Event Details

The past decade has seen an unprecedented increase in parenting disputes in family court. On one hand, there is a growing recognition of family violence as a gender-based crime and a legislated factor for judges to consider in parenting decisions. On the other hand, the concept of alienation has been increasingly misused to blame protective parents and their children's resistance or reluctance to have parenting time with perpetrators of family violence. Some of these cases represent litigation abuse as an extension of coercive control in the intimate partner relationship. The presentation will outline the controversaries in the field and the inappropriate use of alienation. The multiple factors that may lie behind a child refusing or resisting parenting will be discussed as well as the dilemmas for the family justice system to find differentiated parenting plans in these cases.

Justice Mirwaldt will discuss the many reforms that the Court of Queen’s Bench has made in the past three years to address systemic court delays that had created a barrier to justice for Manitoba families. Under the new court rules family violence is addressed at the outset of a family case through a system of robust triage conferencing and case management. Timely and meaningful interactions with a family court judge under a one-judge model has led to early resolution of the majority of the court’s cases, even those involving allegations of parental alienation and family violence.

Speakers

Dr. Peter Jaffe is a psychologist, Professor Emeritus, and one of the founding Directors of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children in the Faculty of Education at Western University (London Ontario, Canada). He has co-authored eleven books, 40 chapters and over 80 articles related to domestic violence, the impact of domestic violence on children, homicide prevention and the role of the criminal and family justice systems. For the past 30 years, he has presented workshops across the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Europe to various groups including judges, lawyers, health, mental health professionals and educators. Since 1999, he has been on faculty for the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges in the US for judicial education programs entitled “Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases”. He was a founding member of Ontario's Chief Coroner’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee. He has also been instrumental in developing violence prevention programs for schools. Together with David Wolfe, Claire Crooks and Ray Hughes, he helped in the development of “The Fourth R: Skills for Youth Relationships”, a school-based curriculum targeting multiple forms of violence, including bullying, dating violence and peer violence. The curriculum is being used in over 5,000 schools in Canada and the US. In 2009, he was named an Officer in the Order of Canada by the Governor General for his work preventing domestic violence in the community.

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On October 20, 2016, Justice Mirwaldt was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench (Family Division). Prior to her judicial appointment, she practised with her husband in the firm Mirwaldt & Gray that had offices at The Pas and Winnipeg. Her main areas of practice were family law, child protection, civil litigation, First Nations governance and employment law and human resources. In 2009, Justice Mirwaldt became an adjudicator under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which appointment she held until her appointment to the Court.

Since her judicial appointment, Justice Mirwaldt has served on various court committees. She is a member of the Oversight Committee on the Child Protection Case Flow Model, whose work has resulted in reducing delays in hearing child protection cases. Justice Mirwaldt is also a member of the Family Division Case Management Model committee that introduced, and now maintains, a streamlined case flow for contested family matters. Justice Mirwaldt is also a member of the court’s Trust, Reconciliation and Access to Justice Committee, which has the responsibility of advising and guiding the court on its journey of reconciliation with Indigenous Manitobans.

In addition to internal court committees, Justice Mirwaldt participates in a number of other court-related activities. Since 2019, Justice Mirwaldt has been the court’s representative on the Manitoba Access to Justice Steering Committee. She also volunteers her time as an advisor to the Legal Help Centre, which centre provides legal information to self-represented litigants who cannot obtain Legal Aid and are unable to afford legal counsel.

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Robynne Kazina practices exclusively in the area of family law as a partner at Taylor McCaffrey LLP in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She graduated from the University of Toronto law school in 2005. She also has Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Manitoba and a Masters of Social Work from the University of Toronto. Robynne teaches Advanced Family Law at the Faculty of Law University of Manitoba. She is past Chair of the Manitoba Bar Association Family Law Section and Women Lawyers’ Forum. Robynne is dedicated to raising awareness of the intersection between family violence and family law. She was involved in providing feedback and testing the Federal Government's HELP tool for family law practitioners, and educating the Bar about family violence and the amendments to the Divorce Act.

In 2021 she received the Manitoba Bar Association Pro Bono Award, in 2020 the Ally Award by the SOGIC section of the CBA, and the Community Builder Award from the Manitoba LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce. Robynne has been selected by her peers as one of The Best Lawyers™ in Canada in each consecutive year since 2018 in the field of Family Law and Family Law Mediation in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory. She was also nominated as one of the Top 25 most influential lawyers across Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine in 2021, and a recipient in 2018 of the Lexpert Rising Star: Leading Lawyers under 40 award.

About RESOLVE

RESOLVE is a prairie-based research network that co-ordinates and supports research aimed at ending violence, especially violence involving girls and women. RESOLVE is committed to supporting research that leads to positive results. RESOLVE’s work seeks to uncover the causes of violence and map out effective strategies to prevent and alleviate that violence. With offices in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, RESOLVE creates partnerships among service agencies, government departments and universities across the prairie provinces.

Visit the RESOLVE Network website to learn more.

About the Supporting the Health of Survivors of Family Violence in Family Law Proceedings Project

The project, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, supports the establishment of five regional Communities of Practice through the Alliance of Research Centres on Gender-based Violence. These Communities of Practice comprised of survivors of family violence, and representatives from the gender-based violence, health, and family law sectors will work together to:

• Enhance training opportunities for GBV specialists and Family law specialists to support trauma-informed practice.
• Identify strategies for improved communication and awareness across sectors to support family violence survivors as they engage with the family law sector.

Visit the Alliance of Canadian Research Centres on Gender-Based Violence website to learn more about the project.