Editor's Desk

Why family courts are failing couples in Ontario…

Editor

Rajab 29, 14322011-07-01

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Divorce is never easy either for husband or wife. The breaking point is reached after months or years of difficult relationship. While almost out of fashion in the West, even among those who opt for marriage, a very high percentage end up in divorce.

Divorce is never easy either for husband or wife. The breaking point is reached after months or years of difficult relationship. While almost out of fashion in the West, even among those who opt for marriage, a very high percentage end up in divorce. In Ontario, the divorce rate is 40%.

Family courts handle divorce cases but greedy lawyers often frustrate a speedy and fair end to marriage. Couples go through years of emotional turmoil and financial ruin. Lawyers pocket most of the family assets.

One provincial court judge, Justice Harvey Brownstone, concerned about the huge backlog and deliberate delays by lawyers wrote a book revealing the “bitter realities” of family court. He said: “There’s no winning in family court — there are only degrees of losing.” The Ontario government now requires couples seeking divorce to attend an information session on the alternatives to litigation, such as mediation. This is intended to reduce the emotional stress and financial costs of court battles.

This is exactly what Muslims in Ontario had sought six years ago under what was then called faith-based arbitration — a mechanism used by other faith communities since 1991 — but a noisy minority of nasty Muslims and Islamophobic hysteria in the media deprived not only Muslims but all faith groups of such arbitration when the liberal-led Ontario government scrapped the entire program in 1995. Now the same government has introduced mandatory information sessions.

One hopes government policy would be based on reason rather than anti-Islamic hysteria.

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