Saturday, January 22, 2005
I wrote a letter to my MPP this week...*
Dear M.P.P.,
I was disturbed to see an article in the Ottawa Citizen last week discussing the possibility of allowing a Shariah Law Family Court to be set up in Ontario. As a recent graduate of law school, I am concerned about having more than one law apply to Canadians (or even Permanent Residents). More importantly, I am concerned that if there is even an "option" for Muslim families to go through a different court system, there will really be no choice for the women in these families.
Before I changed careers, I worked for over ten years in Ottawa in community/social work, including Immigrant Women Services, where services are provided to immigrant women who are survivors of domestic violence. As well, I have worked for Family Services Ottawa, in the area of public education about violence against women. When I was working at the University of Ottawa Legal Clinic, I went to various community groups to give workshops on various legal issues. In this role, I did a series of workshops at an ESL class for the SandyhillCommunity Health Centre, and there were about 20 women attending from various countries. Almost every one of the participants was a Muslim woman. After I came one month and did a workshop on abuse, they asked me to come back the next month to talk about divorce in Canada.
I arranged a workshop the next month with an experienced family law lawyer as our guest speaker. It was extremely disturbing to see how this sample group of immigrant women had no idea how the legal system in Canada works, what their rights were under our laws, indeed very simple concepts like the fact that here, they do not need their husband's permission to get a divorce. Many of these women had been told by their husbands that they had to follow Shariah law in Canada because they were Muslim or that they did not qualify for Canadian rights because they weren't Canadian citizens. Which is not true.
I understand that some other faith groups offer services to their community in this area. While I am not familiar with the extent of these services, I would agree that any kind of mediation to help families sort out the many parenting conflicts arising from separation is always helpful. But it would be critical that whoever is doing the mediation be knowledgeable about Canadian laws and rights for women and children, especially as regards to property, child support and spousal support. As well, they should be required to give this information to women participating in the process.
Finally, I am now working in the area of Refugee law in Canada. It would be very strange to allow Shariah law to be enforceable in Canada when we are currently accepting convention refugees on the grounds of membership in a particular group (ie. women) who are victims of gender violence/abuse, including domestic violence, arranged/forced marriages, honour killings and violations of their human rights under Shariah law.
*In Canada, an MPP is a Member of Provincial Parliament, similar to a State representative.
I was disturbed to see an article in the Ottawa Citizen last week discussing the possibility of allowing a Shariah Law Family Court to be set up in Ontario. As a recent graduate of law school, I am concerned about having more than one law apply to Canadians (or even Permanent Residents). More importantly, I am concerned that if there is even an "option" for Muslim families to go through a different court system, there will really be no choice for the women in these families.
Before I changed careers, I worked for over ten years in Ottawa in community/social work, including Immigrant Women Services, where services are provided to immigrant women who are survivors of domestic violence. As well, I have worked for Family Services Ottawa, in the area of public education about violence against women. When I was working at the University of Ottawa Legal Clinic, I went to various community groups to give workshops on various legal issues. In this role, I did a series of workshops at an ESL class for the SandyhillCommunity Health Centre, and there were about 20 women attending from various countries. Almost every one of the participants was a Muslim woman. After I came one month and did a workshop on abuse, they asked me to come back the next month to talk about divorce in Canada.
I arranged a workshop the next month with an experienced family law lawyer as our guest speaker. It was extremely disturbing to see how this sample group of immigrant women had no idea how the legal system in Canada works, what their rights were under our laws, indeed very simple concepts like the fact that here, they do not need their husband's permission to get a divorce. Many of these women had been told by their husbands that they had to follow Shariah law in Canada because they were Muslim or that they did not qualify for Canadian rights because they weren't Canadian citizens. Which is not true.
I understand that some other faith groups offer services to their community in this area. While I am not familiar with the extent of these services, I would agree that any kind of mediation to help families sort out the many parenting conflicts arising from separation is always helpful. But it would be critical that whoever is doing the mediation be knowledgeable about Canadian laws and rights for women and children, especially as regards to property, child support and spousal support. As well, they should be required to give this information to women participating in the process.
Finally, I am now working in the area of Refugee law in Canada. It would be very strange to allow Shariah law to be enforceable in Canada when we are currently accepting convention refugees on the grounds of membership in a particular group (ie. women) who are victims of gender violence/abuse, including domestic violence, arranged/forced marriages, honour killings and violations of their human rights under Shariah law.
*In Canada, an MPP is a Member of Provincial Parliament, similar to a State representative.
