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 Co-parental Conflict, Development
and the Child's Voice in Family Litigation
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Keeping Kids Out Of The Middle (Garber, 2008)

Thank you to organizers and participants alike
for making these two events
extremely successful opportunities for
learning, growing and better serving
the needs of children.

National Judicial Institute of Canada July 9, 10, 2010
National Judicial Institute
July 9-11, 2010
 FLSC Canada July 12-15, 2010

Federation of Law Societies of Canada July 12-15, 2010

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July 12, 2010 Federation Plenary:
"The Voice of the Child"
 July 12, 2010 Federation Break-out:
"Corruptions of the Child's Voice"
A.C. v. Manitoba (2009)
The best interests standard v. mature minor status in Canadian law
 On attachment
and alienation
"What to expect...?" handout for
conflicted and divorcing caregivers
 		Is This Child Mature?
A Worksheet
An 1840 court
explains child development
History of the Mature Minor doctrine
(Kun, 1996)
Hear the Child–The Legal Framework:
Why Children in Canada Have the Legal Right to Be Heard
(c) 2009 Donna Martinson QC, LLM
 		How Should the Child’s Voice Be Heard When Parental Rights and Responsibilities Are Contested?
(Garber & Landerman, 2006)
When co-parents corrupt
the child's voice:
On visitation resistance and refusal

Understanding without undermining the
child's voice in the context of family litigation:
A worksheet
UN Convention on the Rights of The Child
in child-friendly language
 		Select
bibliographies
A.G.L. v. K.B.D.
Ontario Supreme Court (2009): Alienation and relocation (mobility)

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Developmental Psychology For Family Law Professionals (Garber, 2009)


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?? Question ??

How valid is Billy’s statement, “I want to live with Mommy”?

No matter Billy’s age or “maturity” and quite apart from the trauma that may accompany this statement, the interviewer must be able to distinguish among the following possibilities:

(a) This is Billy’s valid wish and a genuine reflection of the quality of his attachment with each parent;

(b) This is Billy’s valid wish but due at least in part to otherwise incidental factors as when, for example, a child fears that living with one parent leaves the other parent at risk for substance abuse, abandonment and even suicide;

(c) This is Billy’s valid wish but results from one parent’s efforts to contaminate Billy’s feelings for the other, co-parental alienation;

(d) This is an invalid statement prompted by Billy’s learned chameleon-like effort to say what he believes is expected of him, i.e., suggestibility, programming or scripting.

From Garber, B. and Landerman, L . (2006) How Should the Child’s Voice Be Heard When Parental Rights and Responsibilities Are Contested? New Hampshire Bar Journal. 

 Read more here read more here



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Regarding the balance between the best interests of the child standard  and a mature minor rights, read:

A.C. v. Manitoba (2009), including:

"The best interests standard
in s. 25(8) operates
as a sliding scale of scrutiny,
with the child's views becoming
increasingly determinative
depending on his or her maturity."

Read the Canadian Supreme Court decision
in re: A.C. v. Manitoba A.C. v. Manitoba (2009)



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On attachment and alienation
Read "Attachment 101" Read Attachment 101
Read about attachment and alienation Attachment and alienation
Read about what is NOT alienation What is NOT alienation?
In particular, when is ADHD not ADHD? ADHD and divorce
Read about adultification, parentification and infantilization as complements of alienation parentification ...



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On the mature minor construct
(circa 1840)

The feebleness of infancy
demands a continual protection.
Everything must be done for an imperfect being,
which as yet does nothing for itself.
The complete development of its
physical powers takes many years;
that of its intellectual faculties is still slower.
At a certain age,
it has already strength and passions,
without experience enough to regulate them.
Too sensitive to present impulses,
too negligent of the future,
such a being must be kept under an authority
more immediate than that of the laws.

Jeremy Bentham, Theory of Legislation,

Vol. I, 248 (R. Hildreth trans., Weeks, Jordan, & Co. 1840)




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Select citations by topic
relevant to Dr. Garber's presentations

Mature minor status
 Children's resilience
and vulnerability to stress
Role reversal in the context of divorce:
Adultification, parentification and infantilization
 On
alienation




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