Attention News Editors:

YWCA Toronto Takes a Stand on Sharia Law

    In Ontario , Some Are More Equal than Others

 

    TORONTO , Dec. 21 /CNW/ - Marion Boyd's report, Dispute Resolution in Family Law: Protecting Choice Promoting Inclusion misunderstands thefundamental risk of allowing women to "choose" to waive their rights under lawin alternative dispute resolution processes.

    While Ms. Boyd states and restates her commitment to the full range of competing aims between religious freedom and women's rights put forth in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ultimately she puts her faith in training for arbitrators.

    "I think she's kidding herself", says Executive Director, Heather McGregor. "If there was a foolproof mechanism for screening for abuse and protecting women from the power imbalances that threaten their equality and safety, they'd surely be in evidence in the courts, the judiciary and the police by now. We have plenty of sensitivity training and protocols that do nothing to protect women at the end of the day," continues McGregor. "As the recent tragic deaths of so many Ontario women at the hands of their partners exemplifies, training is a flimsy mechanism for protection. It assumes a level of aptitude, good will, and accountability that has never been present before."