Testimonial Support Provisions for Children and Vulnerable Adults (Bill C-2):
Case Law Review and Perceptions of the Judiciary

  • Nicholas Bala, LL.M.,
  • Joanne J. Paetsch, B.A.,
  • Lorne D. Bertrand, Ph.D., and
  • Meaghan Thomas, J.D.

Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family

Report prepared for the Department of Justice Canada

© GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, 2011-01-20

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Justice Canada, the Government of Canada, or the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family.

Acknowledgements

This project could not have been conducted without the assistance and support of many individuals and organizations. First, we would like to acknowledge the financial support of Justice Canada and the guidance provided by the Project Authority, Dr. Susan McDonald, and A/Senior Counsel, Ms Jocelyn Sigouin.

We also appreciate the guidance provided by the Judicial Advisory Committee, namely: The Honourable R. Brian Gibson(Provincial Court of Nova Scotia); The Honourable Colleen Kenny (Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta); and the Honourable Heino Lilles (Territorial Court of the Yukon). We also thank Dr. Joseph Hornick, Executive Director of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family (CRILF) for his consultation throughout the project.

We thank the Offices of the Chief Judges and Justices of the participating courts for facilitating distribution of the surveys to the judges in their jurisdictions.

We would also like to thank the survey respondents who completed the survey and provided us with information on their experiences with and opinions of Bill C-2. Their contributions were invaluable.

We also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Carrie McCarney (Queen's J.D. Candidate 2010) in updating the research for this report in the summer of 2009. Lastly, we thank Ms Linda Haggett of CRILF for her assistance with typing the tables for the report. The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family is supported by a grant from the Alberta Law Foundation.