HEAR THE CHILDREN / Part 412 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Should we ask the children what they think? Should we care? Well of course we should. What am I saying? We already know this. It is lawyers who are practicing family law who should listen to the child and should care what the child says. So should all other stakeholders in the justice system like the judiciary, family justice counselors, policy writers, mediators, parenting coordinators, collaborative law specialists, supervised access facilitators, and anyone who is interested in how the justice system can improve its support of children.

Those legal professionals whom I have just referenced, are regularly engaged in decisions which on the face of things are delivered in the best interests of children. They are decisions that profoundly impact children’s lives and the lives of their families. Knowing this, The Law Society of B.C. held a three day conference in November 2009 entitled 'Children’s Participation in Family Justice Processes.' It was designed to be informative to precisely that aggregation of professionals to whom I have already referred. The Society was then and is now convinced that people within the justice system can improve their practice in order to better support children. The Society recognized that legislation, case law, and even the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child support hearing from children when it comes to determining what actions are in their best interests. People in these professional roles must discover more effective ways by which to subscribe child participation and that conviction was underscored in a 1995 Family Justice Reform Working Group Task Force report to the Justice Review Task Force, a report entitled 'A New Justice System for Families & Children.'

Certainly the course focused chiefly upon cases of spousal separation and divorce and how child participation can affect daily legal practice in BC. It did also make reference to cases of child protection and thereto offered a workshop that focused on practical skills to assist a person in creating an enabling environment for interviewing children and shared specialized knowledge and techniques to obtain children’s views.

For those of you whose children have been removed for brief or extended periods of time, I am surmising that you would approve interviewing your child but your approval depends upon the nature of the questioning. Ask your child whether they would rather return home or remain in foster care, and you are assuming that the child will opt enthusiastically for the parental home. You may have concerns that the interview and the child might be manipulated by supplied information, suggestive responses, leading questions.