I participated in three sessions at the 2024 Men and Families Conference organized by Professor Susan Chuang of the University of Guelph. The conference took place in Toronto and drew attendees from around the world, including a group of seven or eight Judges from the Taiwan Family Court.
On Thursday, September 26, I participated in a seminar with my colleague Gene Colman, which focused on appropriate diagnoses of dysfunctional family systems and, in particular, the diagnostic criteria for Parental Alienation.
On Friday, September 27, I gave a presentation on how to respond to false allegations, which are unfortunately endemic in high-conflict family restructurings. The burden of “having to prove a negative” was a focus of my presentation and I provided a methodology for how to do so.
On Friday afternoon, Gene and I participated in a private session with the Taiwanese Judges. They were given a forum to ask a whole range of questions about how the Canadian family law system deals with universal issues pertaining to judicial responses to issues faced by separating families. Some of the topics addressed in response to their questions about how the Taiwanese system might be reformed included:
- the role and structure of appointment of children’s counsel;
- principles of equal shared parenting;
- the application of the best interests of the child standard; and
- the application of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It appears that family law systems around the world are struggling with the same issues and therefore we all have much to learn from each other.
My two formal presentations are attached and the video from the conference should be available publicly in the next month or so.