this is a bit of a long post, but couldn't copy addy,
it is good for the canadian parents here who are fighting to see their children and they are having their children's minds poisoned by the custodial parent.... a good case in canada
Judge fines mother $10,000 for 'alienation'
Kept daughters away from 'good and loving father'
Cristin Schmitz
CanWest News Service
National Post
Thursday, January 20, 2005
OTTAWA - An Ontario woman who poisoned her children's minds against
their "good and loving father" has been fined $10,000 -- and threatened
with further fines and imprisonment -- in what is believed to be the
harshest penalty yet imposed by a Canadian court for "parental alienation."
Superior Court Justice Lorna-Lee Snowie of Brampton, Ont., recently
found Nancy Cooper, 52, in civil contempt of court for repeatedly
flouting court orders over the past seven years that required her to
facilitate contact between her three daughters and their father, David
Cooper, of Point Clark, Ont.
The 53-year-old Air Canada pilot has not seen or spoken with the two
youngest children since 1998, when his former wife told him to vacate
the family home. The girls send occasional e-mails requesting money.
Ms. Cooper, an unemployed registered nurse whose former husband
financially supports her, must immediately pay $10,000 to the Treasurer
of Ontario and faces a further $15,000 fine and 30 days in jail if she
fails to encourage and assist her youngest child, 16, to take part in
family counselling aimed at "reintegrating the father back into his
daughter's life," says the decision reported in the next edition of
Lawyers Weekly.
"This counselling will provide a safe place for [the teenager] to work
out her feelings and for the [father] to work out his feelings about
their estrangement -- their estrangement is through no fault of either
one of them," Judge Snowie observed.
The judge called the mother's behaviour "a travesty" that deeply wounded
her children.
The father's lawyer, Paula Bateman of Mississauga, Ont., said the
decision sends a powerful warning to custodial parents who deny or
obstruct their children's right to see their other parent.
"You will be dealt with harshly, and possibly jailed," Ms. Bateman
cautioned. "You have a proactive obligation to facilitate contact when
you are the custodial parent."
Obstructed access is a problem affecting thousands of divorced parents
-- mostly men -- and their children across Canada. But monetary and
other penalties remain rare. Few access deniers spend more than a few
days in jail. Ms. Bateman and other lawyers said the hefty fine meted
out by Judge Snowie is the highest they had ever seen from a Canadian court.
Roger Gallaway, the Liberal MP for Sarnia, Ont., and co-chair of the
recent special joint Senate/House of Commons committee on custody and
access, said courts have been remiss in not handing out stiffer
sanctions when confronted by egregious cases of wrongful access denial,
or "parental alienation" -- a term coined to describe the phenomenon of
one parent (usually the custodial parent) brainwashing the child against
the other parent by denigrating and devaluing that parent.
Judge Snowie held that the mother's persistent refusal to comply with
two court orders requiring her to facilitate family counselling, and
telephone contact between the girls and their father, amounted to civil
contempt of court.
The judge remarked she might have awarded sole custody to the father --
instead of joint custody -- were it not for the fact the youngest, the
only child still at home, is so attached to her mother and will soon be
independent.
"I find that [the mother's] sabotaging actions have been knowing, wilful
and deliberate," found the judge. "As a result of [her] behaviour, the
children have little or no relationship with the father who loves them,
who has tried to be a good father, and who has been a good provider
throughout their lives."
The girls were nine, 13 and 18 when their parents split up in 1998 after
nearly 25 years of marriage.
The eldest, now 25 and married, recently started to see her father on
her own initiative.
The judge emphasized all children have a right to a relationship with
both their mother and their father.
"There is no evidence before this court that would indicate that Mr.
Cooper was anything but a good father, a loving father, and father who
throughout the last seven years wanted to be involved in any capacity in
his children's lives," wrote Judge Snowie. "He has admirably and
heroically been before this court on at least 15 occasions trying,
unsuccessfully, to obtain access with his children. He still continues
valiantly to attempt to have a relationship with his children."
Judge Snowie said despite the "heroic efforts"of judges, therapists,
counsellors and others to reconcile the girls with their father, their
mother "successfully manipulated the situation to sabotage all contact
... over and over again."
Due to a "major depression" that was partly caused by his estrangement
from his daughters, Mr. Cooper has been on disability leave for the past
two years from his post as a captain with Air Canada, says the judgment.
He continued to pay combined child and spousal support of almost $5,000
a month even though his income fell drastically. He also voluntarily
paid $41,300 for the university costs of his two older daughters.
© National Post 2005