Thanks to Tyrael on Antimisandry.com who first brought this case to my attention.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/...socialcomments

Court quashes dad's grounding of 12-year-old daughter

A father plans to appeal after a Quebec court ruled that he didn't have the right to punish his 12-year-old daughter by barring her from a school trip.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Suzanne Tessier ruled Friday that the girl should be allowed to attend the three-day trip within Quebec this week.

The father's lawyer, Kim Beaudoin, speaks to CBC Newsworld about the case. (CBC)Initially, the father forbade his daughter from going online after the Grade 6 student posted photos on a dating site, the Globe and Mail reported in its Thursday edition.

The girl's parents are divorced, and after she had an alleged row with her stepmother, her father barred her from going on a school trip to mark the class's graduation from elementary school, the newspaper reported.

"When he said, 'OK, it's final. You're not going,' she smacked the door, left and went to live with her mother," the father's lawyer, Kim Beaudoin, told CBC News.

Last Wednesday, the father received a motion petitioning the court to overturn the punishment.

Two days later, the judge ruled the punishment was too severe because the girl had already been sufficiently disciplined, Beaudoin said.

Beaudoin said the judge also said there was no reason for the punishment to stand, since the girl was now living with her mother, even though the father has custody.

Beaudoin said the father, who has four children, was "devastated," especially since the ruling came days before Father's Day.

Court has role: lawyer
But the judge's decision was not just a case of a child going the court to get out of trouble, said Miriam Grassby, a Quebec family lawyer who has spoken with the various attorneys involved.

Under Quebec family law, it is not uncommon for a child in a high-conflict situation between two parents to have an attorney appointed to protect his or her best interests, as was the case here, Grassby said.

"In Quebec, no matter who has custody, we have joint parental authority," Grassby told CBC News on Thursday. "There are issues of discipline where both parents have to agree, and if they don't, we will have a place" to resolve the issue in court.

The attorney representing the child had been chosen and agreed to by both parents, she noted.

"The court is there to be an objective third party, and these children who are in these high-conflict situations need the protection of the court," Grassby said.

"I think we could presume the judge had good judgment in the fact that she read the statements and found out what both parents were saying, and that the child was punished at least once for that, and this was excessive punishment."

While Beaudoin said the case is a first for her, she doubts it will trigger a flood of similar claims.

"Usually children have lots of respect for their parents and they wouldn't go there," said Beaudoin.

She said the judge stressed that the case was an exception.

"But for a field trip, I'm thinking this is a big exception," she said.

There were some great comments concerning this shocking piece of stupidity, most of them just as stunned and disgusted as I.

Here are some of my favorites,

I can't believe this. First the senate wants to pass a bill stating that parents are not allowed to spank their children and now a judge wants to overturn a fathers decision to ground a child. Please tell me our so wise authority figures how are we supposed to displine our children if we can't spank them or ground them????

Children are growing up not respecting authority and it is because parents are scared to displine their children.

I consider myself a very liberal person but children need structure and displine if they are expected to survive in this world. If no abuse (sorry but a spanking is not abuse) is taking place the courts and government have no place in telling parents how to raise their children.

You want to do something productive try improving our economy enough so that one of the parents can stay home to raise the kids. That is a luxury that your generation had not ours... and we have your leadership to thank for it.

And


Way I see it?

I will no longer punish my child for anything. I will allow her to do whatever she wants. I will simply say "no" to her and if she ignores it... so be it. Should she do something really wrong, and end up arrested or something, I will sue the federal government for failing to allow me to discipline her as a child, and therefore, causing the situation she is now in. Every time she does something wrong I will sue them as it will be their responsibility to ensure she behaves as they have taken away my right to do so myself.


What are things coming to? As the parent of a 12 year old daughter, I just found this whole situation to be surreal. I can' t even imagine a world where my daughter would be suing my husband or myself. The behavior of this girl is unbelievable and then for the courts to override the authority of the father in grounding his daughter??

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we start seeing articles about Canadian officials seeking the cause for an upsurge in irresponsible and delinquent behavior by their youth. Who wants to bet me that at least a few will conclude it's due to fathers not stepping up to the plate? Anyone?

