A Galvanizing Event for Shared Parenting: Ned Holstein Represents National Parents Organization on Newswise Live

Article here. Excerpt:

'On Wednesday, June 4, National Parents Organization founder and Chairman Ned Holstein, MD, MS, participated with other shared parenting luminaries in a panel discussion sponsored by Newswise Live, a program that seeks to educate journalists on the important issues of the day. The panel consisted of Dr. Holstein; Warren Farrell, PhD, longtime supporter of the rights of men, fathers and boys and author of numerous books including Father and Child Reunion; Canadian family lawyer Georgialee Lang; and actor Jason Patric who recently won Round One of his two-year battle to play a real part in the life of his son, Gus.

The takeaway from the presentations of all panel members and the answers to reporters’ questions was that equal parenting and equal parenting supporters are on the right side of history. Dr. Holstein cited a long-term shift in the direction of equal parenting both in courts and legislatures, and in the popular imagination.

Lang, who has practiced family law in British Columbia for 25-years, reported that she’s seen sea-change in the awareness of parents and judges of the value of fathers to children. She cautioned though that even judges who might be inclined to issue orders for greater shared parenting and more equal parenting time for fathers and mothers often find themselves hamstrung by legal precedent. Those judges, of course, are required to act within the parameters of the law, both statutory and judge-made. The simple fact is that much precedent, both in Canada and in some states of the United States, oppose equal parenting outright. Much as judges may want to, they can’t issue orders that contradict existing law. If they do, their orders will be reversed by a court of appeals. But slowly, precedents supporting shared parenting are being established, Lang said.

So the point Lang made most vigorously was that laws have to be changed and doing so takes political will. It’s a point that was made on the National Parents Organization blog site just last week in the wake of the defeat of Maurice Vellacott’s equal parenting bill by the Canadian House of Commons.'