Current events
Court notice finder: Up-to-date information about family court
A new website, Court Notice Finder, put together by a number of Ontario family law legal professionals, organizes the: “voluminous – and often changing – information found in the various Court Notices issued on behalf of Family Law courthouses across Ontario since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.” This is a very useful tool for…
Read moreWhat will it take to end gender-based violence in Canada?
Answer: A National Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Gender Based Violence would certainly help. Women’s Shelters Canada was asked and funded by the department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) to develop a strategic engagement with anti-violence leaders across Canada to inform the development of a National Action Plan (NAP) on Violence Against…
Read moreWhere can women’s advocates get support during the pandemic? The Pandemic Community of Practice
Virtual meetings for support, training and information sharing and an online resource hub to get VAW advocates through the pandemic Peer support and resources The past year has presented those of us providing frontline services to women fleeing abuse with unprecedented challenges. Meeting the needs of women and their children remotely, managing pandemic protocols at…
Read moreCTV: Calls for a unified family court system and further changes to Canada’s Divorce Act
CTV News recently spotlighted the changes in Canada’s Divorce Act, interviewing the Luke’s Place Legal Director, Pamela Cross. Among other revisions, the new Act includes a definition of family violence as it relates to the best interests of the child. From the article: “We’re very unhappy with the way the language around decision-making responsibility is…
Read moreWhy International Women’s Day still matters
Women, even in this very privileged country, in just one year, have lost some of the gains we and those before us fought hard to get.
Read moreThis International Women’s Day ensure that women’s expert voices are centred in COVID-19 recovery plans
Op-Ed in The Toronto Star by Farrah Khan and Pamela Cross This International Women’s Day we can expect to hear the usual platitudes from government, business and institutions about women’s empowerment and how far we have come. What we deserve to hear are concrete commitments to address the gender-based impacts of the pandemic. We cannot go…
Read moreGovernment of Canada Commits to National Action Plan (NAP) on Gender Based Violence (GBV)
Luke’s Place co-chairs working group for National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence
Read moreChatelaine article: Why divorce cases involving allegations of abuse still confound family courts
Journalist Flannery Dean recently interviewed Luke’s Place Legal Director, Pamela Cross, and other experts for the article Why Divorce Cases Involving Allegations of Abuse Still Confound Family Courts available online and in the January 2021 issue of Chatelaine magazine. The article centres on the tragic outcomes of two mothers who fled domestic violence and highlights common…
Read moreBill 207: An important step forward for women fleeing abuse
There is much that is good in Bill 207, the Moving Ontario Family Law Forward Act, for women leaving abusive relationships.
Read moreToronto Star article: ‘We haven’t come very far’ – YWCA Toronto and women’s shelters call on government to address root causes of Polytechnique massacre anniversary
Luke’s Place Legal Director, Pamela Cross, was interviewed for a Toronto Star article on the anniversary of the Polytechnique massacre. The article reflects on the massacre and highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and their safety. “There were a whole lot of factors that combined when the pandemic first hit that put…
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