IT IS ALL OVER EXCEPT THE JUDGEMENT!

We have been heard!

Nanc's case was heard by seven supreme court justices on October 14, 2008. We had an hour to present, LEAF then had ten minutes for their oral submission. There was a fifteen minute break, then the other side had an hour. The justices asked questions throughout, and we adjourned at 12:30 with judgement reserved.

Our case was simple, the trial judge ( Justice Slade) found that the separation agreement was unconscionable, that Nanc was exceptionally vulnerable due to the circumstances testified to in the trial and incapable of making rational decisions during the negotiations. Additionally, her ex-husband had hidden large amounts of cash and grossly undervalued the family assets in his sworn financial statements. Now, in business law that would constitute fraud and charges would have been laid by the crown. In this case, he gets a pass because he was married to his victim, or maybe it was because she was just a woman?- go figure!?

Nanc was represented by Jack Hittrich, Philip Epstein and Janette Kovacs. Nitya Iyer and Joanna Radbord appeared for LEAF.

LEAF developed an oustanding factum that broadened the issues in Nanc's case to include everyone involved in a dissolution of marriage, particularly women, as they tend to be disproportionally victimised by our antiquated laws and process. They founded their arguments solidly on the Charter, moving the case into a human rights arena. The justices will have much to work with on this one.

The fact is that many women of modest means are victimised in much the same way as Nanc was, but none of them have had the will or the resources to fight this far. Certainly, it has taken every resource we could muster over the last 6 years to get to this point. We were fairly well off before, now we are in debt and living with relatives. A friend and coworker of mine asked me just before we left, "why don't you just settle? Take the money and call it a day?" I thought about that while we were in Ottawa, and when I saw him at work this morning, I gave him this answer:
We must each answer to the line of our ancestors, who cry out, "make my life have meaning!" We must answer to our inheritors, who cry out, "create a world that we can believe in!" We must raise our eyes from our feet, trodding this path of life, to the horizon and the sky above, and realise that we are creating the future now, today, with every choice that we make. To do, or to do nothing, these are our choices.

7 Days to Ottawa and the SCC!

It has been a while since we posted, mainly because we have just been waiting. We have our tickets to Ottawa now. By this time next week, we will be digesting the SCC proceedings with our lawyers...and it will all be over except the decision. Six years of battle for me, much longer for Nanc.
LEAF has prepared a great brief on how Nanc's case applies to all people in similar circumstances. It has a strong foundation in the Charter, and speaks to human rights and equality before the law. That is what this case is really all about.
We'll post again soon.

Hearing date changed

The SCC hearing date has moved to October 14, 2008, but is still listed as tentative.

LEAF granted leave to intervene!

LEAF has been granted leave to intervene!!! Here is what they have to say about the case:

Some of the issues of importance in Rick v. Brandsema for LEAF and West
Coast LEAF include:
􀁺 a women's consistent disadvantage and inequitable results in family
law settlement agreements - leading to barriers of women's economic
independence and survival;
􀁺 serious and unique challenges for rural farm wives;
􀁺 advancing equality analysis in an area of law which has enormous
effects on women and children;
􀁺 re-defining the understanding and reviewing the value processes of
negotiation-based resolutions in family law; and
􀁺 women, mental illness and family law
This case offers opportunity to influence and advance family law and
thereby women's economic potential.

More on the Family Violence Education Initiative

The FVEI is the legacy that I would like to leave out of all of this. Nanc is giving the Supreme Court a chance to make new and more just law for everyone involved in separation and divorce, particularly abused spouses. That will be her legacy from all the pain and heartache that she has been through. I firmly believe that the FVEI, as an intervention at early ages, will gradually reduce the need to use those laws, after the fact, and will promote and produce a healthier society.
The gist of the plan is a national mandate to create teams to deliver a program to children at all schools across the country in an age targeted, assembly based format. As a teacher, I will state that simply mandating another addition to the curriculum is an unreasonable, minimally effective, and unworkable approach. I am currently trying to establish contact with some leaders in this field to develop the program more fully.
I envision the program involving dramatic presentations, age group targeted, to show children what family violence is, that it is not OK, and what they can do about it if it is occurring in their lives or homes. The team would comprise the presenters, a trained counselor, and a member of the police to deal with disclosures.
It is way beyond time that our society takes a firm stand against this issue. Much of the social and criminal problems that affect us all are a direct result of family violence. It is beyond time to strike at the root cause of societal violence, drug abuse and its attendant criminality, and the ongoing cycle of violence in families. Let's stop treating the symptoms and get to treating the disease.

