parental alienation accusations against victims of domestic violence silence parents and children who

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, The Honourable Arif Virani, The Honourable Pierre Poilievre, The Honourable Jagmeet Singh, The Honourable Yves-François Blanchet, We write to you as feminist and equality-seeking organizations to urge you to take action to address a crisis of dramatic proportions in our family justice system: the use of parental alienation accusations against victims of domesti. [...] Too often, courts and custody evaluators consider that reporting family violence or asking for reduced contact between the father and the child are signs of “alienation”, that is, brainwashing by the mother to make the child reject the father. [...] National Association of Women and the Law 1404 Scott Street, Ottawa ON 613 241 7570 – media@nawl.ca particularly urgent given the rise of gender-based violence since the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the Mass Casualty Commission to declare gender-based violence an epidemic.10 Last summer, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, its Causes and Consequences, Reem Alsalem, prese. [...] She raised the alarm on the “ways in which family courts in different regions refer to ‘parental alienation’ or similar pseudo-concepts in custody cases, ignoring histories of domestic violence, which may lead to the double victimization of victims of such violence.”11 Her first recommendation is that States must “legislate to prohibit the use of parental alienation or related pseudo-concepts in f. [...] Tiffany Butler, Executive Director Suzanne Zaccour, Director of Legal Affairs National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) 10 Mass Casualty Commission, Turning the Tide Together: Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission, Volume 3: Violence (Nova Scotia: The Mass Casualty Commission, 2023) at 268.