Changes to Family Law Act Bring it Into the 21st Century

(Aired on July 20, 2010)

It's certainly about time that B.C. Family Law Act was revamped to take it out of the Stone Age. Many of the measures introduced yesterday will go a long way to solving family difficulties. One of the biggest changes will change the way property is divided in common law relationships. Living together outside of marriage will have much more definable boundaries. Another area will bring same-sex marriages under the Act with respect to determining who the legal parent is. The thrust is to make the law more realistic given the changing nature of marriage and family relationships.

The Act hasn't been changed in 30 years, but relationships sure have. The courts will now not be the only primary source of resolving disputes. There will be much more emphasis placed on mediation and a broader range of non-court dispute resolution options. Less adversarial terminology is being advocated.

But in making all these changes, let's continue to remember that family disputes are just that - dispute, and in most cases they are adversarial in nature. When couples split up, the issue of property, of access rights to children, all take on a highly explosive role, and just changing things on paper doesn't mean the changes will make their way down the line when people are arguing over which days a parent gets access to children.

I have watched with increasing sadness the number of children torn apart by their parents splitting up. By having one parent in Trail, another in Kitimat, and the child having to split time with both parents, going to school in two cities, and so on. The split is bad enough, but the way courts rule in many of these cases is just plain stupid. So with the rewriting of the act has to come a new approach, new points of reference. If the child's interests are going to be paramount, as the new act states, a whole lot of people behind the bench, a whole lot of people in Family Services and a whole lot of support services personnel have to change the way they think too. Otherwise, all the work put into the changes will be just a waste of time.