LEAF HAS APPLIED TO INTERVENE WITH SCC!!!

On April 24th, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) applied for intervenor status in Nanc's case at the Supreme Court of Canada. They have copies of our brief and are preparing their submissions as they await leave. This is huge, folks. They are bringing in the Charter and human rights issues. The fact that they have recognised what is seriously wrong with the judgements Nanc recieved, gives us renewed hope. Thank you LEAF, and welcome to our battle!

FROM THE LEAF WEBSITE:
About West Coast LEAF
Our concept of equality does not mean "equality as sameness", but rather equality as the removal and disappearance of discrimination and disadvantage which is consistent with Charter equality rights.

The West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) formed when the equality guarantees of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. Our goal then, as it remains today, was to change historical patterns of systemic discrimination against women in Canada. We seek to achieve women's equality by conducting equality rights litigation, by advocating for law reform, and through public legal education.

Governed by an elected Board of Directors and supported by active members, committed volunteers, and a dedicated staff, West Coast LEAF is an affiliate of National LEAF. West Coast LEAF is an incorporated non-profit society in British Columbia and a federally registered charity. We are funded by the Law Foundation of BC, donations from members, individual supporters, unions and local businesses, and through our own fundraising efforts. We also seek project funding from various sources including foundations and government departments.
OUR VALUES
We value all women's right to equally access the power, advantage and enjoyment of the benefits of Canadian society, and their full participation in social, economic and political activities of the nation.

We reject laws and practices that reinforce and shape women's disadvantage, and value laws and practices that promote for women the equal enjoyment of valued social interests. We value approaches to substantive equality which encompass the right to have one's differences acknowledged and accommodated both by the law and by appropriate social and institutional policies and practices.

We value the understanding that women of diverse backgrounds experience discrimination which is different in degree and/or kind in various contexts due to characteristics such as colour, race, national or ethnic origin, language, sexual and gender identity, religion, family or marital status, age, different physical or mental attributes, and economic or social status. We value the right of women of diverse backgrounds to have their differences acknowledged and accommodated by the law and social institutions. We value a discrimination-free organization and we make continual efforts to identify, understand and dismantle barriers to full participation of all women in West Coast LEAF.

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LEAF IN ACTION!

