DEFAMATORY JOKES
A comedian is sued
by her mother-in-law
DISCLOSURE DUTY
PHOTO COURTESY OF ADVICESCENE
The judiciary
on TV?

PAGE 5

A new Web-TV
Online insurance
applications increase
risk of breaches

PAGE 9
John Campion is president the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, which is proposing a draft rule of conduct
permitting lawyers to breach client confidentiality to prevent imminent financial harm.
PAUL LAWRENCE FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
See story on page 3
SKELETONS
IN THE CLOSET
Old convictions keep
travellers out of the U.S.
CBA opposes equal parenting-time bill
PAGE 14
BILL PADDING
CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has come out swinging against a Conservative private members’ bill that would amend the Divorce Act to presumptively give divorced parents equal time with their children.

This summer the CBA’s national family law section issued a 14-page defence of the Divorce Act’s longstanding requirement that children’s best interests are the sole touchstone when determining matters related to their care, custody and access.

Calling Saskatoon MP Mau-
rice Vellacott’s proposed legisla-
tion “a tremendous step back-
ward in the development of
family law,” the CBA contends
Bill C-422 prefers parents’ rights
over that of children and, if
passed, would “encourage con-
tentious litigation in future cases
of family breakdown, and equally
important, would cause thou-
sands of children to be re-exposed
to litigation and conflict as many
settled cases would be reopened.”
Fathers’ rights and equal
parenting groups, such as the
Canadian Equal Parenting
Council, an umbrella group of
35 organizations with more
than 9,100 members, have been
pushing for years, with some
success, to muster MP support
across party lines for legislating
a rebuttable presumption of
shared equal parenting.