaluators’ training and experience, practice standards, financial barriers, and judicial gatekeeping and oversight.

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Hosted by: RESOLVE & AVA

This webinar focuses on approaches to working with perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants learn to recognize and respond to controlling and manipulative tactics used by perpetrators, along with strategies for engaging with perpetrators. The session also highlights the importance of maintaining safety when working with participants, addressing the physical and emotional aspects of worker safety and wellbeing.

• Download RESOLVE’s PPT slides
• Download Rhonda Dagg’s PPT slides
• Watch the Recording

Leading experts in the research and practice of the use of family dispute resolution in family violence cases will discuss the importance of screening for family violence; introduce the MAISIC screening tool for mediators; share the latest research, tips and tools to help professionals achieve best practice standards when helping to resolve cases involving family violence, particularly those in which there are serious safety risks and power imbalances arising from family violence.

• Watch the Recording
• Download presentation slides

Strangulation by an intimate partner is one of the strongest risk factors of future lethality. In April of 2023, UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem released a report addressing the link between custody cases, violence against women and violence against children, with a focus on the abuse of the term “parental alienation”. In this report, she concludes that the discredited and unscientific concept of parental alienation is used in family law proceedings by abusers as a tool to continue their abuse and coercion, undermine and discredit allegations of domestic violence made by mothers who are trying to keep their children safe, and leads to decisions that violate the best interests of children. She makes a series of recommendations including: legislation to prohibit the use of parental alienation or related concepts  in family law cases; establishing regular monitoring mechanisms to oversee the effectiveness of family justice systems for victims of domestic abuse; ensuring mandatory training of the judiciary and other justice system professionals and requiring that no evaluations be made in family law proceedings without consideration of relevant criminal law and/or child protection proceedings. In this webinar, Ms. Alsalem will summarize the major findings and recommendations of her report. Her presentation will be followed by comments from youth with lived experience and a panel of respondents who will reflect on the relevance of these recommendations to Canada on steps that might be needed to implement change.  

• Watch recording

Strangulation by an intimate partner is one of the strongest risk factors of future lethality. However, many survivors of strangulation have no visible injuries, leading to challenges in detection, intervention, and support by criminal justice, community, and health care service providers. Dr. McCormick will discuss current gaps in awareness and practice and provide strategies to enhance system responses.

• Watch the Recording
• Download Amanda McCormick’s presentation slides

This Part 2 discussion provides some context on the appointment process and education of judges in Canada as well as their independence from government. The training relevant to Keira’s Law will be undertaken through the leadership of the National Judicial Institute and their role in providing education is examined. The panelists also provide perspective and expertise given their roles in presenting extensive judicial education programs as well as being a consumer of these programs.

• Watch the Recording
• Download the Presentation Slides

• Watch the Recording
• Download the Presentation Slides

In this Special Event, panelists discuss the necessity of Keira’s Law given the gap in judicial education and knowledge about family violence and coercive control. Panelists also share more about what the law seeks to do and current realities of judge training in Canada. Finally, panelists share their hopes and wishes for the enactment of the law with the goal to protect more children in the future.

• Watch the Recording

• Watch the Recording

In a country plagued by rising instances of family violence and contentious divorces, Lisa Teryl, a seasoned senior lawyer, and Tod Augusta Scott, a renowned advocate in family violence and trauma, have come together to introduce an innovative approach to family law. Their brainchild, Divorce Legal Communication Services, aims to put an end to abuse, foster collaboration, and streamline the divorce process through adopting a restorative approach.

• Watch the Recording
• Download Lisa Teryl & Tod Augusta Scott’s Presentation Slides
• Download RESOLVE Presentation Slides

• Watch the recording

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) commonly sustain physical injuries to the head, neck, and face. As a result of increased trauma to these areas, survivors are at a greater risk of experiencing brain injuries; specifically traumatic brain injury (TBI), which is caused by external force to the head, neck, or face, and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI), which is caused by non-fatal strangulation. These injuries cause damage to the brain and disrupt its normal functioning, resulting in a range of physical, emotional, and cognitive difficulties. Because of these difficulties, survivors impacted by brain injuries can face challenges when accessing, navigating, and participating in the family court system. For instance, survivors suffering from unrecognized or undiagnosed brain injuries can exhibit behaviors in family court that undermine their credibility. If a brain injury is known, it can also be weaponized against survivors during custody and access proceedings to paint them as an unfit parent. This webinar focused on the intersection of IPV and brain injury, and the subsequent challenges these injuries present for survivors in the family court system including issues surrounding participation in the court process, establishing causal evidence of IPV-related brain injury, and the absence of trauma-informed legal practices.

