The current child-custody reform proposal, Bill C-560, would move Canada to an equal parenting model, instead of one which requires a third-party interpretation of what serves in the best interest of children. It is a very Canadian-like proposal. We want to believe that women are considered on an equal footing with male candidates when they go for a job interview as chair of a large company, even in front of a boardroom full of men. To be a mother is to be burdened with the stereotype of being the natural caregiver of children. False perceptions shouldn't prevent mothers as equal players in the workforce.
To be a father is to be burdened with the stereotype of not being the natural caregiver of children. False perceptions shouldn't prevent fathers as equal players in a parenting role either, if they want to be, and are capable of being good parents.
We should foster co-operation and equality for newly minted, separated couples. Both parents have an equal contribution to make in nurturing our future generation of Canadians. Men and women can equal serve as role models for children, and should be encouraged to equally participate in child-rearing at home and contribute as equal taxpayers in the workforce.
Children naturally desire to be with both parents equally after parents no longer live together. If both parents are good ones and want to be in a caregiving role, then it should be a right of children to continue to live with both parents equally, albeit in two different homes.
We encourage retraining opportunities for the unemployed to be productive players in the Canadian workforce. So we should also encourage Canadian parents to contribute equally in the challenging task of child-rearing, if they are desirous of learning and capable of doing so.
Equal parenting legislation in Bill C-560 is to embrace families and to encourage newly minted separated mothers and fathers to share equally in the responsibilities at home and work.
It provides children with modern role models, where normal is to see mom at work, dads cooking and cleaning at home, and for kids to feel normal living in two homes, equally.
Source:
http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/4498196-very-canadian-like/
John Spafford
Waterloo Ontario
Automated Email Campaign:
Bill C-560 Divorce Law reform Equal Parenting
Targeting all MPs of Canada in regards to Bill C-560. Second reading of Private Members Bill (PMB) C-560 for equal parenting comes up May 7, 2014. Social science research shows that having both parents in the lives of children reduces a wide array of children’s educational, health and social disadvantages by about half. We suggest that these reforms could reduce Canada’s poverty and social costs by more than that percentage, as well as alleviating large amounts of human suffering. Keeping both parents in the lives of their children (equal parenting) is the right thing to do, morally and economically. The current family law system creates large amounts of family poverty, homelessness, jailing of parents simply for being poor and bitterness against the legal system. Frankly, many parents believe from their experience that family law, the legal profession and judges are self-serving, biased and corrupt.
