Legal Experts Wary of Calls to Ban ‘Parental Alienation’ Claims From Canadian Courtrooms

The Ontario Court of Justice is seen in Toronto on Sept. 14, 2018. The Canadian Press/Christopher Katsarov

Some researchers and legal professionals are concerned over a united effort by feminist organizations in Canada to have the use of “parental alienation” claims banned from Canadian courtrooms.

On Jan. 23, more than 250 non-profit organizations led by the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) wrote to leaders of the four major political parties and to Justice Minister Arif Virani calling for the ban, saying parental alienation accusations are used by abusive fathers to get custody of their children, by claiming that the mother is deliberately trying to turn a child against the father.

“Canadian research has revealed that ‘Parental alienation’ accusations are primarily made against women, with victims of intimate partner violence being particularly at risk,” the letter said.

“Courts and custody evaluators consider that reporting family violence or asking for reduced contact between the father and the child are signs of ‘alienation,’ that is, brainwashing by the mother to make the child reject the father,” it added.

“This concept is leading courts across the country to separate children from their mother and force minors, against their will, to live with their father—even when there is a documented history of family violence.”

Suzanne Zaccour, NAWL’s director of legal affairs, told The Epoch Times that the organizations involved are calling for changes to the Divorce Act that they believe will alleviate the issue.

“Further reform is needed to explicitly ban the use of parental alienation accusations in family disputes, through an amendment to the Divorce Act,” she said in an interview.

Ms. Zaccour said the science behind the theory of parental alienation is “extremely criticized and controversial,” pointing to an April 2023 United Nations report by the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, which called parental alienation a “pseudo-concept.”

Christine Giancarlo, an anthropology professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary and author of “Parentectomy: A narrative ethnography of 30 cases of parental alienation and what to do about it,” argues that the claims made by NAWL are not supported by research.

“Parental alienation is, in fact, real and proven,” she told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Recent attempts by domestic violence advocates perpetuate the myth that allegations of parental alienation are done by abusive fathers. In fact, parental alienation is non-gendered and about one-third of alienated parents are mothers.”

Ms. Giancarlo said researchers of parental alienation consider it to be a form of domestic violence.

“Parental alienation researchers are not diminishing the importance of eradicating domestic violence. Instead, we are including parental alienation as a form of domestic violence and its victims can be mothers or fathers, and always, their children,” she said.

Family Violence

Ms. Zaccour disagrees, saying the idea of parental alienation was designed to disempower women and needs to be eliminated.

“The concept was designed to distract from allegations of child sexual abuse and family violence,” she said. “So for us, it’s problematic even by design. “

An academic paper written by Ms. Giancarlo and three co-authors noted that other researchers were unable to replicate the work done by U.S. law professor Joan Meier, director of the National Family Violence Law Center at the George Washington University Law School, who claims that parental alienations allegations are largely made by abusive fathers.

“Given that two replication studies have not found support for Meier et al.’s (2019) argument that her data indicates there is ‘widespread gender bias in courts’ handling of..abuse claims’ (p. 26), we are concerned that some court professionals in states that enact Kayden’s Law may receive mandatory training that presents a gender-biased perspective on family violence and lacks a broader scientific foundation,” wrote Ms. Giancarlo and co-authors Jennifer Harman, Demosthenes Lorandos, and Brian Ludmer.

Kayden’s Law, passed in the Pennsylvania Senate in December 2023, is named after 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, who was murdered by her father in 2018 after a family court in that state ignored her mother’s warnings that the girl would not be safe with her father alone. The law subsequently moved to the state House for consideration.

Impact of Ban

Amanda Smith, founder of Ontario-based Smith Law, which works with parents in high-conflict divorce cases, said “parental alienation is one of the most difficult issues for the courts to deal with,” as assessments and evidence are needed to back up the claim and the courts are overwhelmed with a high number of cases, slowing down the process.

She said she understands the concerns that the term parental alienation may be misused by a parent to gain favour with the courts, but banning claims may not be the answer.

“When we’re considering a ban on claims of parental alienation in family court, we have to ask what kind of consequences could we be bringing to children,” Ms. Smith said. “And by that, I mean, when there are real cases of parental alienation, if we were to ban these claims, what does that mean for these children?”

She said that the well-being of children needs to come first, and that the conversation needs to include input from a variety of voices, including survivors of domestic violence, fathers, mothers, clinicians, legal professionals, and children who have survived alienation.

“And I think we need to sit down together and look at what is a solution to this,” she said.