• Watch the Recording
• Download Dr. Michael Ellis & Ashley Stewart’s Presentation Slides
• Download RESOLVE Presentation Slides

Many survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) experience substance use coercion, which occurs when abusers attempt to control survivors through tactics related to substance use. Common tactics include forcing survivors to use substances, preventing survivors from accessing treatment programs, and purposefully sabotaging the recovery process. This webinar provides an overview on the issue of substance use coercion and its impact on survivors of IPV. It also discusses the intersection of substance use coercion and the family court system for survivors of IPV, including the prevalence of the issue amongst litigants in both the Canadian and American family court systems, how family court personnel can best address the issue, and promising practices for supporting survivors impacted by the issue in the family court system.   

• Watch the Webinar Recording
• Download Dr. Carole Warshaw’s Presentation Slides
• Download RESOLVE Presentation Slides

This webinar explores gender-based violence in rural and remote settings in Ontario and British Columbia.

• Watch the Webinar Recording in English or French

• Watch the Webinar Recording

Litigation abuse often extends the coercive and controlling behaviour used during the relationship into the family court process. Using litigation tactics, such as making or threatening to make meritless claims; introducing false or irrelevant evidence; and causing unnecessary delays in the court proceedings, the abuser causes significant psychological and financial harm to the targeted parent and to their children.

This webinar explores common litigation abuse tactics and their consequences to survivors and their children.

• Watch the Webinar Recording
• Download the Presentation Slides

• Watch the Recording

Assessing the risk of homicide is the first step in preventing spousal homicide. The tool entitled Conjugal Homicide Risk Assessment, developed with the Association à coeur d’homme, analyzes the risk of a situation based on three components, namely the identification of risk factors, precipitating events, and protective factors. By collecting the information gathered on these three elements, a complete picture of the person’s situation with respect to the risk of homicide can be drawn. Another key component in the risk analysis is the presence of a homicide scenario. This approach allows for better planning of the intervention strategies required to manage the risk as well as the follow-up that will be offered to the person, and thus ensure the safety of the victim.

• Watch the Webinar Recording
• Download the Presentation Slides in English
• Download the Presentation Slides in French

• Watch the webinar recording

The past decade has seen an unprecedented increase in parenting disputes in family court. On one hand, there is a growing recognition of family violence as a gender-based crime and a legislated factor for judges to consider in parenting decisions. On the other hand, the concept of alienation has been increasingly misused to blame protective parents and their children’s resistance or reluctance to have parenting time with perpetrators of family violence. Some of these cases represent litigation abuse as an extension of coercive control in the intimate partner relationship. The presentation will outline the controversaries in the field and the inappropriate use of alienation. The multiple factors that may lie behind a child refusing or resisting parenting will be discussed as well as the dilemmas for the family justice system to find differentiated parenting plans in these cases.

Justice Mirwaldt will discuss the many reforms that the Court of Queen’s Bench has made in the past three years to address systemic court delays that had created a barrier to justice for Manitoba families. Under the new court rules family violence is addressed at the outset of a family case through a system of robust triage conferencing and case management. Timely and meaningful interactions with a family court judge under a one-judge model has led to early resolution of the majority of the court’s cases, even those involving allegations of parental alienation and family violence.

• Download Parental Alienation Resources
• Download RESOLVE’s Presentation Slides
• Download Dr. Peter Jaffe’s Presentation Slides
• Download Justice Mirwaldt Presentation Slides 
• Download Robynne Kazina Presentation Slides 

Canada’s family courts are confronted with cases involving complex cultural contexts and challenging family dynamics.  The family justice system often enters the realm of resolving Canada’s multicultural puzzle and is tasked with making decisions regarding complex overlapping issues and facts within a legislative framework. This webinar will examine the relationship between the competing interests within the family court system as there continues to be the need for systemic change of the family dispute resolution system that designs justice for sustainable family conflict resolution.

• Watch the Webinar Recording

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child states that the “right of all children [under 18] to be heard and taken seriously constitutes one of the fundamental values of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”. Obtaining children’s views and preferences in court processes is now common in many cases, but the right to do so can be marginalized for children in family violence and or parental alienation cases. In addition, more attention has been paid to hearing children’s voices generally, than it has to ensuring that those views are taken seriously and given due weight in accordance with the children’s ages and maturity. This webinar will consider the issue of how children’s rights in all family law court proceedings can be implemented effectively, with the involvement of independent legal representation for children, using the Eight Child Rights Safeguards/Guarantees which the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child states are necessary to do so.

