Senator Gold, recently, senators have questioned you about the coercive use of parental alienation, a tactic used by abusive spouses — predominantly men — in child custody cases. You relied on the 2019 amendments to the Divorce Act, which were meant to improve the legal response. However, last month the UN-elected independent experts on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW, which monitors the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, released its report on Canada’s progress toward ending all forms of discrimination against women, calling on Canada to “. . . prevent the use of the parental alienation syndrome . . . in the Canadian legal system.”

Further, the committee excoriated Canada’s lack of evidence on the actual impact of Divorce Act reform. Why won’t this government listen to the expert evidence and protect victims of domestic violence?

Thank you very much. Another UN expert, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, is unequivocal, saying that “parental alienation” is:

. . . a discredited and unscientific pseudo-concept used in family law proceedings by abusers as a tool to continue their abuse and coercion and to undermine and discredit allegations of domestic violence made by mothers who are trying to keep their children safe.

What is the evidence the government is relying on to justify not curtailing parental alienation allegations in court?