Barbara Kay: After a divorce, equal parenting rights should be the norm

Article published in the National Post and on her personal website. Excerpt:

'In 1999, an exhaustively researched Joint House-Senate committee report, entitled “For the Sake of the Children,” offered recommendations whose spirit is encapsulated in Bill C-560, which will move to second reading in Parliament on March 25.
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The present adversarial system for high-conflict cases, whereby one parent (usually the mother) “wins” primary residence for the children, has produced injustice, heartbreak and financial ruin on a massive scale. That the family-law system is in serious need of fundamental reform is not in dispute, with report after report demanding action. The new model would replace the concepts of “custody” and “access” with “parenting responsibilities” and “parenting time” applicable to both parents.

Under the current Divorce Act (1985), judges have paid lip service to vague concepts such as the “best interests” of the child. But many have ignored persuasive evidence showing that the single most important “interest” of children is to continue to love and to be loved by both their parents. Relationships cannot flourish without significant time in each other’s presence.

Opposition to ESP arises mainly from two sources: family-law lawyers who are by far the greatest financial stakeholders in the adversarial system, and ideologues. The lawyers insist that a vague test is best, leaving the matter for endless litigation; and ideologues either claim outright that mothers are indispensable to children’s happiness, fathers inessential; or accuse fathers of demanding ESP merely to reduce their financial obligations (which, in practice, won’t happen).
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Foreskin activists want Bill Gates to cut circumcision funding

Article here. Excerpt:

'Bill Gates is the most highly anticipated speaker at the TED Talks in Vancouver on Tuesday – but the Microsoft founder's philanthropic work is being protested by “pro-foreskin” activists.

The Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project has criticized a program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which it said granted more than $160 million for 14 African countries' HIV/AIDS prevention programs encouraging male circumcision.

“Circumcision does not prevent HIV,” group founder Glen Callender said. “Bill Gates means well, there certainly are things he's doing that I fully support, but I do not agree that circumcision is a valid or reasonable approach for 21st-century AIDS prevention.”

He argued circumcision can create scar tissue and remove many sensory nerves in the penis.'

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Australia: Teenager charged with making false statement which resulted in a man arrested and denied bail

Story here. Excerpt:

'A TEENAGE girl who claimed a man dragged her into a toilet at Strathfield railway station and raped her, has been charged with making a false statement to police.

The 17-year-old girl told police an older man she met on the train forced her into the toilet block, where he sexually assaulted her for almost 30-minutes.
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Later that day on January 22, a 34-year-old man was arrested and charged with sexual assault. He was refused bail.

But a few days later, police said fresh information was obtained, and the charges against the man were formally withdrawn in court.'

Following an investigation, police yesterday charged the 17-year-old girl with making a false statement.'

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Student expelled from university after making false rape report

Story here. Excerpt:

'The woman who faked a campus assault is no longer a student at Lindenwood University.

School officials say 21-year-old Joanna Newberry of Des Peres was dismissed after she made the false claim.

Newberry is facing misdemeanor charges of making a false report.

She told police she was attacked in a library restroom on March 7th, but fought off her attacker and was able to get away.
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Five days later, Newberry admitted she made up the story, but didn’t say why.'

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Ireland: Judges are ‘breaching human rights of fathers’

Article here. Excerpt:

'Irish judges are breaching human rights laws by forcing separated fathers on state benefits to make punishing child-maintenance payments, a parental rights advocacy group has claimed.

A chaotic ‘free-for-all’ in Ireland’s family courts has resulted in many fathers being forced below the poverty line while being denied proper access to their children, according to Eamonn Quinn of the Unmarried and Separated Parents of Ireland.

“The European Court of Human Rights has issued guidelines on what constitutes a minimum standard of living. A separated father on welfare is already at that level, yet an Irish judge will consistently force him to make exorbitant payments to the mother yet rarely, if ever, the other way round where he is the principal carer.

“If the mother has left the family home and is in desertion of the children, she is not made pay the same amount as a man.”'

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UCSB Police Department Releases Feminist Professor Incident Report

Story here. Excerpt:

'The UC Santa Barbara Police Department has released its official report on the confrontation between Professor Mireille Miller-Young and a group of anti-abortion activists during which Miller-Young stole one of the activists’ signs, tussled with a teen girl trying to get it back, and then destroyed the sign with the help of her students.

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China: A father's love

Story here. Excerpt:

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Canada: Bench-Slap - Ontario Judge creates a mess of case with "independent" research

Print story here, plus Sun News discussion of case here (video).

'Prosecutors are appealing a not guilty verdict in a case of domestic sexual assault after the investigating officer reported that the Ottawa trial judge created an online dating profile to research the alleged victim.

In an affidavit filed in court, Const. Erin Lehman detailed how Ontario Superior Court Justice Timothy Ray allegedly invited her to his private chambers after his ruling on Dec. 18, 2013, to discuss her investigation.

Ray allegedly said he created a profile on match.com, posing as a 25-year-old gay man. He suggested that the defence "would have been able to hang the victim with all the available information," according to the affidavit.

The alleged victim testified behind a screen during the trial, which shielded her from seeing others in the courtroom but allowed others, including the accused, to see her.
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At some point Justice Ray stated that he was not sure if he was supposed to be talking to me like this but that his decision had already been made and was heard," Lehman wrote.

Ray found the accused not guilty of sexual assault, forcible confinement and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, but found him guilty of assault. The accused cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the alleged victim.

Lehman reported her conversation to the Crown after leaving the judge's chambers.
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"This is a case where very serious issues have been raised; issues that go to the heart of trial fairness," the ruling detailed.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the credibility of the complainant had been an issue at trial.

