In this episode of the Where Parents Talk podcast, Lianne Castelino speaks to Dr. Jennifer Kagan-Viater, palliative care physician and mother, as well as Philip Viater, family law lawyer and father, about the impact of domestic abuse and intimate partner violence on parenting. “…it has been very difficult. You know, I think what some people may not realize is that for others watching our story, … [Read more...]
MPs Debate Keira’s Law to Require Judicial Training on Domestic Violence (Canada)
OTTAWA - Judges will have to undergo regular training on domestic violence and coercive control if a bill known as Keira’s Law passes through Parliament. It is named in honour of four-year-old Keira Kagan who was found dead with her biological father, Robin Brown, at the base of a cliff near Milton, Ont., in February 2020. Two weeks earlier, Keira’s mother Jennifer Kagan had sought an urgent … [Read more...]
‘Keira’s Law’ to Expand Judicial Education on Domestic Violence
(Ontario, CANADA) Two years after the death of her daughter, protective mother Jennifer Kagan-Viater discusses the preventable death of her daughter, 4-year-old Keira Kagan, and how this tragedy reflects on Ontario's family justice system. Keira's Law would make it mandatory for judges to be trained in domestic violence. "The rights of the abusive parent in this instance trumped Keira's … [Read more...]
Amber Alert Could Have Been Issued Hours Before Carpentier Sisters’ Murders, Coroner Finds
MONTREAL, Canada -- Responding to a coroner’s report that criticized their work, the Quebec provincial police say they have updated their missing-child alert system following the deaths of Norah and Romy Carpentier last summer. The girls, ages 11 and six, were murdered by a father Martin Carpentier in early July 2020 before he died by suicide. Among recommendations in the coroner’s report, … [Read more...]
Why Divorce Cases Involving Allegations Of Abuse Still Confound Family Courts
Across Canada, as well as the U.S., family court is a tangled, vastly under-resourced jungle that includes hundreds of lawyers, judges, child-protection workers and custody assessors. It’s a system that has long struggled to deal with cases that involve allegations of domestic violence, especially when determining custody and access. That’s in part due to a culture rife with sexist stereotypes … [Read more...]