Current events
Brief on Bill 207: An Act to amend the Children’s Law Reform Act, the Courts of Justice Act, the Family Law Act and other Acts respecting various family law matters
Updated endorsements – Brief by Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre, Durham Region, OntarioPresented by Pamela Cross, October 5, 2020 This brief responds to Bill 207: An Act to amend the Children’s Law Reform Act, the Courts of Justice Act, the Family Law Act and other Acts respecting various family law matters. It expands on…
Read moreOntario’s Fall 2020 Budget Consultation Submission: Family Court Support Worker Program
Ontario’s Family Court Support Worker Program provides invaluable supports to increasing numbers of domestic violence survivors who are involved in the family court process. It has done so with no funding enhancement since its inception in 2011. The following are speaking notes from a presentation to Honourable Rod Phillips, Honourable Peter Bethlenfalvy, MPP Lorne Coe…
Read moreBill 207 Justice Committee Hearing: Luke’s Place Submission
Presented by Pamela Cross, Luke’s Place Legal Director on October 13, 2020, 1:00 p.m. Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you to talk about Bill 207. I do so on behalf of Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre in Durham Region, where I am the Legal Director. We are named after…
Read moreBill 207: Moving Ontario Family Law Forward Act
On September 24th, Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey introduced Bill 207, the Moving Ontario Family Law Forward Act. This Bill is the province’s long-anticipated follow-up to the federal government’s 2019 changes to the Divorce Act, which are to come into effect on March 1, 2021. For that reason alone, Bill 207 is important because,…
Read moreInformation about the Durham Region Courthouse: Virtual court appearances
From Justice Fryer. Please distribute widely. The following information applies to the Durham Region Courthouse, located in Oshawa: Until further notice, all court appearances are to be presumptively held virtually by Zoom as set out in the Notice to the Profession dated July 26, 2020. If it is felt that an in-person hearing would be…
Read moreChanging the world: The killing of children by their fathers
On February 9th, four-year-old Keira Kagan and her father, Robin Brown, were found dead at the foot of a cliff near Milton, Ontario. There seems little doubt that this was a murder-suicide: Keira’s father had been abusive to her mother, Jennifer, during their marriage and had continued to be manipulative and controlling after they separated…
Read moreThe Smarter and Stronger Justice Act could jeopardize access to justice for women fleeing abuse
Our Legal Director, Pamela Cross, appeared before Standing Committee on Justice Policy – Bill 161: The Stronger and Smarter Justice Act on June 10, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak with you about this Bill. Luke’s Place Support and Resource Centre, where I am the Legal Director, provides…
Read moreLaws alone are only part of answer
Since Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in April, there has been much talk about what needs to be done to stop anything like this from happening again. While the police were slow with their acknowledgement, it is now established that Wortman had a long history of violent and threatening behaviour, in particular,…
Read moreRacial injustice: Considerations from the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses
As a member of OAITH, Luke’s Place strongly supports and shares their message in response to racial injustices. The Ontario Association of Interval & Transition Houses (OAITH) acknowledges the recent events of racial injustice during the past week. These acts of racial injustice and anti-Black racism are creating conscious movement-building resulting in what could be…
Read moreNova Scotia murders: Looking for the easy explanation
For many of us, the news that, before he shot and killed at least 22 people in rural Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, Gabriel Wortman had assaulted his partner, was no surprise. There had been many hushed conversations within the violence against women community throughout the week about this probability. Our only question…
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