|
Disenfranchised Dads
Barbara Kay, National Post
A simple way to confirm that a particular
ideology has captured mainstream culture is to monitor the political vigour
or sluggishness around the causes that it deems "correct" and "incorrect."
Gay marriage, a "correct" feminist cause,
affects 2% of the population and enjoys about 50% public support -- yet was
passed into law at the speed of light, without meaningful consultation or
debate. But decades-long appeals for reform to outdated custody laws,
affecting 40% of the population (many more tangentially), languish in
near-obscurity.
And though eight years have passed since a
non-partisan, Canada-wide task force made up of MPs and Senators garnered
wide support in recommending shared parenting as a default post-divorce
arrangement, feminism still trumps gender equality in family court. That is,
women are still awarded sole custody in 90% of disputed cases.
This reflects judicial acquiescence to
reigning feminist orthodoxy: Children are essentially the possessions of
women, women never lie (or are justified when they do) and men want access
to children only to control women.
Objective research points to
partner violence and child abuse as bilateral phenomena, with up to
85% of divorce-related abuse allegations manufactured by women (or urged
upon them by venal advocates) to gain sole custody. Yet
strategically whipped-up media hysteria around bogus data and presumed
entitlement in lieu of evidence remains a successful formula for
custody-bent women.
Anti-male bias is further entrenched when
unsupported grievances on only one side of a divorcing couple are not held
up to scrutiny by judges, politicians or journalists. (Voluntary
professional delinquency is another symptom of a captured culture.) At the
crux of family law's failure is a cynical tolerance for erratic courtroom
decisions, with unaccountable judges routinely winking at perjury and
child-access obstruction -- jail-worthy misdemeanours acknowledged by court
players and observers to be systemically rampant. Indeed, one lawyer
confided his intention to abandon family law, as he becomes physically ill
anticipating the arbitrarily plucked ruling awaiting his male clients.
The remedy is to abandon existing family law.
In its place, we should combine gender equity with the best interests of
children by legislating default shared parenting -- the preferred option for
child-focused women, virtually all fathers and most kids.
Numerous studies have concluded that
children under shared parenting do significantly better on all adjustment
measures than those in sole custody. Contrary to the claims of feminist
consultants to family courts, peer-reviewed data shows that over time shared
parenting decreases parental conflict, increases co-operation and boosts
support compliance.
Most significantly, in all six
American states with legislated default shared parenting, divorce rates have
fallen markedly -- confirming a widely held belief in the field that
expectation of sole custody is the main reason a large number of divorce
cases are initiated by women. The positive economic and social fallout from
fewer divorces is plain to eyes that see.
Recent benchmark studies have, for the first
time, also culled the opinions of children -- up to now pawns in a "best
interests" game that means something different to every stakeholder.
University of British Columbia sociology professor Edward Kruk, a specialist
in divorce and custody issues, analyzed all new research on the subject from
2000-2005. He found that 70% of college-age children of divorce
believe equal time between parents is optimal, and that shared parenting
creates better relations with both.
Along with other credible academics, Kruk
recommends default shared parenting (rebuttable in proven cases of abuse by
either parent) and maximum access to both parents. Thus, current scholarship
echoes the report by the 1998 Canadian Joint Parliamentary Committee on
Custody and Access report, whose "incorrect" conclusions were politically
marginalized by relentless feminist lobbying.
In the course of my research, I have read many
chilling testimonials by and about men unjustly "disappeared" from their
families. Countless other fathers are exiled daily to the same degrading
psychological gulag.
Legislators, throw off your ideological
shackles. Disenfranchised fathers must be restored to their children, and
their children to them. There is no possible restitution for a lost
childhood. And all decent men -- which is to say most of them -- must be
freed from fear of a lost fatherhood.
|