Keira's Law' passes Senate, signalling a change to the way courts approach domestic violence - www.cbc.ca
- Gurpreet Accountability Singh
- Jul 28
- 5 min read
Sharing what the courts are supposed to be looking for both federally and provincially. Every single time I went before the judges I desperately begged them to stop enabling the coercive control. I also told them that the Legal Abuse Scale by Gutowski and Goodman.
From Google:
The Legal Abuse Scale (LAS) is a tool used to measure instances of legal abuse, particularly in the context of family law and coercive control. It was developed to assess how partners might use the legal system to exert control over another individual, causing harm to their finances, well-being, or ability to parent.
Key aspects of the LAS:
Focus on Coercive Control:
The LAS is designed to identify and measure legal abuse as a form of coercive control, where one partner uses legal processes to dominate and manipulate the other.
Two Subscales:
The LAS includes two subscales: Harm to Self/Motherhood and Harm to Finances.
Harm to Self/Motherhood: This subscale assesses the impact of legal abuse on the individual's mental health, self-esteem, and ability to parent, including things like threats to child safety or attempts to discredit their parenting skills.
Harm to Finances: This subscale focuses on the financial consequences of legal abuse, such as threats to assets, attempts to control finances, or withholding of child support.
14-Item Measure:
The LAS consists of 14 specific behaviors or situations that can be indicative of legal abuse, and the scale is designed to measure the frequency and severity of these behaviors.
Purpose of Measurement:
The LAS can be used to help identify and understand legal abuse, and it can also be used to inform interventions and policies aimed at protecting individuals from this type of abuse.
The rest of this blog is the article copied and pasted from www.cbc.ca
'Keira's Law' passes Senate, signalling a change to the way courts approach domestic violence | CBC News
Politics
'Keira's Law' passes Senate, signalling a change to the way courts approach domestic violence
Bill aims to expand training for judges to include domestic violence and coercive control
Jessica Mundie
CBC News · Posted: Apr 19, 2023 4:19 PM EDT | Last Updated: April 25, 2023
‘Keira’s law’ requires federal judges to be educated on intimate partner violence
2 years ago
New legislation requires federal judges to be educated on intimate partner and family violence. The law is named after four-year-old Keira Kagan, who died in 2020 after multiple judges ignored warnings about her father’s potential for violence.
A private member's bill requiring that judges consider domestic violence and coercive control when issuing decisions passed the Senate on Tuesday evening.
Bill C-233, which was sponsored by Liberal MP Anju Dhillon, was introduced in February 2022. It was dubbed "Keira's Law" after four-year-old Keira Kagan, who was found dead with her father at the bottom of a cliff outside of Toronto in 2020.
Keira's mother, Jennifer Kagan-Viater, said at a press conference on Wednesday morning that she tried to call attention to the danger her daughter's father presented to their child well before their death.
She said she went to court to seek protection for Keira from the violent and coercive behaviour of her ex-husband Robin Brown.
"When we went to trial in my matter, I was before a judge with a background in labour and employment law and he cut me off on the stand when I was talking about domestic violence and parenting and the effect on our daughter." said Kagan-Viater.
"[The judge] said domestic violence is not relevant to parenting."
Kagan-Viater had been separated from Brown for years before her daughter's death.
She has told CBC News that she believes her daughter's death was the result of a murder-suicide and that her warnings about her ex-husband's abuse were largely ignored by judges.
A pending inquest into Keira's death was announced in February by Ontario's chief coroner.
"We need to see a change in the way that judges understand domestic violence and coercive control, and this bill brings about that change," said Kagan-Viater.
Bill C-233 would amend the Judges Act to establish seminars for judges on intimate partner violence and coercive control, in addition to other forms of education they must undergo.
Pamela Cross is a lawyer and advocacy director at Luke's Place, which provides legal guidance to women leaving abusive relationships. She said she hopes the bill will lead to standardized education for judges on the effects of intimate partner violence on children.
She said judges who hear cases where family violence is a factor should be well-educated about how domestic violence works, how it affects kids and how often it continues after separation. She said "Keira's Law" is a good step in this direction.
An important aspect of Bill C-233, said Cross, is its focus on coercive control — a pattern of abusive behaviour that isolates a victim and causes them to lose their sense of autonomy.
Cross said that cases of coercive control may not involve physical violence. They may instead involve emotional abuse, psychological abuse, gaslighting, or financial abuse, she added.
Cross said Kagan-Viater's experience is not uncommon.
Too often, she said, women go to court after being abused by their partners and are not believed by judges — or judges fail to make the connection between intimate partner violence and its effects on children.
"Once this bill is fully implemented, judges should have more tools in their toolkit so that they can look at these cases and make decisions that are best for children and that also keep mothers safe," said Cross.
Pam Damoff, one of the Liberal MPs spearheading the bill, said "Keira's Law" may inspire similar legislation at the provincial level.
"Keira was going to change the world and we're here today because she has changed the world. She is starting conversations, not only with our bill federally but across the country," said Damoff.
Along with amending the Judges Act, the bill also amends the Criminal Code to allow a judge to consider ordering someone who has committed an offence against their intimate partner to wear an electronic monitoring device if they think the individual may pose a safety or security risk.
Liberal MP Ya'ara Saks, another supporter of the bill, said the option of electronic monitoring, paired with new training on intimate partner violence and coercive control, will give judges "a comprehensive toolbox of understanding" for dealing with these types of cases.
"We want to make sure that Keira's legacy is one that will protect more children in the future," said Saks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CBC Journalist
Jessica Mundie is a senior writer with Power & Politics. She has also worked as a writer and producer for CBC in Ottawa and Prince Edward Island. Jessica was previously the Michelle Lang Fellow at Postmedia. Reach her by email at jessica.mundie@cbc.ca.
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