Webinar: Making the new Divorce Act work for women

The new Divorce Act is effective, March 1, 2021. This webinar looks at how to make the new act work for women who are leaving an abusive relationship.

Should Canada criminalize coercive controlling behaviour?

As Crystal Giesbrecht recently wrote in The Lawyer’s Daily, coercive control in situations of intimate partner abuse is often unidentified or misunderstood.

While, as she noted, coercive control is not a criminal offence in Canada, that could change if MP Randall Garrison has his way. Last fall,

Webinar recording: Ontario’s new Children’s Law Reform Act

Ontario recently significantly revised its family law that deals with custody and access, the Children’s Law Reform Act, to align it with the federal Divorce Act.  In this presentation, you will learn about the changes, with a focus on their impact on women fleeing abusive relationships.

Inspiring talks from Vikki Reynolds

Vikki Reynolds, a “Consultant, Instructor and Supervisor specializing in Team Development, Resisting Burnout and Organizational Change”, offers a variety of resources that inspire thought and action.

Here are a couple:

A Handbook co-created with Riel Dupuis-Rossi and Charlene Hellson:
“Disrupting Current Colonial Practice & Structure in the Immigration &

Self-represented or unrepresented?

There are many reasons women leaving abuse don’t have a lawyer, but none of those reasons is choice, which is implied by the term “self-represented.”

Bill 207: An important step forward for women fleeing abuse

There is much that is good in Bill 207, the Moving Ontario Family Law Forward Act, for women leaving abusive relationships.

New custody and access legislation increases safety for women and children fleeing abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bill 207, the Moving Ontario Family Law Forward Act, received Royal Assent on November 20th.

Likely to come into effect in conjunction with the revised Divorce Act on March 31, 2021, these changes to how courts will make parenting arrangement decisions offer new hope for women with children who are fleeing abuse.

Comments on the Law Society of Ontario’s Family Legal Services Provider Licence Consultation Paper

Prepared by Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre for the Feminist Law and Policy Reform Coalition, endorsed by over 30 Ontario organizations, this is a response to the FLSP Call for Comment.

We support the three guiding principles informing the development of the Law Society of Ontario‘s consultation paper: access to justice,

TVO article: ‘Vagueness is a gift to an abuser’: What the Tories got right — and wrong — on Bill 207

Journalist Jane Gerster interviewed Luke’s Place and other women’s advocates/services about Bill 207 and its impact on women, as well as the importance of programs like the Family Court Support Worker Program in supporting women through the complex family law system.

Advocates such as Pamela Cross, legal director at Luke’s Place,