God bless us progressive Canadians! More bans on spanking...

The Barrie Advance
Copyright

December 31, 2003


CAS calls for county ban on spanking
Jason Ballantyne: The Advance

With a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on whether or not parents
should be allowed to hit their children for "correction" expected any
day, the local branch of the Children's Aid Society has updated its
policy on corporal punishment.

The organization - while always having a policy of no corporal
punishment in its foster homes - has now broadened its outlook.

The Simcoe County organization is now calling for the abolition of all
forms of physical punishment of children.

Back in June, the Supreme Court heard an appeal by the Canadian
Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law. It was fighting an Ontario
Court of Appeal's dismissal of its constitutional challenge to section
43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

Section 43 says that "every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in
the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction
toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if
the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances."

After a four-hour hearing, the court reserved its decision which is
expected to be released sometime soon.

At the local level, after a lot of debate, a new policy statement was
adopted by the society at a meeting earlier this month.

The society says there is strong evidence that physical punishment
places children at risk of physical injury, mental health problems,
impaired relationships with their parents and an increased tolerance of
violence later in life, among other things.

Sue Dale, spokesperson for the Simcoe County society, said the decision
was made for several reasons.

"We live in changing times. Many other (children's aid societies) have
similar policies," Dale said. "It's a response to changing times."

There is also a concerted lobbying effort by the Ontario Association of
Children's Aid Society to have Section 43 of the Criminal Code repealed.
It was one of the participants in the Supreme Court appeal in June.

Dale said many other countries, including Sweden, Finland, Norway,
Austria, Denmark and Israel have outlawed corporal punishment.

"It's not as if we're at the forefront of something. If anything, we're
lagging behind," she said.

Dale said there is plenty of research that suggests that physical
punishment doesn't accomplish what it is supposed to, namely getting a
child to change their behaviour.

"I think what we're doing is getting people to realize there are more
effective ways to discipline your child than hitting them."

Dale said the society members expect the topic will be controversial and
debated rigorously in the general public.

"We welcome that because the more dialogue we have in the community, the
more visible a policy we put out there, the more we can move things
further along."