• Watch the Webinar Recording
• Download the Presentation Slides in English

Technology is increasingly used by abusers to perpetrate violence, whether through unsecured devices or by making online spaces unsafe. This may come in the form of online stalking, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, doxing, or threats, just to name a few. Technology-facilitated violence (TFV) can happen in the context of romantic relationships, but is also perpetrated by strangers or online trolls. But what do we mean by doxing and what is an online troll? 

This presentation provides information on what “technology-facilitated violence” is and helps explain some of the terminology used to describe this kind of violence. Professors Jane Bailey of the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, and Suzie Dunn of Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law discuss the various types of TFV, why it is a growing societal problem, and provide helpful resources and safety tips. They also talk about social media companies’ role in TFV and how ending TFV involves a wide variety of responses from individuals, social media companies and governments. 

• Download Tech-Safety Resources
• Download the Presentation Slides
• Watch the Webinar Recording

Family court is filled with self-represented litigants – up to 50% across Canada and closer to 80% in urban centres. Those SRLs include individuals asking for restraining orders (there is no disaggregated data in Ontario) as well as those experiencing family violence seeking custody, access, child support etc.  US research (Kercin, 2015) shows that the outcomes for this second group are significantly worse for those without representation, which matches NSRLP data on systemically less favourable outcomes for SRLs than represented litigants. While Canadian data suggests similar levels of self-representation among men and women, NSRLP suggests that the way that courts treat women is often markedly different and subject to judicial stereotypes (NSRLP, 2018). We also see some examples of process abuse by controlling male partners (for example, continual reopening of child support and access) which suggests a possible relationship with family violence.

The many difficulties of self-representation (including stereotyping and stigmatizing by lawyers and judges) are further exacerbated by the personal experiences of those living with family violence, who often feel further traumatized by their court experience. The level of understanding among members of the Bench of the systemic issues facing those living with family violence and/or in an ongoing controlling relationship appears to remain low. Recent Australian research on family violence and self-represented litigants (Mangman et al 2020) makes a number of recommendations for further assistance for and protection of SRLs experiencing intimate partner violence including a ban on cross-exam by an alleged perpetrator of a victim (in Canada this only applies to those under 18), enhanced court safety measures, and further calls for enhanced training for judges and lawyers.

Finally, even with legal representation there are innumerable issues for the survivors of family violence in undertaking both civil and criminal proceedings and the trauma that is raised. “Going Public: A Survivors Journey from Grioef to Acyion” (Macfarlane, 2020) sets out a series of recommendations for addressing the worst of these systemic problems inside the legal system.

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This webinar shared developing knowledge from a research project examining the reduction in access to Ontario’s family justice system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from a survey of over 100 family justice professionals in Ontario highlight how the pandemic has affected families involved in the system. Certain groups including high conflict families, self-representing litigants, victims of intimate partner violence, children experiencing abuse and neglect, and families involved in the child welfare system have been disproportionately impacted by the reduction in family court access and related services since the onset of the pandemic. Innovative responses by family court and family justice professionals were discussed, along with recommendations for how these practices can be modified or adopted to better serve families involved in the family justice system. 

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Many family law lawyers have clients suffering from trauma due to domestic violence. The family court system often has expectations of witnesses that adversely affects not only the credibility of the trauma victim, but also their overall well-being during trial.

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This webinar reviewed the impact of the pandemic in Ontario on survivors of family violence with a focus on access to specialized services. The presenters discussed the increase in violence and vulnerability of survivors as well as the challenges in accessing needed services. The pandemic has created significant barriers as well as some innovative service approaches. In particular, the webinar addressed services that often required as a part of family court proceedings such as supervised access, batterer intervention and parenting programs (PAR and Caring Dads), legal advice, counselling, and housing. 

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In this past webinar presenters, Jennifer Koshan, Janet Mosher, and Wanda Wiegers shared their research providing a preliminary assessment of the extent to which Canada’s early responses to the COVID-19 pandemic prioritized the safety of women and children. Following Jennifer Koshan, Janet Mosher, and Wanda Wiegers presentation, Paula Ediger and Zahra Hosseini discussed the risks and safety concerns that came with COVID-19 protocols and what families had been experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The focus of this webinar was on Rise’s research results regarding the impacts the family court system had on survivors, particularly to their health. Further, this webinar focused on the recommendations on how we can improve the court system in BC, starting with mandatory family violence training for lawyers, judges and police, and the creation of a specialized family court designed to address the needs of people attending court with a family law matter, most importantly their own safety and well-being.

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This webinar addressed the challenges survivors of family violence face when seeking safety and support in the family court, barriers survivors face due to the nature of trauma they have suffered and the many demands of the adversarial system from a legal and psychological perspective, how court-related professionals and the system can become trauma informed and promising practices.

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