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The Constitutional Talks batman the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the Pro. vinces are now history. Not all Federalist: are liped up with the Federal govern- Doris Anderson. Presi- dent of the Advisory Council on the Status of Women has strongly criticized the plan to transfer family law to the provinces under a new Con- stitution. saying “Divorced women fighting for custody or child support face a lot of dangers" if the transfer goes through as proposed. The concerns of women over proposed Constitu~ tional changes were to have been discussed at two major conferences this Fall. One, to be. held Just before the Government's Constitu- tional Talks. and organized by the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, was "mysteriously' cancelled days before it was to begin. The other, organized by the National Action Com- mittee, to prepare resolu- tions representing the opin- ions of women’s groups on the transfer of family law to provincial control and other Constitutional matters af- Ceeting women had to be cancelled when funds ap- plied for through the Secre- tary of State ($22,000),rere refused. To understand the impli- cations of a transfer of fa- mily law to the provinces, a number of questions can be asked: What is the present system for handling marital breakdonw? What is wrong 'with the present system? What is the proposed new system? and How would the new proposals improve upon the present system? V 1. At present, the legal system under the BNA Act provides for 4 levels of judi- ciary: - . - Provincial' Courts which are funded and adminis- tered by the Provincial Go- vernments: - County Courts, with fe- deral funding, federally ap- pointed Judges, but provin- cial administrations; - Piovitteial Supreme Courts, which are also te- derally funded, have fe- derally appointed judges, but provincial admiltistra- tion; and - Supreme Court of Cana- da which is federally funded and administered. Family Law cases are handled in different ways by each court. If, for example, a wife and child have been deserted, the wife must take a case for maintenance to the Provinclal Court. Simi- larly. support cases in the event of a separation", when there has not yet been a file for divorce. are handled at WALTER the Provincial Court level Decrees for divorce. ali- mony. and child support are. however, given by the " preme Court of the provin- 2. he problem with this system is that different groups of judges handle each stage of legal problems in a marriage breakdown. Divorce, which is in itself a yery painful experience, is complicated by the various levels, and often, when pro- perty and mttinteetartee are involved, couples have to go through the court process four or five times. Anothertarge problem is the enforcement of court orders to support a spouse. It is estimated that 75% of all maintenance agreements in Canada today are in ar- rears. _ 3. The proposals discussed during the Constitutional Talks suggest a transfer of all Family Law cases to the Provinces. They call for the establishment of new Uni- fied Family Courts in each province which would cover all Family Law court ac- tions in one court. This would be administered by one group of provincially ap- pointed judges. . . The Federal Government, in an effort to prevent the creation of "divorce havens" where it would be much.easier to obtain a quick divorce than in other provinces, has agreed to im- plement federal restric- tions. These would standar- dize divorce proceedings, to some extent, across the country. For example, final recog- nition of a divorce would rest with the Federal Go- vernment. (This would ho- pefully prevent a situation DON'T MISS THIS SPECIAL I'll! II III I " mus lumen " AFFORDAQLASII’ ENE - FALL 0523103570 [LIKED] bowr BE DISAPPOINTED CAWrtrDhy MIST. !.9 At BLUE MOON HOTEL "t'rt"llTfti"l"iil'TtrtrtrTmG COMM UNI T Y KAIATA TRAVEL ONLY $849 W aGaTiauc Kitchener TM-ttttttl "Having the time of on} life" do}: HELD mucous If RAINING "tttttm, mamas. muss. mus. HOUSEHOLD “new. consumes m. PM to "resume and AREA communes consume: REr'REt1MMEN'N AVAILABLE SATURDAY , C OCTOBER 4th 11:00 A.M. A'rnrmil REAR OF THE when a person this a divor- ce from Alberta might move to Ontario. and find; on at- tempting to may. than Ontario did not recognize Alberta divorces.) As well, a standard mini- mum time ot residency in a province (probably one year) would be required be- fore a divorce couldbe fe- derally approved. This would prevent a couple from travelling to a province for a week in order to get a divor- ce, trying to take advantage of special provisions in that province‘s divorce laws. Also, the federal govern- ment would keep an accura- te record of all approved and recognized divorces in a registry, for ready refered- ce by provincial authorities. Concerns about divorce law 4. No consent“ was reached by the Provinces that the new proposals would improve the present system. Some provinces, no- tably Manitoba and P.E.I.. armed with endorsements by the Canadian Bar As- sociation and representa- tives of. national women"s groups, argued strongly that such a new system would create havoc in the enfor- cement of child custody and maintenance orders. The Unified Family Court system would certainly sim- plily court proceedings within the provinces. with all Family Law being han- died by one group of judges. Concerned Canadians need to know, however. that safe- guards hasre.been instituted to prevent a spouse from le- gally avoiding all main- tenance costs of supporting an ex-spouse and child by simply moving to a different province. TWIN hey also need to know there are ”tenants to en-. sure that a'apouae could be forced to return a child, ab- ducted to artotherormrirtee, to the child's legal guardian, and td - that each pro. Vince's laws meet a federal standard. and that each pro- vince. in future, will conti- nue to honour divorce settle- ments handed down in any other province. - The decision of the Prime Minister and the Provincial Premiers was to return the matter to constitutional of- ficials for strengthening of the custody, maintenance. and enticement provisions. As 0p ’sition Spokesperson for the Status of Women, l airi to review. these WOOLNERS CA TERING BANQUET HALL & GROUNDS Elmira & District Rod and Gun Club 669-21 66 OCT. " FOWL SHOOT 3 mm. to 7 pm. My to Friday' m Chant/VI“ _ Also In Tm THIS YEAR D Kitchener, Ont. No Contracts. “can. of 09”“ng 30 Duke St. West, Suite 603 Corporation Square 745-5603 tWt.rltto Chroniéh. My, October 1, lotto . M15 strengthened widens and an vital if divorce laid:- tsearitteviei0antiirt" lion in to be transferred to authorities and mm”: re- Ptovlncial control um: any Mamet. Sanctum; meets. Lots of Free Parking WITEIILOO TRAVEL LTD. 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