Ottawa, Ontario                                                                                                                              February 20, 2024 

MEDIA RELEASE 

Parental Alienation: Feminists Don’t Speak for Women

Radical feminists have sent a letter, dated January 23, 2024, to all the federal political leaders (Liberal, Conservative, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois) as well as to the Minister of Justice Arif Virani, demanding that the Divorce Act be amended to remove the provision that requires a judge to determine whether there is evidence of parental alienation when deciding custody cases. REAL Women, as well as many other Canadian women do not support this feminist recommendation. Feminist groups do not speak for women, but only for their own ideology.

Parental alienation occurs when one of the parents with the objective of obtaining sole custody of the child attempts to alienate the child from the other parent in order that the child reject the other parent.

 In their letter, the feminists correctly pointed out that accusations of causing the child to be alienated from the father were primarily made against women. They were incorrect, however, in claiming that such accusations were linked to domestic violence. There is, in fact, no evidence to support this position. The feminists provided only anecdotal evidence to support the position that women who are victims of domestic violence are silenced by being accused of parental alienation. The source of the anecdotal evidence was that provided in the report of the UN rapporteur on family violence. It is well known that these UN rapporteurs are appointed to push a specific agenda and their reports are not considered objective or free from bias.

Christine Giancarlo, anthropologist and professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary and author of the book, Parentectomy, a narrative of 30 cases of parental alienation, argues that “the claims made by [the feminists]… are not supported by research”. Ms. Giancarlo further stated:

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.

The reality is that, in custody matters, some women used a strategy to gain sole custody of the child by trying to induce the child to reject their father by way of using the parental alienation technique. Consequently a judge in deciding custody should be required to consider whether this has occurred and refuse the mother full custody in such cases.

Children require that both their mother and father be actively involved in their lives. It is harmful child abuse for any parent to attempt to have a child reject the other parent. The proposal by the feminists to remove parental alienation from the Divorce Act as a consideration in determining custody is anti-male and is not in the best interests of the child or society. Parental alienation remains an important part of the Divorce Act and should be retained to prevent abuse in custody decisions. Therefore, REAL Women strongly urges parental alienation be retained in the Divorce Act in the best interest of the child.

Finally, it is noteworthy that many of the non-profit, feminist groups attempting to ban “parental alienation” from Canadian courtrooms receive millions of taxpayer dollars annually. For example, the Canadian Women’s Foundation received over $40 million in 2023, and Women’s Shelters Canada received $60 million. The lead group, the feminist National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), has been receiving federal government funding from Status of Women Canada since 1984. For the fiscal year 2022-2023, NAWL received $451,204 from the Women and Gender Equality Department (WAGE), formerly called the Status of Women, “for the purpose of furthering women’s participation in Canadian society.” Under the Trudeau government, the WAGE Department funding increased from $72.1 million in 2019, to $325.2 million in 2023, a 351% increase. This money solely given to feminists permits them to push their ideological agenda in the public square.

Taxpayer funded, feminist “women’s participation” should not be carried out at the expense of men, children and families.

-30- 

For further information please contact

Pauline Guzik

National President

Cathy Smith

Western Canada Representative

www.realwomenofcanada.ca

info@realwomenofcanada.ca