 |
| Marvin Zuker |
Seemingly so simple and yet so hard. Children seeking to “socially transition” at school, children questioning their gender identity. Put the “best interest of the child” first.
“We have to respect parental rights and I stand for parental rights because I trust parents to make the right decision for their kids … That’s why my role as a prime minister, is not going to be to impose my values on other people. It’s to get out of their faces and run a competent government” (Pierre Poilievre, National Post, Dec 18, 2023).
We don’t need a child welfare system. Do we? We can trust in parents?
The Child Welfare Information Gateway Library, a daily publication sponsored by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, relates stories of unimaginable horrors under the guise of parental rights.
Perhaps Poilievre would follow the lead of Ontario and recommend provinces eliminate the Office of the Child Advocate, accomplished before our newly elected (in 2018) politicians even knew what office they were going to occupy?
We don’t need foster care. Do we? We can trust in our parents?
The traumatic experiences preceding foster care can last a lifetime. Generational pipelines are often the norm. It is about systemic failures. It is about lack of trust in authority figures. It is about breaking the cycle.
We don’t need to care about the homeless. Do we? We can trust parents. Just kick our kids need out and, of course, no school.
We don’t have to teach our children to speak up for themselves and ask for the support they need to succeed at home and at school.
Self-advocacy surely does not exist in New Brunswick or Saskatchewan? We are all safe from abuse and neglect? Parental rights?
Often our decisions as adults are affected by influences during our childhood. Are we to assume that learning, nurturing and guidance are typical hallmarks of all parents? You care about yourself because someone cared about you. Do parental rights include telling you that you are a lost cause? You kick me out of my own home? Young adults come out as non-binary and transgender. Many simply are not accepted by their immediate family. Then what?
A parental right? Love and sympathy. Yes, parental rights for sure. Transformative for sure. But there is more. It is about recognizing (we did not) the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its 30 articles, pen to paper in 1948.
Dress codes at school and parental rights? You are going to this or that school. Too bad if you don’t identify with the specific uniform you are required to wear. And that goes for your hair as well. Parental rights and the need, the desire, the wish for inclusivity do not always go together. Do we care? Surely support for transgender, gender-affirming, non-binary, all gender-diverse children should be the bottom line.
Parental rights and censorship? In a split second the possibility of building understanding of ourselves and others can come crashing down. Chronologically there are (apologies to those parental rights’ librarians) publications such as Eugene the Unicorn: A Kid’s Book to Help Start LGBTQ Inclusive Conversations by T. Wheeler, It Feels Good to Be Yourself by Theresa Thorn, Ph.D. (and yes, a note about pronouns), My Maddy by Gayle E. Pitman, Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender, and The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper, only to name a few. We don’t want to put libraries out of business.
Do parental rights include a desire “just” to set up a 2SLGBTQ people club? Call it GLOW, but how about love?
“The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not”. (James Baldwin, 1963)
This is the first instalment of a series.
Marvin Zuker was a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice, where he presided over the small claims, family and criminal courts from 1978 until his retirement in 2016. He is a professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, where he has been teaching education law for 42 years. Zuker is the author and co-author of many books and publications, including The Law is Not for Women and The Law is (Not) for Kids.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's firm, its clients, Law360 Canada, LexisNexis Canada, or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
Interested in writing for us? To learn more about how you can add your voice to Law360 Canada contact Analysis Editor Peter Carter at Peter.Carter@lexisnexis.ca or call 647-776-6740.