12-year-old girl got a lawyer after father cancels trip

[Aemma]

Quebec father asks court to clarify parental rights in grounding case
12-year-old girl got a lawyer after father cancels trip

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 | 1:38 PM ET Comments 114 Recommend 100

CBC News

A Gatineau father has asked Quebec's highest court to rule on the rights of parents after a lower court ordered he overstepped his bounds by prohibiting his daughter from going on a school trip.

The Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal heard arguments Tuesday in the case of a 12-year-old girl who took her father to court after she was grounded.

In June 2008, the girl was preparing to go on a three-day trip with her Grade 6 class to Quebec City to celebrate their graduation from elementary school.

However, the father told the girl she was not allowed to go after she disobeyed his orders to stay off the internet.

The girl, whose parents are divorced, got a lawyer and took the matter to Quebec Superior Court.

Judge Suzanne Tessier ruled in June that the father didn't have the right to bar the girl from the outing.

In her ruling, the judge said there was no reason for the punishment to stand, since the girl was living with her mother, even though the father had custody at the time. The judge said the punishment was also excessive.

The father has since given up custody of his daughter. However, his lawyer said he appealed to clarify the rights of parents in such situations because he still has custody of his three other children.

The man's lawyer argued before the three-member appeal panel Tuesday that he was only exercising his parental rights.

The judges have reserved their decision.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/01/13/mtl-parental-rights-1301.html

[Skandi]

So you can't smack them, can't humiliate them, can't ground them, what are you meant to do when your children misbehave? Relly on their natural inbuilt goodness?

[Beorn]

what are you meant to do when your children misbehave?

Get a lawyer?

Makes me laugh when a figure of authority in the legal system says a Father instilling morals into his Daughter is deemed "excessive".

[Grumpy Cat]

My parents would have beat my ass if I even thought of getting a lawyer in a similar situation. That kid is a little shit. Now where is my belt? :shakefist

[SwordoftheVistula]

I don't think a 12 year old would come up with this on her own. Probably she was put up to it by her mother (her parents are divorced), or possibly a teacher.

[TheGreatest]

I don't like how everyone is siding against the girl.
The father is at fault for grounding her on the day of her graduation party. We have 365 days in a year and he choose the three days that coincided with one of the major events of her life?

He's an asshole

[HawkR]

Well, the punishment is excessive, and not being allowed on the internett is, uhm... not the thing I would expect not allowed to do during our time. But she's a little bitch!

This would never had happened if repsect, honor and love to ones parents would still be of importance to kids, but it ain't.

[Treffie]

The child is obviously spoiled - a result of her parents' divorce and each side trying to buy her affection and love. Can't blame the child for her parents' inability to reconcile effectively.

[Aemma]

I don't think a 12 year old would come up with this on her own. Probably she was put up to it by her mother (her parents are divorced), or possibly a teacher.

Hmm I don't know Sword. You say this but you'd be surprised at the amount of kids these days that talk about "their rights". This might be something run amok in Canada since human rights is a deeply-ingrained notion in my country's psyche. But you'd be surprised at the number of kids who will challenge a parent's, any parent's, authority.

Clearly the erosion of the family unit and the decimation of the respect for the roles of parent and child is alive and well, quite unfortunately. :(

Cheers!...Aemma

[Aemma]

I don't like how everyone is siding against the girl.
The father is at fault for grounding her on the day of her graduation party. We have 365 days in a year and he choose the three days that coincided with one of the major events of her life?

He's an asshole

Well I agree with you too TG. He could have chosen to ground her in a different way. It was excessive in my own view as a parent. BUT the sheer absurdity of it all, both sides, is what I can't get over in the end.

It's a very sad statement about our 'civilised' society.

Cheers!...Aemma

[YggsVinr]

Weird. Up until high school when I was still there you were supposed to bring a form home to get a parent's signature to let you go on the school trip. You couldn't just go without parental permission. Is that no longer around? To me its rather stupid. Not allowing your kid to go on a school trip is not a grounds for going to court.

[Aemma]

Weird. Up until high school when I was still there you were supposed to bring a form home to get a parent's signature to let you go on the school trip. You couldn't just go without parental permission. Is that no longer around? To me its rather stupid. Not allowing your kid to go on a school trip is not a grounds for going to court.

Yep, it is still the policy in Ontario YV, but note that this event occurred in Gatineau. So I have no idea what policies might be there though I suspect they wouldn't be much different than ours in the end. A parent is still in charge of a minor no matter where in Canada that they live, I would assume.

But I agree with you, not grounds for going to court...all of it just shows me how family members can't communicate very well anymore and the invasion of the third party into matters where family should rule. I still think that the father's decision was excessive; it wouldn't have been my personal choice. But to each his/her own in these matters.

Cheers for now!...Aemma

[YggsVinr]

Yep, it is still the policy in Ontario YV, but note that this event occurred in Gatineau. So I have no idea what policies might be there though I suspect they wouldn't be much different than ours in the end. A parent is still in charge of a minor no matter where in Canada that they live, I would assume.

But I agree with you, not grounds for going to court...all of it just shows me how family members can't communicate very well anymore and the invasion of the third party into matters where family should rule. I still think that the father's decision was excessive; it wouldn't have been my personal choice. But to each his/her own in these matters.

Cheers for now!...Aemma

Indeed, perhaps it was excessive but I think every parent is guilty of that at some point during their child's life. Like everyone, they, too, overreact due to other sources of stress etc. I, too, can't see it being much different in Québec as far as the right of the parent. Of course, there are special cases involving physical abuse and extreme negligence toward young children, but this case is just another reflection of how society tends to swing from one extreme to the other without being able to maintain a rational middle ground.