Media Release
For immediate release
April 11, 2008
Women and Children at Risk for Their Lives in Family Law Disputes
Law Reform Must Address the Reality of Women’s experience of Family
Violence
(Vancouver) - West Coast Women’s Legal Education Action Fund (LEAF) is deeply concerned
about how our family law system is dealing with family violence.
“Family violence is not experienced equally by men and women,” says Family Law Project
Director Zara Suleman. “Family violence is almost always violence by men against women.”
“Section 15 of the Charter expressly says that women are entitled to the ‘equal protection of the
law’,” points out Alison Brewin, Executive Director of West Coast LEAF. “This lack of gendered
analysis to violence against women and children allows the violence to continue.”
West Coast LEAF is saddened to see yet another horrific example of this in the recent tragedy of
the three children murdered in Merritt. Darcie Clark, the mother of the children had moved to
Merritt to get away from her ex-husband after he had threatened her life.
This is not an isolated incident. It was in this same week in April 1996 in the Vernon Massacre
that Rajwar Gakhal and nine members of her family were shot and murdered by her estranged
husband. But the Vernon Massacre and the resulting Inquest did not see an end to such terrifying
incidents of violence and murder of women and children in B.C. In fact we have continued to
experience such tragedies. Some examples are:
• September 4th, 2007, in Victoria, B.C., Yong Sun Park, her son and her parents were all
stabbed to death by her husband, Peter Lee.,
• October 19th, 2006, in Port Coquitlam, B.C., Gurjeet Ghuman was shot twice point blank
in the head by her estranged husband as she dropped off her daughter. Gurjeet survived
but is now blind.
• In 2003, Sherry Heron and her mother, Anna Adams were murdered at Mission Memorial
Hospital by Sherry’s estranged husband. Sherry had a restraining order in place while she
was in the hospital.
• In 2003, in Nanaimo B.C. Denise Purdy was stabbed to death by her estranged husband.
• In 2002, in Quatsino, B.C. Sonya Handel’s 6 children were drugged, strangled and shot
and left to die in their burning home by their father Jay Handel. Crown identified that Mr.
Handel was unable to deal with his wife’s demands for a divorce.
“Women facing violence in their relationships who seek safety for themselves and their children
by leaving their abusive partners are then still required in family law to ensure the children’s
access with the abusive ex-partner,” says Angela MacDougall of Battered Women’s Support
Services. “In addition, the gap between criminal restraining orders and orders for joint or shared
parenting arrangements conflict increasing women and children’s vulnerability to violence.”
“We need concrete changes to the criminal justice and family law systems that coordinate
services to protect women and children in B.C.” demands Suleman, “Police, legal and court
systems need to understand that safety issues for women facing violence in their relationships and
the protection of their children are not separate issues but are fundamentally interconnected. We
cannot address one without the other.”
Research indicates that women and children are most at risk when women are in the process of
separating from their spouses. Furthermore facilitating custody and access places women and
children at more risk for harm where the father has been abusive or violent to his spouse. Every
week in Canada at least one woman is murdered by her ex-partner. [Statistics:
www.endingviolence.org/files/uploads/VAWIRFactSheet.pdf ]
Family law reform in B.C. has currently been engaging the issue of family violence in the recent
Review of the Family Relations Act. West Coast LEAF is encouraged that such initiatives are
being taken but worries that without an analysis that recognizes the inequality of women, the gaps
between criminal and family law procedures, policies and protocols and the disproportionate
impact of violence for women leaving abusive relationships and the invariably connected threat to
their children, that tragedies such as those in Merritt will happen again and again.
- 30 -
For more information please contact:
Zara Suleman
Family Law Director
West Coast LEAF
(604) 684-8772
info@westcoastleaf.org
Angela MacDougall
Executive Director
Battered Women’s Support Services
(604) 687-1613 or (604) 687-1868

THERE IS A PROGRAM FOR ABUSED ANIMALS-WHAT ABOUT ABUSED PEOPLE???

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY

Nanc found out about this program run by Rescue Ink in the U.S.. It looks a lot like our Family Violence Education Initiative, with one big difference. Maybe we should get tatooed all over!?
This is not the first time that we have noticed that animals get more protection than women, children, and the elderly in our society.

The School Visitation Initiative
sign up now

In conjunction with law enforcement and animal control officials, Rescue Ink members visit elementary and middle schools, presenting a program designed to instill an appreciation of the value of animals, and to teach children how to spot and properly report instances of animal abuse and neglect. The curriculum fosters respect and consideration for animals via one-on-one interaction with positive role models, and contact with rescued animals.

The Rescue Ink members who participate in the School Visitation Initiative Program say that the experience gives them a feeling of nostalgia, and reminds them of their days attending school. We even have a member who likes to drop by the Principal's office in every school he visits. After all, he told us, it's where he spent most of his time.

HEARING DATE SET!

OCTOBER 17th IS THE DAY!
Sorry to all that are following this blog for not posting more often lately.
The hearing date is set, and I think we are, as well.
We have been feeling pretty beat up by this whole incredibly drawn out process. It has sapped our energy and our resources. I am working again, to keep the wolves from the door, and we are selling our house. Would we do it again? You betcha! Is it hard on us? Brutal. But, at the end of the day, Nanc has a chance to change things for thousands of women.
There is no turning back or walking away.
We wait, and survive......