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.