AFCC Ontario Conferences :

Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Ontario Chapter
Second Annual General Conference

THE FUTURE OF FAMILY LAW
Thursday October 14 & Friday October 15, 2010

What is the future of family law in Ontario? What will families and family law look like in 2020? Please join us for the second annual general conference of the Ontario Chapter of AFCC to discuss and debate these questions and more with an interdisciplinary group of judges, mediators, legal scholars, mental health professionals, lawyers, assessors, and child protection workers. Come hear from our Chief Justices.

Workshops will focus on topics such as maximizing the effectiveness of expert testimony, the pros and cons of presumptions in determining custody and access arrangements, how to distinguish reliable research from “junk science”, alienation and the new DSM V, practice management in a new Legal Aid world, and the future of child protection, mediation and arbitration.

Please see the link below for full conference details, including the agenda and sponsorship information.

AFCC Conference Agenda (PDF Brochure)

To register, go to https://www.afccontario.ca/conference/

AFCC INAUGURAL EVENT 

April 3, 2009 marked the launch of AFCC Ontario’s first AGM and educational event. An overwhelming success, the event was sold out, and received excellent reviews. The theme was “Improving the Lives of Children and Families in Conflict”. Keynote speaker Dr. Jean Clinton, a psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor at McMaster University, gave a highly entertaining and enlightening speech on “How Family Conflict Affects the Developing Brain”. The points of interest included:

• Children need to feel heard and experience responsive parenting.

• We need to consider the next seven generations: How children are parented is a reflection of how their parents were parented and how children will come to parent. 

• The way this narrative gets written will last a very long time.

• The first five years and the child’s experiences during those years are critical in how the the brain develops.

• TAFFY: What we THINK, affects how we FEEL, affects how we ACT.

• Marital conflict and stress are key to child outcomes, not the divorce per se.

• The adolescent brain and executive functioning are under construction.

Dr. Clinton’s keynote address was followed by an informative and thought-provoking address by Justice Harvey Brownstone who shared lessons from his best-selling book: Tug of War: A Judge’s Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles and the Bitter Realities of Family Court”. Concluding this exceptional day was a provocative multi-discipline panel on “Conflict: Challenging Assumptions and Changing Priorities”; moderated by Howard Hurwitz with an esteemed panel of experts -- Madam Justice Debra Paulseth, Lorraine Martine, Bernie Mayer and Jeffery Wilson.

The first AGM, led by Mr. Justice Craig Perkins and patti cross, ended with electing a multidisciplinary Board of Directors consisting of 11 professionals within Ontario, who are: Steven Benmor, Rachel Birnbaum, patti cross, Barbara Jo Fidler, Maggie Hall, Lynn Lavery, Anthony Macri, Deborah Moskovitch, Dena Moyal, Justice Debra Paulseth and Justice Craig Perkins.

Tribute to Professor Nicholas Bala
Kingston, Ontario

On May 8, 2009, AFCC’s second major event was held in cooperation with Queen’s Law School—Special thanks go to Dean Bill Flannigan, the Queen’s Alumni Folks, Dianne Butler, Deanna Morash, and Amber Ooman and everyone who participated in making this a truly amazing event and celebration to Nick. 

The Tribute included an educational conference, reception and dinner. The conference showcased 4 areas of law that Professor Bala is especially passionate about, including family law, child protection law, youth justice, and child witnesses and evidence. 
Speakers included Professor Rollie Thompson, Professor Nick Bala, Dr. Barbara Jo Fidler, Mary Jo Maur, Justice Jennifer MacKinnon, Justice Emile Kruzick, Dr. Peter Jaffe, Justice Anne Trousdale, Martha Downey, Jane Long, Justice Brian Scully, Dr. Dan Ashbourne, Dr. Rachel Birnbaum, Dr. Joe Hornick, Pamela Hurley, Professor Sue Miklas, Dan Goldberg, and Justice George Czutrin. 

Following the conference, a reception and dinner was hosted by Justice Harvey Brownstone. The speakers included: Professor and Dean Bill Flanagan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Ann Meritt, Justice R. James Williams, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Family Division), Justice Jennifer Blishen, Brahm Siegal, and Phil Epstein, QC, Epstein Cle LLP who entertained the audience with a roast to Nick and those “Bala Notes”. Nick’s 4 children (Emily, Katie, Andrew and Elizabeth) treated everyone to the song, For Good, from the musical Wicked, with amazing harmony and grace—well done!

The evening was capped by the announcement of two awards in honour of Nicholas Bala: (1) The Faculty of Law, Queen’s University is sponsoring the Professor Nick Bala Fund for Family Law; and (2) AFCC Ontario Chapter is sponsoring the Professor Nicholas Bala Award for Excellence in Children and Family Law. For more details and how you can contribute to the AFCC Ontario award to a law and/or social work student in family law, please contact: patti.cross@gmail.com.

In addition, Professor Sanjeev Anand, University Of Alberta is editing a book with academic scholars, judges and practitioners on children and the law in tribute to Professor Nicholas Bala and his scholarly achievements. 

See attached links for a taste of just some of the wonderful papers and speeches in tribute to Nick. 

Professor Nick Bala’s summary paper on alienation (a full paper will be coming out in January 2010):

Dr. Barbara Jo Fidler on parenting coordination in high conflict disputes, alienation, and interventions in alienation cases:

The Honourable Mr. Justice Harvey Brownstone brought the message of ADR to Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie with humour, grace and just a little bit of drama! With more than 120 guests in each of the events held on October 1 (Thunder Bay) and October 2 (Sault Ste. Marie), the AFCC Ontario Chapter sponsored events were a great success. These inaugural events were intended to educate the communities about a Ministry of Children and Youth Services, Child Welfare Secretariat funded initiative, to build capacity in the two communities with respect to ADR, specifically in child welfare cases. The project lead is the Thunder Bay Counselling Centre.

Over the next year, there will be training opportunities offered in both communities in family group conferencing and child protection mediation. In order to assist potential child protection mediators from being eligible to take the child protection mediation training, there will also be training in family mediation. Most importantly, there will be local supervision and mentoring opportunities.

Justice Brownstone spoke passionately about his belief that ADR serves the best interests of families and particularly children, in many situations. He also advocated for an interdisciplinary approach to resolving family conflict that focused on both the emotional and legal issues. Justice Brownstone acknowledged the leadership of AFCC, and the Ontario Chapter of AFCC, in developing interdisciplinary approaches to resolving conflict in families involved in family court system and for providing excellent forums for interdisciplinary scholarship, debate and discussion.

Maggie Hall, MSW, RSW, LLM, AccFM(OAFM), CPMed
Director
The Mediation Centre