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Teen's Mom Demands Criminal Charges After Fatal Bedroom Shooting

Story here. Excerpt:

'The mother of a 17-year-old Texas boy is demanding criminal charges be brought against a father who fatally shot her son. The incident occurred last week when the father, who hasn't been identified publicly, was alerted by his four-year-old son that there was someone in his 16-year-old daughter's bedroom.

The man grabbed his gun and entered his daughter's bedroom, where an argument ensued and his daughter reportedly denied knowing Johran McCormick. Police said the man shot McCormick in the head, claiming the teen was reaching for something.

Police said the girl later admitted to sneaking McCormick into the house.'

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Young: The 'Ban Bossy' campaign misfires

Article here. Excerpt:

'But is there any evidence that American girls in this day and age are fragile flowers whose confidence can be destroyed by a discouraging word? According to BanBossy.com, "girls are twice as likely as boys to worry that leadership roles will make them seem 'bossy' " -- a factoid based on a 2008 report from the Girl Scout Research Institute, "Change It Up!"

But while the report is based on a solid study -- a survey of about 2,500 girls and 1,500 boys -- this particular finding is less than impressive. It is based on a subgroup of 360 children who said they weren't interested in being leaders, and who were asked about the reasons for this disinterest. "I do not want to seem bossy" was mentioned by 29 percent of the girls but only 13 percent of the boys. However, in the entire survey pool, girls were just as likely as boys to say that they wanted to be leaders and to agree that "I think of myself as a leader." They were also equally likely to describe themselves as "confident," "talented," and "strong."

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Pit bull versus boy: Common sense goes to the dogs

Story here. Excerpt:

'Mickey the pit bull stares at me from behind the bars of his cage at Maricopa County's Animal Care and Control quarantine unit on south 27th Avenue.

Death row for dogs.
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He glances at me and turns away, unable to stop quivering, not unusual for a dog unfamiliar with people. He spent much of his time chained in a yard. He is not trained or neutered. He was underfed.
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You'd feel sorry for Mickey if you didn't know he had attacked and disfigured a 4-year-old boy.

You'd feel sorry for him until you found out that people from Arizona and all over the world seem to be more concerned for Mickey than for little Kevin Vicente, who required 5 ½ hours of surgery to stitch the gashes in his face and to mend his broken eye socket, detached tear ducts and a fractured jaw.'

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University hosted workshop to teach men how to give girlfriends orgasms -- no reciprocation mentioned

Article here. Excerpt:

'Rutgers University is hosting a female orgasm workshop so extensive it promises to have something for “orgasm aficionados and beginners of all genders,” Campus Reform has learned.
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Tuesday’s workshop will be taught by “sex educators” Marshall Miller and Maggie Keenan-Bolger, and is sponsored by Student Residence Life and the Busch Campus Dean.

The event invitation did not bar students under the age of 18 from attending.

Rutgers is a public university that receives federal and state tax dollars. The university did not respond to a request for comment from Campus Reform in time for publication.'

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False allegations concern those who advocate for domestic violence victims

Story here. Excerpt:

'It wasn't easy for the man whose job it generally is to prove that a criminal defendant abused his accuser to say.

"Her credibility, with respect to both dockers, was irrevocably compromised by falsely reporting three incidents in the City of Rome and providing at least one false written statement to the Rome Police Department," said prosecutor Joshua Bauer.

Instead of prosecuting the case against correction officer and accused abuser Craig Lockwood, the district attorney's office would up asking two judges to drop all the charges after victim Savannah Loce Lockwood admitted she made it up. And while the final charge against Lockwood was dropped Monday, the damage is still done, and some fear it will hurt the system.
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Not only did Craig Lockwood not harm his estranged wife, his attorney says she assaulted him.

"She did stab him," said George Massoud, Lockwood's attorney. "She stabbed him in the shoulder."

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Woman allegedly laced husband's steroids with antifreeze

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Smyrna woman has been charged with murder after police say she admitted lacing her husband's steroid injections with antifreeze.

State police say 44-year-old Jamie Baker was arrested on Thursday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband, 42-year-old James Baker.

James Baker died in September. An autopsy revealed he had a chemical found in antifreeze in his system, and his death was ruled homicide by poisoning.
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Police searched the home again on Thursday, and police say Jamie Baker told officers that she had used a hypodermic syringe to extract antifreeze from a bottle and then injected it into her husband's bottles of steroids.'

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College facing trial for branding innocent student 'rapist'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A federal judge has ruled that a series of claims by a student-athlete against his school will go to trial after he was branded a rapist during a campus hearing even though a local prosecutor who investigated said the case should be dropped.

A ruling from U.S. District Judge Arthur Spiegel rejected the request by Xavier University to toss the entire case. It ordered a trial on claims by Dezmine Wells regarding breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel through injury to his personal reputation, his profession reputation and with malice, negligence and discrimination.

The school released only a statement on the dispute.

“We’re pleased that the court dismissed a number of the claims at this point,” the university said. “The court’s decision was based solely on the facts as alleged by Mr. Wells and his lawyers in their amended complaint, as is required by court rules at this early stage in the litigation. After the actual facts are disclosed to the court, we are confident that the result will vindicate Xavier.”

Catherine Sevcenko, an attorney, commented on the website of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that Wells was expelled for sexual assault “in spite of the local prosecutor’s public statements that the evidence did not support the accuser’s allegations.”
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WND has reported several times on the federal campaign to have campus disciplinary boards determine guilt based on a preponderance of the evidence, which is far lower that the “beyond a reasonable doubt” in America’s criminal justice system.
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