Of course, there's little doubt in my mind as to what's really going on here. The mother is obviously instigating much of the situation. If she truly had her daughter's best interests at heart, she would have backed the decision of the father, not aided her daughter in taking him to court. The real harm that's been done here is not to her ex but to her daughter.

This frightening precedent is just one more step to remove authority from the hands of the family and place it squarely under the control of the state. Apparently, if you have children and are divorced in Canada, that puts every decision you make concerning your children potentially at the discretion of the court....very scary indeed.

More...

I wrote this answer to Tyrael's post, and it belongs here, as well.

If you ask me, Canada's going to have some serious problems in the next few years when all of these undisciplined kids become undisciplined, chaotic, irresponsible, anti-social adults!

What's up with Canada? They allow a 12 year old girl to take her father to court because he grounded her (for legitimate reasons, too)? And the court over-turned the grounding?

Now you can't spank your child, either?

What's next? You can't talk to your kid about their misbehavior?

Gotta watch your tone of voice?

Don't look at 'em wrong?

What's next is, the children will be running the household and the parents will be in the roles of children themselves. It's a scary proposition.

Looks like Canada's court watch program needs a bit more of a boost or at least more public recognition of its findings......

Two women speak out at the outrage. A biilon women cheer.

Keep speaking ladies.

We know where the problem lies.

Lies.

Cheered on.

Feminist hysteria infects every aspect of our legislative and legal bodies.

This FEMALE judge, interfering and supporting the undemining of parents needs a Feminist Misandry Justice award.

I hope, really I do, that one day she is mugged by some feral girls and given a sound beating, with all the nail scratching and biting that such girls enjoy.

Dear Lord Percy!!!!

I second that!!!!

Cat Fight MEOOowoowoowoeooowooRRRRRRRR!

Canada hates men and Fathers-pure plain and simple

responsible parenting means nothing=anymore

only abuse---- and when i say anything can be considered abuse here-i am not kidding

HITLER turned kids against their parents

its another reason among many -why we call em feminazis

This is evidence as to why equal parenting is a route for the state to gain the upper hand over parents.

Children will always have the next "lower" upper hand and the state will give them it.

Children will forever be able to work parents off against each other and that is what they have always done in these situations, only now it is much worse under the EP scenario because there is no clear dominant parent much of the time.

Fathers must head families.

When will folk realise that that is the only way of avoiding these sorts of situations?

There are probably a million other power struggles going on in every similar situation as children yank the cranks of parents and work their tickets while lawyers and statist scum wring their hands in glee..

Shoot them down like the filth they are!!

Heh, they're still blaming Marc LePine on the patriarchy!

You know, I haven't been the best mom in history. But I can't imagine either one of my kids suing either their dad (and my husband, btw, same guy) or me. This girl is a spoiled rotten brat. That's why I say emancipate her. The military could help her grow up, if it hadn't become so feminized as well.

I actually feel sorry for her, and a whole generation of girls like her. They will never amount to anything. They'll be terrible wives, terrible mothers, terrible employees, terrible financial planners. They'll wind up old, quite possibly fat, alone, and being supported by the State.

You can say what you want about welfare, but here in the States, unless she's getting child support (and possibly alimony) from several men, or is deliberately cheating the system (which takes a certain amount of crafty intelligence), the amount of assistance you can get from the government is just enough to keep you off the streets and eating cheap food.

Although, WIC (women, infants, children) only covers halfway healthy staples like milk, cheese, eggs, cereal, bread, stuff like that.

Yip. Dead right. The state ruins kids by disabling parents abilities to discpline them, then the uncontrolled kids naturally end up being discarded by parents who cannot deal with them owing the having thier hands tied.

ya but these same kids will grow up claiming"I was abused" for any crimes they may commit.

naturally.. That allows the state to employ another 10 folk in made up jobs to pretend to sort them out!! (The folk who were previously sorted out cant do a proper job, so the state creates the "academy of victimhood" system that makes a real career out of victimhood!!) The same system as used in the drugs and DV industries.. Yesterdays "Victims" become tomorrows "Employees"..

Hey, I will bet that 12 year old girl goes on to become a lawyer helping other 12 year old girls yank cranks..